by Kent Sterling
If I’m an Indiana basketball player, I’m steering clear of this guy. As easy as he is to recognize, he must be that hard for former teammates to avoid.
“On this week’s episode of Ain’t no Party like a Hoosier Party, the boys welcome an old friend back to the show for a night of revelry that begins with laughter, but ends with another hilarious headache for Coach Crean!”
That’s the promo for what should be a reality based sitcom that couldn’t be odder if it came from the imagination of writers – the really clever ones, not those who churn dreck like Two Broke Girls.
No joke – Hanner Mosquera Perea was in the car with Emmitt Holt and Thomas Bryant the early morning they were cited for illegal possession of alcohol, a charge that resulted in Holt being dismissed from the team in the same way Mosquera Perea was a few months ago.
He can throw kids off the team, but Tom Crean can’t post sentries on State Roads 37 and 46 to keep out former transgressors.
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If this was a sitcom, it would be funny, but it isn’t a sitcom, and now because Mosquera Perea rallied the troops for another Bloomington party, yet another kid is packing his bags for an outpost that is decidedly not Indiana-esque.
Mosquera Perea and former Hoosier Peter Jurkin have both accepted offers to continue their education and basketball careers at East Tennessee State. Where Holt will wind up is anyone’s guess – maybe ETSU like his buddy.
Meanwhile, Crean looks at least a little bit sympathetic for the first time in this unraveling debacle as his options for disciplining a former player are decidedly limited. Maybe he could threaten Mosquera Perea with bodily harm, “Hanner, I hear word you are back in Bloomington again, and you’re gonna have a tough time playing basketball with two cracked kneecaps!” That isn’t Crean’s style – nor should it be anyone’s – as much as he might want to go gangland on the young disruptor.
Let’s not forget about Juwan Morgan, another freshman who was in the car as citations were issued to fellow freshman Thomas Bryant and Holt, according to an excise police spokesman. Maybe he went along for the ride because he was bored. Maybe he was ready to drink a copious amount of vodka too. It’s not up to fans to guess as to his motive, so he is the barely credited and forgettable guest star without any lines in this farce.
Mosquera Perea needs to understand with great clarity that he has a new address, and that his visits to Bloomington need to cease post haste. His status as a recurring character on this show needs to end. The character of Hanner Mosquera Perea needs to be relegated to the dustbin of reruns, never to return.
More important for the current Hoosiers is the reality that trouble follows some guys, and it sure seems like Mosquera Perea is one of them. Avoiding those guys can be the most important lesson learned in college, and while it would be idiotic and inappropriate for Crean to threaten Mosquera Perea should he pay another social call on his former teammates, a team leader or two might want to have that kind of conversation with him themselves. The responsibility for dissuading idiocy doesn’t belong to Crean alone.
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Leaders not only know how to avoid trouble themselves, they can help others avoid it too. Sometimes that means strongly discouraging the threat.
Is any player strong enough to tell Mosquera Perea that his new home is in Johnson City, Tennessee, and not Bloomington? Nice cliff hanger!
Maybe we’ll find out next week.
When I saw Juwan Morgan’s bleached Mohawk I knew we were in trouble, is it too hard for Yogi to say “listen pal you look like a clown and I’m here to win a championship” I guess so. Not making any judgements here, but MOST times kids that hang with stoners are stoners themselves. Is Crean drug testing??? Doubt it.
Indiana tests athletes in all sports. Robinson and Williams were suspended last year for multiple positive tests.
there was a disconnect during sheheeys senior year. all the new guys wanted to follow yogi. and he led them. but he led them the wrong way. im convinced that while yogi wants to win he isn’t a good teammate. yogi often acts like a spoiled brat. I think yogi is a bad example. yogi ferrel is not a leader. lets stop pretending that he is and asking him or expecting him to step up. I wonder if when his senior year isover if he will hold a press conference to announce his intentions? you aren’t that important yogi. you aren’t going to win a title. in the future you will be seen as the ringleader of tom creans circus. the architect of an era of lawlessness never seen before or since your arrival in btown. the movement. yogi ferrel wears an Indiana uniform but he has never been a hoosier.
Kent, I just want to say what a pleasure it has been to watch your alma mater become an all out dumpster fire the last few years. It couldnt have happened to a more smug, self righteous fanbase than IU’s. These are good times for IU haters, and it looks like the good times are here to stay! Peace!
It wont’ last there Pal, enjoy it while you can. I promise you that. When the golden boy comes back to Indiana all will be restored, and I don’t mean Steve Alford………….
Do you see an end in sight?? IU is stuck in some weird post-RMK purgatory and it seems never ending.
Sure it could happen to a more smug fanbase – the Patriots. That day will come eventually. It will happen to Big Blue Nation – a group significantly more arrogant than IU’s fanbase.
Yes, UK’s fanbase is an arrogant bunch, but when it comes to moralizing and self righteousness, IU’s fanbase has that market cornered. That is what makes this run of lawlessness at IU hilarious to the outside observer!
Yes, I am going to say it… Steve Alford is the Golden Boy of Indiana Basketball. He is the kid at “Hickory” who ran the picket fence to win the final game. Excuse me, Bobby Plump.
Alford deserved a chance at IU, but the great minds at IU chose Kelvin Sampson instead. Alford was never invited to an interview. What a bunch of idiots at a great school!
As far as Crean is concerned, the horse has left the barn, never to return. I hoped that the stallion would
return, but he is gone forever, chasing some young filly with a bottle of vodka hidden under his name.
I think I have finally given up. I plan to watch the drama, laugh at the comedy, and long for those days that may never come again.