Disassembly Hell

So remember what the Blob said yesterday? Something about watching Indiana knock off a middling Ohio State team in Assembly Hall?

Yeah, well ...

Wrong again.

("Big surprise there!" you're saying).

No, the Hoosiers continued to follow their own mystifying path, losing to the not-great Buckeyes in what formerly was one of the more intimidating barns in college basketball. Now it's just, you know, a place with some statues and antique national championship banners. Ohio State was the fourth straight opponent to walk into the Hall and walk out with a W, and the second opponent that should have been easy pickings if the Hall were still the Hall.

Michigan and Iowa winning there is one thing. But sorry-ass Nebraska and lukewarm Ohio State?

Yeaaahhh, not so much.

The loss yesterday was Indiana's ninth in 10 games, and might well have been the death knell for its NCAA Tournament hopes. And that might not have even been the worst part for the faithful.

The worst part might have been that it coincided with news out of Athens, Ga., where former IU coach Tom Crean -- tossed aside for the crime of not getting Indiana further down the road to its imagined place at the pinnacle of college buckets -- scored a huge recruiting coup.

A top-five recruit (and possible 2020 top NBA draft pick) choosing a football school? Choosing Crean, or so the kid says, because of his success with Dwyane Wade at Marquette and, yes, Victor Oladipo at Indiana?

Ouch.

Dark days in Blooming Gulch. Dark days indeed.