Author Archives: Kent Sterling

How did a Cubs fan become a Cardinals admirer, and then switch back? It was strictly business

by Kent Sterling

When the Cubs win, the W flag hangs in the window of the Sterling home – until we get a flagpole.

Driving home yesterday, hauling ass to watch every pitch pf game four of the NLDS just like when I ran home everyday from Mrs. Zimmer’s class at Lake Bluff Central Elementary to catch the end of every regular season game in 1971, I heard Jake Query on WNDE lambasting me for my flip-flop from lifelong Cubs fan to Cardinals fan when I moved to St. Louis and back again when I returned to Indianapolis.

As he often does, Jake took an ounce of information and provided a gallon of perspective.

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The truth is a little more nuanced than a caveman radio host yelling “Fire! BAD!”

I have always been a Cubs fan. From the time I understood language, it was how my Dad and I communicated.

Dad – “How was Jenkins today?”

Me – “He worked too quick for me to see anything but the eighth and ninth, but from what I saw, he had good sink on his fastball.”

Dad – “How’d you do on your test?”

Me – “I aced it.” Yeah right. But what else was I supposed to tell my Dad?

That conversation was repeated with many different pitchers and scenarios until 2002 when he died. He took me to my first game in 1968, when I sang the National Anthem as loud as I could so my Mom could hear at home (showing a complete ignorance for how sound is conveyed via TV) and Ernie Banks hit a home run in a 9-8 loss to the Reds.

I took the North Western to the Davis stop, and hopped on the Howard to Wrigley with my friend Nick Anson a bunch of times before moving to an apartment six blocks south of Wrigley, where I would put my son on my shoulders and walk to the ballpark to sit in the bleachers and watch games on my frequent days off.

None of that credentials me as a great Cubs fan – just one of many with the same stories.

My heart was broken as a kid in 1969, as an adolescent in 1977 (an underrated summer of joy then misery for Cubs fans), as a college student in 1984, as a young father and husband in 1989, and as a crotchety 40-year old in 2003. I never bought into the flawed rosters in 1998, 2007, and 2008, so my heart was unscathed during those failed Octobers.

Again, no proof of insanity. I did earn the right to buy NLCS and World Series tickets in 1989 by spending a disproportionate number of summer afternoons at Wrigley with my son, but that was all for naught as my NLCS tickets were for Game Six and the series was won by the Giants in five.

In 2011, John Kijowski called and offered my the program director’s job at 101 ESPN in St. Louis. One thing I knew as I drove from Indy to that baseball crazy town was that my collection of Cubs memorabilia was not going to impress the staff – 90% of whom grew up Cardinals fans in a way most baseball fans simply can’t understand – so I brought some Cardinals swag to decorate the office.

My wife and I rented an apartment across a parking lot from Busch Stadium, and because we both love baseball, went to a bunch of Cardinals games. I’m not one of those nuts who believes that in order to love one team, you must hate all others. Neither is my wife. We came to admire the Cardinals style of play and enjoyed watching their unlikely run through the playoffs and World Series in 2011 and the playoff run in 2012.

In my role as PD at 101 ESPN, I got to know some of the people in the Cardinals front office (including VP of communications Ron Waterman and SVP sales and Marketing Dan Ferrell), and I came to admire their devotion to providing a great experience for fans.

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The Cardinals are hard not to like, even for a lifelong Cubs fan, and given that I never tried to dislike them I wound up rooting for them. It helped that the Cubs were in the nascent stages of the rebuilding process that today has them up 2-1 in the NLDS against those same Cardinals.

Watching the Cubs suck under a series of overmatched managers on TV was a hell of a lot less fun than going to Busch Stadium to see the Cardinals win a World Series with Tony LaRussa at the helm.

Jake also criticized my social media portals which featured Cards logos for a couple of months after I returned from St. Louis. Guilty of remaining skeptical about the Cubs while also being unwilling to fly my freak flag for one of the Indiana teams I spend time assessing on social media, my radio show (CBS Sports 1430 – weekdays 3p-6p), and here on kentsterling.com. Guilty.

