NateO

Hi Kevin,
 
This is quite a column you have here:
 
http://www.al.com/sports/birmingham

news/kscarbinsky.ssf?/base/sports/1212999317206060.xml&coll=2&thispage=1
 
I think what I enjoy most, is that your motives are very transparent:
 
"That means one thing.
 
More than a few Indiana basketball fans are going to read it and see red."
 
That means one thing, Hoosier Nation is huge, and we're going to generate more clicks than UAB fans who are probably off thinking about football, or something.
 
To entertain your question, Indiana fans have every right to be upset with Bobby Knight, Mike Davis and Kelvin Sampson, for different reasons, but they all left the program in under dubious circumstances. Sampson being the worst but Mike Davis not getting a free pass, either.
 
To be honest, I was always a Mike Davis apologist until he made one fatal mistake, which you didn't mention in your column. Mike Davis' story at IU was mostly one of luck, some of it was good luck, some of it was very bad. He was in the right place at the right time, inherited a team that could shoot the lights out and lucked his way all the way to the National Championship game, in 2002. I give Mike Davis quite a bit of credit for that, IU's victory over Duke (a 13-point spread underdog) and the incredible comeback IU made (the most incredible basketball game I have ever watched) had a lot to do with Mike Davis' coaching. Anyone who doesn't recognize that is foolish.
 
Mike Davis also had some stretches of horrific luck. DJ White going down for a year, Bracey Wright constantly being injured, Kirk Haston leaving early at the advice of a bitter Bob Knight.
 
But Mike Davis had to go. He was in way over his head, this not a good rookie job. Indiana has 5 National Championships, 3rd most in College Basketball (more than UNC, more than Duke, etc...), we want more, and we have one of the biggest followings on the planet. Note how the Indiana game was the first sellout Minnesota has had in years:
 
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap

?gameId=280170135
 
"Playing in front of their first sellout crowd in nearly three years, the Gophers just couldn't take it away."
 
And keep in mind that Minnesota's campus is in the biggest metropolitan area in the entire Big Ten. Yeah, Indiana Basketball really is that big. I was there, it was electric!
 
Simply put, Mike Davis was in way over his head. I could stand him missing out on Indiana talents (Josh McRoberts, Sean May, Dominic James, etc...), I could stand the odd marginal performance team. And I could even stand his emotional blowout at Kentucky, although this was a sign he was in over his head, that kind of decorum, on National Television, is not recommended.
 
So what was that fatal mistake I mentioned? Simple, he missed on Greg Oden. I'll never forgive him for that, Oden wanted to attend IU as a high school junior, even said it on ESPN, and Davis botched it! Not sure how he botched it, but he did. That single mistake, which is an unforgivable sin, compounded every single mistake he ever made.
 
Okay, so the past is the past, I'll forgive. In fact, I think you have it all wrong, you don't want me to let Mike Davis go. Not only do I not wish Mike Davis any illwill, I actually hope he does well with UAB, I just wanted him out of the Indiana University coaching job, couldn't handle it. However, I think UAB's the perfect job for him, a mid-major type programme, not the pressure cooker IU is. He'll do better out of the limelight, and he recruits well in his home state of Alabama. Davis is my only connection to Conference USA, so sure, go UAB. Best of luck this year.
 
Regards,
Nathan Oliver
B.Sc. Finance & Economics - Indiana University
Microsoft Excel MVP

The ones with Brooke Shields carrying on about how people shouldn't have babies for German engineering. That's not even funny, it's just dumb, no one's having a baby for your piece of crap minivan.

Get Bobby Knight back on there, now that stuff was actually entertaining. Not that I'm buying one of these gutless things anyways.

Piece!

This is one of my favourite things to make, super-easy, and good eats. There's a couple of ways to make this, but here's the microwave version.

Take some Creamette pasta and nuke that on high for 4 minutes. Drain. Add one pack of 'Easy Mac' noodles and 1 cup of water, nuke that for 1 minute. Now it gets good. Remove some water, add the Easy Mac cheese, stir. Now add a bunch of milk, frozen vegatbles of your liking, and a ton of meat. For example, my last batch had two diced hot dogs, two pieces of crumbled, cooked bacon, and diced ham and turkey. You need to add more cheese, a lot more cheese. I like the blocks of mild cheddar for this, like half of one. For good measure, I throw in a lot of garlic, pepper and Chiles.

You nuke it from here for about 4 minutes, yoink it out, stir it. You might need to add more milk, you get some boil-off. You probably want to nuke it for another 4 minutes from here, perhaps longer. And Bingo, you've got one one huge bowl of good-to-go food. Super-easy to make and good for the big game!

So I went over to the local store to score me some supplies and they had a hot buffet of Tater Tot Hotdish. So I bought 1 1/4 lbs of that, scarfed it down and chased it with a banana. My appetite has been satisfied, now onto Millers.

For those of you who are curious about this delicacy, see the following:

http://www.movinon.net/Recipes/Main
dishes/Tatertothotdish.htm

Mmmm, Tater Tot Hotdish...

Beginning of the Xavier/WVU game and Raftery just provided an incredibly insightful analytical tidbit, but I couldn't quite make it out. It sounded like:

He goes nmbmnbnmbnmbmn!!!

If anyone heard this and understood it, please let me know, I feel like I'm really missing out on something important, here.

And now, I shall hit the mute button!!

Your shot selection during the NCAA tournament is critical. My recomondation is to take 1-part shots and avoid fufu shots, like Blueberry Vodka; Jager's a pretty safe bet. And remember the rules!

http://www.drunkard.com/issues/01-0
2/01_02_booze_rules.htm

It's also critical to manage the shot-clock, you don't want to throw up too many bombs early in the shot-clock. Remember, you're looking for solid but clean, easy looks down low. Don't go crazy, let the shots come to you and play within your game.

Good hunting, people.

Apparently, according to credible news sources, he's now having players over for dinner in an attempt to seem more personable.

I could see this one backfiring, let's just hope they're not eating as much as Chuck is, while that's probably not possible...

You heard it here, first.

According to Vitale, in order for Tennessee to win their next game:

"Chris Lofton will have to be Chris Lofton".

Thanks, Dick.