Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Top 10 lessons for a fun and safe World’s Greatest College Weekend at IU’s Little 500

The bikes are supposed to go in circles. You don’t have to later that night.

it’s the World’s Greatest College Weekend in Bloomington, Indiana, and very little of what’s great has anything to do with one-speed bicycles that will be ridden in circles for two hours at Bill “Army” Armstrong Stadium as Indiana University students stare bleary-eyed at the colorful storm of fitness.

The Little 500 is a great diversion, but the race is a sideshow for the main event, which is thousands of college students simultaneously combusting in an alcohol-fueled frenzy.

I participated in this silliness until the futility became obvious, and then turned to writing about the exploits of my group of friends until that seemed equally preposterous. Now, we turn our attention to distilling our vast array of experiences stretching the boundaries of stupidity into helping others make it to Sunday without an arrest or injury. [If you want to read a fairly extensive chronicle of idiocy, click here.]

Parents hope their children are the outliers who choose to study rather than indulge in copious amounts of fruity-flavored poison, but most suspect otherwise. If denial helps you get through, that’s fine, but I offer my services to the students who don’t know when to say when.

As a veteran of a great many of these weekends, I am in a unique position to offer sober counsel before the party starts to students so they remain the same person Sunday as they are today.

Here are the top 10 great pieces of advice for enjoying Little 500 Weekend:

10 – Pour your own. It would be nice if you could trust that whatever is in the red Solo cup some Delt just handed you has only good and safe stuff in it. Those days are over. Not only do you need to pour your own, you need to hold your own. Never put the cup down. Keep it in your hand at all times. Continue reading →

Top 10 lessons to learn from former Indiana Hoosier Todd Jadlow

Todd Jadlow’s basketball career is over, but his best days are ahead.

Todd Jadlow played basketball at Indiana University from 1985-1989, and lived a life of privilege during a long professional career overseas. Then, reality came calling as it often does.

Instead of answering that call with purpose and resolve, Jadlow ran to a bar and stayed there.

As he told us in a 42-minute interview on my radio show (3p-6p every weekday on CBS Sports 1430 in Indianapolis), it took a nightmare of successive DUI charge on the same day for Jadlow to begin to see life as an opportunity to help others.

Jadlow served a year in lockup, and another in rehab before embarking on a mission to bring others the wisdom the he earned through significant consequences.

Here are the 10 lessons we can learn from the trials and tribulations of Todd Jadlow:

10 – Google can be an unpleasant reminder. When you are famous, people google your name. When people google Jadlow, reports of his DUIs are front and center. Despite Jadlow working exceptionally hard to answer the daily challenge his addiction presents, the reports never change. “Remember Todd Jadlow? Let’s see what he’s up to. Holy s**t, look at that two DUIs in one day!” That was years ago, and Jadlow has turned his life around, but Google doesn’t care. It’s where the past remains present. Life your life like you want to be remembered, because it only takes one very bad day to have Google define you forever. Continue reading →

Top nine lessons we have learned from the career of Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant has always been willing to tell us who is responsible for the success of his Lakers teams.

Kobe Bryant will play the final game of his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, and the media is climbing over one another to wax rhapsodic about the legacy of the self-proclaimed Black Mamba.

His career has been collage of great, good, bad, and hideous moments. There were five championships and a single MVP award, but what defines Bryant more than anything else has been his ultra-myopic me-mirst arrogance that is best displayed in his income at the age of 37 – far past the end of his era as one of the best players in the NBA.

While the fawning continues on ESPN, let’s take a look at the top 10 lessons we can learn from the career of Kobe Bryant:

9 – All the branding in the world can’t put Kobe in front of Lakers greats. While branding is the name of the game in 2016 America, when the Logo, Captain, Magic, the Stilt, the Diesel and George Mikan have played for the same franchise, the conversation isn’t about whether Kobe is an all-time top five NBA player, but whether he should be listed in the Lakers top five. Continue reading →

Top 10 reasons Troy Williams was right to declare for the NBA Draft #iubb

Troy Williams might wind up back in Bloomington for his senior season. That’s a no lose scenario!