In fact, I still have a Cardinals license plate holder on my car. Sadly, I have found no suitable replacement worthy of taking the time necessary to change it. I would prefer a license plate holder with some prescient commentary on life without extolling the virtues of cat ownership, which I cannot seem to find.

Just prior to the beginning of the 2013 season I left St. Louis to return to Indianapolis, and my love of the Cubs was slow to re-ignite as the business office of the Cubs seemed intent on nickel and diming fans while investing none of that money in on field talent.

It seemed idiotic to embrace the profit first philosophy of the fiscally focused Ricketts cabal, so I devoted my attention to being angry with the way the Cubs operated – the long time pastime for Cubs fans.

Being a fan does not blindly grant a pass to management for idiocy. Cubs fans are among the best critics of management in our society. Criticism for one team does not imply a lack of love. How many married couples use arguments as their sole form of communication, and yet at the end of the day, they snore all over one another.

I am a Cubs fan and a Cardinals admirer. No schizophrenia required for both to exist in the same brain. It’s not nearly as crazy as late Cubs GM John Holland trading Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio.

Jake might not understand that, but I’ll bet you do.

USC Football – Give Steve Sarkisian space and time to enter recovery without mockery

by Kent Sterling

USC football coach Steve Sarkisian is facing a tougher foe than the Fighting Irish this weekend, and it doesn’t need to be made any tougher.

Dealing with addiction is tough enough when no one knows who you are and you can begin the process of recovery in anonymity. When you are the face of a historic football program and open yourself up to taunting immediately prior to a rivalry game, I’m guessing it’s brutally tough.

USC football coach Steve Sarkisian has been asked by his boss to take an indefinite leave of absence because he reportedly showed up for a team meeting yesterday intoxicated.

Staff suspected he was tanked during the game September 26th against Arizona State, and the national media had a field day with his drunken performance at the university’s Salute to Troy event in August.

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Sarkisian is going through a divorce, and is obviously making decisions that are not in anyone’s best interest – especially his own.

But this is not a guy who is irresponsibly choosing a night in a bar rather than doing what otherwise is on his itinerary. Sarkisian has a disease, and that disease has a cure that involves a drastic evolution in behavior.

I’m not an expert on addiction, but I do understand that empathy for Sarkisian is a more humane response than derisive chatter.

It’s easy to think of a guy who has worked tirelessly over the course of a career to reach this pinnacle as the coach who leads the Trojans into battle each autumn Saturday only to piss it away by irresponsibly boozing it up, but when social drinking becomes addiction, a person loses control over where and when he or she drinks.

Sarkisian is in a dire place. He can choose to turn himself over to a treatment facility a one who suffers from a disease, or he can view himself as a failure who cannot manage correctly any part of his life and then continue down his current path of self-destruction.

What’s going on with Sarkisian is sad, not funny, and with USC coming to South Bend this weekend to play rival Notre Dame, the temptation for the students in South Bend will be enormous to have some serious fun at the expense of both Sarkisian and the Trojan program.

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I’m not proud of what my decision would be were I in the same spot as the ND students this weekend, and I doubt they yet have the wisdom to make the right choice, but maybe the Irish are more enlightened than I was as a Hoosier eager to pick at the scabs of those suffering through a problem the likes of Sarkisian.

Indianapolis Colts – Reports of the Colts demise greatly exaggerated; they shove it to experts with “gritty” 27-20 win

by Kent Sterling

Whatever Chuck Pagano is saying here, I’ll bet he uses the word “grit”. As a cancer survivor, he’s embodied the word, and has earned the right to trot it out often.

The Indianapolis Colts were expected to be faced with a lot of adversity this week.

Andrew Luck shelved; Matt Hasselbeck in the ER; JJ Watt and Jadeveon Clowney snarling after humiliation in Atlanta; Chuck Pagano under fire; Andre Johnson looking old; Colts defense unable to pressure quarterbacks; the record for consecutive division wins on the line.

Pick your poison for reasons Colts fans indulged in a little pessimism heading into the Thursday Night Football at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

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Those negative thoughts were kept outside the Colts family, and the result was a 27-20 win that brought the Colts a 16th straight AFC South victory (including its last three games), netted Hasselbeck an outstanding QBR of 92.1 (out of a possible 100), allowed Luck another 10 days to rehab his right shoulder, re-established Johnson as a legit weapon, and kept the vaunted Texans pass rush from sacking the Colts QB a single time.

