263 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/20/08 4:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It was suggested by an esteemed media colleague Friday night that the less-than-capacity crowd inside Assembly Hall seemed timid at times, still feeling out this team of almost all new faces. Perhaps too many fans were trying to match faces and roster numbers in their heads. Perhaps reality finally set in that these last 12 months really weren’t a dream, and these Hoosiers in no way resemble those of yesteryear. Perhaps they were all just too nervous, anticipating that soon-to-be-legendary moment when Tijan Jobe would make his way onto the court, carried by his teammates – on a surfboard. Whatever the reason, there was a muted hesitance on the part of the 8,500 or so fans who showed up, cans in hands, to catch a glimpse of what Tom Crean keeps talking about. It was laid out for them in spades. The 2008-2009 IU men’s basketball team appeared as something between a guard-heavy, Mike Davis nightmare and the best high school basketball team ever assembled. But somewhere between Todd Leary’s bank shot clinic and the final whistle in the red-white scrimmage, the public finally got a firm idea of what its team will look like this season. Jones appears to have the best vision, and his 602 career assists in high school – sixth all-time in Illinois state history – would support that claim. Devan Dumes has the most confidence with the ball in his hands, and he and Nick Williams also display a relatively soft touch around the rim. The inside game could be a bit of an issue, but I think we knew that already. Still, one couldn’t quite shake the overall change in tone of Hoosier Hysteria. Gone were the standing-room-only crowds. Gone was the high-flying Jordan Crawford show of only a year past. Gone was Eric Gordon. For their part, if players or coaches walked away disappointed, they didn’t let on. “It was more (than I expected),” said Jones, talking about the experience of playing on the Assembly Hall floor. “All these fans yelling and screaming. It sent chills down my spine.”And fans should have the opportunity to learn a little more about this team when they hold an open scrimmage next weekend after the Northwestern football game, when Crean said he and his coaches will have installed more actual offensive and defensive sets, something noticeably absent Friday night. But the truth remains – this season won’t just be a learning experience for players, but for fans as well, as they try to wrap their Cream and Crimson heads around exactly what this Hoosier team resembles.When Crean invoked Norman Dale, the coach of “Hoosiers” fame, saying “My team is on the floor,” you couldn’t help but get xthe feeling the crowd disobeyed a reflex reaction to start chanting “We want Jimmy.”No word yet on whether Crean will install the picket fence, but something tells me fans will be out en masse to find out next Saturday. Hey, it’s got to be better than a football game. See you ... soon.
(10/17/08 5:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hold hands, deep breaths – let’s get hysterical. That’s right, Hoosier fans, as though you needed me to tell you it was coming: It’s Hoosier Hysteria time again. Time to blast off on another year of ruckus and roundball down on 17th Street. It always feels like New Year’s Eve in this part of the country when this time comes upon us, a time to take stock of another year gone in Hoosier basketball lore with a new one just through the tunnel.Why, it was only a year ago that the economics of this wonderful hysteria were at record highs for the first time since 2002. Coming off a 20-plus win season with depth, skill and this kid named Gordon, the program was soaring in just its second year under then-coach Kelvin Sampson.It wouldn’t last, of course. Those false indicators gave way to speculation and worry just two days later, when Rick Greenspan announced Sampson had again violated NCAA regulations, as well as the sanctions placed upon him from his previous stop at Oklahoma. Little did anyone realize at that moment the events of the previous Friday night had been the last, all-too-brief moment in which all was well. But there was no stopping the train, as the IU basketball season, team and program plummeted gradually, then, suddenly, through the once-impassible floor faster than the Dow average. To rehash the last 12 months would bore me more than it would bore you, so I won’t. But reflecting on the year that was at Assembly Hall, I pose to you this simple question: It makes you think, doesn’t it? I mean, really, to go from hero to zero so quickly and so completely, it’s got to be hard to just wrap the mind around – like choosing between one or two Fuji apples at the grocery store or watching the Colts or “Crimson Tide” next Sunday afternoon. Friday night, many of you will fill seats at Assembly Hall, presumably clad in Cream and/or Crimson, and scream your lungs out for a group of soon-to-be-not-so-faceless candy-striped hoopsters. With a duo of exceptions, they will not, as they say, be your brother’s Hoosiers. I’ll give you a few tips – yes, Tijan Jobe is much taller in person. Yes, there are that many walk-ons. And no, Roshown McLeod is not allowed to suit up. But make no mistake, there is no Eric Gordon. The dunk contest will be far more subdued. The hysteria won’t be quite so this year. So bring ye goods in cans and donations for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. Clothe yourself in the colors of your fine University. Rest that voice in great anticipation. But enter this season the way it seems few approached the last one – with eyes wide, wide open. You won’t miss the details, and you might see the beginning of something quite special.You might not; I can’t see the future. But by all means, for one brief, golden moment, get hysterical. See you Monday.
