Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Basketball – Assistant coach Kenny Johnson leaving for Louisville is no big deal

by Kent Sterling

Assistant coach Kenny Johnson is off to Louisville, and it might be the best thing that could have happened for Tom Crean and the Hoosiers.

Kenny Johnson decided to chase cash 90 minutes south of Bloomington at the University of Louisville, and the pipeline to solid east coast recruits likely went with him.

So far, Indiana has a 17-15 record and no trip to the NCAA or NIT to show for Johnson’s influx of players from the east, so concern over his departure should be minimal.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

Nothing wrong with a guy selling his services to the highest bidder or chasing greater likelihood of bouncing into a head coaching gig from a team that regularly goes to the NCAA Tournament. And there is also nothing wrong with Tom Crean seeing this as an opportunity to upgrade the staff with someone who can recruit Indiana and bordering states at a more productive rate.

Indiana fans have grown tired of seeing the best in-state talent leave for Kentucky, Michigan State, Michigan, Xavier, Louisville, Ohio State, and beyond. Over the last decade, dozens of pieces to potential championship teams have left – Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Gery Harris, Zak Irvin, Trey Lyles, Trevon Bluiett, Josh McRoberts, Deshaun Thomas, Jeff Teague, and many more have taken their talents outside the borders.

If Indiana is an elite program, as is so often claimed, it needs to start grabbing the best players from Ohio and Michigan, rather than having top Indiana kids poached. Losing an assistant from a staff that authored mediocrity can provide a chance to keep the best and brightest closer to home. If Indiana can’t recruit Indiana, Indiana can’t win.

Johnson was a productive recruiter who was responsible for bringing in Noah Vonleh, Stanford Robinson, Troy Williams, and incoming freshman Robert Johnson. Vonleh is gone to the NBA, and the other three are mostly unknowns in terms of what they will bring to the Hoosiers in the 2014-2015 season.

Click here to call the best dentist in Indianapolis your own – Dr. Mike O’Neil of Today’s Dentistry

Nothing wrong with kids from the east, and Robinson, Williams, and Johnson might be all time greats at IU, but Crean must win the battle for in-state kids. The Hoosiers brand must be dominant close to home if Indiana is going to succeed long term.

If the result of Johnson leaving is hiring a new assistant who can dominate Indiana, today might have be remembered as very good for the Hoosiers.

Indiana Pacers – Why the Pacers will wake up and come out fighting tonight

by Kent Sterling

Frank Vogel isn’tenjoying interactions with media as much as he used to.

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Indiana Pacers were NBA media darlings rolling to 16-1, 33-7, and 46-13 records. Paul George on Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen A. Smith talking to the starting five plus Frank Vogel, and magazine covers extolling the team-first lovefest gave the Pacers the kind of adulation that resulted in routine sellouts at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Since March 2, the Pacers are 10-13, and are being lambasted by the same media and media that pledged so generously their love just weeks ago. Two things compel media consumption – the climb up the mountain and the tumble back down. Rarely do both happen in such a compressed period of time, and still the opportunity exists for the Pacers to find redemption with 12 wins prior to collecting four losses at the wrong time.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

If the reclamation project doesn’t commence immediately with a win in tonight’s Game Two against the Atlanta Hawks, there are going to be consequences – very pragmatic consequences – for the players and coaches.

This is likely not lost on the Pacers players, and it sure as hell is not lost on the coaches. Being a coach in professional or collegiate sports is a brutal career choice with looming disaster around every corner. No NBA coach was safer in his position three months ago than Frank Vogel, and now people talk about his firing being a done deal should the Pacers not rally to beat the eight seeded Hawks.

Lance Stephenson’s free agency leverage would be significantly improved by a trip to the NBA Finals. As the Pacers have shown poor offensive movement, Stephenson has started shooting rather than facilitating. His 18 shots in Game One were likely more an effort to help the team rather than pad stats, but as one of the lowest paid Pacers, Stephenson is looking for a significant raise that will be reduced should his team suffer a first round crap out.

For the first six years of his NBA career, Roy Hibbert has been an enthusiastic fan favorite. His performance during the 2013 playoffs was a primary cause of the Pacers run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Averaging 17 and 10 through the 19-game postseason established Hibbert as one of the best true centers in the league, and his selection to represent the East in this season’s all-star game was supposed to be the first of many honors.

