What is up with Kansas sports teams...?

Logged on to ESPN.com today like I do any other day just to browse around. I wasn't expecting to read anything earth-shattering, but I was very startled to read this story about Kansas basketball player Tyshawn Taylor. The headline said that the sophomore swingman dislocated his thumb, which wasn't anything out of the ordinary. But then details emerged.

It was first reported by the Lawrence Journal-World & News that Taylor's injury was caused by a punch he threw. Not smart, but believable. However, this was no average Joe he swung at, it was a Kansas football player. Supposedly about 6:30 p.m., athletes from both teams began arguing outside of the student union on campus. He was treated at a hospital and released. So far no other players involved have been named.

The statements on the ESPN article taken from Taylor's Facebook page are pretty jarring. I'm not sure what to make of that. As an athlete at a top university like Kansas, he's got to know he's a celebrity and a public figure. He should be smarter than to post updates like that.

Overall, this is a pretty strange thing to happen. As a former college athlete, I know there can sometimes be tension between football and basketball teams. When I played at Division III Simpson College, we shared a locker room with the football team. Sure, there would be times the teams would get frustrated with each other, but never to the point where someone wanted to throw a punch at someone from the opposite team.

There's obviously something deeper going on between these players or teams. Who knows what it is, but it will be interesting to follow as more facts are gathered and released. We all know Kansas doesn't follow the typical university sports hierarchy, with football being the top-dog of the athletic department and usually the entire college. Basketball is the money-maker at Kansas, although the football team is finally relevant and making huge strides in the Big 12 and nationally in recent years. Maybe this has something to do with respect in those terms.

In the big picture, things should be fine. Taylor, who averaged 9.7 points per game and three assists per game as a frosh, looks to be out three weeks to a month. The Jayhawks are nearly a unanimous choice to be ranked preseason No. 1 overall. The team begins its season with the annual "Late Night at The Phog" on Oct. 16.

(ESPN reported that heralded recruit Harrison Barnes of Ames, Iowa, the No. 1 ranked player in the 2010 class, will possibly be taking his official visit to KU the weekend of "Late Nigh at The Phog." For sure, No. 26-rated shooting guard Royce Woolridge, who has already verbally committed, will be in attendance.)

I'm out. RL

Indiana-Quick Hitters continued

I just noticed something interesting about Indiana's roster. In Lindy's college basketball preview magazine, the Hoosier's roster includes would-be sophomore guard/forward Malik Story. However, the team's Web site does not list Story on its official roster. What happened to this guy? He was a top recruit and supposed to be a superstar last year as a freshman, but didn't quite pan out. He averaged 5.9 ppg and 2.2 apg. If anyone knows what the deal is with Story, please update me.

Stat-In last year's one-win Big Ten campaign, Indiana led the league in turnovers. With the experience under their belts (drawstrings?) and with Rivers a strong candidate to handle the ball the majority of the time, I think it's safe to say we won't see a repeat of this stat in 08-09.

Stat #2-The Hoosiers averaged 60.1 points per game and defensively gave up an average of 70.6 ppg, both good for last in the conference. I'm predicting that while Indiana may still struggle offensively, especially early in the season due to its youthfulness, Crean will have them playing some wicked D no matter what. That's his style, go all out on the defensive end of the floor to disrupt offenses and make opponents uncomfortable. The players will understand his schemes better in year two and I see them making a big leap in this area.

Devan Dumes and Tom Pritchard-The two key players to this team's success this season, in my opinion. Dumes, a 6-2, 188-pound senior guard is a lethal attacker on the wing (12.7 ppg, 2.9 apg). Pritchard, only a sophomore, used his solid frame (6-9, 242) to abuse post defenders for 9.7 ppg and 6. 4 rpg his freshman year. Both will be breakout stars this year and cause fits for opposing coaches and players who will be attempting to stop them.

That about wraps it up for Indiana. Basically, year two of the Tom Crean era will be progress. How much, no one knows. A highly-ranked recruiting class should mix well with the core of returners, hopefully leading to more than one Big Ten win for the Hoosiers this year. It will be interesting to watch them come together and grow confidence. I think Indiana is closer to becoming the storied program it is known for being than people think.

