Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Pacers – 2000 Pacers vs. 2014 Pacers; it’s closer than you might think

by Kent Sterling

Both Pacers teams finished the regular season 56-26, one team still with several young parts, and the other on its last legs before being disbanded.

2000 was the year a team that had been together for several years finally got over the hump to earn the only trip in the NBA Finals in franchise history, and 2014 started like the season the Pacers might return (and still might).

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It’s hard to accurately compare two teams by breaking them down to their essential parts, but that’s all we really have to go by. The chemistry that leads some teams to win is impossible to measure, so let’s match them up position by position and see who comes out on top.

Point Guard – Mark Jackson (34) vs. George Hill (27)

This is tough because Jackson was a real point guard, and Hill doesn’t even like to be referred to as a point guard. George Hill is a slightly more productive scorer and gives the Pacers more minutes, but Jackson was an outstanding facilitator who averaged eight assists per game. Hill finished third on the Pacers in assists per 36 minutes with 3.9. On the other side of the ball, Jackson was not a great defender at any point during his career, but at 34 had slowed. Hill is a solid if unspectacular defender.

My pick: Jackson

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Shooting Guard – Reggie Miller (34) vs. Lance Stephenson (23)

Miller is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Lance Stephenson is still finding his way to be a consistent and mature presence on the floor. When Miller was 23, this would have been a much closer comparison, but that isn’t the job here. From a statistical perspective, the comparison is closer than you might guess. Miller’s per 36 minutes averages in the regular season – 17.7 pts, 2.9 rebs, 2.3 ass., and 1.6 TOs. Stephenson’s were 14.1 pts., 7.3 rebs., 4.7 ass., and 2.7 TOs. Not factored into the equation is Reggie’s propensity to hit the big shot(s), leadership, and other intangibles, but he wins the battle regardless.

My pick: Miller

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Small Forward – Jalen Rose (27) vs. Paul George (23)

I was surprised that Rose led the Pacers in scoring, and even more surprised I didn’t remember that. Rose was a very solid piece of the Pacers puzzle for a five-plus years, and George is headed for the rarified air of being a guy whose number someday hangs from the rafters in Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Rose never made an all-star team, while George has earned a spot on the last two. Per 36 minutes, Rose averaged 17.6 pts., 4.7 rebs., 3.9 ass., and 1.0 steals. George averaged 21.6 pts., 6.7 rebs., 3.5 ass., and 1.9 steals Rose was a good defender, but George is elite – finishing third the last two seasons in defensive rating.

Advantage: George

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Large Forward – Dale Davis (30) vs. David West (33)

These are two very different guys playing the same position. Davis didn’t need to score for the 2000 Pacers to win, but West is a key component of a team offensive concept who averaged 16.3 pts., 7.9 rebs., and 3.2 ass per 36 minutes. Davis averaged 12.6 pts., 12.3 rebs., and 1.1 ass. What elevates West to the win is his leadership. I don’t know what kind of hijinks the young guys might have been responsible for without their big brother watching, and I’m glad I don’t. West is a steadying influence on this team in a way that Davis did not need to be. In his role, Davis was very effective, but West’s role on and off the court is bigger.

Advantage: West

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Center – Rik Smits (33) vs. Roy Hibbert (27)

This was the Dutchman’s last campaign, and Hibbert is in the middle of his prime. Recent bi-polar production notwithstanding, Hibbert was surprisingly close to Smits in scoring. Pacers fans remember Smits knocking down shot after shot from 16-20 feet, and are currently quite frustrated with Hibbert after a miserable Game Five, but that doesn’t change the regular season numbers. First, Hibbert averaged 6.3 more minutes per game than Smits. Contributing is tough from the bench. Smits’ raw per game averages – 12.9 pts., 5.1 rebs., and 1.3 blocks. Hibbert – 10.8 pts., 6.6 rebs., and 2.2 blocks. Smits had 28 double digit game scores (which basketball-reference.com uses to calculate the positive impact a player has on the game) during the regular season while Hibbert had 30 (22 in the first half of the season; eight in the second). Hibbert is an elite defender when he plays well.

Advantage: Hibbert – because this isn’t about who I would rather have tonight, but who had the most impact on the Pacers for the entire season.

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Bench – The 2000 group had old pros who were excellent role players like Chris Mullin and Sam Perkins, and a couple of younger guys like Travis Best and Austin Croshere. The 2014 team uses veterans like Ian Mahinmi, Luis Scola, C.J. Watson, and Evan Turner. Scola has been a great get for the Pacers, averaging 16.1 pts and 10.1 rebs per 36 minutes, but it’s hard to compete with a group that includes great players like Mullin and Perkins.

Advantage: 2000 Pacers bench

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Coaching – Larry Bird vs. Frank Vogel is a tough call. It’s hard to judge which coach is best based upon watching games and the end of practices. They are entirely different guys. Bird had a veteran group of pros. Vogel has worked to develop a significant number of young players. For the current Pacers, Vogel is the better coach. For the 2000 team, Bird was perfect.

Advantage: Draw

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Indy 500 – Remember – qualifications format is different for 2014 – Pole Day is Sunday

by Kent Sterling

This is the fun part of the month of May at the IMS. Getting there is half the fun, but knowing what is going on this Saturday and Sunday requires a little reading.

When it comes to figuring out what’s going on this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, don’t be a dumbass like I was until an hour ago.

In this morning’s Breakfast with Kent, I blathered on about the weather a bit, and closed by saying people in central Indiana should head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday for Pole Day.

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For a very long time, the pole was awarded to the fastest car on the first Saturday of qualifications. This year, as I was reminded by the great Sam Rogian, pole position is now on earned on Sunday. What happens on Saturday? Good question.

