Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Decision day for Dawson Garcia – sane IU fans will avoid emotional investment in adolescent’s choice

If this is the only time Dawson Garcia wears candy stripes, he and Indiana will be just fine. So why worry?

It doesn’t matter a tiny bit to me where Dawson Garcia goes to college.

Fans of basketball programs at Indiana, Marquette, Minnesota and Memphis will be on pins and needles Wednesday afternoon at 4:30p ET as they watch Garcia pull a hat from under a table with the logo of his chosen school.

It’s an absurd ritual for talented teenagers over whom basketball programs have fawned for months or years. The kids make public their decision to attend a school, and its fans erupt in a euphoric torrent of love. Fans of schools spurned by the young man’s choice take to Twitter and other social media to torment the kid and his family until sidetracked by something else.

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Anonymous attacks and threats are an unpleasant side effect of social media, and Garcia will be introduced to them today. All those enthusiastic fans of schools he will not pick today who have sent him kisses and good wishes will respond with ill-temper bordering on hatred.

People who invest heavily in the college choice of a teenager are prone to other silly behaviors. That will become clear to Garcia at 4:31 p.m. today.

My nephew is in the high school class of 2020 and he is trying to figure out where he’s going to study. Indiana is one of his finalists too. But no one outside his tight circle of family and friends cares where Sean is going because, unlike Garcia, he is neither 6’11” nor ranked as the 31st best basketball player in the class.

I’m certain that my nephew will benefit from his educational experience whether he follows in his aunt and uncle’s footsteps in heading to Bloomington for somewhere between four and six years of classes and distractions, or if he heads to Ann Arbor, East Lansing or another campus. Wherever he goes, I’m good with it.

IU fans will be fine with Sean’s choice too. They don’t much care about the 12,000 incoming freshmen who will not wear candy stripes.

Why would I – or you – have a greater emotional investment in the college choice of a stranger who happens to be tall and talented than our own nephews, nieces, or sons and daughters of friends?

It’s simpler (and saner) to wait for high school students to become college students before we invest in their ability to help Indiana win basketball games. I understand the fascination with recruiting, and even get caught up in the chaos when I see or talk to a talented recruit.

With that personal connection, I develop a perspective and can’t help but invest a little bit in a kid’s choice. I did that with freshman Armaan Franklin when he played at Cathedral High School. I love the selfless way he played and believe will be very productive for the Hoosiers.

If Garcia goes to Marquette, as is being speculated by almost all the experts who are paid to offer that speculation, I wish him luck.

Indiana will be just fine either way. I hope the behavior of fans reflect that belief regardless of his destination.

Fan demands for the Pacers to deal Myles Turner are waaaay premature!

Myles Turner doesn’t fit yet, but it is way early in the process for the Pacers to figure out whether he can.

It’s way too early to draw any conclusions about the Indiana Pacers roster just 14 games into the 2019-2020 season. It’s also premature to call for anyone on the roster to be dealt because they don’t fit – yet.

The Pacers are 8-6 despite missing Victor Oladipo for all 14 games, Malcolm Brogdon for the last two games, Jeremy Lamb for several, and Myles Turner for eight. Players who were thought to be fringe players at best heading into the season have stepped up and performed beyond expectations.

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Because they share the ball (leading the league in assists per game) and play solid team defense (sixth in defensive rating), this is a fun team to watch – especially for savvy fans.

Despite the many reasons for good tidings, there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with starting center Myles Turner that is curious. There is no doubt the team has yet to find a rhythm with Turner on the court, but calls for him to be traded border on the hysterical.

No one knows at this point whether Domas Sabonis and Turner can coexist as starters with both playing better than 30 minutes per game, but a decision to end this experiment are premature in the extreme. Turner has only played in six games.

No doubt coach Nate McMillan needs to work to put all of the roster parts in a position to take full advantage of their talents. At the top of the list is finding a way to utilize all of Turner’s strengths while also not costing the Pacers their best chance to win games.