One last thing to keep an eye on: Recently, Purdue's success has come from snatching up all the top high school players in the state of Indiana, particularly the Indianapolis area. If Crean can show these kids that Indiana is back, he should be able to edge out Purdue for these kids like the school has in the past. The recruiting battle between Crean and Matt Painter will be exciting in the future. Most likely I'll get into this more when I preview the Boilermakers. For now, I'm signing off. RL

Big Ten breakdown: Indiana

Running short on time today because I'm heading out to see Tyrone Wells play a concert at The Mill in Iowa City. Check out his page if you haven't already heard of him. And if you haven't, you will soon. He's got some great songs and is excellent live. This will be my third time seeing him play. On to the basketball.

Ah, the Hoosiers. Since I don't want to write the same ol' boring and lame, structured team previews, and you don't want to read them, I'm going to try something a little different. Bear with me. We're going to call this one "Quick Hitters." I'll throw out a player, coach, stat, or any other nugget of info I feel like, then supply my thoughtful and witty opinion to go with it. Let's try it out.

Indiana "Quick Hitters"

Coach Tom Crean-Love what he's done in a year on the job in Bloomington. I have an anonymous source that said Crean was at the top of the list to move to Iowa City a few years back when former Iowa athletics director Bob Bowlsby was running the show and considering making a move on the Hawkeye bench. Ok, fine...Bowlsby's son Kyle told me that, since you were dying to know. But that's neither here nor there. The point is Crean had nothing to work with last year, hence a 6-25 overall record and one conference win to finish in last place (who was that lone victory over again? I can't seem to remember...). Love Crean's enthusiasm on the sidelines, he is like a mad man out there fighting for his team. I'm expecting a huge leap in year two.

Freshman class-Lindy's college basketball magazine has IU's incoming recruiting class ranked #11 in the country. Crean wasted no time in bringing in talent. Five of the six newcomers rank in the top 111 nationally. They are: SF Christian Watford (41), SG Maurice Cheek (59), SF Derek Elston (103), PG Bobby Hulls (107), C Bawa Muniru (111) and PF Bobby Capoblanco. Get to know these names because they will be logging heavy minutes for the Hoosiers. Crean is building for the long term.

Jeremiah Rivers-I'm personally excited for the Jeremiah Rivers era to begin in Bloomington. He's eligible finally after transferring from Georgetown. I've liked the guy since I met him at the Final Four in Atlanta when he was a member of the Hoyas as a freshman. Ok, so I didn't actually meet him, but I did get a picture with him and Patrick Ewing, Jr. (who coincidently did the opposite by starting at Indiana and transferring to Georgetown). What's not to like about a kid who's a son of a coach, let alone an NBA coach? (For those who are scratching their heads, his padre is Doc Rivers) I think he will be just the type of point guard that Crean wants him to be to lead and be a "coach on the floor," as most good PG's are. They are extensions of the coach and his philosophy. I can see him leading the Big Ten in assists, especially when he gets used to playing with the new recruits. All that talent on the wing, someone's got to distribute the ball, right?

Ok, I think that went well. Actually exceeded my expectations. So I got to scat to the concert, but I will be back to finish up a few more quick hitters. Holler, RL.

Big Ten breakdown: Michigan State

Head Coach: Tom Izzo (15th season)

2008-09 record: 31-7 overall, 15-3 Big Ten (1st)

Where do we even begin with Sparty? Every college hoops preseason poll has MSU in its top five. You know Izzo's identity: He will put together a squad that will wipe the boards clean with you sweat, D you up so hard that you might as well hand them the ball, and run you so fast that your coach will describe the game as "a blur for 40 minutes," as Iowa coach Todd Lickliter did last season in the post-game press conference.

Everyone knows the Spartans fell short to North Carolina last year at Ford Field in Detroit. MSU can and should reach the Final Four again in Indianapolis this year. It returns the core of that group, and they are almost more motivated now after what happened last April. Look out.