The rules are different this year, so the number of college basketball players declaring for the NBA Draft has exploded. Rightly so.

College players who don’t hire an agent have until May 25th (10 days after the NBA Draft Combine) to declare their intention to return to school. This is a player friendly rule that allows a kid to participate in workouts to gain insight from NBA general managers and scouts without penalty to make an informed choice to stay or go.

If a player hires an agent, he forfeits his remaining eligibility and is committed to being available in the draft.

Yesterday, Indiana University’s Troy Williams declared his eligibility for the NBA Draft, but did not sign with an agent.

This was a procedural move for Williams that comes with no downside. It still has some IU fans and media wondering whether this is a sign that regardless of his decision to stay in the draft or pull out, he is done playing basketball at Indiana.

Here are 10 reasons Troy Williams – and everyone else who declares for the draft – is making the right call:

10 – It only takes one team that loves you to make you rich. If 29 teams think Williams should spend a couple of years in Europe to refine his game before playing in the NBA, and one believes Williams is ready, guess what, Williams’ dream of playing for millions will come true. There is a lot to like about Williams, like elite level physicality, and maybe that’s enough for the right GM. Continue reading →

Top 10 lessons we can learn from playing golf – and Jordan Spieth’s collapse at Augusta

Golf helped edge Jordan Spieth toward humility yesterday.

If despair brings wisdom, Jordan Spieth awakened this morning a bit wiser than he did yesterday.

When 22-year-old Jordan Spieth made the turn yesterday during the final round of The Masters, he was in complete control of the tournament with a five-stroke lead. Three holes later, Spieth has lost six strokes to par – and the tournament. Such is golf.

Spieth learned more missing out on a second straight green jacket than he ever could have from winning the tournament. None of us will ever play golf like Spieth does, but we can learn just as much from golf as he has – or will.

Here are the top 10 lessons we can all learn from playing golf:

10 – Forgive your errors. All of us screw up from time to time. The greatest lessons any of us learn are driven by our mistakes. Knowing that the result of a mistake is increased knowledge or wisdom, you would think we might be able to quickly forgive and forget our transgressions – especially while doing something is silly as playing golf. Spieth blocked his tee shot into the water on 12, and while living in the regret of that error, he chunked another wedge into the drink. Forgive, forget, and play on. Continue reading →

Top 10 reasons the next year could be very special for central Indiana sports fans

Andrew Luck’s health is the biggest reason for fan optimism heading into the 2016 season.

These are interesting times for Indiana sports fans. Mediocrity is everywhere, but all that may be about to change.

Professional teams boast potentially transcendent talent that are capable of championship level play, and the college football and basketball teams are arching toward meaningful improvement.

I’m normally a cynical critic of management and mediocrity, but there is an upside for virtually every local team to make a significant jump forward during the next 12 months. A new golden age of sports in Indiana might be just months away.

Much like competitors can push one another toward hard work and excellent, so can teams fighting for allegiance from the same fanbase, and that might be a process that blossoms through the rest of this year and into 2017.

Here are the 10 reasons Indiana sports fans might be on the brink of prolonged glee:

10 – Indiana Football is coming off a bowl. It’s not lost on anyone that the last time Indiana went to a bowl ended one decade-long drought and began another, but this feels different. There is a new normal in Bloomington that allows for a level of optimism that is both aggressive and justifiable. As the program has slowly but steadily improved under Kevin Wilson’s leadership, enthusiasm for IU football has stopped being perceived as weird. The middle of the Big Ten is now a reasonable expectation instead of a psychotic delusion.

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9 – Tom Crean has evolved into a saner version of himself. For seven years, it seemed like Crean was trying to prove his worth as the basketball coach at Indiana University. Then, something happened in 2016 that allowed Crean to act like he already had the job. The preening and posing softened, and the quirky tics mostly vanished. Yogi Ferrell addressed the team during timeouts, and the Hoosiers suddenly played more confidently. Given the talent he will have to work with, a confident Crean might be able to coax a special March out of the Hoosiers.