Now, Hibbert is the poster boy for all that has gone wrong. His post-game comment about “some selfish dudes” in the Pacers locker room was ironically seen as the most selfish public act by anyone on the team. His image in Indianapolis might have been corrupted forever should the Pacers lose tonight and blow the series to the 38-44 Hawks.

There is a lot on the line tonight despite the guaranteed contracts for the players. The relentless march in a positive direction by a franchise deliberately rebuilt over a long period of time after the brawl in Detroit and significant behavioral missteps by players who played by their own rules will come to a screeching halt.

And what about Larry Bird’s role in all of this? The Danny Granger trade, the signing of Andrew Bynum, the signings of C.J. Watson and Chris Copeland, and the Gerald Green/Miles Plumlee for Luis Scola will have come into question. All seemed very smart at the time, but the proof is in the pudding for the ticket buying public.

Click here to buy a great hot tub designed and built in Indiana – from Bob Dapper at Royal Spa

For me, I still think this team is in temporary turmoil, and will find a way from the darkness into the light. The Pacers will win tonight, win the series, and then beat the winner of the Wizards vs. Bulls series. If the Heat make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pacers will beat them too, and all this will be forgotten.

The consequences of losing are just too severe to allow the Pacers the option of malaise-ball tonight. Vogel is coaching for his career, and he’ll find a way to put five players on the floor ready to compete.

Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel interview – what if he said all the wrong things?

by Kent Sterling

Frank Vogel is a good guy and coach who deserves a better fate than the one that awaits him if the Pacers don’t find a way to win four games before the Hawks win three. Honest answers like those below won’t help

Indiana Pacers coach is the master of telling the media nothing. For a guy who had very little experience dealing with reporters eager to extract an inflammatory quote, Vogel has never indulged the urge to tell the unvarnished truth.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

If there was ever a day when the media and Pacers fans everywhere would have loved to hear something other than “we’ll see,” “the effort is there,” “we need to go to work to fix our problems,” and “we need to keep Teague out of the paint,” this was it.

Here is the interview Vogel would give if he was questioned under oath:

Q: What do you need to do to change the mojo to win Game Two?

A: Basketball doesn’t have jack to do with mojo. It’s a matter of giving a damn, and these guys played like they were late for a nap Saturday night. That is, unless your nickname for Roy Hibbert’s is “Mojo”, then changing him is easy. I would change him into Ian Mahinmi.

Q: What’s going on with Lance Stephenson shooting the ball 18 times?

A: Do you think Lance doesn’t look at his paycheck? The kid makes five grand over a million, and Hibbert makes over $14 million. Hell, CJ makes more than double what Lance does. Christ, Andrew Bynum has played a total of 36 minutes this season for us, and he makes five thousand a year less than Lance. The kid wants to get paid, so he’s trying to put up big numbers on a big stage.

Sure, he’s shooting himself in the ass because when he shoots 12 or fewer times and has five or more assists, we win and the stage will get nothing but bigger which will mean a bigger paycheck ultimately, but he’s 23 and doesn’t know better.

Q: Can you get Roy Hibbert’s play back to where he was when he was an all-star?

A: That’s his job. I’m a coach, not a babysitter. Roy’s 27-years old, so it’s time for him to grow the hell up or get out. Herb Simon pays him over $150,000 a game to protect the rim and make hook shots. If he needs me to give him a kick in the ass, he should pay me to be his personal sports psychologist.

Q: How do you keep Jeff Teague out of the paint?

A: Did you watch the 30-for-30 on the Bad Boys? I’ll tell you how Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman, and Bill Laimbeer would keep him from getting to the rim. They would knock him on his ass until he put on 20 pounds of muscle or stopped driving. We need to stake our claim to the paint, and enforce it with hard shots to Teague when he’s airborne. Funny what a meaningful consequence does to discourage aggressive offense.

Q: There are rumors that there is a feud between two players over a woman. What can you reveal?

A: That this isn’t the damn fifth grade, that’s what I can reveal! Have you ever seen “Casino”? Ginger asks Nicky to kill Ace, and Nicky says that he’s known Ace for 35 years, and he’s supposed to kill him for some piece of ass. We’re a team. No women get to meddle with that bond!