Sparty's depth will wear teams down to the bone. Lindy's college basketball preview magazine has MSU's backcourt ranked #1 overall, and for good reason. Junior Kalin Lucas looks to join elite company in terms of Spartans point guards who led their team to a national title. The reigning Big Ten Player of the Year is already being discussed in the same breath as legends Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves. His supporting cast of Durrell Summers, Chris Allen and Korie Lucious all will be much improved. I personally like Summers' game (a more athletic and explosive version of my favorite MSU alum, Shannon Brown) and believe he will have the best year of the four. Plus, did you see his dunk on Connecticut's Stanley Robinson in the national semifinal?? The man is a freakish leaper. Travis Walton's absence due to graduation will be missed, but others will pick up his defensive and leadership responsibilities.

Raymar Morgan needs to have a sensational comeback season as a senior after a lackluster season last year, which a back injury contributed to. Delvon Roe was a highly-ranked prospect coming in last year as a freshman, but knee injuries also slowed him down, however he showed flashes during the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. Signs point to him dominating opposing forwards this year. Rounding out the frontcourt is sophomore Draymond Green, junior Tom Herzog and freshmaen Garrick Sherman and Derrick Nix. The losses of Goran Suton and Marquise Gray are big blows, but if Morgan and Roe step up and the others play a kind of center-by-committee, Sparty should be ok down low.

MSU ranked first in the Big Ten in scoring last season (72 ppg). I don't see anyone talented enough to slow down the green machine this year. To challengers I say, good luck.

Signing off, RL.

Iowa Hawkeyes preview continued

I was going to move on and preview another Big Ten team in this post, but given the good spirits I have from the Iowa football team blowing out the Iowa State Cyclones today, 35-3 in Ames, I have decided to keep on talking Hawkeyes. Here's what's going to happen. I'm bringing in some firepower to help me out in the form of my roommate Jay. He has five questions/comments/concerns about the Iowa basketball squad heading into the 2009-10 campaign. Good thing I'm here to ease his troubled mind. Without further ado:

Jay: Who will be Iowa's starting point guard this year be? Will Anthony Tucker fill in as a sophomore that is probably more of a 2-guard, or will Cully Payne mature fast enough/Coach Lickliter have enough confidence to start as a true freshman?

Me: Great question buddy. I agree that Tucker may be more of a shooting/off guard as he can light it up from just about anywhere on Iowa's side of the half-court line. However, I am confident in his abilities to handle the ball if he has to. He did it for a semester last season and he did it all summer in the Prime Time League where he torched defenses every night scoring and assisting. I was also extremely impressed with Payne in the summer and how he managed games as a youngster and made some surprisingly athletic plays for someone his size. He's a very quick defender, can slash when he has to and get to the rim, but can also hit the three. And he showed decision-making skills beyond his age. If he can stay poised and make those kind of smart plays/decisions in the nonconference, Coach Lick will be fine with playing him during the Big Ten season. So all in all, I think Iowa should be ok at the point. Plus we got John Lickliter who, although undersized, is a smart player (can you guess why?).

Jay: Is all the talk about Aaron Fuller's development this summer legit? Also, how is the big man situation in general?

Me: Fuller apparently dominated Iowa's summer trip to Italy and Greece where he averaged a double-double. I unfortunately didn't get to see him much in the PTL, but I heard he was playing some great ball. The sophomore has put on some muscle that will help him bang down low, which Iowa will need given that it doesn't have a post player over 6-8. Jarryd Cole is a junior cocaptain who should start at center, but he isn't much of a scorer on the blocks. He gets his points off putbacks and alley-oops, but he did show an improved range over the summer, knocking down 15 foot jumpers with consistency. Andrew Brommer showed flashes early on last season, then saw his minutes diminish in the conference season. He also suffered a high ankle sprain and didn't play much in the PTL, although his team did with the championship. Devon Archie is a junior college transfer that I don't personally think is ready to compete in the Big Ten yet. He's somewhat gifted defensively but rather raw offensively. Freshman Brennan Cougil is expected to be a project.

