Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Top 10 reasons to cheer, boo, think, wonder, celebrate, and grieve from NCAA Tourney Day One

Yogi Ferrell posted his first 20/10 game at a good time for the Hoosiers who will play Kentucky tomorrow.

Yogi Ferrell posted his first 20/10 game at a good time for the Hoosiers who will play Kentucky tomorrow.

Indiana and Butler live, and Purdue’s dead.  But day one of the NCAA Tournament was about more than results of local teams.

There were upsets, reasons to feel good, moments of grace, life lessons, validation, local victories and defeats, some really good basketball, and other games that were difficult to watch (sorry, Stony Brook, but the ability to shoot is important).

The least predictable nationally televised competitive event in America delivered on that promise yesterday – and then some.

Locally, for Indiana and Butler, another game looms.  For Purdue, the season ended in a very painful way.

Today, tomorrow, and Sunday will bring more Madness.

Here are the top 10 moments of bliss, grief, validation, and wonder from 13 hours of nonstop hoops action:

10 – Yale vs. Baylor was a validation of all that’s good and pure.  For the first time since 1962, Yale qualified for a spot in the NCAA Tournament as the representative of the Ivy League, a conference that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships.  The Bulldogs were matched up against Baylor, a program whose recruiting practices are described privately by those in college basketball as “aggressive”.  For Yale to advance over the top of Baylor yesterday provided a wonderfully poetic moment for those who celebrate amateurism in college sports.

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9 – The fanbases of Indiana and Purdue are different.  Not saying one is better than the other, but if Indiana had lost in the same way as Purdue did yesterday after being up 13 with less than four minutes left, Hoosier fans would have marched on Assembly Hall demanding Tom Crean’s head on a spit.  Matt Painter will return unfettered to Mackey Arena today as work begins for next season.

8 – Dick Vitale is a wing nut.  Vitale has so thoroughly attached himself to college basketball that many believe him to be part of the fabric of the game, instead of the seemingly unremovable dust bunny he is.  Yesterday, the cloyingly effervescent Vitale shared two rules he believes would fix the selection committee’s process in anointing at-large teams to the tourney.  He said only teams with winning conference records should be eligible for selection.  The other rule is that only teams finishing in the upper third of their conferences should be eligible because the event needs more low to mid majors.  Idiocy.  Forget that fact that enacting rule #2 would render #1 unnecessary.  If teams from major conferences outside the upper third of their leagues were excluded, this year’s bracket would lose 16 teams – that’s a full 25% of the teams still around yesterday morning.  Who would replace them?  Monmouth and umm, well, uh…

7 – OG Anunoby reminds me of…oh, I don’t even want to say it.  In 2010, Tom Crean introduced a recruiting class of two to Indiana fans.  Both were unheralded, lightly offered, and considered long shots to contribute to a big winner.  Less than three years later, one of those guys was the second selection of the 2013 NBA Draft.  He was all business as a Hoosier, working to develop his body and game during three years in Bloomington.  Anunoby arrived nine months ago lightly recruited, and a long shot.  Yesterday, Anunoby scored 14 points and notched two steals in 15 minutes of play.  So far, so Vic.

6 – None of us will ever – EVER – complete a perfect bracket.  The odds of filling out a bracket without an error if you can pick games at a 60% correct rate are 9,400,000,000,000-to-one.  That means if every person on Earth completed 14 brackets, the odds would be that a correct bracket comes along every 94 years.  Good luck!

5 – Charles Barkley is the Kramer of college hoops coverage.  On Seinfeld, Kramer was always funny and wrong.  His assumptions were energetic, but ludicrous.  Barkley seems to know nothing about college basketball, but that doesn’t keep CBS/Turner from asking him to opine about games in the hopes he says something outrageous.  Enlightening and informational is not in Barkley’s arsenal, but that doesn’t keep him from being a star through his entertain silliness.

4 – Butler will find a way if given an opening.  Texas Tech had its chance yesterday.  Up 21-14 midway through the first half, the Red Raiders had several offensive possessions to push their advantage.  They didn’t hit shots, Butler blocked out, and they rode out the storm.  Once shots started falling, Butler took control and won.  If Virginia wants to beat Butler tomorrow (7:10p TBS), they are going to have to walk through the door when (if) it opens in the way Texas Tech was unable to.