(10/09/08 4:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If Tom Crean likes some tradition in his basketball – a little fundamental, old-school panache to add to his high-octane style – then he must love Roshown McLeod. Try this out: A candidate for the Hoosiers’ last assistant position slides his resume across the desk. A few names jump off the page.Bob Hurley. Mike Krzyzewski. Lenny Wilkens. Larry Brown. Those are a few of the high-profile coaches for which McLeod has played during a career that began at Hurley’s storied St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J., and included stops with Duke, the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics. You tend to pick up a few tips along the way. But in which of those storied programs did McLeod learn the most?“I would probably say at St. Anthony’s under coach Hurley, because I knew absolutely nothing about the game, and he really filled my mind with all the fundamentals of what it was going to take to be a really good player,” McLeod said at basketball media day Wednesday. “By understanding the fundamentals, I was capable of adjusting myself to whatever program I needed to be effective at.”He’ll need those fundamentals this year, and more. McLeod works primarily with the Hoosiers’ post players, of which there are few. As with fellow assistant Bennie Seltzer, there have come times where the former St. John’s Red Storm and Duke standout has had to suit up and bang inside with his charges.And “coach Ro,” it turns out, still has a little banger in him. “He’s pretty big, he’s kind of tough to move. It’s a lot of fun though,” said freshman forward Tom Pritchard. “He’ll definitely go 100 percent at you, and he’ll try to block your shot or get you off the post.”But how does one get from the halls of Cameron Indoor Stadium to the block at Assembly Hall? With a stop off in Atlanta. When injuries forced an end to his NBA career after the 2001-2002 campaign, McLeod spent a season at Fairfield University as an assistant before returning to Atlanta, the place where he spent a majority of his pro career. He took the reigns of the basketball program at Therrell, a city high school known more for academic underperformance than athletic skill. But McLeod didn’t stop with the Panthers. He established his own basketball development program and worked with local AAU teams like the venerable Atlanta Celtics, whose alumni include Hawks standout Josh Smith and All-Star Dwight Howard. He then spent a short time working as the basketball director at Woodward Academy on the south side of the city. “We were impressed with his willingness to work with the kids, and his understanding of the game,” said Dave Chandler, the athletics director at Woodward and the man who hired McLeod after the 6-foot-8 former Blue Devil forced his way to the front of a field that already had 10 applicants, with more on the way. McLeod was not long for the War Eagles, as he took the job last spring and was approached by Crean over the summer. Still, when the Cream and Crimson called, Chandler talked it over with McLeod, and the former said he understood and stand firmly behind McLeod eventual decision to come to Bloomington. “He has too many things to offer,” Chandler said. “Not that that wouldn’t be fulfilled in high school, but I think at the collegiate level, he’ll be happy.”Happy he might be – McLeod wore a smile the width of the court and joked with media, players and coaches throughout IU’s media day. But for McLeod, there is no time to rest, no “Welcome to Indiana” moments – Hurley, Krzyzewski, Wilkens and Brown all taught him better. “I’m not looking to be welcome here,” McLeod said with a resolution that seems entrenched like the Maginot Line throughout this coaching staff. “I want to help get it back to where it’s supposed to be, and I think we have the right people in place to do that.”See you next Thursday.
(10/02/08 2:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This stinks rotten, no matter how you look at it.As I read these scores of pages – both of the NCAA’s exhibits in the failure to monitor allegation and the University’s response – one thing becomes increasingly clear: I can’t tell exactly who is lying – though I have a pretty good idea – but there ain’t nobody telling the truth.The departed half of this shotgunned wedding, Kelvin Sampson produced on Tuesday a statement stringently denying IU’s response, which basically said Sampson and his staff lied their pants off and IU shouldn’t be held responsible for that.“In no way did I ever hide or withhold information from Indiana University’s compliance department,” Sampson decried – through his publicist. “I vehemently deny the inference that I made and concealed impermissible calls.”I don’t believe you. No frills, no bells or whistles. I don’t believe you from word one.You know what I think, Kelvin? I think from the beginning, you knew exactly what you were going to do, how you were going to do it and who would get to fall on the sword if and when you got caught.Shall I count the ways?Of the 117 impermissible phone calls which took place between May 2, 2006, and July 17, 2007 – calls you claim you had no clue weren’t on the up-and-up, just to be clear – and 37 subsequent NCAA violations, the following occurred:• Starting with the obvious, every call violated the terms of your sanctions.• 45 of the 117 impermissible calls came from coaches’ home phones, which you and your staff claimed you were not using for recruiting purposes and, therefore, were not obligated to report on your monthly call sheets.• In May 2007 alone, former assistant coach Rob Senderoff made all 15 of the month’s impermissible phone calls – from his home. Thirteen of them were NCAA violations.• Several of these flagrant missteps got both the bucket – breaking the sanctions – and the foul – violating NCAA rules. Hell, between May 2 and May 30 of 2006, Senderoff called now-Illinois guard Demetri McCamey four times, when you technically weren’t allowed to call him for two months after the May 2 call. I should also mention he was a junior at the time, so contacting him twice in one month was an NCAA violation anyway.• On the night of May 23, weeks after you took over and promised to do things the “right” way, Senderoff called Marcus and Markieff Morris’ mother, then each brother twice over the course of almost two hours. Should we go over again what “doing it the right way” means? It clearly isn’t taking.The evidence provided by the NCAA is somewhere between easily convincing and downright damning. No, it doesn’t have your name on it, Kelvin, but then again, these things never do.So we’re back to this, we’ve come full circle again to perhaps the most dangerous question of your career and the most damaging to IU basketball since, “Did Bobby Knight actually squeeze?”In your defense, you’ve said before that you had no idea what was happening, that at no time were you truly “lying” to anyone.Well then, Kelvin, you have the same two options you’ve always had: Either you were ignorant of repeatedly flagrant and illegal actions taken by the people who work directly under you, or you were not and they were operating at your bidding and command.You are either lying, or you are stupid.Pick one.See you next Thursday.
(09/25/08 4:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Good job, IU student body. Really, good job. You have outdone yourselves this time. I didn’t really think we could get lower than this. You have proved me wrong, yet again.You have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, do you? I’ll explain. I took an hour Wednesday night to go up to the Frangipani Room in the IMU with fellow IDS columnist and good friend Chris Engel (don’t worry, you’ll be hearing from him too) for the second of two IU Student Association-sponsored forums held between interested students and Drew Allenspach, a senior on the men’s golf team and the student representative on the search committee for the new athletics director.Guess how many interested students showed up? Zero. Needless to say, we didn’t need the full hour. Between the eight of us, there were two IDS columnists, Allenspach, IUSA Vice President of Congress Andrew Hahn, three other student government officers and one student covering the evening for a journalism class. Where were you, Take Back the Hall? Where were all my fiery friends on the Basketblog? Where were ... students?According to those in attendance both Sept. 17 and last night, a total of 20 people turned out for both meetings. That’s pathetic, no other way to spin it. Students on this campus, I have on occasion been among them, spend so much time shouting into the rain about the lack of student involvement in administrative decision-making. And yet, when finally offered an umbrella, they were nowhere to be found. Allenspach and others there talked about a hope for an increased relationship between the athletics director and student leaders, at least at some level. This would not be an effective way of building that relationship.“I think,” Allenspach said, “for the students to gain credibility in an AD’s eyes, this doesn’t necessarily speak all that highly, as far as their investment into it.”Damn right. To risk a tortured metaphor, it is easier to throw rocks at a house than to build one. And I can understand those frustrated with a system they think will swallow their opinions without so much as a belch. But this was your opportunity, disgruntled student, to speak up ever so softly. You will likely never come closer to being an actual part of this process than you would have last Wednesday or this Wednesday. You lost that chance. You failed. I sat in that same room two summers ago at a public forum for concerned persons to meet with the search committee for the first permanent provost. The place was packed, there wasn’t a seat to be had, and faculty, some students and others within and without the University took the time to voice opinions, to become a part of the process. Wednesday, IU student body, you lost your chance to be part of that process, if only slightly. Think about that when you’re watching IU-Illinois from section JJ next January. And the next time you start chanting “Stand up, old people,” just stop. You had your chance. Allenspach will still do his best, armed with what little ammunition you gave him. But he’ll walk almost alone into his next committee meeting, and he has you to thank for that. “I think that a good turnout here tonight would have been a great bargaining chip when it comes to bigger issues, like a basketball section,” Allenspach said. “You can’t necessarily just be in it when it’s convenient for you.”Amen. See you next Thursday.