The Colts weren’t perfect, but they were better than the Texans, and that’s all that really matters. The completed hail mary to end the first half was ridiculous, and the other myriad blown coverages by the Colts secondary might have proven fatal against a more talented opponent.

Pagano uses the word “grit” as though the Colts have a special license to embody it, but this team that was so close to crapping the bed against Tennessee and Jacksonville during the last two Sundays was led by a 40-year old quarterback who actually crapped the bed during this short week. That seems gritty.

Hasselbeck isn’t going to thrill fans with his wheels or laser-rocket arm, but he can avoid making the play that will lose you the game, and often not the avoidance of what’s necessary to lose brings a victory.

He manages a game as well as anyone, and last night he certainly shone brighter than his counterparts with the Texans, who were good until they weren’t.

One bad play can kill a team’s chances, and despite Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer’s earlier solid work, his late interception was a fatal blow to the hopes the Texans harbored at the two-minute warning.

Because the Colts offensive line gelled at the right time, Hasselbeck was able to force-feed fluids and manage his discomfort, safety Mike Adams snared two wayward throws for picks, and D’Qwell Jackson posted another double digit tackle game, the Colts may end this weekend with a commanding two-game lead in the AFC South with wins against each of their division rivals.

Tough games are ahead for the Colts, including a week six exam against the undefeated New England Patriots who have eaten the Colts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every game the two teams have played this decade.

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The four games the Pagano/Grigson regime has matched up with Bill Belichick’s Patriots, the aggregate point differential has been 116 points (29 points per game), and none have been decided by less than 20 points.

That means the Colts will face another week of “experts” bashing them – saying they have no chance to win or even compete against the cheating wretches from the northeast. There will be another week of the media asking a torrent of questions about Luck’s shoulder, followed by Pagano vague platitudes. Day after day assertions will be advanced that the Colts can beat the AFC South, but when playoff caliber teams challenge them, they wilt.

Pagano’s Colts have been there, done that. They will answer with, you guessed it, an assertion of grit.

Colts vs. Texans might be awful, but still a lot to hold Colts fans’ attention

by Kent Sterling

Andrew Luck in a baseball cap is no good for the Colts long term prospects.

Andrew Luck with a damaged wing, Matt Hasselbeck and his mid week flu, or short-timer Josh Johnson – guessing which Colts quarterback is going to face the angry and recently embarrassed Houston Texans defense is anyone’s guess.

The Colts have an opportunity tonight to win their 16th straight division game, which would give them the record all by themselves, but that’s just a footnote in a game that could set the Colts up for another trip to the playoffs – or drop them out of first place in the AFC South.

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With games against the undefeated Patriots, Panthers, Falcons, and Broncos ahead, the Colts need to bank as many wins as possible against opponents like the Texans, who while dangerous are quite flawed.

With the one area of stability and excellence (Luck) the Colts could count on through the last three seasons in serious doubt, the Colts may have to rely upon the contribution of others to right this season before it unspools completely.

As I write, reports are circulating that Luck will sit tonight and Hasselbeck will start. That wouldn’t bother the Colts if Hasselbeck hadn’t been limited in practice because of illness.

During his first extended meaningful football in several years, Hasselbeck looked okay against the Jaguars, but a 40-year old on a short week when ill is not a recipe for success. And before we anoint Matt the second coming of Earl Morrall, his only touchdown drive against the Jags was aided by 40 yards worth of defensive penalties – three of which turned a potential fourth down into 1st downs.

Both Luck and Hasselbeck say they will be ready, but can anyone not at 100% be ready to face J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, and the rest of a defensive unit that was humiliated against the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday.

The Falcons jumped out to a quick lead, and that jumped a little further as the lead grew to 42-0, and the Texans will want to knock someone into the middle of next week in front of their home fans to wash that sour taste from their collective mouth.