3 – Purdue fans are increasingly agitated.  High expectations lead to big disappointment, and the presumption of a long March led Boilermaker fans to euphoria as Purdue built a 13-point lead with 3:33 left yesterday against Arkansas-Little Rock.  The undermanned ALR team kept scrapping, and Purdue got tight through the rest of regulation and two overtimes as they lost.  This early exit is the latest in a 35-year run of failures to reach the Final Four.  Purdue fans want better, and patience is growing short (but still not approaching that of Indiana fans).

2 – The Pac-12 sucks.  I told you before this tournament that the Pac-12 is always over-seeded in the NCAA Tournament.  It’s been almost a decade since a Pac-12 team made it to the Final Four (UCLA in 2008) and almost 20 since a conference team won a championship (Arizona in 1997).  Pac-12 teams went 0-3 yesterday as Colorado, USC, and Arizona bowed out.  Pac-12 honks screeched about the under-seeding of Arizona as a six.  Yeah, not so much.  Wichita State bludgeoned the Wildcats last night as coach Sean Miller had a case of the flop sweats that had physicians watching on TV concerned for his health.

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1 – Indiana vs. Kentucky is what fans wanted, and now they get it.  Kentucky coach John Calipari gets haughty about playing non-conference games on opposing campuses, so UK discontinued the home & home series against Indiana.  Indiana athletic director Fred Glass wants to provide some solid opponents at Assembly Hall prior to the Big Ten season, so he holds firm with UK in his demand to keep the game’s rotation between Lexington and Bloomington.  The result is on ongoing suspension of the formerly annual series between the rivals.  The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee took matters into their own hands in bracketing IU and UK as potential second round opponents.  That game will be played Saturday at 5:15p, and like the Yale vs. Baylor game – it will be good versus evil all over again.

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 the NCAA Tournament is America’s – and Indiana’s – greatest sporting event

Let America's best sports celebration begin!

Let America’s best sports celebration begin!

There is nothing like the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  It is totally unique in many ways, and it captivates America for 18 days as kids we have never heard of from universities many never knew existed earn a spot in our hearts for buzzer beating heroics.

March Madness is especially keen in Indiana and Kentucky where work stops at Noon on the Thursday the tourney begins in earnest as bars fill with fans of the Hoosiers, Wildcats, Boilermakers, Cardinals, Bulldogs, and Fighting Irish.

Win – move on to the next round.  Lose – go home.  For the seniors, they go home for good.  Hope exists for 64 teams on Thursday, and by the end of play Sunday 48 have exited.  Sixteen survive.  The next weekend, the field is pared down to the Final Four.

The NCAA Tournament is unforgiving and relentless, and because of that it is the greatest sporting event on the calendar.

Here are the 10 best things about the NCAA Tournament:

10 – There are as many teams to root against as root for.  People in Indiana hate Kentucky almost as much as they love IU, Purdue, and Butler.  Boilermaker fans hate the Hoosiers.  People in Missouri hate Kansas.  Cincinnati hates Xavier and vice versa.  Everybody both admires and hates Duke.  Rooting against a team of 18-22 kids you have never met might seem irrational, but anyone who has spent time tweeting with Big Blue Nation knows rationality flies out the window for college hoops fans. Continue reading

Top nine truths about Louisville Basketball, prostitution, and Rick Pitino

Despite Rick Piton's protest to the contrary, he is the author of Louisville's problems one way or the other.

Despite Rick Piton’s protest to the contrary, he is the author of Louisville’s problems one way or the other.

Louisville is good enough to play and succeed in the NCAA Tournament scheduled to begin Thursday, but they are nowhere to be found in the bracket you fill out because they screwed up.

Specifically, the University of Louisville self-imposed a postseason ban for 2016 because Katina Powell, a Louisville prostitute, revealed that she and others were paid to strip for and have sex with Louisville basketball players and recruits.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino has expressed outrage and confusion regarding the allegations and the punishment.