Here is how the qualification format will operate this year:

Saturday – 11 a.m.

All entries are guaranteed one qualifying attempt. At the conclusion of those attempts, positions 31-33 are provisional and those cars, plus any entry not in the field that has declared its intent to qualify, will participate in a separate qualification session Sunday, May 18 to determine the 11th row.

Multiple attempts are permitted without withdrawing a previous time.

The fastest nine entries advance to Sunday’s Fast Nine Shootout.

Sunday – 12:45 p.m.

Saturday qualifying times are erased and entries that did not transfer to the Fast Nine Shootout must make another four-lap qualifying attempt to determine their starting position. Group one determines starting positions 10-30, and Group Two 31-33. If there are only 33 entries, the two groups will be combined. Each entry is guaranteed one attempt, with order based on slowest to fastest from Saturday qualifying.

Sunday 2 p.m.

The Fast Nine must make one more four-lap qualifying attempt in the order of slowest to fastest to determine starting position including the pole.

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Let’s break this down into its important parts – Saturday only separates the field into three groups – the Fast Nine, positions 10-30, and positions 31-33, but if there are only 33 cars, it’s separated into two – Fast Nine and the rest.

Sunday is where the field runs for starting position.

The question is now the same as it has always been, why is this system so complicated? Well, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would like fans to come out to the “World’s Greatest Race Course” as many times as possible, rather than just once.

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Not too many years ago, the quals format needlessly covered four days. Now, it’s two. While the two-day format is half as silly as the four-day format, it is still twice as long as is logically needed to determine which cars will start where.

The only Saturday drama will be in which cars are in the top nine, and which are 10th-and-slower.

At some point, the inertia that prevents a concentrated and dramatic format for qualifications will wane, and logic will finally prevail at 16th and Georgetown. At least we can hope it happens.

If I forgot about the change in format, you can bet thousands of others will show up Saturday with a cooler of beer and sandwiches ready to watch Pole Day as it existed for the past few years with the Fast Nine shootout at the end of the day. They are going to leave wondering just what the hell they saw.

On Sunday, the traditional Bump Day that featured very few if any bumps from the field over the past few years, fans will see something that qualifies as interesting. Not sure why anyone – other than car owners – would be transfixed by the Group One battle for positions 10-33. The run among the Fast Nine should be reasonably compelling.

What goes on at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway between the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indy 500 could be squeezed very comfortably into three or four days from Thursday through Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, but that would reduce revenue generation opportunities. Offering up ideas to make less money, even in the name of common sense, are not welcomed in many conference rooms.

The smart people at the IMS know that building a better, less complicated, more fan-friendly mouse trap would be very simple, but it’s going to take some odd evolutions to finally get to where a concentrated weekend of action is what is enacted. People in charge will have to be convinced that more money will pour in over less days to get that done.

In the meantime, make sure you know what you will see on Saturday and Sunday – a full week prior to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Chicago Cubs idiocy extends to painting iconic marquee green

by Kent Sterling

This image from the Chicago Sun-Times says it all.

Wrigley Field is baseball’s inflatable sex toy. Squint and it looks good enough, but there is nothing inside to compel interest.

When the Oakland A’s grew mustaches in the early 1970s, it was cool because they were the best team in baseball. When the Boston Red Sox grew beards last season, it worked because they won. Seats on the Green Monster changed tradition, but the Red Sox were preparing to win a championship, so fans embraced it.

The Cubs are altering the look of Wrigley Field and players are growing odd shaped hair on their heads and faces, and are thought to be idiots because they are losing in historic numbers. It appears to those on the outside that more thought is being given to celebrating the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field than building a respectable team, and that players are better at adjusting their coiffure than playing baseball.

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Latest in the string of indignities is painting the iconic marquee that overlooks the intersection of Clark and Addison. The new color is fern green, which is the same as when the sign was installed in 1934. Obviously, this isn’t the first time it has been painted or structurally changed.

Electronic signage was inserted into the middle over a decade ago, and the sign was briefly painted purple in 2010 for the ill-conceived and poorly executed Northwestern vs. Illinois football game – one of the first boondoggles that signaled the impending idiocy of the Ricketts Regime.

The sign actually wasn’t painted red until the 1960s, and fans would have much less an issue with any of the clever tips of the cap to the history of the ballpark if the onfield product had been assembled with the same creative passion.

Whatever the cause for the pitiful execution of the field, the Cubs are a terrible baseball team very likely to finish with 90+ losses for the fourth straight season, which would guarantee the worst four-year run in the history of the franchise that has long been renown as the lovable losers of American sports.

There are signs of improvement – through 38 games Anthony Rizzo has more walks than strikeouts (27 and 26) and an on base percentage of .396. Starlin Castro is back on the track that made him a slightly above average shortstop in 2012, rather than a poor one in 2013.

The front office continues to point to the minor league system as a source of hope, and while Kris Bryant is tearing the Southern League apart with 11 home runs, 33 RBI, and an OPS of 1.045, others like Javier Baez (11 hits and 43 strikeouts in 102 ABs) and Albert Almora (.258 BA and .670 OPS at high-A Daytona) are languishing. Jorge Soler has seven doubles in 22 ABs in Tennessee as a teammate of Bryant’s, but to say help is on the way is assuming facts not yet in evidence.

Maybe team president Theo Epstein is a really smart guy, and fans won’t give a damn one way or another what color the marquee is in 2020 when all of that young talent is on display inside Wrigley Field instead of scattered around the minor league system.

