Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Basketball – Fans’ disappointment is their own fault for buying unearned hype

Tom Crean’s gig might be in jeopardy, but if you were disappointed last night, the fault is yours.

If you were disappointed in Indiana’s level of play during last night’s 94-74 loss at Duke, it’s your own fault.

The problem that has caused an ugly uprising of Indiana fans has nothing to do with the level of play for the Hoosiers – it’s the ridiculous expectations set prior to the season for this group by the national media and boosters.

Since 2013, Indiana’s defense has been confused, passive, and porous. There was no tangible reason to expect improvement this year, but Tom Crean and others close to the program did a nice sales job on this group, and so they were ranked far out of kilter with reality.

The good news for IU, everyone said, was the return of Yogi Ferrell, Troy Williams, and James Blackmon Jr. Few said, “Hey, aren’t these three the same key players from last year’s team that couldn’t defend a Macy’s mannequin?” Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 8 burning questions about Colts, Hoosiers, Pacers, Boilers, and Bulldogs

Wearing a hat backwards is for kids, not for 40-year olds like Matt Hasselbeck. So is being 4-0 as a starting quarterback.

December is traditionally a month where questions about sports are answered. Football teams are moving through the final chapters of their seasons, and the silt starts to settle for basketball teams revealing who has a chance for championships and who doesn’t.

For those teams that don’t meet expectations, job security is a difficult quarry, and those questions will be answered too.

In central Indiana, some jobs are in jeopardy and others are completely safe. No one in this area is guaranteed success. Because the Texans are hot, even the Colts perceived stranglehold on the AFC South is in doubt. The Pacers are rolling, but being tied in the loss column with the Cavs 16 games into the season means very little. Purdue has impressive wins against Florida and Pitt, but are still four weeks from its first Big Ten game. Some Indiana fans are convinced Tom Crean is coaching his last season in Bloomington, but with the Big Ten being down, anything can happen.

So many questions that will be answered soon enough. Here are the top 8:

1 – Is there a quarterback controversy with the Colts? Matt Hasselbeck is playing like a much younger man. The Colts backup quarterback is 40, and playing well enough people are starting to wonder aloud whether he should continue starting games after Andrew Luck recovers from a lacerated kidney and partially torn ab. With Luck as the starting QB, the Colts are a sub-pedestrian 2-5. Hasselbeck is 4-0 as the starter. Obviously, Luck is the quarterback of the future, but would the Colts be better served with Hasselbeck as the quarterback of the present? We’ll find out later this month. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 9 things I would change about college basketball

If my changes are implemented, Bruce Weber would never again look this silly. Well, that’s probably not true as he looks silly without calling a 30-second timeout.

College basketball is a great game. The season is short so the results of every game are meaningful. Players aren’t as adored and entitled (in most programs) as they are in pro sports. Collaboration is rewarded. The environments at arenas and gyms are electric. What’s not to love?

Well, there are plenty of changes I would make if I were the czar of college hoops. Some of my changes are borderline inane – the rantings of a guy disappointing with the direction of college sports as a branding agent for universities that should be more concerned with the quality of the education offered than the number of applications it can generate through televised sporting events.

1 – Get rid of the one-and-dones – or at least limit them. The NBA is the architect of the one-and-done policy, so attacking this through the universities is a challenge, but the NCAA could restrict the number of scholarships a school is allowed to offer over a four-year period. Programs can have 13 players under scholarship at any time, so how about restricting the number of scholarships to 18 over rolling four-year periods. That allows for a transfer or two per year, or the occasional player who jumps to the NBA early, but penalizes a program for churning through an endless supply of NBA ready athletes who have no interest in education. Let’s call this “the Kentucky Rule”. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 6 stories of the weekend (Kobe, Hazell, George, Ralph, Crean, Hasselbeck)

Paul George has been nearly unstoppable this season, and he’s one of the best stories in Indy.

What did I tell you about this weekend! Plenty of good stories, as promised. Wins by the Colts, Pacers, Indiana Football, a loss by Purdue (to Indiana for the third straight year), an offensive slugfest for the ages in the 5A state football championship, and a long overdue retirement announcement kept sports fans plenty busy in Indy this weekend.

1 – Kobe Bryant is done – and he’s been done for awhile. That’s what age does to athletes. It finishes them, all of them. Maybe a straggler, an anomaly, can find a way to continue to compete and earn past his athletic prime, but most receive serious and concrete reminders of their frailty more and more often as they inch toward or just past 40. Continue reading →

Indiana going bowling after third straight Bucket game win; Kevin Wilson will return

This is about the biggest smile I have seen on Kevin Wilson’s face, but I’ll bet his grin on the bus ride back to Bloomington is wide and toothy.

