Currently, Obama and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton are neck-and-neck in Indiana, a (perhaps the) basketball-crazed state full of the same sort of white, working-class voters that proved so difficult for Obama to court in Pennsylvania.
But do voters care if a candidate can ball? Obama's campaign clearly thinks so.
At the end of January, Michigan State looked like a very good basketball team. The Spartans were 19-2, had a big win over Texas on their resume, and seemed like a group of players who were going to be an awfully tough out in March.
And now it's March, and the Spartans don't look like a good team anymore. They went 3-4 in February, with home wins against Northwestern, Penn State and Iowa -- arguably the three worst teams in the Big Ten -- and losses at Penn State, Purdue, Indiana and Wisconsin.
And that means that, to the extent that there are must-win games in the early days of March, today's game against Indiana is a must-win. The Hoosiers have actually responded very well to the Kelvin Sampson mess and are riding a five-game winning streak. An Indiana win today would make it crystal clear that there are three solid teams in the Big Ten, and the Spartans aren't one of the three.
The Spartans are still 16th in RPI, so it's not like they're in any danger of missing the Tournament. But if this team has aspirations of more than just getting to March Madness, it's time for Michigan State to start playing like it.
Here's the way the crowd in Champaign greeted Indiana guard Eric Gordon Thursday night:
It got worse from there, with some rowdiness and some profanity, and the University of Illinois has released the following statement from Athletic Director Ron Guenther and basketball coach Bruce Weber:
"There was a great college basketball game played Thursday night between the University of Illinois and Indiana University, but the game has been somewhat diminished by inappropriate behavior by a number of fans in attendance. We value the enthusiastic support of the sellout crowds at the Assembly Hall, but above all we take very seriously the reputation of our basketball program and the University of Illinois. The profanity and behavior by a small segment of fans Thursday night is disappointing and intolerable, and for that we apologize to fans of both teams."
That's all well and good, but apologizing "to fans of both teams" is the wrong approach. If someone deserves an apology, it's Gordon, the guard who first committed to Illinois and then changed his mind and went to Indiana. Illinois fans were enraged, and he received the lion's share of the "inappropriate behavior" referenced in the statement, so he's the one who should be named in the apology.
As for Gordon himself, a brief thought: Although honoring one's commitments is an admirable quality that Gordon apparently lacks, he's far from the only high school athlete who commits to one school and then attends another. The Illinois football program's stellar recruiting in recent years has been fueled in large part by such players. Illinois fans weren't booing those guys when they got the Illini to the Rose Bowl.
The Indiana Hoosiers are heading to the Bahamas to play some exhibition games. These trips whether to the Islands, Canada, or overseas are popular with the coaches because they are allowed to actually hold structured, full team practices before the NCAA mandated time.
Before they left, Coach Kelvin Sampson held a press conference to talk about the trip and dropped some noteworthy information. Senior Guard A.J. Ratliff will miss the first 9 games of the season because of academic ineligibility.
Ratliff will be eligible to play (assuming he gets the grades back up to the minimum) starting with the December 15 game against Western Carolina -- which is the day after final exams end. Apparently his results will be expedited. While Ratliff won't miss any of the Big Ten season, he will miss some big non-conference games: Xavier (or Kent State in the Chicago Invitational Challenge), Georgia Tech (Big Ten-ACC Challenge), Southern Illinois and Kentucky.
The only benefit to Ratliff is that he will have extra time to heal his wrists from a break to his left and a sore right.
"Poor A.J. If it weren't for bad luck he wouldn't have any luck," Sampson said of Ratliff's injuries.
At least, it as to be assumed Sampson was only talking about his injuries. Odd thing about the transcript, which only offered "press conference highlights." The only mention of Ratliff was once, and that was in the context of taking part in practices. His suspension didn't merit mentioning. Guess his wrist injuries weren't bad enough to keep him out of practices, either.
This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. It's a time-honored filler for the off-season, and who are we to buck tradition? Today we look at teams 10 through 6.
How good will Eric Gordon be? Tell me that and I'll tell you how good Indiana will be.
Gordon, one of the nation's best incoming freshmen, verbally committed to Illinois before changing his mind and heading to Indiana, and that changed the balance of power in the Big Ten as well as assuring that things will get heated when the Hoosiers visit Champaign.
But Gordon isn't all Indiana has. D.J. White, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound shot blocker and a very tough presence inside, is back, as is guard Armon Bassett, who showed a great deal of promise as a freshman last season. Although the Hoosiers will miss the departed Roderick Wilmont, this team should be significantly better than it was last year.
This seems like it should be bigger news: Indiana University plans to build a new basketball arena, apparently meaning a building that has seen a great deal of basketball history (including playing home to three different national championship teams) will get torn down.
The building is a dump, the sightlines are terrible, and honestly, there aren't enough quality seats. The most ironic thing about Assembly Hall is that, despite the tradtion and history in the building, it isn't even that old. It was opened in 1972 and it's hard to believe that anyone approved its setup even then. As loud and supportive as Indiana fan is, the walls along the sides of the court and the ultra-steep stands eliminate more of the homecourt advantage than people think. There's also not a student section.