In a league where it’s generally believed players hit their prime at the age of 26, Turner is three years shy of discovering exactly how good he can be. He’s under contract through 2022-2023, so a deal would not be prompted by a belief that Turner will leave via free agency.

As with any potential trade, the return needs to at least equal or exceed the value of the departing asset, and fans have no idea what that might be. The question of trading Turner can only be answered by knowing what the other end of the exchange might be. It could only be accurately evaluated years down the road when the contributions of Turner and the pieces gathered by the Pacers are viewed.

Relax. Enjoy watching this team figure itself out while winning, and if you feel the need to voice your concern during a night when the Pacers win by 29 in Brooklyn, take a deep breath and embrace the notion that there are 68 games left in this young season.

Maybe there is no path for Turner to flourish as a cog in this wheel, but until the Pacers know that for sure, trading a player of his potential value is borderline malpractice – unless the return is so substantial it cannot be ignored.

Don’t demand team president Kevin Pritchard hurry through this process. It won’t do any good. He and his staff will figure it out in good time. Enjoy the ride.

Southport Basketball coach recruits, so players are penalized with postseason ban?

Southport basketball coach Eric Brand is suspended for recruiting, but his entire team will suffer a postseason ban.

Even with the best of intentions and motives, violating IHSAA rules that ban recruiting comes with a cost, but the penalties levied against the Southport basketball program for recruiting Nickens Paul Lemba go too far.

Lemba, a freshman at Southport, is 6’6″ and originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Southport coach Eric Brand paid tuition in the amount of $5,548.00 for Lemba to attend Southport. As a result, Lemba is ineligible for the season, Brand is suspended for two games, the program has been placed on probation, and the team will not be allowed to participate in the state tournament this March.

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The suspension is just – if light. The probation makes sense. Recruiting issues always result in a year long ban for the athlete. I get those three spankings. But the ineligibility for the postseason applies a penalty to innocents.

The Cardinals have at least five seniors on its team who, through no fault of their own, will not be allowed to finish their high school careers by playing in the state tournament. Brand wrote the check, not the kids. Why punish the kids?

A postseason ban is occasionally utilized by the NCAA to punish programs that wander from strict adherence to its rules, and it makes sense because NCAA Tournament appearances bring cash and notoriety to the offending university. For high schools, there is small practical consequence for the school. Every team qualifies and the profits are scant.

The primary victims are the players who are banned from their final act of a season and career.

Recruiting is wrong because it brings a disadvantage for players who compete at schools where it doesn’t happen. But the penalty should be born by the coach who engages in it and the player who benefits, not the other players who are innocent participants.

If the IHSAA wants to suspend for a full year a coach who recruits, I’m can understand that. Even if the motive is altruistic, recruiting cannot be allowed or high school basketball will become a race to gather talent rather than teach. Sectional

The IHSAA needs to rethink its decision to impose a postseason prohibitions as it swing a punitive hammer at the wrong nail.

Indiana loses a game at Penn State they should have won – IU fans are good with that

Indiana lost 34-27 today in Happy Valley and Hoosier fans are celebrating.

All over social media, IU fans are talking about how far this team has come and how this loss shows the progress the program is making. That’s the same thing they’ve done for the last half century of mediocre to poor Indiana Football.

As the old saying goes, demand success – or doom yourself to tolerate failure. Maybe tolerate should be replaced with celebrate.

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Being happy Indiana out-gained Penn State 462-371 would be fine as long as the score reflected that advantage. See, the score is what matters, not the yards gained. IU turned the ball over twice, and failed to convert the worst looking fake punt since Chuck Pagano sent Griff Whalen and Colt Anderson into a suicide mission against the New England Patriots.

Before we get all misty-eyed about the effort from the Hoosiers – or blame Tom Allen for the loss because of the insane fake punt call – let’s remember the defense allowed an 18-play, 9:01 touchdown drive that included four third downs and two fourth down conversions. That came when Indiana had momentum, and trailed by just three. It ended with just 1:44 left on the clock.