(09/18/08 4:00am)
Dan Dakich has regrets.
He regrets putting a man on the ball in the Big Ten Tournament against
Minnesota, a game the Hoosiers lost when Blake Hoffarber’s desperation
shot dropped in the basket during the game’s dying seconds.
“I’ve never lost not putting a guy on the ball,” Dakich said, “and twice I’ve lost putting that guy on the ball.”AUDIO: Full interview with Dan Dakich
(09/11/08 3:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Wanted: One or two college-age males, preferably of large stature and sure hands, for the purpose of competition against other Big Ten schools in the sport of basketball. Applicants must be enrolled, full-time undergraduate students at Indiana University willing to work long hours, perhaps early mornings. They must maintain good standing within the University and participate fully and enthusiastically in all team practices, without benefit of scholarship.All interested parties may direct applications and references to Tom Crean, IU men’s basketball coach, Assembly Hall. Yes, this is my latest failed attempt to be clever, but it’s also true: Tom Crean wants walk-ons.The new coach said last Friday and again Wednesday that he and his staff are looking to add one or two new players to a squad that by any measure already has an abnormal number of non-scholarship sneakers to fill.Such is life at Assembly Hall right now. “I would say I’d like to add two, I really would,” Crean said at his weekly press conference Wednesday. “What that means as far as being guys that are really going to have a chance to play, being guys who would practice with us a lot, type of situation, I don’t know yet.”Some might view this as the last act of a desperate man. As the saying goes, I don’t care if it’s the last act of Henry V, this year, the Hoosiers have to do whatever they can, because it’s all they’ll have. Make no mistake, there will be no gems among these potential pine-ponies. I don’t need Rick Pitino here to point out that Steve Alford isn’t walking through that door.But in a year like this one, finding a guy who can eat 10 minutes in the middle of a tough, close contest late in conference play could be the difference between moral victories and real ones – and make no mistake, the real ones will be less than sparse.Simply put, the Hoosiers need bodies.Starting after next week, the Hoosiers will begin walk-on tryouts looking for a few good men ... tall ones too. “Had a young man the other night say, ‘I’ve been thinking about trying out,’” Crean recalled. “When I saw his size, I said, ‘No, you are trying out, no questions asked. If you’re gonna be 6-foot-10, you’re gonna come over and let us look.’”There are plausible reasons behind this potential search as well. Crean said Wednesday that freshman guard Matt Roth is nursing a shoulder injury and can’t practice right now. And let’s face it, if there really is anyone in Bloomington taller than 6-foot-7, surely they can be of use in some capacity.So if nature graced you with the height of Charlemagne or the wingspan of a pterodactyl, lace up your Chuck Taylors and get in line.“It’s fun,” Crean said, speaking both of adding walk-ons and more generally about the situation the Hoosiers find themselves in at present. “You know, we’re trying to have some fun with it.”If you say so, coach.See you Tuesday.
(09/09/08 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If basketball experience were Behr Pottery Red, Jeremiah Rivers could paint a house. Seriously, the kid has pretty much seen it all. He’s played in a Final Four. He’s been a part of two of the most storied college basketball programs in history. His dad just won an NBA title in a town that breeds hard-court legends.It’s translating cleanly. When Rivers’ teammate Devan Dumes was asked last week who among his new teammates was already stepping up as a leader for a team that will need a few, the answer was instantaneous.“Jeremiah has,” said the junior college transfer from Indianapolis. “He’s really a competitor and a leader. His game has really elevated.”There is no doubt Rivers has the most overall experience of anyone on this roster not named Taber.It certainly would make sense that Rivers would emerge as a leader for the greenest Cream and Crimson squad in recent memory, except for one problem: Rivers can’t play this year. Transferring in from Georgetown last spring, the Winter Park, Fla., native will have to spend his first season in Bloomington enjoying the best seat in the house. Still, that hasn’t stopped Rivers from being a vocal, physical – and perhaps most important – willing leader. “He’s going to be a leader this year, but not this year,” Dumes said, “since he doesn’t get to play. I think his experience will help us a lot on the sideline.”It might come as a surprise for a fan base so inundated with “me” players of late that there now exists a Hoosier who is a strong and vociferous leader, despite that fact that there’s no playing time in it for him until 2009. It doesn’t shock Matt Hixenbaugh. Rivers’ coach at Winter Park High School, Hixenbaugh said the Rivers he knew was more of a leader by example, and his willingness to become a vocal and demonstrative leader is a product of all the different success he’s been exposed to lately. Still, Rivers’ newfound player-boss role in Bloomington doesn’t surprise his old coach. “He really set the bar high on trying to be as good as he can be,” Hixenbaugh said of Rivers’ time in high school. “He had other guys around that were willing to do the same.”Hixenbaugh, now working for the Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, said he saw a new side of Rivers this summer as well – a complete, mature one. The coach said he brought two 15-year-old players to meet Rivers, and one of the Hoosiers’ new faces spent time talking to both, working on their game and even taking them to a movie.“He’s that type of person,” Hixenbaugh said by phone Sunday.The reasons for Rivers’ transfer – surprising to many when it went down – have remained rather untouched until recently, and even Hixenbaugh admitted he was taken aback at hearing his former player’s decision. Still, Hixenbaugh said Rivers’ relationship with Crean was the lynchpin, something Rivers himself said as well. Rivers said he came to IU because of a previous relationship with IU coach Tom Crean, who Rivers said used to let him play in open gym with the likes of Travis Diener and Dwyane Wade, if you’d believe it. Like I said, dude’s got experience to fill a dump truck.His current coach knows it, too. “I would say because he has been around so many different experiences, Jeremiah Rivers is really trying (to be a leader),” Crean said of Rivers. “But at the same time, I’m gonna coach him like he’s playing every night, and that’s the deal we’ve made. You help me lead the team, and we’re going to coach you like you’re in every game and have the same responsibilities that everybody else would have.” Something tells me Rivers wouldn’t have it any other way.See you next Tuesday.