I was a guest on a Kentuckiana Sportsnight with Spencer Kietzman last night, and was asked about Pitino, Louisville Basketball, and the postseason ban.  My answers prompted a Twitter discussion that showed a disconnect between Louisville fans and reality that deserves a little examination.

Here are 9 truths of the Louisville prostitution scandal:

9 – Motivation for self-imposed postseason ban was to minimize negative effect on recruiting.  When Louisville decided to end its season early, and Pitino publicly posed as the outraged leader of a wronged team, it was to make sure incoming recruits were not spooked by potential future sanctions by the NCAA.  It had nothing to do with justice, and everything to do with strategically diminishing collateral damage to the program. Continue reading

Top 10 annoyances and takeaways in yesterday’s NCAA Tournament draw and media coverage

The field was revealed yesterday, and March Madness will thrill and annoy. Yesterday, it got started early.

The field was revealed yesterday, and March Madness will thrill and annoy. Yesterday, it got started early.

As soon as the draw for the 2016 NCAA Basketball Tournament was leaked via Twitter, the analysis began.  Stones were thrown at the selection committee, and then stones were thrown at those throwing stones.

Pretty soon, the skies over college basketball were filled with stones.

That’s what happens with predictive journalism and fan interaction.  Self-righteous tools are revealed, and media exercising an agenda are outed.

There are great narratives in every college basketball season.  This tournament will expose some and create others.

It’s going to be a fascinating month.  To kick it off, let’s hit some cool stories, expose some self-importances, and continue to hammer Dick Vitale over his increasing irrelevance with this top 10 storylines for March Madness.

10 – Evolution of Butler from a dominant Horizon League team to a successful Big East member has been unique.  Never in the history of college basketball has a program moved from low-major (Horizon) to mid-major (A-10) to high-major (Big East) in five years with consistent success at each level.  That Butler finished tied for fourth after posting a 7-2 record in the second half of the Big East schedule after being 3-6 in the first half is one of the best stories of the season. Continue reading

Indiana Basketball – Now what for the Hoosiers – and their easily perturbed fans?

Nick Zeisloft watches as Kameron Chatman's buzzer beater sails toward the rim in yesterday's Big Ten Tourney loss.

Nick Zeisloft watches as Kameron Chatman’s buzzer beater sails toward the rim in yesterday’s Big Ten Tourney loss.

Another Big 10 Tournament, another weekend off.

That’s the way March has begun for the Hoosiers through the majority of these damnable events.  Indiana has never won this tournament, and only advanced to the finals once – 15 years ago.

Three times, including yesterday, Indiana has been eliminated because of a buzzer beater.  In 2002 it was former Hoosier Luke Recker, then Minnesota’s Blake Hoffarber in 2008, and yesterday it was little used Kameron Chatman burying his eighth three-pointer of the season over Nick Zeisloft.

Hoosiers fans enjoy the psychosis of believing March can bring pleasant results as it did in the 1970s and 1980s.  Telling them that the Hoosiers will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their last NCAA Tourney win next season brings incredulous stares and irate pronouncements of a need for regime change.  Let’s take a deep breath. Continue reading

Top 10 lessons learned yesterday at Big 10 Tourney include coaches are insane and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is cool

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (with husband Brad Hall) cheered like a normal basketball mom yesterday as her son's Northwestern team lost to Michigan in OT.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (with husband Brad Hall) cheered like a normal basketball mom yesterday as her son’s Northwestern team lost to Michigan in OT.

So much basketball this weekend at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, so little time.  If we’re not watching games, we talk or write about them.

I love it.

Could anything be more fun than being at these Big Ten Tournament games?  The atmosphere is electric as seniors make their last stands, coaches try to will their players to give just a bit more, and fans hope their stay in Indianapolis lasts another day.

Sitting courtside, I get to see and hear a lot of the greatness, sadness, and madness that makes great a winner moves on and loser goes home event like the Big 10 Tournament.