Q: Are you afraid that your job is in danger if the Pacers don’t get past the Hawks?

A: Afraid? Afraid would imply that there would be any doubt I will be fired if these dunderheads don’t get their heads out of their asses. There is no doubt – none – that I am a ghost if this doesn’t get turned around, and that’s just fine with me. Charles Barkley called us “wussies,” and I have no desire to coach a bunch of ‘wussies.” And I’ll tell you this, Larry Bird isn’t going to hire a different mild-mannered and reasonable guy to replace a mild-mannered and reasonable guy. He’s going to bring in a disciplinarian lunatic like P.J. Carlesimo to run the show. Then they’ll wish they had me for a coach.

National media – Indiana Pacers are a “broken basketball team” full of “wussies”

by Kent Sterling

The Pacers have been so bad recently that bench demeanor of players like Roy Hibbert is being examined.

George Karl believes the Indiana Pacers are a broken team plagued by selfishness and a lack of confidence in the point guard position.

A head coach in the NBA for 25 seasons, Karl’s has no problem evaluating the mood and tenor of an NBA team and honestly sharing his thoughts. The truthfulness that his players respected makes Karl one of the best analysts at ESPN.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

“I think psychologically, they (Pacers) are broken,” Karl said on espn.com. “I think on the offensive side of the court they have lost their trust in one another.

“They’re not passing the ball on time. They’re not passing the ball to the shooters when they are open. They’re not executing their offense to the point where they get open shots,” Karl continued. “If I was the coach I would try to fix the attitude first, and worry about the x’s and o’s later.”

Well, that doesn’t sound good, but it is definitely supported by the way the Pacers have played of the past three months. Those, like me, who thought the Pacers were going to reboot with the beginning of the postseason appeared to be fools Saturday night when the Pacers fell apart in the third quarter.

Colin Cowherd said this morning on ESPN Radio, “If the Indiana Pacers were a TV show, they would be cancelled.”

It’s hard to argue with that given the level of indifference the Pacers showed during the third quarter Saturday when Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap combined to scored 28 points as the Pacers were outscored 30-16.

But I will argue with it. I still believe as the situation becomes more desperate, and the situation will be as desperate as it can get on Tuesday night, the Pacers will find a way to rely upon one another rather than remain selfish. Once that switch flips, the Pacers will embrace all the tactics that made them the NBA’s best team in the first half of the season.

If I’m wrong, and the scarcity of those saying anything near the same thing about the chances of a sudden reversal should tell you how hard it is to imagine a return to selflessness, there will be a lot of questions to be asked and answered be the front office.

What caused the sudden shift in mood and production?
Who is responsible for the selfishness?
Can nice guy Frank Vogel push the right button to get the team back in line?
Should the Pacers re-sign Lance Stephenson?
Did the team peak in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals and first half of 2013-2014?
Is Larry Bird capable of building a championship roster?
LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Isiah Thomas were all within a year of their 28th birthday when they won their first championship. Is it too early to expect Paul George to be that guy for the Pacers until he is closer to 28?
Is Roy Hibbert emotionally broken as a player? Can he be recovered?

There will be plenty of time to ask those questions if the Pacers fail to find the magic formula to right the ship. If they make it to the NBA Finals, no one will remember anything about the last three months.

Click here to buy a great Indiana-made hot tub fromBob Dapper at Royal Spa

When smart people start talking about the Pacers being a broken team or calling them “wussies” as Charles Barkley did yesterday, it’s crazy not to respectfully listen. But I’m betting that they are going to be able to put the team’s pieces back together before it’s too late.

There are too many smart people who know these chances don’t come around every year to allow this gold opportunity pass the Pacers by. If the Atlanta Hawks are good and strong enough to send the Pacers into that good night, Karl and Barkley will have been proven right.

It’s not going to happen.

Indiana Pacers – a decade ago Jeff Teague being a thorn in the Pacers side was unthinkable

by Kent Sterling

Jeff Teague was the most valuable player for the Spiece Indy Heat in 2006. The Heat would spread the floor and let Teague operate. Sound familiar?

As a young basketball player, Jeff Teague was exactly the same as he is today – doesnt really scare you in any way, but he usually found a way to win.

