Author Archives: Kent Sterling

IU Football Player Isaac Griffith Has Good Night After Near Drowning

by Kent Sterling

IU wide receiver Isaac Griffith fights for his life after a spring break near drowning.

IU wide receiver Isaac Griffith was pulled into the open water late Monday afternoon by a rip current near Sarasota, Florida, and nearly drowned.

Still in a medically induced coma, Griffith had a good night, according to his father’s Twitter feed, “Good morning Ike had a positive night but we have some more little battles in front of us today. We know this is a Marathon not a Sprint! Ike has won these little battles along the way. We continue to ask for prayers for Ike for these #LittleBattles #PrayForIke #iufb.”

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The ocean looks like such fun, especially when the waves crest a little bit. We forget more than 3,500 Americans die each year from accidental drownings – the fifth ranked cause of unintentional injury death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the oft cited tips for swimming is to employ the buddy system, and that is what saved Griffith. He and friend Mitch McCune were sucked away from shore by the rip current, and McCune was able to bring the unconscious Griffith to shore and perform CPR until paramedics arrived.

Griffith remains on a ventilator to help him breathe, but has progressed through the 36 hours since the incident.

It’s easy to see the ocean or lake as a harmless playground, but it can be dangerous and unpredictable – even close to shore. Rip currents can occur when waves break causing an uneven distribution of water or when sand bars dissolve. They are hard to see, and impossible to swim against.

When caught in a rip current, it’s recommended that swimmers move parallel to the shore. Currents tend to be narrow channels, and sometimes it is only necessary to swim a few feet to escape their pull.

During a vacation in Orange Beach, Alabama, I was one of the stereotypically arrogant swimmers who thought nothing bad could happen while body surfing with my son. It was just after 9 a.m., and there were no lifeguards on duty. My wife pointed out the warning flags, and I dismissed them. How dumb would I have to be to drown in waist deep water?

Ryan and I hit the water, and played happily in the waves. He was old enough to fend for himself, and so I suggested we head out a little deeper where the waves were breaking, and he declined. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now when he declines an invitation, I trust his impulse.

In chest deep water, I rode a wave, but somehow wound up farther from shore. It happened another two or three times before I noticed that I was a good 100 yards farther out than Ryan. The water was now 10 feet deep, and the waves crashed over the top of me every few seconds. I managed to time my ascensions to the surface between waves to continue to breathe.

As I popped up the last time, I saw Ryan with his back to me signaling to my wife that I was gone and that they should help. Julie correctly kept Ryan from looking for me. A wave thundered down on my head, and time slowed down. I thought, “So this is it? Honest to Christ, my corpse is going to be fished out of the ocean in front of my wife and son, and this is what I’m going to be remembered for?”

I recalled the advice to swim parallel to the shore, but I was gassed. I figured I had one good fight in me, so the pause between waves I surfaced, and began thrashing directly toward shore. If I was going to die in the ocean, it wasn’t going to be because I played by the rules, escaped the current, and drowned in calm but deep water.

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Somehow, I eventually escaped the rip current, and swam to waist deep water before collapsing. My son was relieved, and my wife was angry. The anger turned quickly to sympathy when she saw that my face and body were gray.

Life does us a favor when we are able to learn from mistakes without a severe penalty, and other than a day of severe muscle fatigue, I was off the hook.

Prayers and good thoughts for Griffith and his family as he deals with severe consequences of feeling immortal in the water.

Bruce Pearl Gets a Well-Deserved Second Chance to Coach at Auburn

by Kent Sterling

We can only hope that this time around Bruce Pearl keeps his shirt on at women’s games. I wouldn’t bet on it though.

Bruce Pearl broke an idiotic rule, lied about it, and encouraged others on his staff to lie to NCAA investigators. That cost him his job three days short of three years ago.

Today, Bruce Pearl’s 54th birthday, he gets the gift of another chance to do again what he does best – coach winning basketball – because Auburn University wants to win. And Pearl knows how to win.