Here are my top 10 takeaways from yesterday’s craziness (expect more of the same in today’s four games):

10 – Iowa is exhausted.  Teams go through stages of fitness through a season.  Some peak late, and others might find their mojo in the middle.  Then there are teams like Iowa this season (or Indiana in 2013) whose legs dissolve underneath them late in the season right before our eyes.  Iowa was ranked fifth in the country 33 days ago when they beat Illinois in Champaign by 16.  Yesterday, the Hawkeyes lost to Illinois by two – its sixth bad beat in the eight games that followed that win on February 7. Continue reading

Top 10 reasons the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament should always be in Indianapolis

BigSimply put, Indianapolis is the perfect host city for the Big Ten Men’s Basketball because it’s big enough to enjoy and small enough to care.

This event is one of five major conference basketball tournaments played simultaneously that draw national attention.  They serve as a prelude to the NCAA Tournament, except in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis doesn’t treat the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament as a common and easily ignored event on the sports calendar.  We treat it as a unique gathering to celebrate a game and league the city and state hold dear.

If the Big Ten wasn’t so concerned with wringing the last cent possible out of the tournament, the Big Ten would be in here every single March because the separation between Indy and other cities that are capable of hosting is so enormous it can’t be ignored.

Why is Indianapolis so perfect as a host city?  With no disrespect intended to Chicago, New York, or Washington DC, here are 10 great reasons:

10 – Indy had a chip on its shoulder.  This town had an inferiority complex for a while.  The response was to be very eager to impress visitors with quaint and overt friendliness.  Indy doesn’t have a beach, casinos, massive attraction, or impressive historical relevance to draw visitors, so being a friendly town became Indy’s calling card.  That chip has been replaced by a pride in our ability to smile and make strangers feel at home.  Friendliness as a competitive advantage has been replaced by a genuine love for engaging and entertaining.  No, we’re not Chicago.  Good.  Continue reading

Top 10 reasons to keep a close eye on Indianapolis Colts free agent moves starting today

Colts GM Ryan Grigson is working the phones to improve the Colts.

Colts GM Ryan Grigson is working the phones to improve the Colts.

Here we go again!

The annual free agent shopping spree for NFL teams starts today at 4p, and while the Indianapolis Colts aren’t likely to be as active as in previous years due to salary cap related financial constraints, it’s still going to be critical for the Colts as they try to regain the playoff mojo that marked the first three seasons of the awkward marriage of coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson.

To put it kindly, the Colts have needs as their franchise quarterback enters the prime of his career.

The clock is ticking for Luck, and every season lost while at is at the peak of his gifts is a season for which all members of Colts management should be held accountable.

While the Colts won’t spend like they did last year on Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Trent Cole, Todd Herremans, Kendall Langford, and Nate Irving, the moves made starting today will determine whether the Colts are able to bounce back in 2016, or if they will continue to ebb downward after missing the playoffs with an 8-8 mark in 2015.

10 – Draft focus will be determined by who Colts sign as FAs.  Putting together a mock draft, or at least trying to project whom the Colts might take with the 18th overall pick is a lot of fun – fruitless but fun.  The work to try to guess whose name Grigson with call April 28th will begin after we know who signs during as a free agent.  After the no-brainer pick of Andrew Luck, fans and media would have been better pulling names out of a hat than targeting Bjoern Werner and Phillip Dorsett as Colts 1st rounders under Grigson. Continue reading

Top 10 most annoying and inspiring stories from yesterday’s Indiana sports news

ManningYesterday was one of those days.  It seemed every story – every single thing I talked about on my radio show affected me emotionally.

My emotional spectrum runs from inspired to annoyed, and all that happened pushed one of those two buttons.

March is like that in Indiana.  With high school and college basketball becoming a chips to the middle of the table festival, the NBA season getting very short, and NFL free agency starting, the compelling stories are endless.

We normally confine ourselves to an examination of one issue each day, but there was just too much that happened yesterday to restrict this list.

Here are yesterday’s top 10 inspiring/annoying stories:

10 – Inspired – A.J. Hammons named Big Ten’s top defender.  Hammons has always been a great guy whose love of basketball has been questioned all the way back to his days as a sophomore at Carmel High School.  Well, at some point the switch flipped and Hammons became the defensive force Matt Painter envisioned when he recruited the seven-footer.  College is supposed to be a time of development and maturity, and Hammons is a great example of the evolution that can occur for kids who dedicate themselves to daily improvement. Continue reading