Cream and Crimson

I am a diehard Indiana University basketball fan.  The past few years, heck, the past decade has been difficult, to say the least.  Indiana has five national basketball championships, the last one coming in 1987 which occurred just before I turned seven years old.  I vaguely remember watching that game.  I remember sitting on my dad's lap and an enormous uproar when Keith Smart hit "The Shot".  I couldn't really appreciate what was happening, but it was fun.  For my birthday, I got an Indiana National Champions shirt, and I cherished it. 

I was even more emotionally invested in 1992 when Indiana lost in the Final Four to Duke.  I was crushed when the Hoosiers lost that game.  What I couldn't have known is that would be the last time they would make it to the Final Four until 2002.  Even more painful is that string of first or second NCAA tournament exits during that ten-year span.  Indiana fired Bob Knight in 2000 and that 2001-2002 team was a lot of fun to watch, a team that produced my fondest memory of watching Indiana basketball.

Indiana had made it to the Sweet Sixteen as a number five seed, which usually means you are going to play a number one seed, and in this case the number one seed was Duke.  Even being a huge IU fan I saw no way the Hoosiers could win that game.  We were at my dad's house for the weekend and had the game on.  As the game went on, it was clear the Hoosiers had a chance.  As the final seconds ticked away, it felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest.  When the final buzzer sounded, Indiana had won the game 74-73, and my dad and me went nuts, running around and hugging everyone in the house.  I'm sure it was a sight, and Michael still talks about it to this day.  Indiana went to the national championship game that year, losing to Maryland, 52-64.

It was all downhill from there.  Two years later, the Hoosiers had a losing record and did not play in the NCAA tournament or NIT.  In 2006, Indiana hired Kelvin Sampson who basically ran the program into the ground and ruined Indiana basketball as we know it; all in a span of two years.  I won't get into the specifics, but by the time he was fired and Tom Crean took over, Indiana had only one scholarship player return the next year; a player who averaged 1.3 points per game.  It would be an understatement to say the program was in shambles.

In the first two years with Tom Crean as the head coach, Indiana won 16 games and lost 46.  This was to be expected, but still a tough pill to swallow.   Indiana is making strides, though.  They are off to a 6-0 start this year, and they have many top recruits who have already committed to play at Indiana; the biggest name of the bunch being Cody Zeller. 

The recruitment of Cody Zeller had the Indiana community buzzing.  It was more symbolic than anything else.  If he chose to play at Indiana, it would mean Indiana is once again a force to be reckoned with.  Plus, since Cody Zeller is from Indiana, it was thought that more Indiana kids would soon follow him to play at Indiana (which has already happened).  Once Cody Zeller signed his letter of intent, a press conference was set up for Tom Crean.  There was a podium set up at the practice facility and Tom Crean entered the room and was followed by his current team who stood behind him.  He then addressed the media:

(transcribed from the Hoosiers Insider blog on indystar.com)

“When these players came, especially a couple of years ago, they didn’t have anybody to look up to. They didn’t have anybody in here to teach them the way. They literally, when you look at Verdell, and you look at Tommy and you look at Matt, they didn’t have anybody to even recruit them. They were recruited by driving around in a golf cart or going to a spring football practice, or something like that. And along the way these players have become the face of the program. That’s why it is so important to me and to all of us here, that they are successful. What they mean to the present day Indiana family and what they mean to the future family is really, really important. These guys have done a phenomenal job of building this program. They recruited some of the ones you see back there like Victor and Will, but most importantly what they just did in this recruiting class. Without a doubt, one of the greatest selling points that we have at Indiana University is our players. And these guys have (inaudible). And that’s why I want to see them be successful here and for so many years down the road because it’s so different for them. They’re the ones that are bridging the gap here and we just need to make sure that we keep working toward the fact that they leave a legacy here on the court as well as what they’re doing to make this program better. We would not be recruiting to the level that we are right now without our players. And I can’t make that any more definitive than that. Players can spearhead part of this, and certainly through prior relationships that can be very helpful, but it’s the way the team has come together. There’s a lot of different ways to form leadership but this group is forming leadership. You may not get to see a lot of Kori Barnett on the court but there’s not a much more valuable guy to this program in the sense of bonding his teammates and making them better. And I single him out because he does not get singled out on the court just yet. But that’s the kind of stuff that makes this program what it is. I’m proud of it and I hope you find places in your videos and I hope you find places in your stories to make sure that the headline reads “We would not be doing this without them, without these current players.” They did not have anybody in here to teach them the ropes. And we wouldn’t have wanted anyone (from before) to teach them the ropes. You know that and I know that that. I’ve said this privately before but now I want to say it publicly to the players. Thank you for what you do and let’s keep it rolling.”

I am looking forward to the future of Indiana Basketball!