By Jeff Hagedorn,
Contributor, Attorney, Not-Yet-a-Felon
and Unabashed IU Hoops Nut
The leaves have turned, the winds have become more brisk, and Kentuckians are still as stupid as ever: it must be time for die-hards to discuss IU Basketball. Let me begin by admitting that I’m a kook. I live and breathe with the soap opera of IU Hoops. I spent the entirety of my childhood worshipping Bob Knight, boobies, and God (in that order). I vaguely remember the perfect season of 1976, unrivaled now for 32 seasons (and I freely admit that I hope for each undefeated team to lose every year, other than IU). I have pretty clear memories of the Isiah Thomas-led champs of 1981, and I can pretty much give you a play-by-play of the “Stevie, shoot a three-pointer” team that won it all in 1987. I can also expound on how IU was robbed by the refs in the 1992-1993 tournament, as well as why the 2002 runner-ups achieved more than they should have.
As I said, I’m a kook – a genuine devotee of the Hoosier Kool Aid.
But as anybody with a pulse in the State of Indiana can confirm, there have been some really troubled times at Old IU since September of 2000 - the emasculation of The General (if you don’t know that refers to Bob Knight then you’ve already read too far).
Now I’m not gonna get into the vagaries of that tumultuous autumn of 2000 or the many issues that led to it, nor am I going to examine the Mike Davis Era with a microscope. Suffice it to say that a storied program with a history of winning the right way found itself searching (and I mean a real search, not the clumsy handoff from Knight to Davis that was necessary in 2000) for a new head coach in 2006 for the first time in three decades. The cupboard of returning players was a bit slim, but not bare, and given IU’s history, the job was obviously desirable among the elite college coaching fraternity.
After a reasonably thorough search, Kelvin Sampson, previously the coach at Oklahoma for twelve years, a former head of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and National Coach of the Year in 1995, was selected from a list of capable and available suitors. His selection was something of a surprise, as he was already operating under sanctions resulting from an NCAA investigation into some relatively minor recruiting violations at Oklahoma involving excessive telephone calls to recruits, but he immediately vowed that he had learned his lesson, so IU rolled the dice.
It turned out to be Snake Eyes for the Hoosiers. They crapped out.
Sampson presided for two tumultuous seasons, during which time he won a lot of games, signed a lot of top recruits (some with some questionable backgrounds, and Eric Gordon, who had previously orally committed to Illinois), and, as it was later determined, kept right on breaking the same rules that got him in trouble in the first place.
The NCAA was not amused. You know the old saying: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I’ll smack the shit out of you!” IU was hit with allegations of several Major recruiting violations, followed by the worst of allegations – “Lack of Institutional Control” – for any program that prides itself upon compliance with the rules.
Sampson was shown the door. The Athletic Director subsequently fell on his sword and resigned, and IU set about a massive effort of refurbishing its image, which had gone from “Sterling” to “Crap” in under two years (Kelvin Sampson will not be receiving a Christmas Card from me this year). This time around, IU had no choice but to conduct a thorough search for a head coach, and the faithful were rewarded with the selection of Tom Crean.
Crean had been the head coach of Marquette form 1999 through 2008. He had guided the Golden Eagles to six post-season berths and made a run to the Final Four with Dwayne Wade in 2003. Even more notably, he had never so much as been accused of anything approaching a recruiting violation.
The first thing Crean did was wipe clean the slate at IU. Shortly after his initial press conference, where he vowed to restore IU to its former glory – while also restoring its former reputation for following the rules – he dismissed all of the remaining players from the Kelvin Sampson regime, save two, former walk-ons Kyle Taber and Brett Finkelmeier. To say that this resulted in a barren cupboard is an understatement. It actually left a high major division one basketball program – one of the most storied of them all - without a single high major division one recruit. That’s more like a famine that a barren cupboard.
Crean restocked the program with former division two players, and a hodge-podge of mid-level recruits. He managed to convince a few suitable recruits that had previously committed to honor their commitment as well. Nonetheless, IU will begin the 2008-2009 campaign with a roster full of payers that have never played a single division one basketball game, and Kyle Taber and Brett Finkelmeier.
IU will lose more games than it wins in 2008-2009. And I couldn’t be happier! That’s because I’ll know that the Hoosiers will be playing by the rules.
Call me a prude if you want, but I’d rather lose doing it the right way than win by cheating. It’s not fair to the kids, it’s not fair to the school, and it’s not fair to the fans. And Tom Crean gets it. He’s lived that way, winning most of the time, and he’s openly stated that he’d rather lose than cheat. My kind of guy.