Indiana athletic director Fred Glass hasn’t said that football coach Kevin Wilson will return for a sixth season, but after securing bowl eligibility in West Lafayette this afternoon, it’s a certainty.

At the time I am writing this, no firm invitation has been issued by a bowl to Indiana, but that is a certainty as well. Those paid to analyze such things project the Hoosiers as a great candidate for Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium or another bowl in Santa Clara sponsored by a company with which I am not familiar. There is a possibility that IU could go to Detroit for a bowl there (please, God, no – not Detroit).

Wilson will return because the narrative of improvement can be made with a straight face after Indiana finished the regular season 6-6. In fact, the narrative doesn’t even need to be advanced by Indiana’s athletic staff. Going to a bowl is an obvious sign of growth even to passive fans, despite an 0-6 start to the conference season.

The only question is whether Wilson’s contract should be extended based upon Indiana earning its first trip to a bowl in nearly a decade (second in 20 years, but no need to mention that). This is year five of a seven-year deal, and with two years left it might make sense to come to a decision on retaining Wilson beyond that window. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Six-plus sporting events worthy of dragging your asses off the couch to watch live

John Ohlson will try to bring home a state championship for the Penn Kingmen while playing with a heavy heart.

Thanksgiving is one of the great sports weekends on the calendar, and for people in Indiana it is filled with a multitude of events worthy of your time.

There is a time to sit on the couch and scream at the TV, but this weekend is not among them, unless you’re a Notre Dame fan as the Irish will be playing for their playoff lives tomorrow at Stanford. This is a weekend filled with reasons to climb into the car and haul the family to one or more of the great sporting events being held in central Indiana.

1 – The Bucket Game – Neither Purdue nor Indiana is in the upper tier of the Big Ten, but for the first time in several years, a bowl bid is on the line for one of these perennial doormats in not exactly a rivalry game for the ages. Either the Hoosiers or Boilermakers will walk out of Ross-Ade Stadium tomorrow with a second conference win, but if it happens to be the Hoosiers, they go bowling. If the Hoosiers lose, a decision will need to be made about the future of the program. This is year five of the seven-year contract Kevin Wilson signed to become Indiana’s coach, and the assumption is that either that contract will be extended after this season or he will be replaced. Purdue’s Darrell Hazell has a buyout that would cost the university almost $7-million, which would be 700-million pennies. Purdue president Mitch Daniels knows where every penny at Purdue is spent. Translation – Hazell’s job is safe. Continue reading →

Indiana Basketball loses to UNLV – Time for decision on Tom Crean is months away, and it should be

Freshman Thomas Bryant unloads on senior Yogi Ferrell during a timeout in tonight’s loss to UNLV.

Indiana lost twice and won once in Maui, and all three games were hard to watch. Turnovers plagued the offense, and familiar defensive failures (not guarding high screens worth a damn chief among them) allowed offenses operate comfortably.

Some angry fans want Tom Crean fired today, while others think he’s a genius who can fix what has gone wrong. All want answers.

For fans who look to the basketball program as a tether to their alma mater, it’s especially galling to watch Indiana founder in areas where competence was always a given. The only sure thing in this era of Indiana Basketball seems to be underachievement.

Expectations are driven by those within the program to a level players are unable or unwilling to meet. The resulting frustration for fans is driving calls for boycotts and an immediate change in leadership.

And it’s only November.

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The passion is thick as ever for Indiana basketball, even if the quality of play has declined to the point where the description of IU as elite is as timely as Bill Walton’s wardrobe or a Dr. Bop & the Headliners set list.

Let’s get the talk of firing Crean out of the way immediately. Firing Crean prior to the end of the season would be an act of madness, and athletic director Fred Glass is not mad.

Crean’s Indiana program continues along the same course that has become routine through 7.2 seasons, and many believe that is not enough to justify the trust or salary invested in him, but to fire a head coach at midseason almost never ends well.

Two things can happen – the first is the team tanks under the interim guy, which no one wants. The other possibility might be even more harmful to the overall health of a program – the interim coach lights a fire under the team and they play their asses off.

That’s bad because the interim guy becomes the only palatable candidate for the full-time job when there might be a dozen better coaches out there.

Indiana is way too important a program for Glass to indulge in Steinbrenner-esque petulance. Even if he has decided to replace Crean as his head hits the pillow tonight, he knows that there must be a process where the next generational hire is made. For perspective, Branch McCracken and Bob Knight define generational hires.

Because today is November 26th, it’s quite possible Crean and the Hoosiers get this figured out and find a way to reach their goals. Remember when Michigan State lost last year to Texas Southern and Purdue lost to North Florida and Gardner-Webb. Both teams rebounded, refocused, and overcame.

