In addition to Sampson’s firing, the self imposed scholarship sanctions, the dismissal of two players for undisclosed reasons, the LOI release of a couple of recruits, the departure of Eric Gordon to the NBA, there’s now an academic concern, at least according to HoosierNation.com.

Tom Crean blew out of San Antonio early, reportedly because of the academic issues. His only comments:

“I can’t elaborate, but it’s not good,” Crean said Monday. “We have a lot of work to do. It’s a situation that has to be addressed immediately.”

DownloadJackson gives his assessment of Eric Gordon et al.

Here are the picks, with projected scores, all the way through the tournament based on the power rankings formula. I will update the picks after each round.

There were two buzzes going through the Jordan Center on Sunday afternoon. One was the surprising performance of the five newcomers who led PSU to a win over the 17th ranked Hoosiers. The other was the presence of the second most popular visitor to the arena this winter, Miami Heat coach Pat Riley (Erin Andrews easily claims the most popular spot).

According to the Associated Press, Riley had decided that he’s going to be checking out potential lottery picks over the next few weeks and, perhaps, just might miss a few Heat games. The consensus of all is that Riley was checking out the Hoosiers super-frosh Eric Gordon.

Riley’s presence at the game caught the attention of the Wages of Wins Journal. WoW took exception with some of the media’s appraisal of Gordon’s game. AP writer Geraro Armas made this observation in the report that he filed.

Gordon nearly single-handedly got the Hoosiers back in the game after Indiana went the first 5:29 of the second half without a field goal to trail 36-30. A 3-point play and three 3-pointers by Gordon during a 14-0 run put Indiana ahead 46-38 with 11 minutes left in regulation.

WoW notes:

What’s missing from this take on the game is what happened outside this 14-0 run. For the game Gordon only hit 8 of 24 shots. So outside this run, he was only successful on 5 of 20 shots from the field. Plus he committed five turnovers. His Win Score - which takes into account all the stats in the box score - was -5.0 in the game. In other words, one could argue that Gordon single-handedly took the Hoosiers out of this contest.

For more on WoW’s opinion of Gordon and how he stacks up against others, in particular OJ Mayo, check out the Wages of Wins Journal.

Rising to the top via kwout

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