Jake Brown

Well, after watching this weekend's Big Ten-opening series and talking with IU coach Tracy Smith, I can't get the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil" out of my head.

Stay with me here.

After losing both games of Saturday's double header, Smith had this to say:

"This league is too good to rely on talent alone," he said. "There's a lot of talented kids in this league, and the ones that separate themselves are the ones who are a little bit tougher, and that's something we have to work on."
He also called the Big Ten, with its 32-game schedule, a "grinding league."

Make no mistake about it, he's right. Playing four games a weekend plus one in the midweek will take a toll on any team.

That said, I think Smith came away from his team's introduction to Big Ten play pretty disappointed. I might even be understating it.

Losing three-of-four games after winning the first is not exactly what anyone had in mind. After watching both games of the double header and most of the other two games, it seemed like a lot of players were throwing at-bats away by getting down early swinging at a lot of off-speed pitches.

So here's why the song is stuck in my head. Check out these lyrics:

Pleased to meet you Hope you guessed my name, um yeah But whats puzzling you Is the nature of my game
So, if you follow me here (which I admit, you might not), the Big Ten introduced itself and IU might have guessed its name, but they're still trying to figure out the nature of its game.

In all honesty, it's to be expected. There are a lot of freshman on this team that got their first taste of conference play this weekend, and they might have gotten a little ahead of themselves after Friday's walk-off win.

After Saturday's losses, I asked coach Smith just that, and he had this to say:

"This is about being strong and being even-keel the whole time. I think it's a lesson you learn. You've got to come out and be ready to play everyday and prove something, not rest on your laurels, on what we did yesterday."
Smith hit the nail on the head, as he usually does. Maybe he should just write this. But then I wouldn't have anything to do.

Anyway, now it's time to see what the Hoosiers learned this weekend. If they got ahead of themselves a little after Friday's win, they certainly realize now that they can't do that again after three straight losses.

Smith certainly knows that you have to grind out every game in the Big Ten. He'll certainly impress that upon his team, and they will surely be listening after a disappointing weekend.

Now that the Big Ten has introduced itself, this young squad just needs to figure out the nature of its game.

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