Jay: Well, we might as well cover the wing positions since that's we haven't talked about that yet.

Me: Good thinking, Jay. Let's start with our best wing player, Matt Gatens, who you and I are familiar with having played alongside him at Iowa City High (We don't have to mention that it was just on the practice squad. Wait a second...) He will obviously emerge as a big-time leader for the Hawks as a sophomore. He was their most consistent player last year as a newcomer, even when he played the four position most of the time. History says he will take a giant leap in his second season. Senior cocaptain Devan Bawinkel can sink treys like nobody's business, as evidence by him not attempting a two-point field goal or a free throw until the third-to-last game of the season. Not to mention his record-tying 8 threes in one game against Ohio State at home. I have a feeling he will set a new record sometime this year. Eric May is a true freshman that will see meaningful minutes. He is physically ready for the Big Ten (he was recruited to play QB for the football team). He can slash to the rim and put it down, which he did many times over the summer. He's the kind of athlete Iowa has been lacking recently. The perimeter should be a strong point for the Hawks this year.

Thanks for your time Jay and we'll speak to you again soon.

Signing off, RL

Big Ten breakdown: Iowa

With just about a month away from Midnight Madness and the first official day of practice allowed by the NCAA, there's not a whole lot going on in college hoops. Football just kicked off last weekend and is dominating most of the media's attention. But that's what I'm here for. I know, lucky you!

I'm going to start by previewing every team in the Big Ten and Big 12, one by one, leading up to the start of the season. My blog, my rules, meaning I will go at my own pace. But look for three to four team previews a week.

To get my feet wet, I'm going to start with the team I know best: THE Iowa Hawkeyes.

Head coach: Todd Lickliter, 3rd season

2008-09 finish: 15-17 overall, 5-13 Big Ten (10th)-good thing there's 11 teams in the Big Ten

Players lost-F Cyrus Tate (graduation), G JR Angle (graduation), G Jake Kelly (transferred to Indiana State), PG Jeff Peterson (transferred to Arkansas), F David Palmer (transferred to DII) and G Jermaine Davis (transferred to DII)

Players returning: G Matt Gatens (soph), G Anthony Tucker (soph), G Devan Bawinkel (sr), F Jarryd Cole (jr), F Andrew Brommer (soph), F Aaron Fuller (soph), and G John Lickliter (rs freshman)

Newcomers: F Brennan Cougil (Sioux City), G Eric May (Dubuque), and PG Cully Payne (Schaumburg, IL), F Devon Archie (jc transfer from Indianapolis)

Hawkeyesports.com

Outlook: Last year, the Hawkeyes showed signs of improvement, but also displayed some of the same mistakes from Lickliter's first year on the sideline. The former National Coach of the Year (his final season at Butler) is finally getting more of his recruits to Iowa City and instilling his style of basketball, which is A LOT of ball screens and A LOT of three pointers. The sophomore class, Lickliter's first true batch of recruits, looked very solid for the most part of last season and looks to be the team's strength this year as they have more experience. His second class has received some attention over the summer. Lickliter nabbed the two best in-state players, and adding Payne to fill the void at point guard was a much need signing. Most media and fans around these parts agree that May and Payne can and will contribute right away, and see Cougil as more of a project that is a year or two away. Archie is an interesting prospect to me. He is athletic and has displayed talent on defense, but I'm not so sure he has the necessary tools to contribute on offense, and he lacks the bulk to bang inside. I would feel better if he were a freshman, but as a junior he doesn't have the time to be a project like Cougil does.

Iowa took a trip overseas to Greece and Italy during the summer, going 2-1 in exhibition games against European teams (the one loss was by a single point, just fyi). At the time, the team only had seven players, meaning everyone got to play valuable minutes. Fuller blossomed, averaging a double-double, and many including me think he has a breakout year ahead of him. Gatens was solid in his first season wearing black and gold, the only player to start all 32 games. He will have an even bigger role this year, and is motivated by getting robbed out of the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Tucker is another player who shined in the Prime Time League, the summer league in North Liberty that all Hawkeyes play in. He is a cold-blooded killer from the 3 and beyond, and I'm excited to see what he can do in a full season of competition.