There will be four months of highs and lows ahead, and depending upon the ratio Indiana will either continue with Crean as the head coach or not

Regardless of what happens four months from now after all is said and done, decisions need to be made by a circumspect and sober leader paid to determine what is best for the university, brand, revenue, and welfare of the student-athletes – not in that order. Anger is an indulgence of the powerless, and Glass has power.

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My advice is to relax and enjoy the ride. if you are outraged by what you perceive to be a lack of coaching acumen from Crean, take pride in the effort of the players. If the players appear to check out, listen to the band and watch the cheerleaders. if the band and cheerleaders mail it in, dream of a strom and bucket (or six) at Nick’s.

Answers will come soon enough, but until we know them for an absolute certainty, do yourself a favor and embrace the possibility for meaningful improvement, regardless of the odds.

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Six ways for sports parents to help kids enjoy & learn

This Facebook post is not good sports parenting in attitude or practice.

The mother of Indiana University forward Troy William vented in a Facebook post yesterday. She wrote, “I just heard Crean said he is not starting Troy because he said Troy didn’t play well yesterday!! Okay it’s time for Troy to get the F**K OUT OF IU!!” I inserted the asterisks, not Mrs. Williams.

There are way for parents to help kids, and ways for them to complicate their lives. Mrs. Williams, who later took down the post and apologized on Twitter.

To the extent Troy takes her rantings on social media seriously, she made him uncomfortable by running to his defense as Crean exerted the one consequence that might get his attention after playing indifferently against Wake Forest in an embarrassing loss.

Crean is trying to teach Williams that sacrifice for the good of the team is essential for their success. That is a lesson that may make Williams a much more productive adult and successful employee. A rational parent would thank Crean for benching her son. Criticizing him is the height of self-indulgent parenting and fan-mom behavior.

I’ve seen good parenting and bad parenting in sports, and there are kids who are permanently damaged by the bad.

If you are a sports parent, here is a list of positive behaviors and tips to overcome negative impulses that can help a kid use sports as a lever toward maturity and growth:

1 – Allow your kid to negotiate adversity on his or her own. Sports are a wonderful microcosm of life, and youth sports present challenges similar to those in business. If a kid isn’t playing as much as you or he believe is warranted, that’s the kid’s challenge to overcome. Never ask a coach about playing time. The kid can ask, but then should do exactly as the coach advises to earn more opportunities. Continue reading →

Indy’s Morning Sports List – Top 12 things for which Tom Crean should be thankful today

For all coaches, the day they are hired is the best, and then it’s a long slide toward the end of the road.

After losing to Wake Forest and UNLV in the Maui Invitational, it is even more important for Indiana basketball fans to remain positive – if only for their own sanity..

It’s a long season, and while that is not an item on this list of things for which Tom Crean should give thanks today, it should keep Indiana fans coming back to Assembly Hall to watch the Hoosiers throughout what may be yet another long winter filled with moments of joy and abject disappointment.

Defensive lapses were plentiful yesterday as Indiana failed to finish its work on a positive note. Instead, the Hoosiers look ahead to Alcorn State Monday as an opportunity for redemption.

The last couple of weeks have seen many pieces written about Crean’s new found contentment and peace – as though he has entered acceptance, the final state of grief, and in that effort as he travels from Maui to Bloomington, we want him to focus on the positive.

Toward that end, we offer this list of things for which he needs to give thanks:

1 – If the Hoosiers can’t beat Wake Forest and UNLV, expectations should be quite low Wednesday night as the Hoosiers battle Duke in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Playing against the Blue Demons will give IU the kind of no-lose scenario in which they have thrived in the past. Continue reading →

Indy Morning Sports List – Nine reasons for Colts, Pacers, IU, Purdue & Butler fans optimism

Indiana Pacers fans have reason to be happy so far in the 2015-2016 season.

2015 is an odd year for sports fans in central Indiana. Optimists have plenty of reason to feel smart, but pessimists are justified in their negative thoughts.

The Colts, Pacers, Hoosiers (basketball & football), Bulldogs, and Boilermakers (basketball) are all teetering between realizing their goals and falling off a cliff.

Fascinating times provide a fascinating list:

1 – Colts defense clicked over top of Falcons. Forget the offense for a minute because the offense didn’t win that game yesterday against the Atlanta Falcons. Donte Moncrief made a great special teams play to down a Pat McAfee punt at the Falcons one, and on the first snap, D’Qwell Jackson picked off a Matt Ryan pass and took it into the end zone for a game tying touchdown. Minus that play and the pressure on Ryan, the Colts are 4-6 – one game back of the Houston Texans in the AFC South. Continue reading →