There were very few made three-pointers, no highlight reel dunks, and a stoic look that made those playing against him wonder whether he cared.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

Once you watched him for a few games, the same deadly element that is proving troublesome for the Pacers came into focus – Teague changes speed more quickly than almost anyone in the game, and changing speed is the key to creating space.

How little respect did Teague generate among those who watched? There are 18 high school juniors chosen to compete for the Indiana All-Stars each year. Teague was not among them in 2006. When he committed to Wake Forest, people were stunned, “How can Jeff Teague play in the ACC when he wasn’t one of the best 18 players in his class in the state of Indiana?”

Teague answered by averaging 14 points as a freshman and 19 as a sophomore, and the long distance shooting that was an afterthought for defenders in high school and during the summers became a great weapon as he shot 44% from beyond the arc in his second year.

After stunning the still difficult to convince Indiana brain trust by being drafted 19th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, Teague has increased his value each year. His scoring average has trekked north from 3.2 to 5.2 to 12.6 to 14.6 to 16.5 over his first five years in the NBA, and with it his defense has improved too.

During the offseason in 2013, Teague signed a four-year, $32 million extension. That’s a lot of money for a guy who wasn’t too well respected eight years ago as a junior at Pike.

And now Pacers coach Frank Vogel is spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to keep Teague out of the lane, just like youth coaches did when Teague was 11-years old playing for Riverside.

On Saturday night, Teague scored 15 of his 28 points in the pivotal third quarter that allowed the Hawks to build a 14-point lead heading into the fourth. He did it in the same way he always has – changing speed and playing a tough to defend cerebral game.

The lack of respect continues today as the Indiana hoops savants routinely omit Teague as lost gold for Indiana programs. Yes, Indiana lost out on Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Courtney Lee, Josh McRoberts, Tyler Zeller, and on and on, but Jeff Teague is almost never on that list.

Click here to get your teeth fixed by the best – Dr. Mike O’Neil at Today’s Dentistry

Teague was and is a quiet guy who let’s his game talk, and just like it did against dozens of high school and AAU programs from 2003 to 2007, it’s speaking very loudly for him.

Indiana Pacers – Time to bench Roy Hibbert; not now, not ever

by Kent Sterling

Thank God Frank Vogel doesn’t react under duress like Homer Simspon. He won’t press the “Bench Roy” button like many would like him to.

Roy Hibbert is the whipping boy for all the woes of the Indiana Pacers since January 20th. His petulance and woe is me attitude has been a cancer for the Pacers, according to a lot of smart guys who follow the team.

Lance Stephenson, Paul George, David West, and George Hill’s shortcomings are dwarfed by Hibbert’s inability to deal with adversity by fighting through it. His mopery in calling out selfish teammates has made him the most obvious target of critics as the Pacers continue a downward spiral that seemingly has no bottom.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

The Pacers lost last night’s Game One against the Atlanta Hawks, and Hibbert had eight points and eight rebounds. Six of the points came late – after the game was out of reach. Worse, the small lineup of the Hawks exploited Hibbert’s inability to guard the perimeter. That stretch fives are not a good matchup for Hibbert is a gross understatement.

If Hibbert isn’t scoring on the offensive end, the Pacers will have a difficult time competing with a team like the Hawks.

So why not bench Hibbert in favor of backup center Ian Mahinmi or power forward Luis Scola? At least for this series, on the surface this thought doesn’t seem as ludicrous to many. Of course it is silly, but never let illogic get in the way of ill-tempered overeaction to a an unpleasant playoff loss.

Hibbert might be petulant, slow-footed, and recently bereft of shooting accuracy, but he is an all-star center who is the best rim-protector in the game. If Frank Vogel moves Mahinmi or Scola into the starting lineup, there is every chance Hibbert sees this as the demotion that it is, shuts down emotionally, and becomes the emotional basket case he is already accused of being.

The decision is to trust a player being paid $14,283,844 to anchor the middle, or ditch the all-star in favor of a short term boost in efficiency on both ends. Unfortunately, with the postseason, if short-term fixes aren’t employed, there might not be a long term.

Coaching to protect the emotions of sensitive players is rarely a smart play, but Hibbert is such an important cog in the machine that gives the Miami Heat fits that if Vogel doesn’t stick with him, he may retreat permanently into his shell.

