Random thoughts.

Hoosier Scoop, as always, has excellent coverage of this afternoon's open basketball practice. It sounds like a bit of a mob scene at the end when Sampson opened the court for autographs. IU's first exhibition game in a week from Sunday, and will be televised on the Big Ten Network. I am going to have to get moving on basketball soon.

Like some of IU's other Big Ten series, the overall record against Wisconsin narrowed during the Mallory years but IU hasn't fared well during the era of darkness. Wisconsin leads the series 33-18-2 and has won eight of ten. IU won five in a row against Wisconsin from 1986 to 1992, but have only two wins since the Badgers won their first Alvarez-era Big Ten title. The Badgers have broken the 40 point barrier in five of the last ten games, including in last year's 52-17 win in Bloomington.

I was watching a game in another stadium during IU's 63-32 win at Camp Randall in 2001. Imagine my surprise when I heard over the PA: "in the first quarter, Indiana 32, Wisconsin 0." I was so thoroughly disillusioned with Cam Cameron by then that I said to a buddy who was with me at the other game: "I guarantee that score is wrong. And even if it's right, we'll still find a way to blow the game." That didn't happen, of course, and I still have never seen one of IU's best performances of the last couple of decades. Maybe the BTN will come through at some point with one of its classic game broadcasts. Here's a Milwaukee J-S article from that day that I found while looking for a photo of Levron Williams. I had forgotten that IU didn't have a win that season. The Hoosier began that year with an embarrassing loss at NC State on national TV. The Kentucky game, which IU ultimately won, was postponed because of 9/11. IU botched a two point conversion and lost to Utah, and then lost the Big Ten opener to OSU.