(09/05/08 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Stark reality was being handed out like lollipops at Assembly Hall on Thursday. As guards Jeremiah Rivers and Devan Dumes stood talking to the media in the southeast corner of Branch McCracken Court, focus sharpened on the predicament these Hoosiers are in, the one we all knew was coming. Dumes and Rivers talked about their experiences bonding with the team, working with the coaches, learning about the tradition synonymous with basketball at IU. They both spoke like well-prepared new Hoosiers, freshmen ready to don the legendary candy stripes for pregame layup drills. But they aren’t freshmen, they’re juniors. And while they are new, they’ll still have to be leaders, even though Rivers must sit out this season after transferring from Georgetown. Dumes was candid when asked if he already felt like one of the veterans for the Hoosiers, heavy stuff for a kid just months removed from Vincennes.“Pretty much,” Dumes said, stone-faced. “It’s going to be a tough task to go through, but everything is a challenge in life.”A challenge this will be. With two returners, one senior and eight freshmen ready to rock the gym at Hoosier Hysteria on Oct. 17, IU needs all the experience it can get, regardless of where it comes from. Thursday, 2/3 of the Hoosiers’ junior class — all transfers — recognized the seriousness of their squad’s predicament. Dumes played it straight, saying the whole team — not just the freshmen, juniors, etc. — are “taking it in together.”“It might seem like that on the outside, but on the inside we are still a family, whether you’re a freshman or not,” Dumes said. “We just have to gel quicker than others.”The Hoosiers got their first chance at full-team work Wednesday, when Rivers said they came together with the coaches and worked on a variety of things, position-by-position. “We are trying to feel each other out and get ready,” said the eldest son of NBA Champion coach Doc Rivers. “Trying to understand how we’re going to play together, what’s going to work and what’s not going to work.”That chemistry, what will or won’t work, is likely the only thing that will save the Hoosiers from a whole lot of losing this winter. So just how does a team that’s probably played more getting-to-know-you games than the Mousketeers find that magical tonic? “We go out to eat, we go to the movies, we bowl, just fun stuff, you know, like teenagers would do,” Dumes said, adding that he’s among the best bowlers on the team. “Nick (Williams) and Verdell (Jones), they do all the talking on the bowling, but they’re not that good.”Still, despite all their talk about what the Hoosiers are doing to get better in the now, both Rivers and Dumes alluded to a recognition that this team’s best days may be a little bit farther ahead of them. From Dumes’ point of view, this year can only make IU stronger.“I think just having the understanding of how hard it is to win and improve, but knowing that it’s good and that you have to do it,” Dumes said. “Going through all of this hard work, and what coach Crean is putting us through — will be putting us through — will ultimately pay off.”That doesn’t mean anyone is packing up for the winter. The Hoosiers still have high expectations of themselves this season. And despite the slew of pundits (including this one) that have written off the Hoosiers’ chances this season to be more than a spoiler squad, Dumes insisted he’s not giving in — it’s just not natural.“We’re taught to let people think what they think,” Dumes said, “but I wouldn’t be a basketball player if I didn’t think we could win now.”For the Hoosiers, it will take a lot more than one man’s will. But after an off-season full of jolting change and abrupt departures, it’s a start. Right now, that’s all anyone can ask for.See you Tuesday.
(09/04/08 3:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>2008 proffered an unusually harsh spring in Indiana, and I think we both know I’m not talking about the freeze that didn’t lift til May. No, Hoosier nation was in a well-documented tailspin that began slowly last October and took off like a bell curve in April.Such was the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of Crean.Guess what, kids? It’s not summer anymore.Sure, the solstice technically comes Sept. 22. But summer ends on Labor Day, and the IU basketball team’s era of good feelings came to a halt this afternoon with the announcement of the Big Ten schedule, soon followed by IU’s own 2008-2009 slate.Have you ever been on a long drive, and down the highway the horizon gets dark and unpleasant? Yeah, it’s kind of like that. The Hoosiers’ schedule starts rough and gets no better. Between the Maui Invitational, trips to Wake Forest and Kentucky, a home game against Cornell and a date at fresh-as-new-shoes Lucas Oil Stadium with Gonzaga, IU will have plenty of gut-check games on their horizon this year. I didn’t even mention the Big Ten schedule, by the end of which Tom Crean’s lads might have played as many as 11 teams that made last year’s field of 65. Please realize I’m not criticizing the Hoosiers for their scheduling decisions. IU baseball coach Tracy Smith once told me he likes loading his schedule with good teams early in the season, because then he knows what kind of team he’s got and quick. I agree, and I think it’s the best approach for the Hoosiers this year. Let’s go ahead and face the obvious truth that finishing .500 would be a real victory for IU this year. Any tournament play beyond conference action up in Indianapolis is about as out of reach as Hickory’s chances of making the state finals. So as coach Dale said, “Let’s just keep it right there.”It makes sense to toss these baby Hoosiers into the fire quickly. No, better, it would be to test them right away than pad stats and mask weaknesses – of which there will surely be many.But what kind of season will IU really have, other than a long one? I’m glad you asked. The season will begin simply enough, with exhibition rollovers against Anderson and Bemidji State. Fans ought to hope IU takes games one and two against Northwestern State and IUPUI, respectively. The Jaguars make the drive down State Route 37 after their last campaign saw them come within one game of the NCAAs, and they’ve got height IU doesn’t – eight players stand 6-foot-6 or taller. Bloomington’s forgotten stepchild to the north will bring some talent and likely a chip on their shoulder, but IU will win this close contest. Maui has all the potential of a train wreck, though IU could make a gigantic statement and step forward with a win over Notre Dame and either Texas or St. Joseph’s, who they’ll face in the second game. My gut says that won’t happen, but the Hoosiers will pick up a win – likely over Chaminade – in the seventh-place game. It gets no easier after Thanksgiving, with defending Ivy League champions Cornell, the ACC’s Wake Forest and perennial West Coast power Gonzaga on tap. Texas Christian ought to be a win, Kentucky almost assuredly the opposite, and two cupcakes to round out the old year should leave IU at 6-6 when they hit Big Ten play. Early trips to Iowa, Ohio State and Illinois – with a visit from Michigan in between – will let the world know the mettle Crean’s boys developed running the gauntlet of the toughest non-conference schedule IU has had since the Mike Davis administration. It certainly gets no easier, with trips to Michigan State, Purdue, Wisconsin and a likely tougher Minnesota team – and return dates from all the aforementioned except Purdue. The Hoosiers ought to be competitive – I’ve rarely seen an IU squad that wasn’t when times were toughest – but they’re going to be outmanned, outgunned and outsized too often to be more than pesky in the Big Ten. Call me a cynic (or an Atlanta Falcons fan, same difference), but I see the Hoosiers picking up just four conference wins, all at home. Mark down ‘Ws’ in Assembly Hall against Iowa, Penn State, Northwestern and – the jewel – an overrated Illinois squad.That puts the Hoosiers’ record at 10-20, not bad for a team with almost no size and even less experience.Make that another winter of discontent. See you tomorrow.