Today, all fans know is what they see, and even with the +3 markup on a 1-10 scale for those who are deep into a day or night of Old Style, the Cubs are a four at best. The Cubs are literally the slump-busters of baseball.

Nate Schierholtz, Darwin Barney, and Mike Olt are all starters hitting .200 or below, and management continues to try to shoehorn Luis Valbuena into the lineup despite no obvious reason. Tickets are sold at a premium, and there will surely be another sell off of valuable parts in July, including winless ace Jeff Samardzija.

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If Samardzija was paying for tickets rather than cashing $5.34 million for his work this season, he would be the most pitiable man in Chicago. Through eight starts, Samardzija has an ERA of 1.45 and a WHIP of 1.054 but zero wins. In five of those starts, Samardzija has allowed a combined two earned runs in 36 innings. Only for the Cubs could a pitcher languish like that. He has every reason to be miserable, but not more that the fans who suffer through every loss, and are lighter in the wallet for it.

So the Cubs slap some green paint on the marquee. Brian Schlitter grows his hair and beard like George Harrison in the late 1960s. Samardzija continues to rock the Joey Ramone look. And the Cubs continue to lose.

Maybe style over substance is good enough for fans of a team where winning is of no immediate importance to ownership.

NCAA does the right thing and allows Boise State to help homeless recruit

by Kent Sterling

Antoine Turner benefitted today from the swift and sure movement of the NCAA. I have never written a sentence quite like that.

The great Pauly Balst called and texted this morning demanding that something be done to help Boise State football recruit Antoine Turner. The kid is homeless, and living in a car until he is allowed to report to campus.

“We need to put him up until he gets to report to Boise. Get a hold of somebody, and we can do it right under the NCAA’s noses at your place in the home town of the NCAA,” Balst frantically pleaded.

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Research commenced, and wheels were put in motion to provide all assistance necessary. Then the NCAA did the right thing. They approved a waiver that will allow Turner to head to the land of blue turf prior to the pre-prescibed date for incoming athletes to report.

For those who missed the story, Turner has a difficult relationship with his dad, his mother died from cancer when he was four, and Hurricane Katrina killed his uncle. That left him on park benches before enrolling at Fullerton Junior College, where he either lived in his girlfriends car or a cheap hotel (when he could afford one) after government regulations required he leave his girlfriend’s place because of government subsidized housing regulations.

KTVB reporter Jay Tust did the initial story that featured extended interviews with the apparently guileless Turner, whose life has required remarkable strength in overcoming adversity.

Someone needed to do something, Balst insisted, and the NCAA must have felt the same way.

We spend a lot of time bitching and moaning about the NCAA, their arcane rules, and tectonic pace in changing them. The bureaucratic hijinx the members of the NCAA require of its oversight organization can be among the most embarrassing inside or outside of sports. It’s easy to mock them because they embody all that is worthy of mockery.

But today, the NCAA acted quickly and properly. Enforcing a doctrine that would require a sweet kid to live in a car for an additional two weeks when with the stroke of a pen they could relieve his pain and potential peril would have been insane.

Good for the NCAA. There might be hope for logic to invade college athletics after all.

Balst is less than thrilled that he and I will not be responsible for straightening out this mess, but NCAA President Mark Emmert mounted his white horse before we even saddled ours.

NCAA releases APRs – Big Ten rankings: Northwestern leads football; Indiana tops hoops

by Kent Sterling

Austin Etherington, Will Sheehey, Jeff Howard, and Taylor Wayer received their degrees, and helped maintain the basketball program’s academic perfection as measured by the NCAA.

When I was a student, as long as I did my work, report cards were a lot of fun. If I made choices that kept me away from work, I sweated out mail delivery everyday until the bad news came.

Today is a lot like that for athletic directors across the country as Academic Progress Rates for all programs at all schools are released. For schools like Indiana with perfect 1,000s across 15 programs for the 102-2013 academic year, today is a good day. For the Alabama States and Florida A&Ms of the world, with postseason bans in men’s basketball and football, today is no fun.

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Once, in Journalism Law, I wrote a paper I was proud of, but when it was handed back I opened it to see a big red F on the front. My topic was not quite close enough to the broad subject assigned. I spoke to the professor later, and received a B after convincing him that the work was mine.

I felt miserable seeing the F. Southern University likely feels like that today after all teams were ruled ineligible for the postseason “due to unusable data.” Guessing that means the forms were completed incorrectly. Yikes! If the academic folks in the athletic department are unable to submit usable data, how good could the education at Southern be?

Here are the Big Ten rankings in football and men’s basketball (930 is the threshold for postseason eligibility, and 1,000 is a perfect score):

Football

Northwestern 991
Wisconsin 989
Nebraska 980
Michigan 975
Indiana 972
Ohio State 972
Iowa 969
Michigan State 962
Minnesota 962
Purdue 961
Illinois 957
Penn State 954

Basketball

Indiana 1,000
Michigan 990
Purdue 985
Michigan State 980
Northwestern 980
Ohio State 977
Wisconsin 975
Iowa 971
Peen State 964
Minnesota 960
Illinois 957
Nebraska 947

These scores are four-year averages. The easiest math is for Indiana hoops – this is the fourth straight year that Indiana basketball has put up a perfect score in basketball. Fifteen of the 24 programs at IU posted perfect scores for the 2012-2013 academic year, and four enjoy 1,000 scores over the last four.

The benchmark for postseason eligibility jumped from a four-year average of 900 to 930, or an average of 940 over the last two years. For the 2014-2015 season, 36 teams face postseason bans. In football, Alabama State, Florida A&M, Mississippi Valley State, Prairie View A&M, St. Francis of Pennsylvania, Savannah State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Idaho, and UNLV are ineligible.