To those who say IU has made strides, I agree. But progress is not enough. Others say it’s hard to win at Happy Valley. Of course it is. Yeah, they competed with Peyton Ramsey playing well in place of Michael Penix. Let’s hang a banner a banner!

The game was there for Indiana to win. The blueprint was drafted by Minnesota last weekend and executed well by Indiana 90% of the time. It was not enough.

Seven wins is a nice result for a team that tallied just five during each of Allen’s first two seasons running the program. Going to a bowl is seen as success for the Indiana program. After all IU has gone bowling just three times in the last 25 seasons.

If that’s enough, that’s all you’ll get. That goes for fans, coaches, players, administrators and everyone else tethered to the program. Demand more or get ready for more of the same!

Penn State won the game today because the Nittany Lions program at every level demands success. The same is true with Ohio State and Michigan. All those close games against Michigan don’t mean a damn thing because IU managed to lose all of them back through 1988.

Close doesn’t count.

If a one-possession loss to Michigan is the best you can demand of Indiana – and it can demand of itself – then that is the best that can happen.

Go ahead and search for the silver lining, and clouds are what you’ll keep getting.

You don’t like the reality that IU lost because they tolerate it – and you do too? Then you are a part of the problem.

Next week brings another opportunity for Indiana Football to demand success.

Patting them on the backside for coming close won’t help.

NFL Brawl primer – here are facts on Browns Myles Garrett helmet swinging insanity

The helmet as a weapon can cause brain injury or death. Myles Garrett’s loss of control in swinging it will cause a massive suspension.

As the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped a nondescript game last night, something quite descript happened.

Browns defensive lineman Myles Garrett took Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph to the ground after Rudolph delivered a screen pass that should have ended the game. Rudolph began grabbing at Garrett’s helmet. Garrett took exception and pulled Rudolph’s helmet from his head. He then hit Rudolph over the head with it.

Steelers offensive lineman David DeCastro laid on top of Garrett, and Maurkice Pouncey punched and kicked Garrett. While Rudolph complained to the referee, Browns tackle Larry Ogunjobi hit Rudolph from behind knocking him to the ground.

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Twitter exploded with calls for Garrett to be prosecuted, blame for Rudolph as an instigator, demands for Browns coach Freddie Kitchens to be fired, and all kinds of yelling from every conceivable perspective.

As with all incidents of sports mayhem, the level of heat with social media hot takes rose to where they barely made sense. That’s a natural evolution that we come to expect from the cyclotron of illogic Twitter becomes in these moments.

So let’s roll the heat back and take a sane look at the incidents and the potential ramifications for those involved:

Myles Garrett – Suspension for at least the rest of the season. God smiled upon the NFL (and Rudolph) when he walked away after being brained by his own helmet as it was swung by Garrett. Garrett is not going to be prosecuted. The NFL does not need on-field activities adjudicated in court. Because of the public demand for justice, the NFL will express to media and fans its seriousness in levying an extreme punishment that will appease those who might push for an assault arrest.

Mason Rudolph – Rudolph was at least complicit in escalating the fight by trying to pull off Garrett’s helmet and then pursuing him as DeCastro led Garrett away. A suspension is unlikely because the optics of sitting a QB who was the victim in the most visible portion of the melee is difficult to defend.

Larry Ogunjobi – Might be suspended for the blindside hit on Rudolph, but his true punishment will always be how his weak move will define him. As offensive linemen were restraining and pummeling Garrett, Ogunjobi chose to defend his teammate by hitting a defenseless quarterback. From the ground, Rudolph called Ogunjobi “bitch.” That’s about right.

Maurkice Pouncey – He landed several punches and kicks to Garrett as he was pinned by DeCastro. He’s going to be suspended for a game or two, but nobody in the Steelers locker room is going to argue with his actions.

David DeCastro – If anything, he was a peacemaker. If the NFL has a prize for outstanding leadership in the face of abject chaos, DeCastro should get it.