The Texans have quarterback concerns of their own without a good answer regardless of health. Ryan Mallett is simply not an accurate thrower of the football (a significant negative for a quarterback) and Brian Hoyer has never been more than a journeyman backup – or losing starter.

Thursday night football games are regularly among the very worst of the week, and this game looks to continue that disappointing run for CBS and the NFL Network, who try to treat these pitiful contests like grand showcases.

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Regardless of whether this game is fun to watch for a national audience that craves any level of NFL competition, for the Colts and Texans the result will likely loom large come December when a 7-9 record may be enough to win the AFC South.

I asked the venerable John McClain of the Houston Chronicle on my radio show whether the AFC South might be the worst division in the history of the NFL. He quickly scanned the 34 NFL seasons he’s covered and matter of factly said “Yes.”

With a healthy Luck, the Colts appeared ready to cruise to another division crown, but with so many questions about his shoulder, the Colts appear to be quite ordinary with two losses to the Jets and Bills that were grotesque, and two wins against the Titans and Jaguars that could very easily have been losses.

In short, for a game with so little to drive interest, there is a lot to keep it interesting – at least in Indianapolis.

Cubs fans hopes reignited, but not without an emotional fight

by Kent Sterling

I carry this ticket stub from Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS with me as a reminder that hope is for children. And yet, tonight, here we go again.

Baseball fans backing the 29 teams that do not call Wrigley Field home loathe hearing about the 106-year championship drought, the unique level of suffering it causes, and the many ways Cubs fans are different from them.

I was accosted by an Expos fan at Indiana University in 1984 while wearing a Cubs shirt, “Go ahead and name five players from the ’69 Cubs!” the guy yelled. He was upset that during that magical autumn the Cubs bandwagon was filled beyond capacity with frontrunners new to Cubs fandom.

“I’ll name 30 of ’em,” I barked back. And then I did.

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All fans have different experiences. Do Colts and Pacers fans love their favorite teams less than Cubs fans love the Cubs? Of course not, but the generational distress passed from father to son on the north side of Chicago is quite unique.

The Cubs have gone to the World Series seven times since they last raised a championship banner – the last time in 1945. Since then, they have qualified for the postseason six times without advancing to the World Series. That’s 13 trips to the postseason when the Cubs have lost their final game – obliterating the hope that comes a little harder to muster with every heartbreak.

And those moments of distress don’t count the slow deaths experienced during regular seasons like 1969 and 1977 when the Cubs started strong but faded horribly down the stretch.

Outrageous bad luck and perceived jinxes have convinced fans that it might just b their destiny to never see the Cubs triumph. Not only is there not a single living Cubs fan who has witnessed a championship, but virtually none of our fathers have either. My Dad was born 21 years after the Cubs last title – he died in 2002 and would be 86 if he was alive today.

Of course, if he had lived into October of 2003, that Cubs collapse that year would have likely killed him – or he would have been prosecuted for the reign of terror he would have brought down upon Steve Bartman.

As the Cubs embark on yet another postseason, fans are indulging in the hope that destiny will finally shine on the last ballpark to erect lights to accommodate night baseball. In the deep dark recesses of our minds, we remember Bartman, Leon Durham, the Black Cat at Shea Stadium, and have heard all about Billy Sianis levying a curse upon the Cubs after his goat was denied a seat for the 1945 World Series.

We remember the Cubs have lost nine straight postseason games, and that every time we have released our doubts about the Cubs, something incredible has brought us to our knees.

Listening to Eddie Vedder’s “All the Way” with tears running down our cheeks, we think of Ernie Banks smiling through the tears brought by endless disappointment. We shriek along with Steve Goodman’s “Go Cubs Go” as the W flag is raised after each win, believing there might just be an October when we sing it last and loudest. We can still hear the echoes of Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray saying next yext will be different.

We tell ourselves and anyone who will listen that these Cubs are different – that Jake Arrieta is not a redux of Rick Sutcliffe in 1984, that Joe Maddon is different from Leo Durocher, and that Anthony Rizzo has nothing other than left-handed power in common with Durham.

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There is hope that all fans who will be seated in the front row at Wrigley Field will remember the lesson of Steve Bartman – that interfering with a ball likely to be caught by a Cub carries a serious cost.