Not sure if anyone on the Pacers bench or in the locker room knows what buttons to push to get Hibbert to respond to adversity with some serious fight, but they need to start experimenting to see if he can be motivated.

The answer to the Pacers woes is not in removing Hibbert, but in pushing the button to force fight not flight.

Playing a matchup zone with Hibbert in the middle is a hell of a lot more sensible than putting a 7’2″ all-star on the bench.

Something is definitely wrong with the Indiana Pacers that tired legs does not fully explain, but the answer isn’t to turn Frank Vogel loose on the team like Homer Simpson trying to stop a meltdown at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

If Hibbert’s presence on the court isn’t part of the answer in vanquishing the thoroughly average Hawks, the front office made a terrible decision in paying the big fella $15M per year through 2016.

The answer for the Pacers being champions is not removing Hibbert like a leaky appendix. He’s a core organ for this team – like it or not.

Benching him would be a desperate act with a potentially dire result.

Indiana Pacers – Logic says the Pacers are in big trouble; Good thing logic has nothing to do with sports

by Kent Sterling

What is Roy Hibbert willing to do to win? That is the question that must be answered before coach Frank Vogel decides whiter to start Roy Hibbert in Game Two.

The Indiana Pacers lost the first game of the best of seven series 101-93 against the mostly mediocre Atlanta Hawks, and many in Indianapolis are sweating that they lost the series with it.

For weeks, fans and media have been leaping from the Pacers bandwagon like new commissioner Adam Silver planted an easily discovered explosive to its underside before loping away from it with his oddly giant strides.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

I am not so easily swayed, but with every game I have found myself feeling lonelier and dumber for continue to espouse faith in this formerly competitive bunch. The first two minutes of the game were sweet for the home crowd, but sadly NBA games are mandated to last an additional 46 minutes.

The rest of the first half wasn’t horrible, ending in a 50-50 tie, but the second half was a stage four pathetic mess that very quickly sucked every bit of hope from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse crowd.

Jeff Teague (15 points) Paul Millsap (13 points) combined to score 28 of the 30 points the Hawks scored to shut the door on the Blue and Gold, but this is only one of the four needed wins to end the Pacers season. Teague, Millsap, and Kyle Korver are going to need three more wins to send the Pacers into the long, lonely, dark, and cold night of the offseason.

The game was won at the foul line, as the Hawks drew 29 fouls leading to 24 made free throws. The Pacers were fouled 20 times for 16 points from the line. That sets up a little math even I can understand – 24-16=8 – the exact point differential in the game. The Pacers tend to fall in love with jump shooting, and smart basketball players don’t foul jump shooters.

All the Pacers lost last night was the opportunity to sweep the Hawks, and no one thought that was going to happen anyway. The most enthusiastic optimists saw the Pacers moving ahead in five. Just because the Pacers lost game one instead of game three nothing has changed.

Now if Frank Vogel can’t get the Pacers over the hump in game two, the landscape changes a little bit, even for me – a guy who is still firmly convinced his belief that the Pacers will earn their way into the NBA Finals.

Why I remain so convinced that the Pacers will recapture the magic the led them to an NBA best 33-7 record after the first 40 games of the season is a good question without a statistical answer.

Roy Hibbert continued to author the sad story of his own demise. After a sweet left-handed hook early in the game, Roy abandoned aggressiveness until the result of the game was no longer in doubt. He finished with eight points and eight rebounds, but a +/- of -11.

Whether the Pacers sink or swim against the Hawks will not be determined by statistics but their desire to play hard, play together, and do the little things that provide additional possessions. Are the Pacers willing to do those things that serve as points of differentiation? If they are, and I believe the switch will flip to get them over this supposedly insurmountable hump, they are good enough to win until the Finals. If not, they will enjoy a few bonus weeks of soul searching.

Winning a championship is a lot like the scene in “The Untouchables” written by the great David Mamet where Sean Connery asks Kevin Costner what he is prepared to do to catch Al Capone.

Do the Pacers have the stones, the sack, the gall, and the grit to do what is needed to end the season of a game but mediocre Hawks team? I believe they do and will. The next chapter in the saga of this strange season comes Tuesday night. What are the Pacers prepared to do?