Freddie Kitchens – The coach of the Browns was not directly involved in the chaos, but the lack of discipline shown by his team dating back to training camp and the final joint practice with the Colts at Grand Park has been troubling. During that messy workout, the Browns instigated too many fights to count. They lead the league in penalties with 112 (next highest total is 97). Kitchens will not be suspended because indifferent/ineffective leadership is not against NFL rules.

The upshot of last night’s riveting nightmare is there will be a second chapter as these two teams meet December 1st in Pittsburgh. That will drive thinking as Roger Goodell metes out punishment for the participants. If he goes weak, the players will take matters into their own hands in 16 days. That’s the last thing Goodell wants.

James Wiseman proves his name accurate by dropping suit, Memphis rules him ineligible

James Wiseman has gone from eligible to ineligible to eligible to ineligible – all in the last six days!

James Wiseman finally came to the correct conclusion that suing the NCAA was not in his best interest (or that of the University of Memphis), so he dropped the lawsuit that allowed him to play last Friday against UIC and against Oregon on Tuesday night.

He sued because the NCAA declared him ineligible as the result of an $11,500 loan from Memphis coach Penny Hardaway to his mom which funded the family relocation from Nashville to Memphis.

The move allowed Wiseman to play for Hardaway at Memphis East High School. Hardaway was not the coach at the University of Memphis at the time, but he is viewed by the NCAA as a booster so the loan is viewed as an impermissible benefit under NCAA rules.

Suing the NCAA was unwise for a couple of very good reasons:

The NCAA enacted the Restitution Rule in 1975 to curb trips to courtrooms to argue the validity of its eligibility findings. The penalty for playing while ineligible as the result of a temporary restraining order can include a bunch of bad stuff including a postseason ban for the university.

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The other reason to drop the lawsuit is that during depositions and a trial, witnesses like Wiseman’s mom and coach would testify under oath. It’s one thing to lie to NCAA investigators; it’s another to lie under oath in a legal proceeding. I promise you Hardaway has no interest in committing perjury to cover up the recruiting methodology he used to secure the nation’s top recruiting class.

Most of the time, responding to a perceived injustice by shouting, “I’ll sue!” is a lot more fun that pulling the trigger and filing.

Whether the NCAA will pursue the remedies provided by the Restitution Rule, no one knows. I would assume the university has been in contact with the NCAA and discussed lessened consequences should Wiseman drop his suit and sit for as long as the NCAA mandates.

Wiseman is a short-timer in Memphis as long as he stays healthy, according to scouts who insist he would be the #1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft if it were held today. The shame of the whole sordid affair, though, is that Wiseman is the one person penalized while being the one person is it that gained nothing from the transaction that prompted it. The guy who’s gained the most – Hardaway – is beyond penalty in the mess he caused because he was a high school coach at the time he wrote the check. Mom came out OK too with a check for $11,500.

As is always the case, kids pay for greedy adults. Why? Because it’s the adults who make the rules. And it’s usually the adults who are most likely to cheat.

Pacers Brogdon, Sabonis, and Warren thrive under the media radar during winning streak

No muss and no fuss suits the Pacers just fine as long as they win.

The Indiana Pacers are 7-4, having won all seven during their latest eight-game stretch, and no one is talking about them.

National media fawns over the crazy numbers posted by James Harden, star-driven teams in LA, and the nonsensical drama that the New York Knicks wear like their jerseys. Local media is so focused upon Adam Vinatieri and the Colts that the Pacers recent run has barely drawn mention on TV or radio.

Granted, the Pacers haven’t yet played a team among the NBA’s best, but they keep winning and winning despite missing four key cogs to a roster without a true star.

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Victor Oladipo will be out for at least another month as he recovers from his quad tendon tear. Myles Turner was supposed to get some attention as an all-NBA defensive player of the year candidate and borderline all-star, but he’s been on the shelf since the season’s fourth game with a sprained ankle. Jeremy Lamb has endured a couple of different dings, and Goga Bitadze is in the concussion protocol.

That’s two starter, Oladipo’s backup, and a back-up center all sitting as the Pacers win, but this team is more about who’s playing rather than who’s sitting.