(09/02/08 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When I was a kid, I absolutely loved pickles. Maybe it’s a southern thing, I don’t know, but I couldn’t get enough of them. Problem was, there was rarely enough room in the refrigerator for more than one jar at a time, sad to say. You could fit probably 13 or 14 in one jar, so I had to learn to keep my head about me and my pickle tolerance low to make it last – not that I ever did.So what the hell does this have to do with men’s basketball in general, much less at IU? Well, Tom Crean’s got himself a pickle jar. The typical NCAA basketball scholarship limit is 13, though you’re allowed to cross that threshold by one, according to Big Ten rules. Due to the exodus of Sampsonites to parts hitherto unknown, Crean only has nine scholarship players on his roster, and one (Kyle Taber) will graduate this year, leaving five slots open. Factor in the one-over rule, and Crean could potentially add six players to next year’s class. He’s got four rather good potential Hoosiers lined up for next year – they go by names like Hulls, Capobianco, Creek, Elston – and a few names that would impress anyone on the AAU circuit – Watford, Cheek, Franklin – interested in becoming striped-pants No. 5. Throw in Indianapolis’ latest favored son Stephan Van Treese, and you’ve got yourself a regular conundrum. Swirling lately have been rumors that Van Treese – who is interested in IU and whose stock has fallen since the summer (he’s no longer a ranked player on Scout or Rivals) – will walk on as a freshman next year with a scholarship to come the following fall. Keep in mind this gets even more complicated than from where we sit now because three more scholarships should open up after next year once Dumes, Jobe and Rivers leave. As yet, IU has no signees for 2010 – the year Van Treese would theoretically get his ride – though they do have Matt Carlino for 2011. Keep in mind, of the nine current scholarship players, five are freshmen, technically entitled to four years of eligibility, so they won’t come off until 2013.Confused yet? Just grab a pickle and pull up a chair. Between the four IU’s got coming next year and the one – or two or in a crazy world, three – that still have a chance, the Hoosiers’ ranks will be awfully loaded at the bottom half of the student body. Were Van Treese to get a ride the next year, the Hoosiers would have two scholarships available, one already earmarked for Carlino. Perhaps there is such a thing as too many pickles, but I’ll bet Tom Crean would disagree. The man from Marquette has been both lauded and rewarded for his ability this summer to restock the shelves at Assembly Hall with quality talent, albeit presumably quite raw. Now he’s tasked with not just filling roster spots but filling roster spots with those gifted in the arts of scoring and rebounding and all those other fun things. Early returns are favorable. Rivals ranked the Hoosiers’ 2009 haul the ninth-best in the country – it ought be noted that IU didn’t land anywhere in Scout’s top 30 – and one would assume that number would climb should one of the aforementioned barely-legals decide to come to Bloomington.All this being well and good, it seems there’s been a hailstorm of love and affection for Tom Crean and his staff since they arrived piecemeal from Milwaukee and Atlanta between March and August. And why shouldn’t there be – Kelvin Sampson tossed Crean a curveball and the new man put it into the left-field bleachers with his enthusiasm, tenacity and early success.That said, it’s time for Crean and his staff to ride through the dust stirred up by all the pep rallying and get down to business, something this underpaid, overrated pundit thinks they’ve been doing well so far. Like I said, only so much room in that pickle jar. See you next Tuesday.
(08/26/08 1:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hey folks.Seems like a simple enough greeting. I’ll try to keep my down-home charm to a minimum this year, but no promises.As my good friend Chris Engel announced last night on the Basketblog, I will be taking the reigns from the irreplaceable Jon Hines this year as the men’s basketball columnist. The words will come as often as the news this winter, this I guarantee, but for now, you can find my musings in this space every Tuesday, rain or shine. Today’s topic: Bud Mackey, man of the socks of legend and the shoes of crime.The former IU recruit, highly touted after a state tournament run his junior year that saw the Scott County (Ky.) High School combo guard bring home a title and thrust himself onto the major college recruiting scene, pled guilty to first-degree possession of a controlled substance. Mackey, you’ll remember, was arrested last fall after tardiness from English class prompted school administrators to search for – and find – their roundball star with crack cocaine in his shoe (makes you think twice about skipping out on Shakespeare).At the time, Mackey’s arrest was a black mark on the program, a small but colorful feather in the cap of those wishing to depose the sideline artist formerly known as Kelvin Sampson. His scholarship was soon withdrawn and his transgressions soon forgotten in the wave of phone records and firings that launched IU basketball back to the Stone Age.Mackey’s story is awfully strange to consider now – serious though it may be – an afterthought in the mess of Sampson’s departure. And regardless of whatever camp in which you choose to align yourself regarding Mackey, it’s hard not to feel slightly sorry for the young man whose recommended sentence for his crimes was five years in jail with a minimum service of six months.I’m not in any way condoning Mackey’s crimes. Crack cocaine is one of the most addictive and heinous drugs on the market, and while I do not agree with mandatory minimums – and that’s an argument for a different place in time – anyone who deals in its distribution in one way or another deserves swift punishment.But it makes me sad to see someone with such potential fall from grace in such a grand way, and it’s even worse to see a teenager so soundly thrown from the wagon by a world that really never gave him a chance. Call me a Mackey apologist, I don’t care. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it is despicable the way we as a society treat high school and college athletes in money-driven sports like basketball and football. We use them, lose them and occasionally abuse them, all the while being careful never to see them through our fan-filtered lenses as anything more than statistics in uniform. Bud Mackey will go to jail. Bud Mackey should go to jail. But Bud Mackey’s story will never be anything more than a cautionary tale of what not to do when you’re about to be given the world based purely on your skill with a basketball, and that makes me sad. See you next Tuesday.