Alabama State, Appalachian State, Florida A&M, Houston Baptist, Lamar, San Jose State, Central Arkansas, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee are ineligible for the postseason in men’s basketball.

The APR is calculated in this way – each student-athlete earns one point for getting good grades and one point for staying in school or graduating each semester. The total points earned are then divided by the total possible points and multiplied by 1,000 to get the final APR for that semester.

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This is not a perfect barometer for academic achievement as the system can be gamed, but schools only hurt their own athletes by engaging in that practice. What the APR system should be is a goal for schools and a measuring stick for recruits who want to make sure a school is committed to fulfilling their part of the bargain in providing an education in exchange for the work required as an athlete.

Indiana Pacers vs. Washington Wizards – Like most sequels, last night’s sucked

by Kent Sterling

David West is flummoxed, and so are fans. Tomorrow night, one way or another Pacers fans will be baffled.

Make no mistake – I want the Indiana Pacers to win their current series against the Washington Wizards, and then beat the Miami Heat (what, you think Brooklyn has a chance to win three straight?), but this is exhausting.

The Pacers appear to be a bunch of good and earnest guys who want nothing more than to win, but have great difficulty marshaling the necessary effort to compete at the highest level from one night to the next.

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They are fascinating. They are maddening. They are unpredictable. They are compelling as hell.

Every game is like the sequel to the previous game, and tomorrow night we get to see the premiere of Indiana Pacers ’14 XIII. Sequels other than “The Godfather II” are all redundant re-visits that never measure up to the original. The 13th edition of Pacers vs. Wizards will have no problem exceeding Pacers fans’ expectations generated by the 12th.

“Caddyshack II,” “Jaws II,” “Porky’s II,” “Dumb and Dumberer,” “The Next Karate Kid,” and “Blues Brothers 2000” are among the worst offenders of filmed brand extension cash grabs. Fans of the Pacers are being subjected to an unending barrage of sequels that are alternately thrilling and exhausting.

If games were movies, last night’s Game Five between the Pacers and Wizards would be titled “Pacerbusters – Gortat’s Return”

The Wizards are a reasonable facsimile of an NBA playoff team with a couple of legit talents and some journeymen brewed into a functional stew by Randy Wittman, but they aren’t legit villains. LeBron James, now there’s a villain! Bradley Beal and Marcin Gortat seem like nice guys who are as schizoid as the Pacers.

This series is “The Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue,” but with the cast of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” as a collective Freddy. And it’s no different from the perspective of Wizards fans.

Adjustments made by either Pacers coach Frank Vogel or Wittman should be via a psychiatrist. Gortat with 2 points in Game Four followed by last night’s 31 or Lance Stephenson putting up his first doughnut in the rebounding category in the 90 games he has played this season cannot be explained through typical basketball schematics.

That Roy Hibbert played terribly in both games one & five, and like an all-star in the other three defies explanation, but Paul George’s malaise last night might have been predetermined by his extended minutes and effort in Game Four. Nah, that’s way too logical to be true.

Maybe this whole season has been an extended version of “Hamlet” with Paul George as the troubled prince, Stephenson and Hibbert as comic relief Rosencrantz and Gildenstern. David West is the passionate Laertes. George Hill isn’t exactly Hamlet’s best friend Horatio, but he’s close enough. And Larry Bird is Claudius, the king.

To be or not to be will be the question answered tomorrow and perhaps Sunday night as the Wizards and Pacers continue their arduous and seemingly never ending battle to determine which team is weirder.

There is madness, physical battle, backbiting, potential loss of wealth, and failure for one of the teams. Whether moving on to the next round is a just result for either team is debatable, but NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is not going to step in and mandate neither team advance.

And that’s a good thing because the Pacers are going to beat the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. How do I know that? Because it would be the most confounding result possible, and the ability to astonish is the Pacers defining trait.

Indiana Pacers fail to close out Washington Wizards – and then some – in 102-79 Game Five loss

by Kent Sterling

Marcin Gortat would fit right in with the Pacers – one game he struggles to score two points. Tonight, he threw in 31.

Anyone who wondered if the Indiana Pacers were capable of playing poorly again after three straight wins over the Washington Wizards got a resounding answer tonight in the form of a 102-79 beat down that wasn’t that close.

When the game ends with seldom seen Pacers Lavoy Allen and Donald Sloane on the floor, either the game was a joyous romp or an exercise in misery. Misery is not a strong enough word to describe what Pacers fans felt as they started leaving Bankers Life Fieldhouse early in the fourth quarter.

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The rebounding difference was grotesque throughout the game. At halftime, the Wizards owned a 32-11 advantage on the glass. For those who thought it couldn’t get worse, the third quarter proved them very wrong, as the Wizards blew that gap to a crazy 50-15. The offensive rebound difference was 17-4, and on the defensive glass it was a horrifying 33-11.

The final deficit of 62-23 was artificially shrunk by a late surge by the Pacers bench players in mop up minutes. For the third time in five games against the Wizards, the Pacers tied a franchise postseason record low of four offensive boards.

After three quarters, Marcin Gortat out rebounded the entire Pacers team 16-15. Wowsers. Maybe Wilt Chamberlain accomplished that a handful of times, but I’ve never seen it.

Gortat is a study of inconsistency himself, and tonight good Gortat showed up, leading all scorers with 31 points, hitting 13-15 field goal attempts. This splendid game came immediately on the heels of scoring two points and grabbing four rebounds on Sunday.

So there will be a Game Six, and God only knows what it might hold for the Pacers or Wizards. Both teams are more than capable of playing very well or terribly, and guessing which either will do from one game to the next is as foolish as fans felt tonight for their confidence in the Pacers ability to end this series in five.