Malcolm Brogdon has been stellar at point guard. As good as team president Kevin Pritchard said Brogdon would be when he traded for the former Buck, he’s been better. Averaging 20.7 points, 8.5 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game, Brogdon has been steady as hell, and he’s played outstanding defense too.

How about Domas Sabonis? Fans were split on whether the Pacers should keep Sabonis or not prior to the extension he signed just before the regular season. Now, there is no doubt Pritchard made the right call. Sabonis is averaging 19.8 points and 13.3 rebounds in an average of 35 minutes per game. And his defensive rating of 101 is a career best. In fact, all those numbers are career bests.

T.J. Warren has been a bucket machine, averaging 18.5 points per game with a career best in offensive efficiency. He’s also defending at the highest level of his career.

The Pacers are not a sexy team with a bunch of media whores who generate stories with their off-court behavior, unless you could Oladipo as a contestant on The Masked Singer (I don’t begrudge him a little attention for being a talented singer – especially as he rehabs). They just play basketball – not for individual glory or to gain popularity within the inner circle of the NBA’s star system. The Pacers just want to win games.

That aligns them with a fan base that claims to crave team-first basketball. I know they are only 13.4% of the way through the season, so maybe some fans and media are waiting for games like tomorrow night’s challenge in Houston against Harden and the Rockets to verify the Pacers are worthy of our attention.

The Greek Freak comes to BLF Saturday night, so the tests against the NBA’s best are coming fast and furious. If basketball fans in Indiana are as savvy as they claim, the Pacers should be a win against either the Rockets or Bucks from seeing an explosion of popularity.

This is a team built to the specifications of knowledgeable fans, and now it’s up to those fans to prove they are worthy of an outlier of an NBA roster with no stars, no drama, no grandstanding – just solid basketball that starts on the defensive end.

Cheating Astros need to be hammered hard by MLB or what’s the point of having rules

Cheating champions are still cheaters, and they need to be punished.

The Houston Astros have been accused of cheating by stealing signs electronically during their 2017 championship season by pitcher Mike Fiers and three others who were with the team, according to a post by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich in The Athletic.

Stealing signs has been a part of baseball for time immemorial as players studied third base coaches and peered from second base in between catchers legs to figure out whether the next pitch would be a fastball, slider, or change. But the use of electronics is as strictly forbidden as gambling or reproducing the broadcast of a game.

The Astros have long been suspected of various methods of skulduggery in trying to gain an advantage, but after winning two world championships in three years people are fed up.

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The question is no longer whether the Astros cheated, it’s what will Major League Baseball do to stop the Astros or any other team that defies edicts as they try to wrangle an edge.

After all, the Astros aren’t the only team cheating. According to Rosenthal and Drellich, the problem is pervasive.

Will MLB make an example of the Astros, or just flap its gums with a stern warning? So far, all we know is the Astros have initiated an internal investigation into its own behavior. Anyone with a semi-functional brain sees through that investigation as a feckless ruse to handpick the fall guy who will take the rap for the team.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred call it out as a ridiculous ploy and shut it down immediately

There’s an old saying in sports, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” (Sounds like someone in Kentucky said that first, doesn’t it?) But does that idiotic phrase celebrating our boundless quest for glory excuse those who win championships because they cheat better than their opponents?

It didn’t 100 years ago.

In 1920, Major League Baseball laid down the law when eight members of the Chicago White Sox were believed to have thrown the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for the promise of payoffs from gamblers. Those eight Sox players remain banned from baseball more than 100 years after their crime.

Charlie Comiskey’s White Sox were one of the most successful organizations in baseball prior to the Black Sox Scandal. They have played in just two World Series since, and remain tainted by the worst chapter in baseball history.

The Astros shouldn’t be drawn and quartered like the White Sox, but Manfred needs to bring down the hammer, or he will grant license to every team willing to exhaust any and all means to create an unfair advantage in their home ballpark.

I’m sure there are several teams cheating, just as I’m sure the Black Sox are not the only team to tank a series or game for their own financial benefit. But the Astros are under the spotlight and whatever punitive measure that will be employed to discourage that behavior will likely fall square upon their heads.

