The Tipoff

The winner of the Big Ten will be a team like the Badgers who can score road wins and protect their own house. The problem is that by the end of the year, the highest ranked Big Ten team may not even be in the top 10.

The former is the actress perhaps best known for playing “Sally” to Billy Crystal’s “Harry,” and the latter is some local corn-fed guy who was born in a small town once upon a time and went on to warble about pink houses and two creatures named Jack and Diane.

Introducing Hoo-Bans, makeshift Ray-Ban sunglasses with IU’s trademark candy stripes in the lenses.

The IU faithful will recall the last time these teams met: March 9, 2012, when the Badgers dismissed the Hoosiers from the Big Ten Conference tournament, 79-71.

Coming into this season, it seemed the most likely NBA draft prospects among the current Hoosier lineup were Cody Zeller (duh!) and Kentucky-killer Christian Watford. But two games into IU’s Big Ten campaign, with today’s tough matchup against eighth-ranked Minnesota looming (noon, Big Ten Network), another player is getting all the buzz: Victor Oladipo.

Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean was busy over the weekend, and not just game-prepping for today’s Big Ten opener against Iowa (4 p.m., ESPN2). Early Saturday morning, while driving home from Assembly Hall after the Hoosiers’ 93-59 win over Jacksonville, Crean stopped to help a motorist who was stranded at the side of snow-covered State Road 45, just outside of Bloomington.

Even Indiana fans must have known this day was coming. Rarely do teams run the gauntlet of a season without losing. But judging by the way Jordan Hulls angrily wrenched away from a teammate offering to console him following his failed (wide left) last shot in Butler’s upset of Indiana Saturday, I believe that Hoosier thought his team was going to win every game.

“I felt like when I played—just like when you watch Jordan [Hulls]—it’s almost like we have to do everything right, because we’re not as athletic as everybody we play against.”

Do those IU guys and gals in your brood think they’ve got it all? Surprise them this holiday season from among these stellar gifts.

To mark the 75th anniversary of March Madness, the NCAA today announced its picks for the Top 75 Players in the history of the men’s postseason basketball tournament—and among teams from Indiana, IU had far and away the best showing.

The Indiana University men’s soccer team can expect to see a familiar face in the stands when they take the field today (2 p.m., ESPNU) in the NCAA College Cup Final against Georgetown: men’s basketball star Jordan Hulls.

Happy holidays, world—we present to you the Indiana home with both the most holiday and Hoosier spirit.

If you’ve followed Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim closely over the years, you might suspect that he has more than a passing interest in Indiana University basketball.

When you’re an IU alum watching nationally televised basketball games, like Tuesday’s against North Carolina, it’s fun knowing the rest of the nation is exposed to little things so familiar to Hoosiers. But it’s even cooler when something you have a close personal connection to gets time in the limelight.

IU is set to play North Carolina tonight (9:30 p.m. at Assembly Hall/ESPN), and you know what that means: Fond memories of the time former Hoosier Dan Dakich shut down Michael Jordan in the Tar Heel’s last collegiate game in 1984.