8 – Purdue football can’t get worse. In three seasons running the Boilermakers, Darrell Hazell has crafted a 6-30 record with as many wins against Indiana State as Big Ten opponents (2). There is nowhere to go but up. Hazell was 11-3 in his last year at Kent State, so we know he isn’t a terrible coach. Purdue isn’t likely to jump into bowl contention, but four wins is a reasonable projection as Hazell coaches for his job.

7 – Colts mediocrity in 2015 forced recalibration. Failure brings humility, and greatness is attainable when humble. Hopefully, the 8-8 train wreck the Colts authored in 2015 after being touted as a Super Bowl favorite has wiped the hubris from the Horseshoe.

6 – Paul George is entering his prime. On May 2, George will turn 26. That age marks the point of origin for an NBA player’s best years. After averaging 23.4 points per game, 7.1 boards, and four assists per game this season, George is either on the precipice of stardom or at the apex of his ability to contribute. If this is a launching point for George, the Pacers could go into next year looking to crack the top four of the Eastern Conference. if the Pacers 1-7 record in overtime game was reversed, they would currently be 48-30 – good enough for third place. A slightly improved George should be worth the single point per game to get that done.

5 – Ryan Grigson is less likely to outsmart himself. The rap on Grigson within NFL circles is that he’s arrogant. At least he was before the 8-8 record that kept the Colts out of the playoffs for the first time since he took the GM gig in 2012. “Listen to the board” was his mantra last year as he selected wide receiver Phillip Dorsett in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He repeated similar claptrap prior to wasting the 2013 first rounder on Bjoern Werner and trading the 2014 first round pick for Trent Richardson. We are more likely to hear about how important it is to protect Luck and attack opposing QBs prior to this draft than high-minded cocksure wisdom. Almost losing your job has a way of bringing a man toward making reasonable decisions. Doing what you should is almost always a better idea than doing what you believe is brilliant. After 2015, Grigson no longer feels brilliant.

4 – Kelon Martin is set to explode. The Butler Bulldogs will lose Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones to graduation, and that will bring out the doubters as Big East standings are predicted for 2017. There is no doubt those two players were splendid competitors during a time of unprecedented growth for the program as it jumped from the Horizon League to the A-10 to the Big East. If you want to predict a backslide for the Dogs, go right ahead. I believe they will take a step forward due to the continued evolution of Kelon Martin – as talented a player as has ever played at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

3 – The Hoosiers might be 10-deep with four-plus starters back. Yogi Ferrell, Nick Zeisloft, Max Bielfeldt, and Ryan Burton are gone from a roster that brought Indiana at Big Ten best 15-3 record before being eliminated in the Sweet Sixteen by North Carolina. Back from injury will be James Blackmon Jr. and Robert Johnson. If Troy Williams and OG Anunoby return as Thomas Bryant has pledged to, all the better! Joining the Hoosiers will be point guard Josh Newkirk, freshmen Curtis Jones and De’Ron Davis. JuCo big Freddie McSwain might also join the party at Assembly Hall. If anything, Indiana should be deeper and more talented. March could be fun for Indiana fans for the first time in 15 years. Don’t book tickets for Phoenix yet, but this should be Crean’s best group.

2 – Myles Turner has only scratched the surface. Just 20 years old and two years removed from competing against high schoolers, Myles Turner has shown coaches, teammates, and fans the potential that made him the steal of the 2015 NBA Draft. Pacers assistant Dan Burke told me his ceiling is limitless, and that he will be a winner and an all-star. The flood of cash into the NBA this offseason will bring greater parity, but the Pacers control the key components of their roster. Another year of maturity for Turner should help the Pacers take a significant leap forward.

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1 – Andrew Luck is healthy. Other than a dominant starting pitcher in baseball, no player can have as positive an effect on his team’s fortunes than an NFL quarterback. Luck’s variety of injuries in 2015 (including a lacerated kidney) cost the Colts any opportunity at making the playoffs, but his return should prompt exactly the opposite. If Grigson makes protecting Luck a priority (can you imagine him not?), and Luck stays healthy in his fifth pro season, the Colts could enter an era similar to that enjoyed by predecessor Peyton Manning from year five through the end of his Colts tenure (2002-2010) – as good a nine-year run as any NFL team has ever produced.