And it should. There comes a time when people in charge need to forget about expedience, profit, and fallout and do the right thing. There is a school of thought in our society that a problem doesn’t exist as long as no one acknowledges it. The cost of solving the problem is weighed against the savings created by ignoring it. Lawyers call that prudence.

Baseball needs to stand up, shine a light on the way-too-smart-for-the-room Astros, and remind them that smart cheats are still cheats.

Adam Vinatieri still Colts kicker as Frank Reich claims he remains confident in the GOAT

There is something admirable about a guy with a tough poker hand throwing all his chips into the middle of the table. Bad golfers who press bets over and over earn our esteem if not our money. The short squatty guy hitting on the leggy model deserves credit for taking a shot.

I felt like I was watching the NFL equivalent of those scenarios today as Colts coach Frank Reich said, “Adam is our kicker. Chris (Ballard) and I have talked about the situation. We have confidence in Adam. Obviously, there have been other kickers in here working out. We have the confidence in Adam. He is not just our kicker. He is a leader on our team, he is a captain and his presence is important. We feel we need him going forward and have the utmost confidence in him.”

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For those of you keeping score at home, the word confidence was used three times in his eight sentence statement. Casinos are built with money from people at blackjack tables who are confident they they’ll win two hands by splitting 10s.

Reich wasn’t done.

He went on to say, “I just really believe in him. I believe whatever we’re going through is just a phase and he is going to help us win games and get to where we want to go.”

That’s great, but what is it other than past glory that gives Reich, Ballard or anyone else within the Colts front office or locker room a reason to suspect that Vinatieri is the answer to the question his own mediocrity continues to ask?

Let’s exit the fantasy land where Reich and GM Chris Ballard have planted their flag.

Adam Vinatieri has missed 11 kicks through nine games this season. I love that Reich is confident in Vinatieri, but that confidence is based upon a dream that a 46-year-old kicker will suddenly revert to the automatron he was a couple of years ago.

Sadly, that’s not the way life works. Athletes degrade, and then they hang on a little too long as everyone understands what they can’t grasp – that what made them special is gone forever.

Instead of hoping Vinatieri will suddenly regain his accuracy, let’s look at the previous nine games as a foreshadowing over the final seven. The numbers do not paint the same pretty picture Reich tried to conjure.

There are 15 NFL kickers who have made as many or more extra points than Vinatieri without missing more than one.
Vinatieri has missed six (30% of his 20 attempts).
Five field goals have also been missed. That brings the total to 11 misses in just nine games, which is two more than Ka’imi Fairbairn – the next least accurate NFL kicker.
Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell was the only kicker to miss 11 or more kicks (12) during the entire 2018 season .

If it seems like I’m trying to crap all over Vinatieri, I’m only stating the easy to read facts that have forced Ballard and Reich onto their skinny limb. They are doubling down on a kicker who would have been fired weeks ago if not for his past glory.

Firing Vinatieri would be gut wrenching. He’s a very nice and normal guy with an extraordinary gift. I’ve enjoyed our conversations, and hope he makes every kick the rest of the season and shuts the mouths of twits like me before retiring as the best who has ever kicked a football.

That’s the exit he deserves, but as Clint Eastwood says in Unforgiven, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

Blue blood spilled at Rupp as Evansville shocks #1 Kentucky 67-64 in glorious upset for the Purple Ages!

The blood spilled in Lexington tonight was as blue as the nation of despondent fans who are mourning tonight after Evansville pulled the 67-64 upset over the #1 Kentucky Wildcats..

It’s a beautiful night as justice came to Rupp Arena in the form of the one team from the state of Indiana John Calipari will allow his team to play.

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Evansville had never beaten Kentucky or a #1 ranked team until tonight as Aces coach Walter McCarty came home to the school for whom he won a national championship in 1996.

During a period when opponents happily travel to play a little basketball and collect a check for showing up, McCarty and Evansville turned the tables and on their hosts and left with a win – AND a nice check!