The Toss

TW: A Hoosier blog noted that today is the 25th anniversary of Coach Knight's infamous chair toss, hence we mark the occasion...

Bobby Knight And the Purdue Jack Ass

TW: The video is grainy but the idea comes across...Coach Knight at his sarcastic or as is his preference generally sarcaustic best...

The Picture Says It All

(click to enlarge)
TW: The expressions on Verdell Jones (right) and Derek Elston(center) say it all. IU's super frosh Mo Creek's kneecap ended up in a bad place on a drive last night in a nothing game. IU's basketball team cannot catch a break (or at least a good one, the kneecap is fractured taking Creek out for the season) these days.

Steve Downing a Forgotten Star

TW: Basketball season, at least exhibition, has started. I ran across the above photo of an old IU star, Steve Downing. He played at the very beginning of the Knight era in the 1970's. One of my first sports memories is the epic 1973 NCAA semi-final game between IU and UCLA. IU lost partially due to Downing fouling out (bad calls no doubt) but he out scored Walton 26 to 14. #32 above was Walton, I believe the other Bruin was Swen Nater. Downing did not achieve the status of some of the later IU guys that won championships but he was a basketball stud.

Bobby Knight: Fortune Teller

TW: Continuing with our "Midnight Madness" commemoration, another Bobby Knight classic sequence.

Bobby Knight: English Professor

TW: Continuing with our IU basketball theme, here we have Coach Knight parsing a single word for the audience.

The Only Fight Song You Need To Know

TW: This classic intro. opened IU games during the 80' and 90's back in the day. It still gives me chills. Football is such a minor league sport in Indiana, we await eagerly that start of real sport action.

IU Football Sucks

TW: I actually got a smack talk email from a UVA alum after IU was embarrased Saturday 47-7...UVA (loyal reader btw)!!
My reponse was simple:
"Trust me any IU fan is impervious to smack re the football team
We have sucked, do suck and will likely always suck
Blowouts are expected anything better is gravy
Basketball on the other hand is a different story"

Guitar Hero And the General

TW: Priceless!!!

(Click on photos to enlarge)

TW: Ran across site (Indy paper) that has IU basketball archive. The first photo is Bobby Knight's first team from 1971-1972. The bottom is the '08-09 team, Tom Crean's first. What struck me was the vast differences. Hair shorter, shorts longer, more bulk and a heckuva lot more folks needed to run a team these days than back then. Both squads were depleted in both cases because the new coaches ran off some of the inherited players (Knight still had Joby Wright, Steve Downing and John Ritter though, Crean was left with an essentially bare cupboard).

The Hoosiers Won Tonight Finally!!!

The Tensions Underlying College Sports

TW: Folks who know me understand that I am a very devout Indiana University basketball fan. Certainly things have been tough for us recently and this season will need to be a complete mulligan but things are looking up as Tom Crean is the right guy to take IU back to the Top 10 on a consistent basis.

Kelvin Sampson left IU in disgrace last year after committing serial recruiting violations. He also left behind a group of players who showed every sign of a program run amok. Poor discipline and clearly their loyalty rested mainly with Sampson not Indiana. College athletics is full of hypocrisy and contradictions. Any system that generates billions but whose rewards are parceled out almost completely indirectly (e.g. through subsidies to non-revenue sports, building school brand reputations etc.) is bound to create problems. Certainly coaches receive direct compensation and a very small group of players use college as a springboard to millions but most of the players receive scholarships, adulation and perhaps improved employment prospects after leaving school.

This article is interesting in that it captures some of the tension in college athletics between the players, the coaches and the expectations of fans.

From Herald Times of Bloomington, IN:

"...Dan Dakich absolutely did the right thing when he defended the players that he warred with on last year’s team. To recap briefly: former Indiana player Joe Hillman was quoted in The Indianapolis Star calling some of last year’s players “punks” and “bad guys.”
Dakich fired back, calling Hillman’s comments “reprehensible” and pointing out that two of the former players who’d been quoted in the article had been arrested for public stupidity during their years at IU, while only one player (DeAndre Thomas) was arrested last season and that was for driving with a suspended license.

Dakich is known for great lines, and he didn’t dissapoint during his rant as he talked about the differences in Joe’s homelife as a kid and that of Jamarcus Ellis: “While Joe Hillman was playing golf at a country club, Jamarcus Ellis was living in a car.” Ellis’ mother died of illness and his father was murdered when he was young. Thus the need to take up residence in a vehicle on the streets of Chicago.

...But his comments touched off the usual sentiment that always arises when anyone tries to talk of class and the disadvantages of the poor: many fans jumped on Dakich and accused him of making excuses for players who wasted an opportunity that many basketball players would have cherished.

...Sampson never shied from taking troubled kids as a head coach. He seemed to relish taking underdogs (on the court and in life) and pulling them together through tenants like hustle and hard work. There are dozens and dozens of former Sampson players who will tell you how much he helped them grow up and become men. I once shuffled through a stack of photos Kelvin had with former players at their weddings. It was substantial. When Sampson came here, he fully expected to bring THAT culture to Indiana..."
http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=2723