Only eight times in 200+ NBA playoff series has the team down 3-1 come back to win a series, but the Pacers did not appear to be a team ready to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals. Anyone who wants to put money on the Wizards to take the final two games of the series better find someone who was otherwise predisposed when this game was played.

Anyone who watched this slop will not be eager to invest in the Pacers fortunes. Two Pacers finished in double figures – Paul George with 15 and David West with 17. West led rebounders with six. Four Pacers shared the team lead with three assists.

As awful as the Wizards looked in their 85-63 Game Three loss at home, the Pacers were at least that putrid tonight. The effort was sporadic, and shots that normally fall somehow stayed out, usually being gobbled up by the hungrier Gortat or Trevor Ariza, who finished with 10 boards.

And so the schizophrenic Pacers season continues. Their behavior is as impossible to predict as the moods of a menopausal woman – no offense, honey! The rolling waves of gleeful and forlorn play are enough to require fans to gobble dramamine like tic-tacs, and if a wave doesn’t carry the Pacers to Game Six glory, coach Frank Vogel might be accused of going all George Clooney on this “Perfect Storm” of a series.

Thursday night at 8p, the next chapter of this dizzying saga will be unveiled, and if the Pacers don’t right the ship, the second home Game Seven in the NBA history of the franchise will be played. It will also be the second in the last two weeks.

Indiana Basketball – This is a make or break year for Tom Crean

by Kent Sterling

Tom Crean is heading into the most important year of his tenure at IU, just like every next year is.

[Editor’s note: This is an odd time to opine about the future of Tom Crean at Indiana, but their are only so many days that I can write twice or more about the Indiana Pacers and Donald Sterling. I assume readers might be a little Donald Sterling fatigued themselves.]

Like it or not, we are in the midst of an era where immediate gratification in collegiate athletics is all that matters, and forgiveness comes in short supply.

When a basketball program like Indiana University’s has expectations driven by the five National Championship banners hanging in Assembly Hall, and is paying its coach more than $3-million per year to run a top performing program, judgment comes quickly – and in bulk.

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At the point Tom Crean came to Bloomington to right the wrongs caused by Kelvin Sampson’s arrogant indifference to NCAA rules and Indiana University’s heritage of doing things right that took decades to build, he was allowed great latitude to build as he saw fit without fans and boosters sweating the immediate results.

That honeymoon period has officially ended. Fans want production. They want wins. They want banners, and not the kind that come with a trip to the Sweet 16 or an NIT Championship.

Whether that demand is reasonable isn’t the issue (the word ‘reasonable’ is not often associated with its fans). Nor is whether athletic director Fred Glass shares the fans’ need for wins and titles, or is willing to see Indiana simply adhere to the rules, achieve perfect 1,000 APRs, and graduate players.

Athletic directors rarely back coaches to their own detriment, and if the mediocrity represented by Indiana’s 17-15 record and absence of an invitation to either the NCAA or NIT continues for another year without a change in coach, the angst and impatience fans feel for Crean will begin to migrate to Glass.

As ridiculous as it would be for Indiana fans to see Glass through a negative lens, it is human nature for passionate people to continue up the ladder of blame until they receive the level of redress they seek.

Crean’s seat is warm and the temperature is not going to decrease without wins against teams more formidable that Chicago State, Samford, and North Florida. Another 7-11 record in the Big Ten with only one scholarship currently available for the 2015-2016 freshman class is going to be, in the words of Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in Tombstone, “More than he can bear.”

Indiana’s backcourt should be formidable with Yogi Ferrell, Troy Williams, and Stanford Robinson returning, and ESPN 100 recruits James Blackmon Jr. and Robert Johnson arriving. That’s good.

A decided lack of size might not be so good. Hanner Mosquera-Perea has played 338 minutes in his career, Peter Jurkin has played 18 – not per game, but total in his two-year career. Incoming freshmen Jeremiah April and Tim Priller appear to be projects. That’s not so good.

Let’s address and dispense with some of the less logical criticisms of Crean:

He can’t develop big men – Fans point to players like Cody Zeller and Noah Vonleh leaving as evidence that Crean can’t get the most out of big men when their being drafted early is evidence of the contrary. It would be ridiculous to give 100% of the credit to Crean for Zeller and Vonleh being so coveted by the NBA, but no more ludicrous than grading him down because of it.

Player arrests for charges show lack of control – No one is going to stop college students who want to drink from drinking. It’s what they do. The stupidity of two underage celebrities trying to get into to a bar on Little 500 weekend when excise cops are everywhere is a crime against logic, but nothing more. As for Mosquera-Perea’s DUI, the two-game suspension was far too light. Unlike Ferrell and Robinson’s transgressions, DUI is not a victimless crime.

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Crean doesn’t know basketball – This is just bananas. Basketball is far too simple a game for a guy who has made a handsome living coaching it for 20 years not to possess an understanding of it. You may not agree with his in-game adjustments, but that does not equate to a lack of understanding – at least not from Crean.

Tranfers show players are disgruntled – Players have transferred in ever increasing numbers from every program in the country, and which of this year’s would you grouse about. Austin Etherington has earned his degree from IU and wants to play close to home. Truth be told, Etherington saw a logjam in the backcourt and knows minutes will be difficult to come by. Great kid, earned his degree, wants to play more. I applaud the decision, and don’t hold it against Crean. Jeremy Hollowell is off to Georgia State, which is a win-win. Indiana gets a scholarship back from a recruiting error it made, and Hollowell gets to play against lesser players and coaches with a better chance at success. The two I am not crazy about are walk-ons Jonny Marlin and Joe Fagan. Walk-ons play for the love of the game, and if they leave, it means they stopped loving it. The effect their departure has during games will be negligible, but from the outside looking in, it’s a little troubling.

