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Hoosiers run out of gas (Post-Tribune)
"Energized by a raucous Assembly Hall crowd, which IU coach Tom Crean called "one of the most incredible atmospheres" he has ever been a part of, the Hoosiers (4-5) jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the first half and trailed Kentucky by just one at the break." -
Wildcats need run to stop Creek, IU (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.)
"A year ago, we play at Kentucky (a 72-54 loss), it was a stunned locker room," Indiana coach Tom Crean said. "This year, we play Kentucky, it’s a hurt locker room. That’s progress to me." -
Wildcats' growl grows | TIM ETHRIDGE COLUMN (Evansville Courier & Press)
"I want to tell the people of Indiana, we’re not any better than that," said Calipari. "That’s all we have that’s a February effort we put together. They got our best. "This was a statement game for our guys. We came into a hostile environment, got punched in the mouth early, but we stayed on our feet and came back at them. So this was a great learning step for us." -
Different philosophies on display (The Indianapolis Star)
Warning: Bob Kravitz column. -
Terre Haute News, Terre Haute, Indiana- TribStar.com - Effort vs. Wildcats shows how far Hoosiers have come
"Tom Crean has two measures for judging his team’s progress: as compared to last year and as compared to last week. By either measure, Indiana is getting better, even if it doesn’t always show up in the win column."
IU's Crean teaches until the bitter end against UK (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN)
"One last timeout. Why not? The game was lost, the teaching wasn’t. Indiana coach Tom Crean had a point to make with 80 seconds left against Kentucky and he gathered the Hoosiers around him, diagramming a play, pushing his message from mouthwash range, driving details great teams understand."
Column: Cats pass nerves test in first road game (The Kentucky Kernel)
"For the first time this year, UK played an opponent on its home floor. And UK’s schedulers didn’t ease into that first road game, either. Assembly Hall is one of basketball’s most hostile environments, stemming largely from a fiercely loyal fan base and a creative (if not a bit ruthlessly over the top) student section, even while coach Tom Crean and the Hoosiers are up to their eyebrows in rebuilding."
Kentucky 90, Indiana 73: Postmortem (A Sea Of Blue)
"Congrats to the Indiana Hoosiers for playing a great first half of college basketball. Maurice Creek is definitely the real deal, and Tom Crean has this team playing at a high level considering how few true big people they have on the roster. Indiana is a team on the rise, and Tom Crean is quite likely a future Hall of Famer. This series will get much tougher for UK in very short order, I predict."
Cats 10-0 after beating Hoosiers 90-73 (Lexington Herald Leader)
"Prior to this convincing crunching of the Hoosiers, Calipari had consistently poured water on UK's best start to a season since 1992-93. UK's play merited a .500 record, he kept grumbling."
Young Cats turn in veteran performance (Lexington Herald Leader)
"It had played in a quirky chandelier-filled ballroom in Cancun. It had played against a defending national championship team in Rupp. It had played before Pat Riley, Michael Douglas, Oscar Robertson and the like against some Big East bangers at Madison Square Garden. But it had not played before a group of rabid Midwesterners, chafed by the cold, crammed into their own gym, out for blue blood. "This place," said Patrick Patterson, the veteran Cat, "is as loud, if not louder than Rupp."
Alvarez: Big Ten will push for expansion (ESPN)
IU doesn't play again until Saturday, so I'll have more to say about the expansion issue this week.