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-6p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

Top 10 lessons we can learn from former Philadelphia 76ers exec Sam Hinkie’s exit letter

Sam Hinkie might be a little down today, but not for long.

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 power over the franchise, or he would pull back the curtain and reveal the method behind the madness.

I was a little disappointed it contained a very sober example of the latter because who doesn’t love to read an angry screed written with emotions raw from perceived abuse?

When I finished reading it, I thought two things – smart and bold guy in over his head at an organization unready to pay the price for success, and whomever the 76ers hires to run things is going to reap the harvest of a championship contender from the seeds planted by Hinkie.

Here are the 10 lessons we can learn from Hinkie’s letter (read it for yourself by clicking HERE:

10 – Hinkie is going to be the GM or president of basketball ops of a championship team – or give a franchise a great chance at it. The letter is smart on many levels, but it succeeds best as a convincing if unending explanation of bold methodology. Some owner is going to hire Hinkie, give him the keys to his team, and relax. Hinkie will use the lessons learned in Philadelphia to succeed where he failed with the 76ers.

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9 – Developing a championship philosophy still requires a little good fortune to blossom. Look at the San Antonio Spurs. Is there a better run team in sports? Under architect/coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs have won five NBA Championships. If David Robinson doesn’t break his foot during the 96-97 season, the Spurs would never have been in a position to draft Tim Duncan. With Duncan and a healthy roster, the Spurs went from 17 to 56 wins. How about the New England Patriots being smart/lucky enough to draft Tom Brady in the sixth round? Smart always needs luck.

8 – Knowing what you are doing is never enough. There is no doubt after reading Hinkie’s letter that he chose to embark upon a unique path on behalf of his employer – one that might take many years to bear fruit depending upon the strength of NBA drafts and the luck of the ping pong balls used to determine the order. You need an owner who is not just easily convinced you are right, but a staunch advocate in your methodology if you are to last long enough to prove you are right.

7 – Sports = business. You don’t need to be a sports fan to glean lessons from Hinkie’s letter. Swap the basketball verbiage for that of pharmaceuticals, insurance, or media, and you have a great piece of communication. Watch sports, and you can extrapolate many lessons about business.

6 – Never take your owner’s trust for granted. If upper management or an owner claims to understand completely the plant-now/reap-later tactics being used to win three-to-five years later, keep fortifying your position. Continue to inform, extoll, explain, cajole, and involve the owner in every part of the process. There will be people in the organization (likely in sales) who alibi their performance based upon product failure. That narrative must be assumed and combated regularly. The alternative is a new employer.

5 – If current evidence shows failure, explain clearly the long-term goals inside and outside the organization. The 76ers suck. They are one of the worst teams in the history of the NBA. If Hinkie left without explanation, people (some uninformed NBA owners among them) would judge him based upon current results. By writing and releasing the letter, Hinkie not only explains his operations manual but also rightfully claims credit in advance for future growth of his former team.

4 – Shred your first emotional letter, and send the prudent one. I’m not sure Hinkie wrote the typical pissed off missive before crafting this 13-page explanation of management that will undoubtedly earn him another GM gig. If you are angry DO NOT press send. It wouldn’t surprise me if Hinkie leaked the letter himself as an addendum to the resume’ he will send to the 29 other NBA franchises. It was easy to see what Hinkie was up to in Philly, but what philosophies the man behind the plan subscribed to was never fully explained outside the 76ers franchise. Now we know.

3 – Always follow a really smart forward-thinking manager. If you assume a position previously held by a dolt as a manager in business or sports, you are going to have problems because of the shortsighted focus and spackling holes in which he or she likely indulged to cause and cover poor performance. Follow a smart leader, and you will be set for 18-24 months. That kind of cushion to learn the environment and develop your own set of longterm plans is a great luxury.