The current crop of young Cubs – Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Javy Baez, Kyle Schwarber, and Jorge Soler – were in grammar school when the Cubs blew a 3-1 NLCS lead against the Florida Marlins. They have no recollection of Cubs postseason unpleasantness other than the overmatched 2007 and 2008 teams that were swept into irrelevance by the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Tonight, another trip to the Last Chance Saloon awaits Cubs fans who have been so memorably disappointed since a time when Civil War veterans proudly marched by the hundreds in Independence Day parades.

Many of our grandfathers, dads, friends, favorite Cubs broadcasters with whom we have shared this love and unfulfilled hopes are gone, but the illogical torment of unrequited love for a doomed team remains.

Indianapolis Colts – No reason for Chuck Pagano to be so patronizing with the media about Luck’s shoulder

by Kent Sterling

Chuck Pagano can be a charming guy, but his recent behavior toward the media has been anything but.

It’s usually understandable when people treat the media with indifference. We can be a pain in the ass – all those questions when coaches and players want to prepare for an upcoming game or relax.

But the media are mostly easily satisfied folks paid to inform fans about their favorite – a marketing arm for a franchise and individual brands that drive wealth for the very people who hold them in such low regard.

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A reasonable answer will pass muster with the media, and no one expects a coach like Chuck Pagano to predict the future. When Pagano is asked whether quarterback Andrew Luck is going to play Thursday night, no one expects an absolute response if the necessary data has not been (or can’t be) compiled.

Here is a transcript of the portion of yesterday’s Pagano press conference that deals with Luck’s health:

Were you able to tell anything from what Andrew Luck did today? Did he work out separately?

“He looked good. He’s moving in the right direction. Trending in the right direction. So a lot better than he was Saturday morning.

Did he throw much today?

“He had a good day. He had a good day today.

Is that a yes or no though?

“He had a good day today.

Is the goal seeing in the next couple days him possibly playing on Thursday?

“No different than it was. The goal was to try and see if he would be available for yesterday’s ballgame and it just didn’t work out that way. So still a goal to try to get him ready to go for this game.

Are you pretty confident that he made some progress and strides from where he was on Saturday morning?

“Yeah, because he came in and felt really good this morning. He felt really good. No setbacks. Again, he’s trending in the right direction.

Do we read anything into the release of Josh Johnson leaving just two quarterbacks on the active roster?

“That’s up to you.

Was that decision related to Andrew’s health?

“Again, that’s up to you guys to figure that one out. You guys are a lot smarter than I am.”

Media is Indianapolis are reasonable compared to most cities. No one tries to paint Pagano, Frank Vogel, Larry Bird, Tom Crean, or Chris Holtmann into a corner and make them appear stupid. This group of media is worthy of respect and deserve reasonable answers to good questions.

Last week, Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel asked Pagano whether Luck was in the state of Indiana, Pagano dismissed it as “the craziest question” he’s ever been asked in his football career.

When Fox 59’s Chris Hagan reported that Luck had been examined by out of state physicians, Doyel’s question stopped being crazy. Hagan is from Alabama, preeminent shoulder doc James Andrews is from Alabama, and Luck has a dinged shoulder – draw your own conclusions.

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Telling us that Luck was examined by Dr. Andrews hurts nothing. Telling us that Luck is throwing or not hurts nothing. Relentlessly telling us “He had a good day,” burns through whatever good will remains between Pagano and the media because it shows a lack of respect.

The best kind of respect is mutual, and unless Pagano decides very soon that sharing pertinent facts is not going to corrupt the Colts ability to succeed on the field he stands to lose a very important asset as he fights for his job during a season that could break in any number of directions.

Like our parents always tell us, “when in doubt, tell the truth.” Or at least something that sounds like the truth.

Coaches owe the media nothing, but talking to them like children gets the attention of the media and can turn them surly, and that’s one thing Pagano does not need.

For Indianapolis Colts, all news not bad after uninspired win in OT

by Kent Sterling

Chuck Pagano called himself a “dumbass” yesterday after calling timeout to freeze Jags kicker Jason Myers, but it worked out.