Kenny Johnson leaving will kill recruiting – Nothing against Johnson, but where is the evidence that he was a boon to recruiting. Sure, Indiana netted some east coast guys for whom it might not have been in the game otherwise, but if east coast success comes at the expense of maintaining a foothold in Indiana, that’s not a step in the right direction. If Johnson being seen as essential equates to Indiana’s admission of difficulty in locking down players like Gary Harris, Zak Irvin, Trey Lyles, and Trevon Bluiett – that is an issue. Indiana cannot hang banners without winning in-state recruiting battles.

The Tom Crean Era at Indiana has had some good and some not so good. Those clamoring for his dismissal are ignoring a lot of positives, and those showing unabashed support are blind to some negatives. The scales are relatively close to balanced right now.

If Indiana resumes winning at the Notre Dame level – 20-22 wins and a bid to the NCAA Tourney – a step in the right direction should be acknowledged and rewarded with more time (not another premature extension with huge buyouts). Another 7-11 Big Ten record, and Glass will have to be proactive in assessing who might be available and enthusiastic about relocating to Bloomington before making a call on the end of Crean’s tenure.

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Donald Sterling – Can we stop talking about this strange, sad, and ignorant man?

by Kent Sterling

Donald Sterling is pathetic. Okay. Enough.

While Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is certainly a pathetic and twisted wretch of self-immersed putrescence, those who find glee in his extended torment are not much better.

Recognizing this glop of walking and talking misery is not worth the self-congratulatory bloviation we are being subjected to in the media and at the water cooler.

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Sterling is an idiot created by the lack of consequence afforded to the insanely wealthy.

People with over a billion dollars are a strange lot because they are almost never held accountable for their actions or opinions. Many are surrounded by sycophants who are reluctant in the extreme to honestly communicate disappointment.

The result is a small class of people who eagerly embrace their own perceived infallibility. That belief causes leaps into weirdness that defies societal norms. Eventually, the wobble of their own behavioral orbit becomes impossible for others to ignore.

The most interesting part of the Anderson Cooper interview with Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling that aired last night had nothing to do with his vitriolic rant about Magic Johnson or his claims that Jews with money take care of their own. It was the bizarre and sad insistence that the Clippers players and sponsors still love him.

Human behavior becomes unbalanced without occasional corrective measures, and in the case of Sterling, consequence came too late. Now he behaves like a rudderless ship because he is being pilloried for doing, saying, and believing the same things that were allowed from the time he scraped together his first $10-million.

It happens. We see it all the time – the look of confusion from the ultra-rich and famous when they are held accountable by the media for their weirdness. And then they whine about the media, and how it hates them.

The truth is that just as associates and employees have nothing to gain by being critical of their rich boss, the media has everything to gain. Nothing compels listenership, viewership, and readership better than peeling back a PR generated facade to show the strange reality of a self-indulgent man.

We have been riveted by the sad travails of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, and countless others who were granted a pass for their idiocy until it finally caught up with them. And now we stare at Sterling as he crashes and burns.

It would be a giant step forward for our culture if we could shrug at the absurd rants of men like Sterling. They are meaningless non-representative harangues so out of whack with current views on American life that they deserve little notice.

Are we really wiser because of our relentless disdain for Sterling, or are we simply making ourselves feel smarter by pointing to a rich man and shouting “Moron!”

While we correctly drown Sterling in the shame of his ignorance, where have we been over the last 35 years? He’s been a wing nut for decades, and finally we wise up and cast him out. There is some shape in this spectacle for all of us.

This circus surrounding Sterling feels like a business meeting where everyone agrees, and yet it will never end because the participants are so impressed by their own intellectual greatness.

Sterling is an idiot who doesn’t get it, and never will. All agreed, raise your hand. Unanimous. Let’s move on.

Some Indiana high School girls basketball coaches furious over season shift

by Kent Sterling

High school athletics are apposed to be for the kids – not the coaches, not the administrators, and not the IHSAA.

The IHSAA wanted the state championship to be competed for at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, and the schedule as it was caused a conflict with the Big Ten Tournament. In event hosting, Big Ten vs. IHSAA girls is a walkover, so the only option was to shift the season one week earlier.

Also a consideration is the conflict of the girls state finals and the boys sectional finals being contested at the same time. According to the IHSAA, that has caused an erosion in the popularity of the girls event.

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Seems pretty simple, but nothing is simple in the world of high school athletics. You see, under the new schedule the volleyball sectional will be played during the first week of basketball practice, and as you might guess, many tall volleyball players enjoy their roles as tall basketball players.

Therein lies the outrage.

Over the weekend, a flurry of emails regarding the change were initiated by Mark Holt of Barr-Reeve High School, Gary Christlieb of Culver Academy, and responded to by IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox. Below are those three emails:

Fellow Coaches,
I have spent nearly the entire weekend fielding phone calls, emails, and personal conversations from several very angry girls’ basketball coaches.

The reason for their anger is the recent decision to move the girls’ basketball season back a week. (see attached response from Mr. Cox)

On one hand, we totally understand, and support the effort to eliminate the conflict between boys’ sectional finals and girls’ state finals. This is a much needed step to help our sport by allowing girls’ teams to now attend and watch the girls’ state finals and not having to miss their boys’ basketball sectional finals. It also gets the state finals back to Indianapolis where it belongs.

