When ESPN reported the departure of Philadelphia 76ers head of basketball operations Sam Hinkie and included a link to a supposedly confidential 13-page letter of explanation to the owners of the team, I was giddy. Either the letter would be a scorched earth rebuke of the safety-first moves the owners have made to marginalize Hinkie’s […]
UConn kept its promise by winning its fourth straight National Championship last night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Dominance is tough to achieve. It requires discipline and leadership toward goals that are tied to process rather than result. Geno Auriemma is the coach of this collection of great basketball players, including the peerless Breanna Stewart, who […]
Michael Grady will be honored as the Indiana Sportscaster of the Year by the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association Sunday night, and I’m certain the decision to bestow upon him that award was as simple as my decision to hire him just over a decade ago as a board-op on WIBC Radio in Indianapolis. The only prerequisite […]
Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel came on my radio show and said something many thought was crazy – that Paul George should have been dealt at the trade deadline six weeks ago.. When he said it, I didn’t think he was crazy. I thought he was seeing the Pacers as a good general manager would – as […]
Hoping is more fun than giving up, so Indiana Pacers fans continue to believe in a team that seemingly has lost all hope in itself. Last night’s 20-point loss to the Orlando Magic was a low point for a team that somehow remains one-game in front of the Chicago Bulls for the eighth and last playoff […]
For the record, I would love to see a group of activist student-athletes make a serious statement by boycotting the NCAA Final Four. It would be an incredibly courageous sacrifice that would likely cause long-overdue action by academic bureaucrats and television network executives to share the enormous wealth generated by an event where the participants have never […]
There may come a time when Frank Vogel, Mike Brey, Matt Painter, Chris Holtmann, and Tom Crean qualify to be listed among the all-time greats in a state that is well known for its love and mastery of basketball. But that day is not today. This list – like all lists – is imperfect. Qualifying […]
As promised, here is part 2 of the internal dialogue I have with myself regarding the future leadership of the Indiana basketball program. Yesterday, we dealt with the negative – 10 reasons to replace Tom Crean as coach. Today, we list reasons to embrace Crean as the right man to coach the Hoosiers. As with everything […]
This is the first of two lists regarding Tom Crean and the future of the Indiana Basketball program. Tomorrow’s will provide a list or reasons coach Tom Crean should be retained. Today’s enumerates the reasons a change should be made. There have been no NCAA compliance or academic issues to fuel talk of a need […]
Tom Crean faces a tough test tonight as the Hoosiers play North Carolina with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line. Crean has been here before – twice – with the Hoosiers, but has never been able to advance beyond the Sweet Sixteen threshold. That makes tonight a big game. If Indiana wins, […]