Teams who end up with the #3 college basketball ranking will probably want to avoid Bloomington this season. The Hoosiers seem to be working on a straight. They defeated #1 Kentucky and, last night, #2 Ohio State.

Indiana beat OSU 74 – 70, suggesting that win over Kentucky wasn’t a fluke. After years in the wilderness, IU basketball seems to be back, at least a year earlier than predicted.

Christian Watford probably ranks #2 behind Keith Smart in terms of momentous last second three point shots for IU. Watford hit a three as time ran out to put IU over #1 Kentucky, 73 – 72. The resulting full throated roar in Assembly Hall was not just the thrill of a last second win; not just the thrill of a last second win over a ranked team; not just the thrill of a last second win over a #1 ranked team; it was a buzzer beating win over a #1 Kentucky team after years of futility for a once proud program.

Looks like we’ve got a solid team on our hands.

It’s probably not quite time to declare that the Indiana men’s basketball program is back; but it’s hard not to feel like they’re working their way back into the conversation. Tonight’s game against Butler was a big deal for the Hoosiers. Sure, they were 5-0 coming into the game, but they played teams that weren’t very good. Time was, you wouldn’t say Butler was a test, but the Bulldogs made the National Championship game the past two years.

So, tonight’s 16 point victory is reason for Hoosier fans to hope that was left unbalanced by Mike Davis’ tenure and destroyed by the Kelvin Sampson debacle. Tom Crean might be a guy we can stick with for a little while. Of course, hope will make it hurt more on those occasions when they don’t live up to their potential. But, that’s part of the fun.

It looks like Peyton Manning will be out for a good long time. Reports are that he got cervical fusion surgery today.

My experience with cervical fusion surgery is from automobile liability defense cases and, in my line of work, a Plaintiff who required or who might require cervical fusion surgery is bad news. It ups the payout considerably. What it tells me about Peyton is that the prospect of him playing this year are probably dim. I’m no doctor though, so hopefully, there is a “good” kind of fusion surgery and he’s getting one of those. But, based on my present level of knowledge, I’m not buying the 2-3 month recovery. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s out for the season.

We’ve been spoiled a long time. The last Colts game where Peyton didn’t start was December 21, 1997. I did a quick search for that day in history – nothing much jumped out, but I found this guy telling us that the Web may have some innovative potential in the future, but Usenet a truly valuable resource. You could search it with Alta Vista. (Google had been live for about three months at that point.)

Part of the collective freak out among Colts fans has to do with how awful our offense has looked any time Peyton was out. There are reasons to hope that things won’t be quite that bad; but, time will tell.

For me, I’m loving Butler’s tournament run because of my memories of Richmond High School’s semi-state games in Hinkle Fieldhouse and because my dad played football for Coach Hinkle. For many, I’m sure their appeal is that they’re the only Indiana team left standing, and for many more across the nation, there is the perennial love of the underdog. (I suspect there will be long time Bulldogs fans annoyed at the bandwagon effect — like earlier followers of a band who begrudge the band its popularity following a string of hits.)

Brad Stevens, their coach, seems like a stand-up guy, speaking softly but carrying a big stick. In sport, he’s like the antithesis of blow hards like Rex Ryan (or his political equivalent, Chris Christie) whose big mouth gets him attention in excess of his accomplishments. And the Bulldogs players don’t look like anything terribly special, except they’re tough and they are winning.

After beating Florida in overtime yesterday afternoon, Butler is going to the Final Four for the second year in a row; a feat not accomplished too often by the mega-programs, let alone by a small school like Butler. So, they’re still a feel good story, but by repeating, they’re no longer a flash in the pan. Bob Kravitz observed that, whereas last year, they were cute and cuddly, this year they’re “as cuddly as a dyspeptic grizzly.”

Reggie Miller has been omitted from the basketball Hall of Fame finalists. My knowledge of the NBA is utterly Pacer-centric, but are Maurice Cheeks, Chris Mullin, Dennis Rodman, Ralph Sampson and Jamaal Wilkes really better options than Reggie? Miller not only racked up more than 25,000 points; he was the author of a couple of the NBA’s most electrifying performances – most notably the Spike Lee game at Madison Square Garden where he turned a 6 point Knick lead into a 2 point Pacer victory in the last 18.7 seconds of the 1995 Eastern Conference finals.

My level of interest in the Indy 500 is probably my biggest failing as a Hoosier, but I could hardly call this a blog about Indiana without noting the passing of Tom Carnegie (1919-2011). He was the voice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 60 years from 1946 to 2006 and was the PA announcer for the Indiana High School Basketball Championships

I don’t have much of a rooting interest this year and, yet, I am still planning on watching the Super Bowl. It seems to be an event that catches the attention of a lot of people – even those without a big interest in football. Some are watching for the game; some are watching for the commercials; many are barely watching at all, but still find their way to a party. I think there is some value to just having a few days when you get together with friends and having a good time in a way that is common to a lot of your countrymen. Whether the Super Bowl is the ideal vehicle for that, I’m not prepared to argue.

So, the hospital ward masquerading as the 2010 Indianapolis Colts has torn off four straight wins, won the AFC South, and captured the #3 seed for the playoffs. And, in the last four wins, they’ve obliterated opposing running backs and discovered a running game of their own.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call them dominant, but who the hell knows what they can do. I had pretty well given up on the season after Cowboys game where I learned about the “leverage” penalty which enabled Dallas to finally punch it in on about their 9th play from the 1 yard line.

The Jets and their loud mouth coach will come to Indy to play on Saturday night at 8. This is Indy’s 9th straight season going to the playoffs, tying a record set by Dallas during the Landry years. For a city that didn’t host its first playoff game until 1999, this is fairly significant. If nothing else, it’s another week of football; and that’s a good thing.