(08/16/08 2:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hitting coach Sheldon Watkins has left the IU baseball program, a baseball source confirmed Friday night. Watkins had been in the position for one year.Watkins' short tenure with the Hoosiers saw IU land at the top of the Big Ten in hitting with an overall team average of .339. That offense also keyed a Big Ten Tournament run during which the Hoosiers won four games in a row before being knocked out in the semifinals by Purdue.Baseball sports information director Matt Brady confirmed Friday that Watkins left IU to return to San Diego, where he was coaching high school baseball just before coming to IU.The source said Watkins was originally a volunteer assistant, a position that held a one-year commitment. However, he was eventually hired and Tyler Best took his place as a volunteer assistant, working primarily with IU's hitters and catchers, the source said. Best was considered instrumental in the development of IU's All-American catcher Josh Phegley.For more IU baseball news, visit Inside Pitch.
(08/06/08 11:38pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s Sunday night, and sleep is hard to come by. It’s not usually this way. No, work calls me in early on Sundays, so I’m usually rather tired when bedtime rolls around. But not tonight. You see, in Georgia, a 5-year-old boy is expected to love two things: his grandfather and baseball, usually taking in the latter while in the company of the former.I’m not 5 anymore, and tonight that truth is hitting hard. My grandfather passed away in his sleep back in May. The last conversation I had with him came on a whim – I called him during an hour-long car ride up from Indianapolis to my home in Lafayette. I hadn’t talked to him in a while, and I wanted to check in. We discussed the Atlanta Braves, as we always would, taking special care to articulate our arguments so the powers that be wouldn’t have any trouble following our advice as soon as we could get them on the phone (we’d been trying for years). The last thing I said, naturally, was “I love you,” and while I miss my grandfather every day, I’m glad I got to say it.My father text messaged me Sunday night – he digs texting, renaissance man that he is – with the news that the Braves’ longtime play-by-play man Skip Caray had passed away. For the few of you reading this lucky enough to hail from Atlanta or the surrounding area, I’m sure you’ll agree no Braves fan could ever take that news well.I remember the Skip Caray – son of Harey, for Chicago Cubs fans – that others do: He was sarcastic and loved a good pun. When foul balls found their way into the outstretched hands of a fan he’d say “A fan from Hahira, Ga., caught that ball,” knowing full well that fan had as much chance of being from Hahira as anyone outside the baseball-Drew family does of knowing where Hahira is. He took that show on the road, too.The most immediate memories that came to me of Skip, however, had nothing to do with his signature style or his cranky demeanor, nor did my mind rush back to that memorable night in 1995 when he declared to the world, “The Atlanta Braves have given you a championship! Listen to this crowd!”No, I remembered a living room, the satisfaction of a good meal on its way to my stomach and the settling in for the night that was the Braves game. At my grandparents’ house, it was what was on TV after dinner, and granddaddy and I would sit in that room from first pitch to last, debating the future of Bobby Cox’s boys until we were blue in the face and the innings were gone.They came fewer and farther between, those lazy summer evenings listening to Skip and the rest of the crew. My exit to Bloomington coupled with the fact that most of my returns came in the winter meant granddaddy and I had to do our Brave debating over the phone. But Skip was still there, and through him we saw the same game.It’s August now. The leaves will turn soon, baseball season is noticeably closer to its end than its beginning. Soon stadiums will empty for the last time as the diamonds begin their long hibernation between the end of summer and Spring Training. But it won’t be quite complete for me when pitchers and catchers report next February. There will be a ringing and irreplaceably empty part of it all, the pastime that defined my childhood.I would assume that those of you who are reading this opened the paper today to this page for the specific reason that you like sports. And I will also make the leap of faith that, having gotten you this far down the page, you have some kindred experience, some similar lasting memory from younger days that still gives you goosebumps and makes you wish that, for just one blissful moment in time, you could find yourself 5 years old again, sitting on that living room floor with the game about to start. You didn’t have to know Skip Caray, and you certainly didn’t have to know my grandfather. But I hope you once got to know the feeling, I truly do. Goodbye, Skip. And goodbye, granddaddy.
(07/24/08 6:46pm)
Bill Lynch has confirmed Andrew Means will return to the IU football team this fall for his senior season. Means has been spending his summer playing Minor League baseball in Billings, Mont.
(07/23/08 11:21pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Let the obituary read: “Today died Zachary Osterman, faithful and at times solitary member of the Atlanta Hawks bandwagon since the stylings of Mookie Blaylock graced the Omni’s parquet floor.”I’m done. I’m through. I’ve been a hometown sports fan my entire life, which has been good for baseball, bad for hockey and mercurial at best for football. But when it came to basketball, the Hawks always had a special way of failing – like they invented the practice. They dumped Steve Smith when people said he might be the most underrated player in the league. They traded for Glenn Robinson well after his prime, if there ever were such a thing. They let Pete Babcock run the franchise for far too long, and for some reason stuck their muscle behind Mike Woodson instead of Billy Knight, who despite all his failings had assembled a talented and athletically superior squad of promising young players before his departure in July.Enter Rick Sund stage right, exit progress stage left. The indescribable shock I felt when I got an e-mail from my dad this morning simply linking me to a story with the headline “Childress leaving Hawks to join Greek franchise.” Thus was incinerated the last shred of respectability left in the National Basketball Association’s Atlanta franchise.When a player would rather go to Europe than play in the NBA – regardless of the price – you’ve hit rock bottom. Rumors around the ultimate water cooler that is Atlanta sports talk radio suggested that perhaps the Hawks had no chance of resigning Josh Childress the minute they rehired Mike Woodson, making me wonder if they’ll even have a chance to resign Josh Smith either.But it doesn’t matter to me, friends. No, I think I’ve run my course as a Hawks fan, I have at last exorcised the last demons of Lon Kruger and Isaiah Rider and, to be plain, I’m ready to get back out on the market.So here’s my pitch: Make me a pitch. To all other NBA teams from Miami to Seattle (oops), make a case for why I should join your fanbase. I’m an accomplished bandwagon engineer, and I scream pretty loud through the fourth quarter and beyond (Re: The Hawks three playoff wins against Boston this spring, now seen as a fitting final act in the Greek tragedy that Atlanta has become, like Brutus falling stoically after seeing the best-laid plans so close to success). My adventure into 10th-grade English aside – If you’re reading this Coach Bounds, don’t hate me for most assuredly blowing that Julius Caesar reference – I’m done with the Hawks, and I’m ready to move on. I’ve plied my trade as a sports fan for most of my life, I’m seasoned in the ways of basketball and I understand the intricacies of the 2-3 zone at least well enough to match wits with the likes of Billy Packer.I’m out on the market, and ready to get back in the game. My mourning period was hard but brief, so bring on the Knicks, Yao Ming and please, please Drew Gooden’s most recent hair folly. It’s been a long time coming, but I’m ready to put my faith behind a team that doesn’t stumble around in the dark without any sense of direction. You don’t have to win, just keep your players in the continental United States.And Childress: There’s a little place at the base of the Parthenon, makes great chicken souvlaki wrapped in bacon strips. Don’t remember the name, but it was great stuff, trust me.
