Hoosier Headlines for August 6, 2009: football talk and early basketball discussion.

by John M (The Crimson Quarry) on Aug 6, 2009 8:36 AM EDT Comment 2 comments

Big Ten position rankings: Quarterbacks (ESPN): Rittenberg ranks the Big Ten QBs. The good news is that he ranks Chappell is the highest rated QB from a Big Ten school located in Indiana.
Hoosiers excited to move into facility (The News-Sentinel): DiPrimio writes about the new facilities and provides some player quotes that are worth reading. Among them: "The weight room is giant," Chappell said. "Coach (Bill) Lynch said it will be like lifting at Menards.
Coaches salaries released (Wolfe Reports): This list has been everywhere, and it shows Bill Lynch ranked near the bottom of the big 6 conferences with a salary of $650,000. I agree that in the long run IU should commit to paying its head coach more money than that. But for now: 1) is Bill Lynch happy with his salary, which places him comfortably in the top one percent of Americans? 2) Is there any other school that would pay Bill Lynch more money? If Lynch has a good year, he will get a nice raise and a contract extension. If he has a bad year, he probably will be fired and IU should be willing to pay much more to attract a replacement. But given the circumstances of Lynch's ascension to the job, I don't think there's any reason to give him a raise to make a "statement."
Tom Crean updates the status of Maurice Creek and Bawa Muniru (Inside the Hall): ITH notes Tom Crean's "cautious optimism" about the academic status of Maurice Creek and Bawa Muniru.
An Early Look: Big Ten Returning Minutes (UM Hoops.com): This post from UMHoops is a bit depressing. Thanks to the graduation of Kyle Taber and the transfers of Nick Williams and Malik Story, IU reutnrs only 65 percent of its minutes from last year. in the Big Ten, only Penn State and Iowa return fewer. And only Illinois, Iowa, and Penn State return fewer of their points from last season. I think the numbers are a bit misleading. For instance, Kyle Taber played 756 minutes because IU had no scholarship options at the position. (Taber was a solid contributor in 2007-08 even with a full slate of scholarship players, so this isn't intended as a dig, but he simply wasn't ever going to be a key contributor on a good Big Ten team). Still, this illustrates that the rebuilding project is far from complete, and IU once again will be relying on freshman for key contributions.

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Comments

ESPN’s sudden increase in college FB coverage has piqued my interest in the upcoming season — then I remembered I’m an Indiana fan.

Good to see Chappell is rated higher than whatever career backup Purdue throws out there.

by D.M.J. on Aug 6, 2009 12:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Ten out of eleven isn’t bad.

What’s that? We’re not playing for odds? …Well then.

I’m still not sure what to make of next year’s basketball team. I mean…we lose those minutes and points, but they weren’t going to players that were going to make us legitimate contenders. Williams and Story had their moments and Tabar would’ve been one of those awesome “remember me forever!” players on a championship caliber team, but really, I don’t see a whole lot of difference had Williams and Story stayed. Their minutes were going to be diminished anyway and we would’ve been led by freshmen again. I’m not too freaked about losing losing 32% scoring from a 60 point team and 35% of our minutes from a 6-win team, but it does make a fair note that the rebuilding project is far from over. At least the worst has to be behind us.

by goodlucksaturday on Aug 6, 2009 4:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

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