They are deep enough (10) this year that if they play and shoot well enough that they may have sufficient stamina to last 3 days in a row.

They need to beat Wisconsin (payback) Friday the 10th. At 2:30 EST.

Saturday would be Ohio St. or an upset winner from the day before.

And Sunday would be Iowa, Illinois, or another upset bidder.

Killingsworth needs to average 30 minutes. This means Ben Allen (Aussie frosh) needs to play about 15, and Sean Kline (Hoosier senior) needs to contribute at least 5 minutes per game.

Vaden should play about 32-35 minutes per game. He is only 6'5" and plays mostly power forward. He sometimes has a quickness advantage but many times is part of a small team that gets dunked on a lot by UConn or the Illini. Allen can go along Killer when Vaden sits down. Kline could help, too. Allen has hit some threes lately and has done stuff inside! He is 6'10"!

IU plays a three guard offense and this is to their advantage when they are not breaking down and getting dunked on. There are 3 point guards (plus three year former point guard to Bracey Wright,  senior Marshall Strickland).  

Starting 6'3'' Calloway has been effective . He is a first year JC transfer and has the team's best quickness and has shown good poise and moxy. Errek Suhr (5'8" walk-on junior) has been tremendous off the bench with both clutch shots and drawing offensive fouls. He is a great energizer to the team. Lewis Monroe (6'5'' 1st year senior transfer) has been getting less game time but contributes with long arms and good energy, too.

So if Calloway plays 20-25 minutes, Suhr can do 15-20, and Monroe can do 5-15. Monroe can also play a second guard with one of the smaller ones.

The shooting guard is 4th year starter Marshall Strickland, who does better as a shooter. He can do 32-36 minutes a game.

Finally, the X factors are Roderick Wilmont and AJ Ratliff. Wilmont is 6'4'' and is high energy. He should get 20-25 minutes as a small forward, even though he is another guard. He is explosive and occasionally gets hot shooting on the treys. Ratliff is only 6'2'' but can rebound better because of savvy and incredibly long arms (he gets blocks and steals like he is 6'7'', but still fouls inside like he is 6'2").

Davis may have his swan song team believing that they can do some damage and make a run without potential All-American 6'9" sophomore DJ White. This was our Final Four hope. Oh, well.

I'll still take the smaller Hoosiers we DO have. davis may have one big dance run left.

Go Hoosiers! March 2006 will be better than 2005 (NIT first round loss) or 2004 (no dance, first time since 1985).

But Mike Davis has only made it past the second round once out of five years, and that year (2002) they upset number one Duke, paid back Kent. St., upset Oklahoma, and took the lead against eventual champ Maryland with 7 minutes to go on the last Monday night.

What will IU administrators be doing the first Monday of April? Watching the last game or interviewing the luckiest guy in the basketball universe, some guy who is willing to watch from Bloomington, 50 miles down the 37 highway from the RCA Dome of Indianapolis? Then again, I bet all those candidates will have seats at the venue formerly known as the  "Hoosier Dome".

Future flash=============

IU will get it's sixth ring: and then surpass Kentucky, and then UCLA, and then... Greg Oden will wish he had stayed a Hoosier! Or Matta will switch to IU due to NCAA sanctions on Ohio St.... Nahhh...just kidding.

 But this March could be very special, regardless.

I hope Iowa goes far, too.