Monday - February 1, 2010

Chris here...

It's too bad Butler and Northern Iowa were both promised home games for this years BracketBuster weekend. It would have been fun to see another Top 25 showdown at Hinkle, or even McLeod (Drake beat Butler in the spotlight BracketBuster game in 2008). Instead, UNI hosts 17-6 Old Dominion on Friday, February 19th. Drake travels to the Matadome in Northridge California. They'll take on a bad Cal-State Northridge team.

Greg McDermott told us that guard Scott Christopherson has been playing with Mono for the last month. That's a pretty tough kid. It also shows that the transfer from Marquette cares about his team. They can't afford to lose anyone else.

Hawkeyesports.com, the official website of the Iowa Hawkeyes, has a countdown banner in the upper right hand corner of every page. Only 214 days, 7 hours, 2 minutes, and 14 seconds, until the Hawks kick off the 2010 season. That says a lot about the state of the men's basketball program.

Todd Lickliter said, on Monday, that he may play his son, John, more. 'Little Lick' saw 24 minutes in Saturday's loss at Michigan. The coach is getting a lot of heat for playing his kid, who many believe should not be on the floor. It's a tough situation for everyone. I feel bad for John because he's an easy target. I zeroed in on the guy on SoundOFF Sunday night, as some of you may have seen. It's not his fault that he isn't as talented as the other players around him, and he definitely tries to make up for it by playing with heart. For the record, I like Todd Lickliter, and I enjoy watching John play. I'm not going to say he doesn't belong on the floor because, on this team, he actually does. The bigger issue is the lack of talented players throughout the roster. Rest assured, if Kelly, Peterson, Davis, and Palmer, were still in Iowa City, John wouldn't be needed on the court. Is it coach Lickliter's fault? I'm not sure, but I really enjoyed watching them play against Michigan State, Indiana, and Ohio State. Let's hope they get back on the right track against Illinois.

Casey Blake made it official today. The Indianola school district is now $1 million dollars richer.

What should the new Big Ten logo look like, if they expand to 12 teams?
http://www.sportspickle.com/article:538/proposed-logos-for-the-12-team-big-ten
My vote is for 'BIGTENish"