Oh … it’s not all gloom and doom. Crean has already recruited one of the top five rated recruiting classes for 2009-2010, and he’s shown many times that he can do more with less, so he may even surprise me this year. But make no mistake about it, I’ll love watching IU lose in way that I never really enjoyed watching them win, when deep down I knew there was something rotten in Denmark … err … Bloomington.
It’s going to be a fun ride.
As I said, I’m a kook – a genuine devotee of the Hoosier Kool Aid.
But as anybody with a pulse in the State of Indiana can confirm, there have been some really troubled times at Old IU since September of 2000 - the emasculation of The General (if you don’t know that refers to Bob Knight then you’ve already read too far).
Now I’m not gonna get into the vagaries of that tumultuous autumn of 2000 or the many issues that led to it, nor am I going to examine the Mike Davis Era with a microscope. Suffice it to say that a storied program with a history of winning the right way found itself searching (and I mean a real search, not the clumsy handoff from Knight to Davis that was necessary in 2000) for a new head coach in 2006 for the first time in three decades. The cupboard of returning players was a bit slim, but not bare, and given IU’s history, the job was obviously desirable among the elite college coaching fraternity.
After a reasonably thorough search, Kelvin Sampson, previously the coach at Oklahoma for twelve years, a former head of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and National Coach of the Year in 1995, was selected from a list of capable and available suitors. His selection was something of a surprise, as he was already operating under sanctions resulting from an NCAA investigation into some relatively minor recruiting violations at Oklahoma involving excessive telephone calls to recruits, but he immediately vowed that he had learned his lesson, so IU rolled the dice.
It turned out to be Snake Eyes for the Hoosiers. They crapped out.
Sampson presided for two tumultuous seasons, during which time he won a lot of games, signed a lot of top recruits (some with some questionable backgrounds, and Eric Gordon, who had previously orally committed to Illinois), and, as it was later determined, kept right on breaking the same rules that got him in trouble in the first place.
The NCAA was not amused. You know the old saying: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I’ll smack the shit out of you!” IU was hit with allegations of several Major recruiting violations, followed by the worst of allegations – “Lack of Institutional Control” – for any program that prides itself upon compliance with the rules.
Sampson was shown the door. The Athletic Director subsequently fell on his sword and resigned, and IU set about a massive effort of refurbishing its image, which had gone from “Sterling” to “Crap” in under two years (Kelvin Sampson will not be receiving a Christmas Card from me this year). This time around, IU had no choice but to conduct a thorough search for a head coach, and the faithful were rewarded with the selection of Tom Crean.
Crean had been the head coach of Marquette form 1999 through 2008. He had guided the Golden Eagles to six post-season berths and made a run to the Final Four with Dwayne Wade in 2003. Even more notably, he had never so much as been accused of anything approaching a recruiting violation.
The first thing Crean did was wipe clean the slate at IU. Shortly after his initial press conference, where he vowed to restore IU to its former glory – while also restoring its former reputation for following the rules – he dismissed all of the remaining players from the Kelvin Sampson regime, save two, former walk-ons Kyle Taber and Brett Finkelmeier. To say that this resulted in a barren cupboard is an understatement. It actually left a high major division one basketball program – one of the most storied of them all - without a single high major division one recruit. That’s more like a famine that a barren cupboard.
Crean restocked the program with former division two players, and a hodge-podge of mid-level recruits. He managed to convince a few suitable recruits that had previously committed to honor their commitment as well. Nonetheless, IU will begin the 2008-2009 campaign with a roster full of payers that have never played a single division one basketball game, and Kyle Taber and Brett Finkelmeier.
IU will lose more games than it wins in 2008-2009. And I couldn’t be happier! That’s because I’ll know that the Hoosiers will be playing by the rules.
Call me a prude if you want, but I’d rather lose doing it the right way than win by cheating. It’s not fair to the kids, it’s not fair to the school, and it’s not fair to the fans. And Tom Crean gets it. He’s lived that way, winning most of the time, and he’s openly stated that he’d rather lose than cheat. My kind of guy.
Oh … it’s not all gloom and doom. Crean has already recruited one of the top five rated recruiting classes for 2009-2010, and he’s shown many times that he can do more with less, so he may even surprise me this year. But make no mistake about it, I’ll love watching IU lose in way that I never really enjoyed watching them win, when deep down I knew there was something rotten in Denmark … err … Bloomington.
It’s going to be a fun ride.
Great rundown of the last two years of IU basketball. I hope, like you, that Coach Green will bring the honor, if not the wins, back to IU basketball.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm going to be in Bloomington November 17 through November 19, I will gladly allow anyone interested in my thoughts on how things are going to give me a free ticket to the 11/18 IU vs. IUPUI game.
ReplyDeleteIf nobody gives me a ticket then I'll probably quit being a fan....
(That was a joke!)