Yesterday’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars was hard on the eyes – a tough to sit through debacle made palatable for Colts fans only because of the 16-13 overtime result.

That is took two missed potential game-winning field goals is not reflected in the standings that show the Colts sitting alone atop the wretched AFC South.

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Sure, the Colts turned it over twice while the Jags never did. Sure, the Colts were outgained on the ground by the Jags 142-60. Sure, the Jags had a slight advantage in time of possession despite the Colts playing small ball.

They won, and that’s all that matters – at least today.

The Colts only trip to the end zone was due exactly as much to the Jaguars missteps as the Colts productivity. Half the 80-yards gained during the Colts drive were coughed up on Jaguars penalties – three of which occurred on 3rd down and resulted in first downs.

Gus Bradley is sick to his stomach this morning because there was no way the Jaguars should not have won that game – but they didn’t.

None of the statistics favoring the Jaguars matter because the Colts won the game, and in the NFL no one apologizes for losing.

Despite the lackluster level of football played by the Colts yesterday, not all the news was bad. Good news includes:

Matt Hasselbeck showed there is a little football left in the 40 year old’s decaying carcass. He was efficient if not spectacular, and that’s exactly what the Colts hoped for. He might have thrown a few more times than the target number, but being 30-47 for 266 and one TD is a good day.
D’Qwell Jackson posted 17 tackles (10 solo) to lift his season total to 47. That put’s him on pace for 188 this season – or four more than Pat Angerer had in his four year career in Indianapolis.
Donte Moncrief is putting together a very nice sophomore season with 23 catches for 275 yards. That projects to 92 catches and 1,100 yards.
After Hasselbeck was dropped three times yesterday, the Colts have allowed only eight sacks. While that isn’t much to write home about, the total is lower than what I expected.
Pat McAfee continues to be a field position generation machine. Yesterday, he averaged 47.8 yards per kick (45 yards net). His value in close games cannot be overstated.

Some of the not so good includes the Colts generating only five sacks on the season with no Colt posting more than one.

Andre Johnson has caught only seven of his 20 targets. In a down 2014 for the Houston Texans, Johnson caught 85 balls with a catch rate of 58.2%. He has never caught less than 55.3% of his targets. As of today, his 2015 catch rate is 35%. Either Johnson has suddenly gotten old, or he is not being utilized to capitalize on his strengths. To me, he looks old.

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The Colts running backs have lost an average of one fumble per game.

With a short week, the Colts don’t have a lot of time to correct what’s wrong or get Andrew Luck and injured inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman back from injury, but just as no one apologizes for winning, no one accepts excuses for losing.

If they find a way to beat Houston Thursday night, the Colts will win their 16th consecutive division game – an NFL record. Whether the Colts AFC South dominance is a result of their consistent excellence or the awful level of competition offered by the Jags, Tennessee Titans, and Houston Texans depends on your perspective – and that is likely driven by geography.

In 49 states, fans would likely cite the ineptitude of the other three teams. In Indiana, where fans see life through horseshoe shaped glasses, they see the Colts as the kings of the AFC South because their droppings don’t stink.

The 1-3 Texans fell behind the Atlanta Falcons 42-0 before recovering late to make the score a cosmetically less atrocious 48-21, so maybe the Colts can limp into another win against a bad team to push their record to 3-2 before the Patriots come to town for Sunday Night Football October 18th.

That is the night the Colts bills for mediocrity might finally come due.

IU vs. Ohio State pregame to be filled with boobs, beers, and bombast!

by Kent Sterling

Indiana might not win the game during football season, but Hoosiers always win the tailgate.

For many years I have offered my services to Indiana University as a special deputy chancellor for fun, but sadly my phone continues to sit silent.

My first act in that position would be to approve a one-time special waiver to serve beer at the Dan Dakich Gameday Broadcast and Celebration tomorrow. Kegs (lots of kegs) should be tapped to provide the nourishment tailgaters require on the first October afternoon in anyone’s memory where two undefeated teams faced off in Bloomington.

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This is going to be a special day. Indiana football fans are well aware that the Hoosiers are very fortunate to be 4-0 heading into Big Ten play, and that Ohio State is the better football team. Football games though are not always won by the better team. Sometimes the underdog finds a way to outscore a superior opponent over the course of 60 minutes, and the Hoosiers might be able to get that done.