(07/03/08 1:35am)
Ah, the sweet smell of victory. \nI’d like to be humble here, but well, I don’t feel like it. Yes, for the record, I picked Spain – perennial international underachievers – to win the European Championships this year. \nAnd my boy Fernando Torres scored the deciding goal. Wonderful, to say the least. \nThis caps off a rather excellent year for Torres, who scored 24 Premiership goals – the most by a foreign player in their first season in England – and 33 overall in his first campaign for (my beloved) Liverpool. But back to Spain. \nLong considered an underwhelming powerhouse of international soccer, Spain has often been a victim of its own skill – a team with so much logjam in their depth chart that they could never put the right pieces in the right places to keep from tripping over their own proverbial feet. Until 2008. \n69-year-old Luis Aragones finally punched just the right buttons, giving Andres Iniesta and Xavi the allowance to move and create in midfield. He let David Silva do his thing on the wings, while the ageless – and requisite ex-Brazilian – Marcos Senna shut down anything trying to break through. \nCesc Fabregas and Xabi Alonso were brilliant substitutes in midfield, and really the player of the tournament award might as well have gone to all six of the men listed above. \nStill, the ever-struggling Spanish strikeforce did a wonderful job themselves, netting six goals between them for the tournament. Torres and David Villa finally broke through on the international stage because they finally had each other instead of operating one-for-the-other, alone up top. No, this tournament marked a strategic change for Aragones, putting the two prolific club strikers at the top together to provide each other a link to a much more creative and successful midfield. \nSay what you will about an overrated defense, but Sergio Ramos and Carlos Puyol looked nothing but brilliant for much of the tournament. Puyol, the tough and seasoned international captain, anchored a defense that many times lived at the edge of the sword but still looked nearly impregnable. \nRamos was still a better sight, bombing down the wings. He was a far better offensive player than some of his compatriots at times during the tournament. \nAnd goalkeeper Iker Casillas, long considered perhaps second- or third-best in the world, finally assumed the mantle of tops at his position with a flourish, helping to best Gigi Buffon of Italy with a fine performance that resulted in a penalty-shootout win against the world champion Azzuri. \nBasically, Spain were the best team of the tournament, start to finish. Unlike the 2008 New England Patriots, there would be no failure, no stumbling at the final obstacle to a lesser foe. The Spanish had taken themselves to the top of the footballing world, and they would not come back down – just named No. 1 in the world Wednesday. \nJust as when Greece – boring but sharply effective – won the Euros in 2004, the best, most deserving squad took away the hardware. So, when the whistle blew and Spain defeated lucky-just-to-be-there Germany, the right team had won Euro 2008.\nViva la Espana.
(06/30/08 12:28am)
For anyone uninformed, unprepared or generally living in a hole the last few days, Rick Greenspan is gone. That news ought to elicit plenty of “finallys” and “it’s about times” and even a “serves him right” or two. \nAside from Kelvin Sampson, Greenspan was the most controversial figure in IU athletics this side of Bob Knight, and his departure comes as no surprise since it is coupled with a sixth NCAA violation for “failure to monitor” the basketball program.\nWhile we won’t get into a debate about the fairness of that last bit of news from the NCAA, the fact that Greenspan is gone will shed no tears here. It’s hard to feel sorry for a man who just got paid $400,000 to resign from a job that I’m sure he coveted as one of the best in the nation.\nI never met Greenspan personally; I only spoke to him a couple of times on the phone. As a member of the press, I seemed at odds with him more times than not, but such is the case between the media and any sports team. \nTo be fair, do not simply swear off the man for the mess he leaves behind. Greenspan’s track record of hiring coaches was superb. Many of the coaches he brought into the fold in Bloomington have found continued success and improvement in their respective sports. \nMore kudos should go to the man for the once and future facilities upgrades he’s brought in his four years at IU (don’t underestimate the new baseball field, it’s my pick to click). \nBut to this reporter, Greenspan will often be remembered more for what he was than for what he wasn’t. \nHe wasn’t accessible, he wasn’t outgoing with his most consistent and passionate fanbase – students – and there was always a feeling that he cared more for the pocketbook of his department than anything else. \nGreenspan certainly was a man who did things his way. He never faltered in the face of criticism of his hiring and firing practices, and he plowed through the Kelvin Sampson landfill as strongly as anyone ever could have.\nBut in the end, Greenspan will be remembered simply as the man who presided over Kelvin Sampson, the Enron-like CEO at the downfall of IU athletics.\nIs that a fair designation? Probably not. But that’s an inevitability Greenspan must deal with.\nThere is an oft-used phrase that suggests history will remember us not for who we are, but for what we do.\nNot quite.\nHistory will remember us for what those of us writing history will remember us doing. And those who write the history of Greenspan’s tenure at the helm of the athletics department will remember him for a few phone bills and a late-night press conference, simple as that.\nPerhaps it is unfair to judge four arguably solid years of work on a few tense and stressful months, but that’s the way it will be. Greenspan departs at the end of the year, but his legacy was written in stone four months ago.\nThe best thing he can do now is clean up as much mess as possible before cleaning out his own office. There’s plenty of work to go around.