Unbelievable “Ahead of the Curve” on tap for Today – Isiah, DWest, Frank, and more

by Kent Sterling

Talking to Isiah Thomas about the “Bad Boys” 30 for 30 and David West about the Pacers playoffs ought to be enough, but there is a lot more going on. Former Indiana guard Austin Etherington is headed to Butler, a seven-footer from Arizona is coming to Bloomington, and Matt Painter may be on his way to Missouri with Frank Haith rolling to Tulsa.

That’s a lot to fit into two hours with the always loquacious Fox 59 sports director Chris Hagan and me on 1070 the Fan (11a-1p) and 1070thefan.com, but that’s not all. The other three Indiana recruits were busy last night as the Derby Festival Classic and Jordan Brand Classic were played. What any of their performances mean for the Hoosiers is anyone’s guess, but it was likely Indiana fans first chance to see Max Hoetzel and Robert Johnson.

And the Butler Bulldogs lost yet another player as Elijah Brown, so of Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown, is leaving the program. Brown averaged 6.8 points per game in his only season at Hinkle Fieldhouse. He joins Freshmen Nolan Berry and Rene Castro, and sophomore Devontae Morgan as former Bulldogs.

The biggest story is and will remain the Pacers playoff run as it begins today. The NBA Playoffs are always a maximum of four games being over for every team, and you never know what can happen, but the top-seeded Pacers should find a way to put away the Atlanta Hawks with relative ease. Sounds silly after watching the team finish 23-19 after starting 33-7, but I can’t imagine the Hawks forcing the Pacers beyond a fifth game.

Maybe I’m a cockeyed optimist, I don’t know, but the Pacers looked and sounded ready yesterday at practice. I suppose the Hawks could have looked and sounded as ready, but I didn’t see or hear them.

We’ll hear from Frank Vogel, Roy Hibbert, and Paul George in addition to the interview with David West.

Cannot wait to get started.

Indiana Pacers – Painful run-up over, it’s time to get to work in the postseason

by Kent Sterling

Luis Scola is a smart guy who has played a lot of important basketball on many stages. Listening to elders like Scola would be a very good idea for his younger teammates.

Since that January 20th game at Golden State, the Indiana Pacers knew where they would be on April 19. At 33-7, the postseason was a done deal, and it would take a total collapse for the aging Miami Heat to catch them for the #1 seed.

The Pacers put it to the test by playing mediocre basketball through the second half, but it was enough to earn what they worked so hard for during the offseason – home court advantage through the Eastern Conference Finals.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

Now the real work starts and we will see whether the Pacers have been able to replenish their depleted energy reserve and developed enough toughness to take out the Atlanta Hawks, an eight seed based upon their 38-44 record.

The veterans who spoke to the media today appear ready. David West was at his loquacious best, and Luis Scola said after today’s practice that he is much happier with where the team is today than he was two weeks ago.

The tenor of the work and post-practice interviews was much more animated than yesterday, and Scola actually seemed to enjoy talking to the media. That’s a little different from the normal tenor of the team when Larry Hawley, Chris Widlic, or one of the phalanx of Indy Star scribes who create content for Pacers quote hungry fans.

Scola spoke eloquently about how he has learned to not take for granted the opportunity that lies in front of the Pacers. He said that ten years ago he felt the same way – that winning 50 games and going to the playoffs was assured.

It’s not hard to guess about which guys he is talking, and which of them need to get the heads clear of their behinds if the Pacers are going to contend for a championship.

After watching the “Bad Boys” 30 for 30 last night, it was clear the price that is paid for a championship is steeper than that which the Pacers have offered – at least in the days of Magic, Michael, Kareem, the Chief, Pip, Larry, and Isiah. A deal with the devil was required to lay claim to the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Morality was discarded, physical ailments ignored, and friendships trashed.

Nice guys didn’t necessarily finish last 25 years ago, but they sure as hell didn’t win an NBA Finals against Hall of Famers. The Pacers have a couple of guys who would crawl across broken glass to win, but the rest are nice guys who try to say and do the right things. That might work in 2014 during an era when the biggest and baddest player in the NBA is carried from the court by teammates because of muscle cramps.