Is it likely? Hell no. I couldn’t tell you the last time Indiana beat Ohio State. It might have been in 1945. I don’t know and I don’t care.

So lets focus on what Indiana fans can control – what Indiana fans have always been able to control. Fun. Can Indiana students and alums find a way to enjoy reckless optimism during the pregame festival of hope and laughs that will be hosted by IU students and Indiana grad/ESPN personality/radio lightning rod/party host with the most Dan Dakich?

Hoosiers have always been able to have fun. In that specific realm, Indiana is always favored. No way am I not going to enjoy the hours before the game starts. The memories of my time in Bloomington as a student are still so thick, I can touch them. All I have to do is blink and the years peel away transporting me to a happy psychological state where enjoying myself and the company of friends becomes the only priority in my life.

All behaviors migrate toward idiocy, and laughter flows like beer from a keg – or beer flows like laughter – I’m not sure which comes first.

The game isn’t the thing at Indiana. It’s the laughs and the friendships.

Tomorrow with Dan – a guy with whom I have shared countless idiotic moments – there will be more laughs, moments of grace when the exact right insult is delivered at the perfect moment to a moron whose behavior mandates it, and a brief glimmer of hope that the long moribund football program that so many have tried to pivot toward relevance has finally turned the corner.

Maybe the night brings a celebration the likes of which Bloomington hasn’t seen since the last NCAA Championship for the basketball program in 1987. Maybe not. It’s not why you celebrate – it’s that you celebrate.

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All good Hoosiers will be in the house tomorrow ready to revel in our ability to enjoy a party regardless of the result of the game. If the game goes to the Hoosiers, well, we will cross that previously elusive and hidden bridge when we get to it.

In the meantime, the deputy chancellor for fun is ready and waiting for the call from Indiana University elders that will turn a million ideas loose.

By the way, the boobs spoken of in the headline are not those mounds of flesh that protrude from the chestal region of females, but slang for the wonderful students and alums who are going to show up at Memorial Stadium tomorrow, party like hell, and count the successes of the afternoon in the number of laughs had in the parking lot – not points on the scoreboard.

Larry Brown’s mess at SMU – who didn’t see this coming? And why Larry isn’t to blame

by Kent Sterling

SMU coach isn’t to blame for the mess that led to sanctions. He is who he has always been.

People in their 70s do not become more compliant. That’s a pretty solid behavioral axiom for those who on life’s journey have rounded third and are heading for home.

Seniors tend toward irascibility because they come to the realization they can get away with it. If a person was surly and unyielding in his 40s, he will tend toward full on cantankerousness as the decades pass.

SMU basketball coach Larry Brown is 75 years young, and a great basketball coach. What he is not, and has never been, is a slave to the rules established by the NCAA.

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In Brown’s first two turns as a college coach, his programs were cited for NCAA violations. UCLA’s NCAA Championship appearance in 1980 was vacated because two players were used despite being ineligible. At Kansas, a potential transfer was allegedly given a plane ticket by Brown to visit his ailing grandmother.

Who can blame a coach for empathizing with a kid in need with a sick grandma? Buying the plane ticket won’t keep Brown out of heaven, but it was an NCAA violation.

Two college jobs – two NCAA rips.

Fast forward 25 years to 2012, and Brown was back in business as the head coach at SMU. No one can teach basketball like Brown, but his priorities have never included compliance with a book full of rules – and many of the rules college coaches are held responsible for following are seen by many as worth ignoring.

There was zero chance Brown had suddenly decided at the age of 72 to embrace the concept of following rules that might stand in the way of winning. As i mentioned earlier, that’s not the way human beings are wired.

So when reports surfaced that an SMU assistant basketball coach was accused of completing high school course work for a student in an effort to make him eligible to contribute to the culture of winning Brown was trying to install, no one but the boobery at SMU responsible for employing Brown were surprised.

And so the NCAA has suspended Brown for nine games, imposed a postseason ban for 2016, and stripped of three scholarships for each of the next three seasons.

