RUNNING THE FLOOR: Regional showdown, possible throwdown

This one means a little bit more. Games like these always do.

Players and coaches yarn on about how truthfully, every game is the same, none is taken more seriously than another, etc. But IU-Kentucky isn’t just a rivalry – it’s a tradition.

Need proof? Turn CBS on at 4 p.m. Saturday and see if you don’t hear everything you need to hear from what Tom Crean called “one of the great atmospheres in the country.”

Games like this are circled in red. Games like this are the reason Tom Crean left a successful, well-built program at Marquette for a team in tatters. Games like this define seasons – and often careers.

One of Mike Davis’ greatest criticisms was that he couldn’t beat Kentucky. Kelvin Sampson was absolved by many last year for blowing out the Wildcats at Assembly Hall – at first anyway. And while this season might be a free pass for Tom Crean and his staff, IU-Kentucky gives gifts to no man.

This team has faced plenty of firsts and has learned to deal with all manner of new experiences. But up to this point, it’s been old hat for the man they call “coach.”
Well on Saturday, my friends, that will change.

When Tom Crean takes the floor with his team, he’ll be facing a game that could shape his season.

Consider it: If Crean and Co. lose, it will be a regrettable but expected defeat that Crean will absolutely be expected to make up for next year with a strong recruiting class.

Such expectation would heap pressure onto a Hoosier team that will probably be one of the program’s most anticipated in decades. That leaves the 2009 Hoosiers little room for error, lest they suddenly fall to 0-2 in Crean’s IU tenure against the hated Wildcats.

Conversely, should the Hoosiers pull out a shock victory in the house of Rupp, Hoosier fans everywhere will likely stamp this season a success.

“Well, yeah, we were bad, but we still beat Kentucky,” they’ll say with swelled-out chests.

So this is also a game that transcends seasons. Cliche writers quip that you’re only as good as your next game. Well, when it’s IU-Kentucky, you’re only as good as your next game, and your last one, and the one before that, and so on.

Kyle Taber knows that well, having been on the winning end of a 70-51 triumph last year and a 79-53 victory in 2005. But Taber has also seen the backside of the series, losing twice under two different coaches.

Taber said Thursday that he hasn’t really talked to his young teammates about what IU-Kentucky means and how it feels – though he figured he would soon. But the reality is that they won’t know – no one can ever know – until they taste it, hear it, feel it.

So maybe youth won’t be a bad thing here. Maybe youth will bring just the right amount of controlled arrogance mixed with lack of the knowledge that Kentucky is supposed to win tomorrow.

The Wildcats are a beatable team, even at Rupp Arena, and this Hoosier team is playing better than it has all season. For the first time this year, it looks like its gaining a level of court confidence necessary to play with the bigger boys.

But young teams like this are prone to mood swings from one game to the next, and this IU team looks prime for one of its own.

I think the Hoosiers can upset Kentucky on their best day, but youth and malfeasance prevent me from having even the slightest indication of when to expect that.

The truth is that I think we will see something in-between Saturday, some mix of good and bad. Good enough to keep it close, bad enough to lose in the end.

Osterman’s prediction:
Kentucky 67 – IU 59