(06/26/08 1:41am)
Let me begin by asking that you not ridicule me for not knowing Eric Gordon’s wingspan (6-feet-9) or exact height and weight (6-foot-3, 215 pounds). Please give me leeway to continue without offering an opinion on who will take the young man (Milwaukee).\nNo, I am here because I have been tasked with picking out a current NBA player who bears the most similarity to Indianapolis’ latest favored son, and giving you all reasons why I’m right, basically.\nWell, I’ll be honest with you – I’m copping out. I’ve given this thought off and on at my leisure a few times since the North Central product began gracing soft, white nets with basketballs bearing an NCAA logo on their face, and I honestly just don’t know.\nI see Gordon’s ability to light up opposing defenses from a long way past the 3-point line and my eyes detect shades of Baron Davis. They only get stronger when I see Gordon hit the droughts that Davis has struggled with in times past.\nYet I can’t imagine Gordon as a true combo guard, and that’s where I buy into the popular rhetoric that suggests Gordon is much like a gentleman by the same surname. Bulls fans know him as Ben.\nAs much as I’d like to think Eric Gordon can learn to pass the ball, I can’t imagine him being able to break himself of the urge to use his immense offensive talents to score rather than facilitate scoring. I’d also like to go on record as being the first to call any coach who might force E.J. to do otherwise incredibly stupid.\nBut alas, Indiana Gordon is a far more forceful – and far less selfish – offensive player than his Chicago counterpart. Gordon’s ability to force his way to the basket off the dribble either way sets him apart. \nIn that aspect of his game, I see Gordon comparing most favorably to a poor man’s Lebron James – the obvious difference being James has a much higher rate of conversion once he reaches the hoop. Gordon shoots free throws just fine though, so that will cover him. \nQuick note: STOP READING, and whatever you do, resist the urge to criticize me for the above passage. Please do not take these last words to mean that I think Eric Gordon is the next Lebron James, I said no such thing. I simply said Gordon’s ability to beat a man off the dribble and force his way into the lane reminded me of King James. The comparisons stop there. \nThere are obviously severe weaknesses in Gordon’s game, not the least of which is his propensity for turning the ball over. I’m not so worried about his ability to travel with a high rate of footsteps. A good friend of mine long ago pointed out that NBA officials are as interested in calling a travel as first-graders are in the Biography Channel.\nHowever, that Kobe Bryant-esque ability to turn a foxtrot into the L.A. two-step must be earned through respect for one’s ability, which comes through success. Translation: Gordon will need to play by the rules before he gets good enough to earn those kinds of calls.\nThere are also several other weaknesses to Gordon’s ball-handling ability that will plague him until he tweaks his mechanics enough to where he can confidently move both ways with the ball without letting it become too exposed to defenders. It won’t take Bruce Bowen to eat him alive in a league that – despite players’ preference for taking a play or two off – will still hit Gordon with better defense than the Big Ten ever could. \nI don’t count Eric Gordon out, oh no. I think he’ll be a fine player, if not an undersized guard. To make one more comparison, he’ll be Jason Terry with more size and less spunk.\nYes, I think our former No. 23 will find plenty of success at the NBA level. I think it will just take him a little while to grow – he’s only 19, as someone named Kelvin reminded us – and he has plenty of time to polish the edges down.\nUntil then, consider him the next King Benron James-Terry. Hey, Benjarvis Green-Ellis did it; I can too.
(06/19/08 1:08am)
Wandering around campus three years ago this July, I stumbled upon several posters proclaiming that this hat-wearing, finger-pointing man “wanted me.” He seemed nice enough – and being a child of the Southeastern Conference I breathe and bleed college football – so I accepted.\nI can’t remember the first time I ever saw Terry Hoeppner in person, though I do remember the first time I did not. I had planned to go to the annual first-semester pep rally down at the stadium, but didn’t attend for reasons long since lost to me.\nA few friends did go, and they returned with one name on their lips: Coach Hep. They said he was enthusiastic. They said he was a little bit crazy. They said they loved it.\nThen came the season opener against Central Michigan – a game we narrowly won – but none of us could watch it since it wasn’t on TV (Looking back, perhaps the Big Ten Network isn’t terrible.)\nThe home opener that year came against Nicholls State, a college from down in the bayou still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. We lent them uniforms to play in and they returned the favor by running over us with an option offense that almost got them a win. We of the Crimson Crew were not feeling chipper about our bowl opportunities.\nBut after that 35-31 victory, as we were walking out, something strange began happening. The entire football team, led by that man from the poster, walked across the field and came into the stands, thanking us for our patronage and singing along as we rang out one last rendition of the fight song.\nThis, along with many other pre- and post-game rituals, became tradition after Terry Hoeppner came to IU, and most of us loved him for it. My friends would all go quiet the moment one of his patented commercials came on IUSTV, that station everyone loves when they live in the dorms.\nBut what endeared me to Hoeppner wasn’t his indefatigable enthusiasm – playing on plenty of bad high-school football teams had left me numb to rallying cries. What got me about Hoeppner was that I truly believed he wanted to be at IU for good. He wanted to make this program his own. Bloomington wasn’t just a stepping stone to a bigger job.\nI figured any man who could pin his loyalties to a program like that deserved my support and respect – allowing me to bill season tickets to my bursar helped, too.\nI awoke late on the morning of June 19, 2007. My phone had died the night before, and when I plugged it in and turned it on I had seven messages waiting for me, a sure sign something was wrong.\nThe rest of the day was a blur of planning coverage, organizing staff and resources and getting out to the groundbreaking of new facilities held that day. It didn’t quite set in for me that the man we all had so loved was gone until that night.\nTo risk a cliche, Terry Hoeppner was more than a football coach to me. Hoeppner defined my first semester of college, a trying time for a Georgia boy 526 miles from home.\nTake all of this for what it’s worth. I never met the man. I’ll admit there are far more qualified candidates in this world to talk about Hoeppner personally.\nBut in the way of great college coaches, you never felt like you had to meet Hoeppner to tell the stories.\nLike his first press conference, when he brought in a literal rose bowl as a sign of where IU would be headed in the future. Or the time he invited an IDS staffer who had criticized his fervent approach to raising fan support along on “The Walk” during his first year as coach, not to criticize but to illustrate that he really tried to practice what he preached.\nTerry Hoeppner was a lot of things to a lot of people. But to the student body (or what of it that walked through the gates of Memorial Stadium every Saturday) he was our coach. And we miss him to this day.