Once upon a Hoosier
Darren Zancan
Issue date: 3/18/10 Section: Sports
This is when college basketball gets exciting. Just a few days removed from selection Sunday when teams hope for a spot in the field of 64 (65 if you count the play in game between South Harmon Institute of Technology East Campus off Idaho Blvd. and Northwestern State-Calumet Campus on the east side.)
University of Kentucky earned a number one seed.
Eastern Kentucky needed to win the OVC tourney to get the automatic seed, which went to Murray State.
U of L needed to say 25 rosaries and pray Rick Pitino wasn't at another restaurant ordering…oh wait.
And Indiana University just needs a prayer, a roster, some talent and maybe someone to step in and write Hoosiers: The College Years, starring Mark Paul Gosselaar and Screech Powers.
Remember when Indiana University was relevant?
In the 2001 NCAA Tournament, the Hoosiers beat Duke (ranked one), Oklahoma (ranked three) and then lost to Maryland in the championship (ranked four in the tournament seeding.) They also finished 5-2 against top 25 ranked teams in the regular season.
In '03 they had an ever better record, then stumbled a bit in 04', then in '05 and '06 came back with 20 win seasons. In '07 the Hoosiers finished 25-8.
Just a season later, they clawed their way to six wins. That is a 19 game turnaround.
In a short amount of time the Hoosiers were coached by Bob Knight, Mike Davis, Kelvin Sampson and now Tom Crean.
What happened Hoosiers? This year you were lucky enough to win ten games (10-21.) Kelvin Sampson, you punched Hoosiers in the face and now look at them. (I am from Indiana, so I am a Hoosier, so I guess he punched me in the face too.)
Sampson racked up recruiting violations faster than you can say "Ben Affleck died in Smokin Aces."
After 550 illegal calls (dating back to his time at Oklahoma) and five rule violations at IU, Sampson was fired. There was even speculation that in December of '09, Eric Gordon raised issues of drug use stating that some players were abusing drugs and that this led to the disintegration of the team, and that Sampson tried to stop it, but did not as he was focused on winning.
University of Kentucky earned a number one seed.
Eastern Kentucky needed to win the OVC tourney to get the automatic seed, which went to Murray State.
U of L needed to say 25 rosaries and pray Rick Pitino wasn't at another restaurant ordering…oh wait.
And Indiana University just needs a prayer, a roster, some talent and maybe someone to step in and write Hoosiers: The College Years, starring Mark Paul Gosselaar and Screech Powers.
Remember when Indiana University was relevant?
In the 2001 NCAA Tournament, the Hoosiers beat Duke (ranked one), Oklahoma (ranked three) and then lost to Maryland in the championship (ranked four in the tournament seeding.) They also finished 5-2 against top 25 ranked teams in the regular season.
In '03 they had an ever better record, then stumbled a bit in 04', then in '05 and '06 came back with 20 win seasons. In '07 the Hoosiers finished 25-8.
Just a season later, they clawed their way to six wins. That is a 19 game turnaround.
In a short amount of time the Hoosiers were coached by Bob Knight, Mike Davis, Kelvin Sampson and now Tom Crean.
What happened Hoosiers? This year you were lucky enough to win ten games (10-21.) Kelvin Sampson, you punched Hoosiers in the face and now look at them. (I am from Indiana, so I am a Hoosier, so I guess he punched me in the face too.)
Sampson racked up recruiting violations faster than you can say "Ben Affleck died in Smokin Aces."
After 550 illegal calls (dating back to his time at Oklahoma) and five rule violations at IU, Sampson was fired. There was even speculation that in December of '09, Eric Gordon raised issues of drug use stating that some players were abusing drugs and that this led to the disintegration of the team, and that Sampson tried to stop it, but did not as he was focused on winning.
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