With Hoosier Hysteria last Saturday and NBA games tipping off Tuesday, it is officially basketball season: an Indiana native’s bread and butter.
Every year, newly polished courts, sneakers squeaking on wood panel and the crisp sound of balls swishing evoke memories of Bobby Plump and Bobby Knight, Larry Bird and Branch McCracken.
But memories that are just that — memories — have left me with a nagging sense of doubt.
Is Indiana, the basketball state, really all it’s cracked up to be?
The history can’t be ?denied.
One would only need to look up at the banners that drape Assembly Hall or be reminded of the Milan High School basketball team.
But if we’re living in the present, it’s been a long time since the Hoosier state has been relevant when it comes to basketball.
The closest shot by a mile has been Butler, the Cinderella that went to — though it must be noted, lost in — back-to-back championship games in 2010 and 2011.
But even for the Bulldogs, their identity was all about being an underdog. Butler’s ties to Indiana are merely an afterthought.
The lowest low came for Indiana last year, when the state was shut out from the NCAA tournament.
The Hoosiers haven’t won a championship since 1987; the Pacers, since 1973; the Boilermakers have never.
After missing the playoffs from 2006-2010, the Pacers were one year shy of having its tickets given away at Burger King.
With the loss of Lance Stephenson to free agency and Paul George to injury, the organization will hover dangerously close to that line again.
And let’s not forget the IU men’s basketball team, our pride and joy, has had its fair share of ?shortcomings.
Unlike the tales told to us at bedtime, this is a story that all present Hoosiers have lived.
A program struggling to be rebuilt seemed to make its turning point as a No. 1 seed in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
Instead, it’s knocked out in the Sweet 16 and misses the NIT the following year, with the only legitimate prediction for the 2014-15 season a dark, daunting question mark.
The one area where Indiana hasn’t lost its basketball mojo is in recruiting talent.
College stars Gary Harris, Glenn Robinson III, Mitch McGary, the Zellers and the Plumlees were all born and bred Hoosiers.
Now, they all play for the NBA.
That’s not to mention last year’s No.19 prospect, according to ESPN: highly touted IU freshman James Blackmon Jr., a native of Marion, Ind.
So while the Hoosier state hasn’t quite lived up to its reputation on the court, it’s clear that Hoosiers are still spending hours practicing off of it.
The image of hoops nailed to barn doors and silos, propped up in driveways and on dirt roads still perseveres.
We Hoosiers are raised on basketball. Where those skills honed in childhood are utilized, however, is a different story.
Basketball has always seemed like a means of escaping the Midwest, not ?restoring its former glory.
Perhaps the Hoosier state needs its own version of a LeBron James homecoming, someone to restore grandeur to this once-iconic basketball state.
But until that savior steps up to the line, Hoosiers will be searching, waiting, anticipating.
All the while, Indiana’s basketball identity will be fading.