He’s won at Southern Indiana, UW-Milwaukee, and Tennessee, and officials at Auburn know he will win there.

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Pearl was arrogant, stupid, and fearful when he lied about breaking a rule that is -like many NCAA rules – ridiculous and counterproductive. I have no problem with that. Lying to the NCAA investigators was motivated by fear, and dragging his staff into the quagmire by asking them to back his story showed a temporary bankruptcy of character.

Three years have passed, and that’s enough penance for me. Interesting that I have no such forgiveness in my heart for Kelvin Sampson, a buffoon whose actions were so vile, I hope he is never a head coach again – at any level.

Pearl is going to lead the Tigers to places they have not been since Sonny Smith, and I’m good with that as long as there is no backsliding into the amoral morass of NCAA turpitude.

Indiana Basketball – Nine Solutions for the Hoosiers Problems

by Kent Sterling

Tom Crean will get at least one more chance to prove that he’s the right guy for the Indiana job, but a couple of alterations might help.

If Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean didn’t believe he was in trouble before, the fact that I am offering advice as to how the program can move forward should sufficiently spook him.

I am not a basketball coach, but I’ve seen successful strategies employed in sports and in business, and there are commonalities among them that allow for fairly simple corrections. In no way am I asserting that I would be a better coach than Tom Crean, but I see things during games that spurs thought, and I like to share thoughts.

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Indiana Basketball foundered a bit this season, and there are some reasons for that. Offering counsel from far outside the program – I did not watch a single practice this year – always allows for the chance what I advocate has already been tried or is in the process of implementation.

I am not an employee of Indiana Athletics, but I have been trained in the practice of both leading and contributing to a brainstorm. My objective was “In what ways might we improve the on-court performance of Indiana Basketball?”

I came up with 69 ideas, and then voted for my 20 favorites, and finally distilled them down to nine areas of concern that could be easily remedied with a single action step.

Here are nine pieces of gentle guidance to help ease the Hoosiers into an era where invitations to tournaments not requiring a fee are an annual event:

Improve the non-conference schedule. I’m not talking about playing a bunch of top 20 teams, but dropping completely those teams who are likely to wind up with an RPI that ranks in the bottom half of D-1. And why not keep it local? Play Indiana State, IPFW, and Valpo, as long as they seem to be reasonably good. If it’s true that “We are Indiana,” as AD Fred Glass asserted as the reason for not playing in the CBI, the same logic should apply for non-conference scheduling. There are two great reasons to improve the portion of the schedule that can be controlled. Wins should never cause RIP death, and fans deserve competitive contests. Indiana should never ever play a school whose mascot a well informed fan cannot name – i.e. Presbyterian, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Appalachian State, etc…

Decide on a basketball system and recruit to it. It seems Indiana is always adjusting to the styles of its opponents. Indiana runs a bunch of sets, and tries to push the ball, but appears to be without a style that determines the skill set of recruits. Bo Ryan runs swing, so he needs a very particular type of guy to play it. Jim Boeheim defends with a 2-3 zone, and recruits to it. Indiana appears to be enamored with length and versatility, but those are commonly coveted attributes.

Recruit with specificity. Indiana casts a very wide net, offering as many as 50 kids per class. That doesn’t exactly make a player feel like a special target. Indiana shouldn’t shop for Ford Tauruses, and buy in bulk. Crean should target very unique players, so that being recruited by Indiana is a badge of honor. I don’t know the intimate details of the recruitment of Michigan State’s Gary Harris, but while he was debating the merits of the Spartans and Hoosiers, Jeremy Hollowell committed to Indiana. That appeared to be the final scholarship available in that class, and Harris committed to Tom Izzo not long after. Even at that point Harris vs. Hollowell was an easy call. Maybe Harris would still have pledged Izzo, maybe not.