On the other hand, it severely impacts early season development of girls’ basketball teams. We now are scheduled to start basketball practice on the week of girls’ volleyball sectionals. This is totally unacceptable for several reasons.

Primarily, and especially with smaller schools, athletes are shared between girls’ basketball and girls’ volleyball. In my case specifically, 6 of my top 7 girls will be playing volleyball during the first week of basketball practices. Even if they lose in the sectional, it becomes nearly impossible to give them any days off before starting basketball practice which increases physical and especially mental fatigue. Mr. Cox says we can work with the volleyball coaches to share athletes that week. We know that is IMPOSSIBLE. What volleyball coach in their right mind would allow their players to practice basketball during volleyball sectional week and what basketball coach in their right mind would encourage that putting someone else’s players in jeopardy of injury during the state tournament?

Secondly, the girls season is already very condensed as we play the same number of games as boys in less time and now we are going to be shorted even more time by this proposal. This will hurt the quality of girls’ basketball, not just early in the season, as Mr. Cox states, but as we have seen here at Barr-Reeve, with our volleyball team’s post season success, you are playing “catch up” the rest of the year.

Thirdly, I also fear more two-sport athletes will consider playing just one sport with this increased conflict. That is not good for either sport.

I simply don’t see the logic in this move. Why can we not also move volleyball back one week also? That seems to be the easy solution.

I thank you for your time and consideration of this matter. This is going to be a strongly contested issue as the girls’ basketball coaches around the state are outraged and bonding together to chart their course of protest. Please get out in front of this issue and help the IHSAA set this right.
Sincerely,
Mark L. Holt
Barr-Reeve High School
Girls’ Varsity Basketball Coach

Coaches,

As some of you may or may not be aware, I sent an email to Commissioner Cox regarding concerns I had over the recent decision of the calendar move for the girls basketball season. Below is his response to those concerns. In speaking with Marty Johnson of the IBCA, he mentioned the cycle for proposing changes to team sports will be in two years since this decision occurred this year and individual sports occur next year. However, any principal can make a proposal to the IHSAA at any time and seek to amend the by-laws which would seem the most effective way to redress this decision. In reading and trying to understand the comments below, I think the IHSAA believes they are making an attempt to grow the girls state finals and truly believes this is the way to accomplish that task, although in a narrow minded perspective. I do believe the Commissioner misses the point and his rationale does not convince me that this decision is good for girls athletics and basketball in particular.

The voice now needs to be collective and not individual. I think the next step in this process would be to have the IBCA and the ICGSA share with the IHSAA our dissatisfaction and task school administrators to make a proposal on behalf of girls athletics as a whole. The school administrators truly have the power in this process and are the significant body to exact change. I apologize if you receive this email multiple times. I am trying to reach as many as possible on the girls side and have combined a few mass emails. Feel free to forward this onto any other coaches or individuals you would like. Thanks for your time regarding this critical matter and support of girls basketball in Indiana. It is our game and WE need to make the most of it.

Gary Christlieb, Humanities Instructor

CGA Varsity Basketball Coach

Culver Academies

Here is the reply from Cox:

From: Bobby Cox
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2014 10:59 AM
To: Christlieb, Gary
Cc: Lintner, Dean Kathy; Thompson, Matthew; ExecStaff
Subject: Recent Decisions Surrounding Girls’ Basketball

Gary,

I am in receipt of your message to Assistant Commissioner Sandra Walter regarding recent decisions surrounding girls’ basketball and future considerations. I appreciate your concerns and to that extent, wish to respond in an effort to provide you some context and perspective on how our organization arrived at these determinations.

For at least the past 17 seasons, the IHSAA Girls’ State Basketball Championships have been contested on Saturday of Week 35. These championships have been staged in direct conflict with the 64 boys’ sectional finals across our state. Over the course of these past 17 years, our staff and Board of Directors have witnessed a steady decline in interest and attendance in our girls’ basketball program, particularly at the state championship level. While this conflict is viewed as one of the main culprits, there are several other factors that have contributed to the downslide of girls basketball.

As you are keenly aware, the state championships have not been contested in Indianapolis for the past five years. This development occurred when the City of Indianapolis was awarded the contract to host the Big 10 men’s and women’s basketball championships in a renewal of their contracts. The Big 10 negotiated successfully for the city to accept both the men’s and women’s championships together with one caveat. That stipulation was that the women’s tournament must be contested on consecutive days beginning on a Thursday and concluding on a Sunday. This decision effectively caused the IHSAA to lose its date for its girls’ basketball state finals in Conseco Fieldhouse (now Bankers Life Fieldhouse). Subsequently after playing one year in Lucas Oil Stadium, the tournament was moved to Fort Wayne for two seasons and to Terre Haute for three seasons. Our hosts in these two cities delivered outstanding efforts and performed well beyond expectations in hosting these events and the IHSAA has nothing but high praise for the efforts. With that said, contesting our state finals outside the capitol city has hurt attendance and focus on this important championship.

Fortunately for the Association, the girls’ championships may be contested in Bankers Life Fieldhouse during the 2014-15 season without further adjustments as the Big 10 championships will be contested in Chicago. Moving forward, the Big 10 will return to Indianapolis for the 2015-16 season which would once again eradicate the Association from the Fieldhouse. A new option does exist for the Association with the recent completion of the $63 million dollar renovation of the Fairgrounds Coliseum. Our staff has toured this facility multiple times and it is our belief that the venue could host our girls’ championships if necessary. Our concern with a permanent decision of that nature would be the inevitable comparisons between our boys’ and girls’ championships and the potential for someone to view an unequal treatment of these events. Given our primary objective to create the best environment and opportunities for all our championships, moving the girls’ basketball season back one week has proven to be our best option.

