BTN, I'm looking at you.

And I'm not gazing lovingly, this time. I don't know if you're solely responsible, or this is a collaborative effort, but you guys screwed up last night. I've heard over and over that the BTN only has a contract that allows BT home games to be televised on their network...That was the excuse for the radio-only Ball State game. Last night, Purdue welcomed IPFW to Mackey...and the game, of course, was unavailable.

BTN Programming Directors Meeting in Early December to discuss upcoming TV scheduling

I get having aOSU on- they're highly ranked, makes sense. But IU? Come on. It's the worst IU team in 50 years and they were playing North-fricking-eastern and they get the 9:00 slot. Aren't nights like last night custom-made for the overflow channels? IU could comfortably have sat at whatever time slot they would have liked in said channel...but that wasn't the case. I'm not even going to focus on the fact that IU couldn't seem to run their offense effectively-enough to get near the basket on many possessions...or the fact that IU got railroaded by a team with losses Rhode Island, South Florida, Boston and Carleton (didn't know that was a school). All that's unimportant right now. What is important is that I got to listen to yet another game on the radio.

Yeh Rah!

Nights like tonight are precisely why I wanted the BTN. Thanks for nothing, jackholes. Big Ten Network, suck it. Sorry, I didn't want to have to do that to you, but you forced it upon yourself. It's a damned good thing for you that the conference schedule is less than a week away to bail your sorry arses out.
I can remember a time in the not-so-distant past that if a team was ranked, they'd be on TV, somewhere...ESPN Plus, or before that, Farm Bureau-sponsored local WTTV-4 telecast...now we're relegated to ESPN 360 that, due to contractural problems, can only be seen by a handful of schmoes.

Special thanks to The Clis and Co. who allowed me to stay somewhat informed during the contest...The Ostrich struggled in a classic letdown game following a world-beater performance v. Davidson...Smooge played well, but still can't find his touch from behind the arc...LewJack continues to do exactly what he needs to as he scores well-enough, distributes well, pushes the pace and rebounds extremely well for his stature...Keaton Grant got back to playing like KG of his Frosh year...Marcus Green once again gave a spark off of the bench...every player on the roster played (always a good thing).

Lastly, but most-noteworthy, JJ had another sizeable evening while shooting for a high percentage and blocking three shots. Here's the deal- JJ will dominate the bottom-feeders in the BT, but is a year away, in my opinion, from being an upper-eschelon center. All that said, this progress, especially when compared to last season, is very noteworthy and very positive.

Purdue wins by 15, I think...Granted, I don't have any visual proof, but I'm almost positive it happened.