SMU’s defense of Brown has included the “He’s an old man who forgets things” gambit, which was unsuccessfully employed by Jerry’s Uncle Leo on “Seinfeld”.

It’s not likely to be any more effective for Larry than for Leo.

None of this makes Brown a bad guy – just an inattentive one. Allowing a set of rules to determine how he coaches young men on the basketball court is not in Brown’s character. It wasn’t in 1980 or 1986, and it sure isn’t today.

None of this shames Brown, and it shouldn’t. He is who he is. The fault here is with the poor students of history among SMU leaders who determined Brown was the right man to lead the Mustangs from entrenched irrelevance.

Incredibly, SMU president R. Gerald Turner not only runs the university but sits as co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. If anyone should have shown the foresight needed to avoid hiring a win-first coach like Brown, it’s Turner.

The goal of the Knight Commission as stated in its website is “to ensure that intercollegiate athletics programs operate within the educational mission of their colleges and universities.” Nice words until a staff member of the program under the watchful eye of the co-chair of the august group of nincompoops starts fulfilling the educational mission with his own work.

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The endless hypocrisy of the addlepated rubes who argue that education is the primary mission of college athletics is, well, endless, bottomless, and boundless. Of course, Turner claims no responsibility for the mess, and absolves Brown from any blame. He says the wrongdoers are no longer employed at SMU, and that the culture of compliance is strong.

Of course, he says that.

What SMU isn’t – despite this latest episode? Willing to say goodbye to a coach whose work helped return the university to national media prominence because he is a talented basketball coach.

Yeah, college sports is all about education. Sure it is.

Ten Reasons why you should watch the Indiana Fever play in the WNBA Finals

by Kent Sterling

Stephanie White is a really good basketball coach – not a really good women’s basketball coach.

Sure, they are a lot of options for your live and televised sports viewing right now. The Colts are in a state of virtual chaos, IU is undefeated entering Big Ten play for the first time since 1987, the faster and younger Pacers open preseason play Saturday, Notre Dame is a national champion contender, Indiana high school football has never been more competitive, and the Cubs are rolling into the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

But the Indiana Fever heading into the WNBA Finals for the third time in their history is worth a look, and not just during the commercials of your first choice.

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Here are 10 reasons the Fever are worth your time:

10 – The Fever have lost the first game of the best-of-three series (lose two and go home) and bounced back to overcome those deficits. Going 4-0 in elimination games shows great resilience, and we like resilience.

9 – Bankers Life Fieldhouse is the best basketball arena in America, and any reason to head there for an event is a good one.

8 – The fans are passionate as well. There aren’t as many fans at game as for Pacers games, but it gets fun and loud during Fever games.

7 – Kelly Krauskopf has led the Fever since day one, and has built the team into a potential champion for an entire generation. She has exhibited the leadership necessary to put a franchise in position to win. In great franchises – owners own, managers manage, and coaches coach. Sounds like the Fever to me.

6 – Whether basketball is played by women or men; it is basketball, and we love watching basketball in Indiana.

5 – The Fever sent Bill Laimbeer (the coach of the New York Liberty) home, and any team that can ruin a single day of Bill Laimbeer’s life is worthy of a basketball fan’s respect. Going to a game to thank them is a principled investment of our time.

4 – No major league team in Indianapolis since the ABA Pacers has been as successful in the playoffs.

3 – The games last a very manageable two hours. I love college football, and will be in Bloomington Saturday for the Indiana vs. Ohio State game, but damn, those games regularly last four hours, and that’s too long. Fever games jam all the excitement into half the time. That efficiency deserves our attendance.

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2 – The likes of Tamika Catchings will not be seen in the WNBA once she retires after the 2016 season. She is the Henry Aaron of the WNBA and the marquee name that will be associated with the Fever forever. If you haven’t seen her play, you should. She is not only a great player, but a warrior and a generous person.

1 – Stephanie White is as good a basketball coach as there is in a state that loves basketball more than any another. Writing that she could very easily slide over and successfully coach men might be viewed as an insult to women’s basketball, but it’s absolutely true. She is smart as hell, has an innate sense for the game, is secure in her leadership, and communicates exceptionally well with players.