Indiana

Today's BIG PICTURE

Bloomington, Indiana - Indiana University has officially signed Tom Crean to lead the Hoosiers men's basketball program to a 10-year contract that will pay him $600,000 per year in base salary and an additional $15.72 million in outside marketing and promotional income during the life of the deal. The agreement is retroactive to April 2, 2008 and expires on June 30, 2018.

Some quick college hoops thoughts for the afternoon before leaving for lunch..

MAUI, Hawaii, Aug. 5, 2008 – The EA SPORTS Maui Invitational today announced the official bracket for the 2008 edition of the nation’s premier early-season college basketball tournament. Marking its milestone 25^th year, the eight-team competition will return to Maui’s ocean-front Lahaina Civic Center Nov.24-26.

Basketball is funny. I never really noticed it before, but things are getting out of hand this week.. there's just too much too laugh about.

The Yao Ming/Ron Artest spat.. in which Artest claims he is the paradigm of black culture, "I don't think he's ever played with a black player that really represents his culture as much as I represent my culture" is flat out funny. (I seriouslly thought the various Artest quotes came from the Onion, but they're actually real.)

D.J. White

The 2008 freshmen class may go down in history as one of the most talented classes of all-time. They breathed life into dormant programs (Kansas State), filled holes for dominant teams (UCLA, Memphis), and filled highlight reels (USC). In many case, they lived up to their extraordinary hype, and benefited not only their schools, but themselves, in their time on campus.

At the bottom of every sunken ship is a hidden treasure.. or at least that's what Tom Crean hopes. The nine-year Marquette coach is set to become the new Indiana Hoosiers head coach.