As for the transfers, I'm not too concerned, hence me leaving it till the end. The guys Iowa lost weren't buying in to the program and Lickliter's team-first philosophy, and the Hawkeyes are better off without them. Most analysts are picking the Hawks to finish last place in the Big Ten, but I see them surprising a lot of people and maybe even themselves. You know they will be good at home, they just need to play .500 ball on the road. They have the tools in place, they just need the confidence to get them going.

Advice from the pros

I'd like to start off this post with something not necessarily basketball related, but it is blog-related. While reading his latest column titled "Just the Facts," ESPN Fantasy Football writer Matthew Berry (also known as The Talented Mr. Roto) dished out some interesting advice to up-and-coming bloggers:

The most frequent question I get is "How do I get your job?" The answer, very simply, is just be good. Anyone could have done what I did. I answered a blind ad for a Web site in 1999. Wrote for five years, starting at $25 an article, built an audience, started my own Web site in 2004, built more of an audience, sold it to ESPN in 2006. Many people do fantasy analysis, and many of them are very good. What I feel separated me from the pack was I offered something different. Whether you are a fan of my writing or hate it, you could take my byline off a column, read it blind and say "Yeah, that's a Matthew Berry column." If you want to do what I do, offer something different than what is currently out there and do it very well. If you're good, someone will find you. I promise.

As a rising blogger myself, I thought this was something worth noting. It's a great story of success. All you need is a dream and the dedication to achieve it. Alright, that sounded corny but it's true. A blog that I am very fond of is called Club Trillion and it was created by an Ohio State basketball player named Mark Titus. He started out as a team manager and ended up earning a varsity spot. However, he has never seen much game action, enticing him and his fellow benchmates to come up with a label for themselves. Thus, Club Trillion was born. It comes from their individual box scores when they magically get to enter a game. The 1 is for minutes played, followed by a plethora of zeros that indicate no statistics were amassed.

Anyway, Titus started a blog for the club, and not surprisingly a loyal following emerged. It started out small, but soon the entire OSU campus was reading his stuff. He says he is not a writer, but he tells funny jokes and stories about the team that no one would ever hear in the media. I first heard about Club Trillion when ESPN Sports Guy Bill Simmons had Titus on one of his podcasts last winter. That has helped Club Tril go national with its audience.

I think that Berry's advice is something that Titus would agree with. All you have to do is get on the keyboard, be yourself and find your voice. It does take dedication, but if you want it bad enough, you can have it. Provide some good information along with a few jokes, be patient, and readers will come.

Stepping down and signing off, RL.

Welcome to my blog. My name is Robbie Lehman, and I am a 22-year-old senior at the University of Iowa. I was born and raised in the great Iowa City. I am also a sports reporter for the Daily Iowan, having covered a number of sports including tennis, soccer, track and summer league basketball.

I began my college career at Division II Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. I was a member of it's basketball team that competes in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for two and a half years before transferring to the U of I.

Needless to say, college basketball is my true passion. I can't get enough of it. The Hawkeyes and the Kansas Jayhawks are my two favorite teams (if you could see the plethora of posters in my room, this would be understood). I follow every Division I conference regularly, but in this blog I will focus on the Big Ten and the Big 12 specifically, but most likely a few bits and pieces here and there about other major conferences and teams.

One interesting thing about me is that I have attended the last six Final Four tournaments, and I'm working on building a pretty large streak. I started with San Antonio in 2004, then St. Louis (05), Indianapolis (06), Atlanta (07), San Antonio (08) and Detroit this year in 2009. San Antonio is by far the best (in case you were wondering), with Indy a close second and Detroit a pleasant surprise last spring.

That should about wrap up my introduction post. I look forward to pleasing all you readers with my knowledge and insight on Big Ten/Big 12 hoops this season and hopefully in many more seasons to come. Singing off-RL