When you put it that way, maybe we really shouldn't feel any sentimentality for the old building.
We established last night that no team can top Florida (well, no college team). But now let's go into the history books: Is this Florida lineup the best starting five in college basketball history?
You can certainly make that case. The Gators are, after all, the first team in history to win two national titles with the same group of starters, Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, and Lee Humphrey. That's why Dan Shanoff gives them his vote.
Elliott Kalb presents a list of the top 10 starting fives of all time prior to Florida, and although he doesn't say where he would put Florida within that list, he calls Bob Knight's Indiana team with Scott May, Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson, Kent Benson and Tom Abernethy the best group of starters ever.
Kalb's No. 2 was UCLA with Lew Alcindor, and before I really started looking into it, I just assumed that team would have to be the best starting five ever. But then I took a closer look at those five starters. After Alcindor, the tallest player in the Bruins' starting lineup was the 6-foot-5 Lynn Shackelford. As great as UCLA was with Alcindor at the helm, I just don't think there's any way the rest of the Bruins could have matched up with bigger, more athletic teams.
So my vote goes to Phi Slamma Jamma, the Houston team of Akeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Larry Micheaux, Alvin Franklin and Michael Young. Yeah, I know they never won a title. But those guys were incredible: Do you realize that Drexler and Olajuwon weren't even the team's leading scorers? (Young was.) Would they beat the Gators five-on-five? I'd love to see that game.
The Oklahoma Sooners didn't make the Big Dance; at 16-15 they weren't even good enough for the NIT. But if you check out the potential lineup now Indiana Hoosiers head coach and ex-Sooners head coach Kelvin Sampson left behind, you have the makings of a team that might still be playing on Saturday, March 31.
Sampson if you remember, fled from Oklahoma amidst NCAA investigators' allegations of wrong-doing. Kelvin apparently mastered the art of the text message and the surreptitious phone call to potential high school recruits in a desperate effort to continue winning at football-first OU.
When the NCAA sent their investigative blood hounds to sniff out Blackberries in the Sooners athletic department, Sampson took advantage of the classic, inexperienced coach run out of hoopland, scenario in Bloomington - Mike Davis - and took his coaching acumen to Indiana.
The recruiting class Kelvin left in the lurch is a conglomerate that would have been the best freshman class in the country. Here's what Kelvin left behind:
At Mr. Irrelevant, Jamie Mottram recommends searching YouTube for "One Shining Moment" to get yourself pumped up for the NCAA Tournament. I couldn't agree more, and I particularly enjoyed watching Indiana's 1987 championship, as set to music by CBS:
My favorite part is that shot of Bobby Knight at about the 3:50 mark. Ordinarily, that's where CBS would show the winning team's coach looking happy, but shots of Knight looking happy are hard to come by.
Conference: Big Ten Record: 20-10, 10-6 in conference RPI: 28 How They Got In: At large.
Mascot: Hoosiers. What is a Hoosier, you ask? Short answer: Someone from Indiana. Long answer: Consult Wikipedia and learn all about why the term is "embraced more enthusiastically in the southern half of the state, reflecting the likely origin of the word from Appalachian heritage."
Big Wins: Two signature wins, against Southern Illinois and Wisconsin.
Notable Loss: An 81-75 loss at Iowa in the Big Ten opener is the only particularly bad loss on the Hoosiers' schedule. Three Big Ten at-large teams, Illinois, Michigan State and Indiana, had their worst loss at Iowa. Player You Should Know: Indiana doesn't have a lot of size, but junior D.J. White is a 6-foot-9, 250-pound shot blocker and a very tough presence inside. He and senior Roderick Wilmont shared the team's Most Outstanding Player award.
Outlook: The Hoosiers will be favored to beat Gonzaga in the first round, but it's hard to see them beating UCLA and getting to the Sweet 16.
At the end of January, Michigan State looked like a very good basketball team. The Spartans were 19-2, had a big win over Texas on their resume, and seemed like a group of players who were going to be an awfully tough out in March.
The Indiana Hoosiers are heading to the Bahamas to play some exhibition games. These trips whether to the Islands, Canada, or overseas are popular with the coaches because they are allowed to actually hold structured, full team practices before the NCAA mandated time. 
This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. It's a time-honored filler for the off-season, and who are we to buck tradition? Today we look at teams 10 through 6.
We established last night that no team can top Florida (well, no college team). But now let's go into the history books: Is this Florida lineup the best starting five in college basketball history?
The Oklahoma Sooners didn't make the Big Dance; at 16-15 they weren't even good enough for the NIT. But if you check out the potential lineup now Indiana Hoosiers head coach and ex-Sooners head coach Kelvin Sampson left behind, you have the makings of a team that might still be playing on Saturday, March 31.
Conference: Big Ten