Back to present day possibilities. The Pacers looked a hell of a lot happier today than yesterday, and whether that happiness can be funneled into tenacity will come clear beginning tomorrow night.

The second half of the season was a pointless exercise, but tomorrow night, the games become very pointful (I’m certain that “painful” is not a word, but it I’m not sure why, so I’m stepping outside the boundaries of correctitude). It’s been since 2004 that the expectations have been this high for the Pacers, and how they handle that will go a long way to determining their level of success.

Here’s another lesson from the past that might benefit the Pacers – if fans expectations outpace your own, you are at fault – not them. There was never a season that Michael Jordan didn’t demand more from himself than fans did. Letting yourself off the hook is not what champions do.

If the Pacers are able to hang a banner, they were right all along. If not, they need to recognize like their NBA ancestors that the answer lies inside each of them, and not because of anyone else.

NCAA Football and Basketball – “Student-Athletes” do exist, and there are more of them than you think

by Kent Sterling

This NY Times pic shows Wisconsin basketball players celebrating their trip to the Final Four by studying.

What I have always loved about Dan Dakich as a radio host is that he is not swayed by the prevailing media winds. His perspectives on 1070 the Fan are unique and developed through experience as a player and coach, as well as animated discussions he has with himself.

Yesterday, he said something during his show that struck me as absolutely valid, but unheard from other supposed college athletic experts – that when we talk about one-and-dones being a problem, we are focusing upon 10-15 of nearly 5,000 division one participants.

Click here to follow Kent Sterling on Twitter

Allowing those few exceptionally talented kids to define the experience of being a college athlete is one of the worst examples of profiling in our society, and discounting the role academics play in the development of the vast majority of young men playing college football and basketball is myopic and short-sighted.

It’s true that the term “student-athlete” was a contrivance advanced by then NCAA chief Walter Byers to battle a perception that players behave as employees for the universities for which they work and play, but that doesn’t mean that they are any less dedicated to earning their degrees.

Sure, there are exceptions at schools where shadow classes are commonplace and tutors earn the grades given to athletes who are admitted to universities for the sole purpose of competing (because of Mary Willingham’s brave honesty, the only one we can be sure of is North Carolina), and it’s right and proper to talk about them. When the only compensation available to young men responsible for generating millions of dollars for universities is academic, they should be able and required to accept it.

That those rogue outfits are allowed to define the big school experience, something is amiss. Dan’s son Andrew attends Michigan and plays basketball. He is inside the room at study tables, and knows with certainty what the academic load is for the Wolverines. At Indiana, when you talk to the athletes and administrators, you can see the pride they take in course load and classroom accomplishment.

At Butler, Brad Stevens held practice at 6:00 a.m. to accommodate the class schedules of his basketball players. Meaningful degrees are earned as the players make great use of the scholarship they were awarded because of their talents.

My son played at Loyola-Chicago, and he along with several others on the team were recognized for their academic excellence. They all attended study tables, and were held to a high standard of academic performance – which was good because winning regularly was not in the cards as their reward.

There isn’t much sex appeal in talking about success stories, so ESPN spends an inordinate amount of time describing the term “student-athlete” as a canard, a prevarication – a lie. It isn’t. There are many more student-athletes than future pros, but tales of kids in libraries preparing diligently for a test aren’t very interesting, so the focus shifts to the outliers who do what’s needed to stay eligible while they audition for the NBA or NFL.

Most D-1 football and basketball players enter college believing they have a chance to chase their dream of earning millions as they continue to play a game they love, but a vast majority of them understand the great value of an education – even if gaining it through the grind of attending class and study table is a pain in the ass.

Click here to fix your teeth in pain-free comfort at Today’s Dentistry in Fishers, Indiana

Athletes deserve to be compensated for the real dollar value and marketing heft they bring to the universities they attend, but in no way does that mean the education and degree they garner should be discounted. Coaches are paid as much as $10 million per year for their work as educators, so paying students as employees doesn’t seem to be as wretched an idea or the violation of amateur principles as many claim.

Indianapolis is very fortunate to have a host like Dan who has been there, done that, and seen how academics and athletics can mesh at those many schools where the right things are done. College football and basketball are defined in the media by their occasional scandals. That not only inaccurate, but unfair to the schools and student-athletes who do it right.