Street Fightin'

In my Puffy voice, "Take that! Take That!"

The famous author Bern Williams once said, “Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.” My man Charles Darwin got deep on us when he said, “False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.” In street terms playboy, “Talking bad about a boy or his inability to succeed can many times be his motivation to prove you wrong.”

Well, the Hoosiers took great pleasure in proving boyz wrong about them not having any heart! I’ve been saying for weeks that Indiana will die if the 3 ball isn't falling because they've got little to no heart to fight for it! If that joint is falling, they will be unstoppable in route to a sixth national championship. Well homeboy, without it falling they finally got mad enough to stop some cats from breaking into their gym lockers! Indiana became the fourth Big Ten team to advance to the Sweet 16 living up to the hype of the country’s best conference but it wasn’t easy. The Temple Owls gave them all they had before imploding during the final 2:56 to play to lose 58-52. They were up by 4 at that point then IU went on a 10-0 run to close the joint out.

I kept telling you cats that IU has all the talent in the world but if the 3 ball isn’t falling they’re in trouble in this tournament. At the half they were shooting 12% or 1-8 from downtown. They finished 4-13 for 30% to squeak by the 9th seed.  I’ve gotta give the Hoosiers props for actually fighting down the stretch because it looked like Khalif Wyatt alone was going to send them to the crib early.

This dun had 20 of Temple’s 29 points at the half but was held to only 11 in the second half and nothing when it counted playa. I guess the Hoosiers heard me talking bad about them not having any fight and made sure that I saw them body slam these cats in the alley and take their Jordan's. Khalif and Co. had the candy stripes on the ropes but couldn’t close the deal.

I feel sorry for everybody else now because this was that game that the tournament NEEDED for the Hoosiers to have to get knocked off. They weren’t going to shoot great for 6 straight games and the Temple Owls let it slip away. They still had them leaned up against the ride at gun point with boyz coming out of their jewelry and cell phones when all of a sudden with 14 seconds left Oladipo pulled out the big gun, closed his eyes and unloaded. Lil' Flip, "Game Over!"

That’s what everybody has been waiting to see. Did Indiana have the fight that it takes to win a national championship? Well, I guess they’ve answered that question and I’ll pull a Snoop Dogg from now on and back up off of them and sit my cup down. The key is to bottle that same fight and take it to Washington this weekend and hopefully to Atlanta for the Final Four the following weekend.

They’ve got to understand that they are a target from this point forward and boyz will be looking to hem them up first chance they get. It's like being the star athlete in the hood with the baddest chick. You can be loved if you treat duns right or hated if you're talking crazy to cats! However, you can't move to the wrong hood and keep going to the rival school because you're the enemy regardless. That's IU right now because they've wandered into enemy territory with the baddest chick in school!

So later for being soft, especially Zeller and Watford, it’s time to come out of your shirt and fight like somebody’s bothering your little sister on the school bus. Why? Because the fellas and I want to go the "A" to get it in. Oh yeah, winning a sixth national championship would be extremely cool too!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Get @ me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport