Indiana men’s basketball: We were robbed of some all-time Message Board posts

That sound you’re hearing? The clickety clacking, kinda like reindeer hooves on a roof?It’s not that.

Those are the sounds of countless aggrieved dads across this state furiously typing up a post on the message boards and getting ready to engage in Discourse with their quarter zipped brethren.

Truly, it’s too bad that Indiana ended up winning 69-55. We could’ve played the hits like “Hire Scott Drew,” “Fire Tom Crean,” or some word salad about (insert member of the starting lineup here).

But no. These posts have been filed away in the drafts (a decade old Microsoft Word document), likely never to be thought of again until we get a good “as I’ve been saying” in the comments of a different post.

A lot happened in that game, but not enough of it was dedicated to the reality that this is an Indiana team feeling out how to play without its two most important players in Trayce Jackson-Davis and Xavier Johnson.

Without the former, Indiana doesn’t really have an answer when it needs points in the paint. Malik Reneau isn’t quite there yet and hasn’t been able to finish at the rim since a good few stretches against lesser, exhibition-level opposition.

Race Thompson scored just 4 points, which probably shouldn’t happen against a team like Kennesaw State, but it’s not like he’s ever been a true scoring threat. He’s never been asked to.

With Logan Duncomb still recovering from an illness, Indiana’s immediate depth at the five is in doubt. But it is also December and I’m not gonna get riled up and run to The Message Boards with so many months of basketball ahead.

But someone out there is, and he’s missed out on his chance to write five paragraphs about Kent Benson. What a shame that his stories of watching from the balcony as Benson bullies some smaller guy will go unread (until the next time this happens).

Aside from posting Woes, we probably will get a few good posts from dudes on their lunchbreak in the coming weeks going on and on about Tamar Bates.

And, on the rare occasion it happens, these posters will be right. Bates was on fire against Kennesaw State, knocking down threes and crashing into the paint to lead the Hoosiers in scoring with 19.

He played a huge part in leading the Hoosiers past a potential unfortunate end to Indiana’s nonconference slate, much to the chagrin of dads across Carmel who will now instead be forced to leave the confines of their home offices and find out what their sister’s kid has been up to with their studio art major.

Indiana is trying to figure it out. Relax. Have some egg nog, watch the NFL (oh wait checked the schedule, don’t do that) and talk to your brother about Oppenheimer or something.

Thank you, Tamar. But also no thanks because I wanted a laugh tonight.