This is spot on. It amazes me how fans are now so dismissive of things we used to really care about. Increasingly the new view seems to be that the only thing that matters is what round of NCAA tournament you reach. Well, if that's how you feel, then why watch the regular season at all?
People here now act like losing the Indiana series was nothing, but honestly the end of that rivalry was a real loss for the sport. It was recognized nationally as the best non-con rivalry in the sport, it was a cernterpiece event all college hoops fans tuned into every December, it'd be the highest attended game of the season each year (it packed out a friggin Dome during the years they had it in Indy).
For those too young to remember those days, let me tell you, that atmosphere was a lot cooler than playing at a neutral site thousands of miles away in a partly empty arena.