In your message, you asked several questions and I want to respond to each of them so that hopefully you and your colleagues can see that this decision was thoroughly studied and communicated with our membership before any decision was finalized. I have reprinted your questions below and have provided a response.

1. How will this affect the multi-sport athlete who plays volleyball and basketball? Will girls now choose one sport over the other due to the overlap and ultimately hurt both sports, particularly in the smaller schools?

I’m not sure shifting a season one week will cause a different decision made by a student athlete on whether she will choose one sport over another. My sense is that when coaches of any sport make the team experience meaningful, worthy and fun, a student will engage in that activity.

2. With the calendar shift and addition of two extra games to the season, will girls in volleyball be at a greater risk of injury at the beginning of the basketball season due to reduced opportunities for proper basketball conditioning?

Currently our rules allow a student that moves directly (within one week) from one sport season to another to only accomplish five separate days of practice under the direct supervision of the coaching staff. This provision has been supported by the Commission on Sports Medicine which receives oversight from the Indiana State Medical Association and is the body where the IHSAA takes its medical guidance. Furthermore given the amount of activity girls in volleyball will maintain during this overlap period and in consideration of the non-school sponsored activities these students accomplish during the school year out of season and in the summer, it is our belief that conditioning is not an issue.

3. Will the shift impact the revenue of the volleyball tournament?

Since there has not been a proposal to either cut or move any portion of the volleyball tournament, I do not think that revenue in the volleyball tournament will be effected in any manner. If there is any negative impact in the volleyball tournament receipts, it reflects directly on the IHSAA budget and that then becomes my concern. Reimbursements to participating member schools in the tournament will not be effected.

4. How will the shift impact the quality of girls’ basketball overall and particularly, at the start of the season?

I do believe for those member schools that have a preponderance of girls that participate in volleyball and then transition to basketball, the early season development may come slower. To that point, let me illustrate that potential conflict.

i. When the Volleyball sectional begins, all 400 member schools that enter the tournament and have girls that are also basketball players will have at least two days of conflict. It does not mean that those girls could not accomplish a basketball practice on that Monday or Tuesday but that would take an increased level of cooperation between the school’s volleyball and girls’ basketball coach.

ii. After Tuesday of Volleyball sectional week, 200 schools are eliminated from the tournament. Those student athletes potentially could have 10 separate days of practice under the direct supervision of the basketball coaching staff implementing the two Saturdays available before a school could engage in their first interscholastic contest.

iii. After Saturday of the Volleyball sectional week, that number drops to 64 schools that maintain a conflict with this decision. Those students could accomplish six separate days of practice under the direct supervision of the basketball coaching staff. In consideration of the provision allowing a student moving directly from one season to another to accomplish only five separate days of practice, none of these students would have to miss a contest.

iv. After Tuesday of the following week, another 32 schools are eliminated from the volleyball tournament. Those student athletes could accomplish four separate days of practice and unless your school schedules your first basketball contest on Monday of the following week, these students would not miss a contest due to practice considerations.

v. Finally, and in fairness of consideration to insure this decision is a comparable overlap, there are 44 schools still participating in the football tournament when boys’ basketball practices begin. After the first week, 22 of those schools are eliminated. After two weeks, 10 more are eliminated from the football tournament. When the boys’ basketball authorized contest season begins, 12 schools vying for a state championship will experience a conflict. For 35 years, member schools have successfully dealt with this conflict and from my personal perspective, I do not believe this conflict has hindered the development or quality of boys’ basketball play in our state for one moment.

5. Is girls’ basketball the only sport which the start date of practice directly conflicts with the sectional of a previous season’s sport?

No. Boys’ and Girls’ Track and Field practices begin the week of the boys’ swimming sectionals and two weeks prior to the beginning of the boys’ basketball sectionals.

6. Since the shift was made to increase the revenue for boys’ basketball, there is growing concern regarding potential Title IX issues among the girls’ coaches.

This change has absolutely nothing to do with revenue for the boys’ tournament. It has everything to do with promoting the girls’ tournament and specifically the state finals. Please remember that member schools receive 98% of the net revenue from the boys’ and girls’ basketball sectionals and the football sectionals. If anything, moving the girls’ state finals off the Saturday where 64 boys’ sectional finals are contested should shift a total focus on the boys’ tournament at the sectional level and help member schools. Finally, in our current format, we allow membership to move their boys’ sectional final if there is a conflict at the girls’ state finals. Those Monday conclusions have traditionally proven to be harmed financially.

Finally, I would relate to your that this conversation about the girls’ basketball season has been discussed thoroughly at our area principal meetings with athletic directors and principals. With any decision of this magnitude, we examine as many perspectives as possible. In the final analysis, a decision to move the girls’ basketball season one week earlier has been deemed the most appropriate decision for the organization.

Thank you for your support of education based athletics in our state.

Sincerely,

Bobby Cox

Commissioner

Indiana High School Athletic Association, Inc.

Anger and outrage leading to a weekend email in response that is reasonable and complete. That’s good communication from all parties, but a resolution that pleases all appears to be an impossibility.

The voices I really want to hear are from the kids, who I imagine aren’t nearly as indignant or greedy as the coaches or administrators. What they really want is to play, and they will be able to do that regardless of the shifting of the season.

The careers of coaches are on the line, and I respect that. Many have families to feed, and if volleyball players bail on hoops because their volleyball team continues past the sectional, they will lose players for a significant period of the season.

Life isn’t perfect or even fair much of the time. If athletic directors and principals approved this plan, the coaches’ beef should be with them – not the IHSAA.