Linsanity, Northwestern/Indiana and DePaul/UConn Previews for Tonight

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day with their sweetheart last night.   If you didn't have a sweetheart, I hope you choose to embrace Jeremy Lin as your sweetheart last night.  The man did it again, hitting a three-pointer with 0.5 seconds left to beat the Toronto Raptors in Toronto.  He also had a huge four-point play late in the game.  A Lintastic finish for the Knicks, who got Amare Stoudemire back following the death of his brother.  This is definitely rivaling Tebowmania and will continue to do so as long as Lin keeps dazzling with some more crazy moments.  He finished with 27 points, 11 assists, and 8 turnovers on the night.  The turnovers are a bit of a cause for concern, but everything else he is doing has been brilliant.

Looking ahead to tonight, the Indiana Hoosiers have a chance to get to 20 wins if they pick up a win at Assembly Hall tonight against the Northwestern Wildcats.  The Hoosiers are 19-6, 7-6 in the Big Ten and the Wildcats are 15-9, 5-7 in the Big Ten and in need of a huge resume building win.  They have never made the NCAA Tournament, and I still find that amazing and shocking.  I saw them play at home against Baylor this season, and they got flat-out smoked.  They were 7-0 and playing good basketball until that point, but Baylor was their first true test and they failed that test miserably.  They don't have the athletes to match Indiana, but they can scrap and play well as a team to try to get the win.  I was at IU last year when Northwestern beat them, and Indiana simply needs to play their game and they should win this win.  I know Northwestern and Shurna can sneak up on them and steal a win, but I think the Hoosiers will pass the test tonight.

Regarding DePaul, they face a tough test at UConn  is pissed at their play in recent weeks and may take it to the Blue Demons at home.  Unless DePaul comes out on a mission from the opening tip, I see Lamb and company running the Demons out of the gym.  Melvin and Crockett have to continue to play well, and I think Kelly needs to step up again for DePaul to have any chance.  This also has to be Brandon Young's time to get his head on straight and start playing basketball the right way. Also, I just want one game where Purnell calls off the press and lets his team defend in the half court.  They do a decent job of it, but have given up so many points of late because of their propensity to give up easy buckets off the press.  I know Purnell wants his guys to buy in, but he needs to make adjustments to better fit his personnel.  If it hasn't been working, try scrapping it for a game.

Well those are my thoughts on Linsanity and tonight's contests.  Feel free to weigh in on the discussion.