Sweetness

I'm probably going to be little more than a quivering mass of nerves on Thursday night, so I figured I'd hammer something on out this now.  IU will be playing Syracuse for a chance at the Elite 8 and a matchup with either Marquette or The U and I'm more concerned about the Orange than the following game.  But that got me to thinking about the last couple times IU was in this situation; in the past, they've been dogs and I didn't expect them to win, so it was really much easier to watch the games and to kind of enjoy them.  In particular, the big tilt with Duke's squad of NBA-ready superstars was a fun one.  I was underemployed at the time, and neglected the tables in my section at Applebee's to follow the game, after which I ran out into the parking lot screaming.  That game featured a block by AJ Moye that helped to eventually lead the Hoosiers on to victories over Kent State and Kelvin Sampson's Sooners.  Mike Davis was coaching IU at the time, Sampson followed him, Tom Crean is there now, and Bob Knight was there when Moye started.  Given all of the craziness that has happened at IU over the course of the last 17 years or so, I found the interview Moye had with Query & Schultz on 1260AM in Indy to be a great listen.  I did get the vibe that he was a little full of himself and offered several somewhat backhanded compliments to Christian Watford and the Wat Swat.  I also feel that Moye had a slightly higher opinion of his team than what history would tell us. For instance, he claims that they'd have crushed the Temple team against which the current Hoosiers struggled.  However, it's not as if that 2003 team was a bunch of world-beaters who were expected to win it all.  But I digress.  Watching IU is not often fun for me, at least until the final horn sounds and they're ahead on the scoreboard; the Michigan, Wisconsin, and Temple games in particular have been gut-wrenching, and two of those were actually wins.  Oh well.  Here's to a sleepless night, regardless of the result from a Thursday night game that doesn't tip until at least 9:45pm.