Poll imposition

So here last night was the true flowering of the Romeo Langford Era, with Assembly Hall packed and roaring and Marquette staked out like some juicy entrée. And, lord, what a garden of delights it was.

To begin with, the visitors went down easily, 96-73.

On top of that, Langford went for 22 points on a succession of dazzling skywalks to the tin.

And on top of that, another newcomer, transfer Evan Fitzner, dropped 16 and went 4-for-4 from the 3-point arc, while another freshman, Robert Phinisee, scored a dozen points and dished eight assists.

And so now we know a few things we only suspected until now, about Langford and IU and the general landscape of things.

We know the kid is special, and probably won't be around Bloomington for long because of that.

We know the guys around him are pretty special in their own right.

And we know a college basketball poll in mid-November is about as useful as water wings in the Sahara.

Marquette, after all, was ranked 24th coming into Assembly Hall, while Indiana was as yet unranked. Yet the former played as if it were ranked 24th in Wisconsin, and the Hoosiers played as if that "24" in front of Marquette's name really, really ticked them off. Especially since they had no corresponding number in front of their name.

Well. Needless to say, they will now.

Michigan, meanwhile, will have a number more correct than 18, which is what they were ranked coming into a championship game rematch against defending national champion Villanova. The 'Novas came in as a top ten team. They left in a crate marked "Some Re-Assembly Required."

This is because No. 18 Michigan hammered the No. 8 Wildcats 73-46. Which was an echo, sort of, of what happened a couple of weeks ago, when No. 4 Duke made chicken nuggets out of No. 2 Kentucky, 118-84.

The Dukes are now ranked No. 1, which is where they should have been all along. And Michigan will likely vault several spots closer to where it should have been all along. And Indiana ...

Well. Indiana will be ranked somewhere. And justice will at last prevail across the land.

Or something like that.