2 – Ownership impatience is rarely rewarded. When an owner empowers a manager to put together a three or five-year plan, never take him at his word – ever. Always employ a parallel track that will show growth in the short-term to control the immediate narrative because the owner needs a story to tell peers and friends as the long game takes root. This is Hinkie’s third season running the 76ers, and his current roster is 10-68. Owners can only answer the derision that comes with owning a failure by pointing five years down the road for so long.

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1 – The 76ers are going to win big. There are no sure things in the NBA Draft, minus the once per generation obvious magic of a LeBron James or Michael Jordan, so gathering draft picks is a game similar to craps. The more numbers you have covered, the more likely you are to hit big. Unlike craps though, all you need is to cash on one or two bets in order to win championships. The 76ers have banked an outrageous bounty of picks in the next several drafts, and are in such a cap friendly place that plugging holes via free agency should be a simple process.

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-6p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

Top 10 reasons UConn’s greatness in women’s basketball matters

Breanna Stewart had a lot of reasons to smile last night.

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 has led the Huskies to each of the four titles, earning most outstanding player award in all of those tournaments.

Success is is not easy the first time, and much more difficult the second. To live the dream of unquestioned superiority night after night through relentless competitive drive is almost inconceivable in this era of parity.

The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy claimed in a March 28th column that UConn is bad for women’s basketball because all drama is sucked from each contest by their talent and unconquerable will to win.

Drama doesn’t always rely upon a closely contested result. It can also exist in a second-by-second pursuit of perfection. That’s what makes watching UConn fascinating, and why fans will remember this team for decades.

Here are 10 reasons why UConn’s greatness matters – or should matter – to us:

10 – It’s unprecedented. No one in women’s basketball has ever done what UConn has. Whatever your ambivalence about women’s hoops, whenever people do something never done before, it should be of keen interest. I’ve never understood the reluctance to embrace women’s sports. Give me a scoreboard, competitors, and a basketball, and I’m in. Add the potential of a singular accomplishment, and not watching is not an option. Continue reading →

Top 10 reasons why Michael Grady is a no-brainer as the Indiana Sportscaster of the year

Michael Grady is a great choice as the Sportscaster of the Year.

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 for the board-op job was the ability to keep an appointment, and Michael did that with both a phone and personal interview. Being a board-op is a foot in the door position that can lead to better things. For Michael, it has.

Michael is not just a great broadcaster on both RTV6 and 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis, he’s a really good guy – funny how those two traits go hand in hand so often.

My only role in helping Michael succeed was in delaying it by not recognizing as quickly as I should have how ready he was for additional challenges. Once that switch flipped, Michael did the rest. And he continues to.

Here are the 10 reasons Michael has been able to achieve such a unique level of success in such a relatively short period of time:

10 – What a voice! Most of what Michael Grady is best appreciated for comes from his talent in communicating and his friendly disposition, but let’s be honest about that voice. It’s unbelievable. Not just a deep rich tone, but there is a friendliness that leaps from the speakers into the ears of listeners. Continue reading →

Top nine reasons why Paul George should not be untouchable this offseason

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 a collection of assets that combine to achieve a specific result.

If that combination of assets doesn’t cause the desired result, who can be untouchable?

The Pacers would like to win an NBA championship, and every player needs to viewed through the “Can (insert player’s name here) help the Pacers win a title?” prism.

Doyel understands that, and the fans who lost their minds all over his Twitter feed are allowing their personal feelings for George cloud the clarity necessary to build a championship team. That’s understandable. George is a good guy.

In an effort to help clear the waters, and build a bridge between Doyel and the rabid Pacers/Paul George fans who dumped on him, here are the nine reasons the Pacers should absolutely consider trading George and every other player on the current roster:

9 – Pacers waited to ship out Danny Granger. Buy low, sell high is how investors make money, and with Granger the Pacers got it half right. They waited too long to get a meaningful return for the former all-star drafted just 10 years ago. Evan Turner left as soon as the season ended, and Lavoy Allen is still with the team. Let’s hope a trade of George will bring back more than Allen (no offense to him – Lavoy is a nice player). Continue reading →