Dispose of mistakes and malcontents quickly. Regardless of the nomenclature of the NCAA, basketball players at Indiana are employees, and when they step way out of line or mope during games, they should be fired. There are those close to the Indiana program who question the priorities of the players. Too much partying going on they say. Hanner Mosquera-Perea’s OWI arrest during a 72-hour period between important games speaks to that. If you want to stop a behavior, bringing down the hammer on a violator usually serves as a sufficient corrective strategy. Firing Mosquera Perea might have gotten the attention of the team. A very smart boss once told me, “One mistake, it’s on the employee. Second mistake is owned by the manager.” I hope there isn’t a second mistake.

The assistants should tone it down. When a player hears one voice, following directions is easy. When there are five voices, nothing gets through. Until I sat behind the bench at the Big Ten Tournament, I had no idea the cacophony of guidance being provided by the staff during live ball moments of the game. Maybe I have trouble focusing, but there was so much communication, I couldn’t pay attention to anyone.

Anoint one leader. I’ve spoked to several players, and all feel they are either current leaders, or will be leaders next year. If everyone is a leader, no one is there to follow. There were huddles prior to foul shots this season where all five players were taking charge simultaneously. Voices were raised, and arms flailed. That’s a problem.

Reduce number of substitutions. Not sure how players can get into the flow of the game or adapt to playing as a unit when that unit sees relentless change. I get the concept of cycling fresh legs, but the flow of a basketball game is corrupted by constant change. [This guidance is likely me escaping my depth. There are reasons to substitute, and we aren’t privy to all of them. With explanation, I might understand the endless rotation.

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Teach the kids the game, and let them play it. I am no fan of Bob Knight, and believe that Indiana was a late in firing him, but one thing he did very well was teach his players the game and let them win or lose it. Better to have five smart players capable of making the correct adjustments than one coach serving as the puppet master. Crean should sit down once in awhile and trust his kids.

Improve the message to the media. Indiana Basketball should be more transparent with the media. There is no sense among the media of who Crean is or what he stands for, and that is a bigger problem that 17-15 and no invite to the NIT. Coaches who use the media correctly are credited with wins and blameless for losses. Crean is blamed by the media and fans for most losses, and credited with very few wins.

There are a couple of things that I can say about Crean that will dispel thoughts to the contrary. There are people who believe he doesn’t know a lot about basketball, and that’s laughable. He has an encyclopedic knowledge. Crean is also seen as a self-promoter. I’ve never gotten that vibe in talking to him. Fans see a guy who is paid over $3-million for coaching basketball, and they believe Crean has it made. That giant stack of cash probably does as much to make life tough for Crean as it helps. If he loses the Indiana gig, where in the hell is he going to replace that kind of jack. If Indiana is a top ten coaching job – I think it is – there is nowhere to go but down after he leaves IU. That puts crazy pressure on the guy, and makes being a little uptight completely understandable.

As you do your duty as an Indiana fan and judge Crean’s work on a variety of message boards, remember he’s a human being and not a caricature. He’s doing all he can the best he can. Whatever else you think about him, even his harshest critics who have spent five minutes with the guy will concede that.

Next year is a crossroads year for IU. Another 17-15 record, and it won’t just be the vultures who call for a change. There are problems that have caused a backslide, and there are corrections for all of them before getting to a change in leadership, and that is why Fred Glass will bring back Crean. Problems get solved means leadership is sound. Problems continue, and leadership must be changed.

Either Indiana Pacers Are Pacing Themselves, or They Are Limping to the Finish

by Kent Sterling

David West’s scowl has been more and more apparent over the past few weeks.

In an 82-game regular season, championships are not won based upon the level of play in game 67 against a team trying to avoid losing its 21st straight.

There was no way the Pacers were going to lose last night’s game against the woefully inept Philadelphia 76ers, but after coming back from a 25-point second quarter deficit in Detroit on Saturday, radar to detect malaise has been activated.

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It’s hard to gin up too much concern about effort for a team that has won 50 in 67 games after a 2012-2013 season when they won 49 of 82. The Pacers lead the Miami Heat for the top spot in the Eastern Conference by 3 1/2 games with 15 to play, and who wouldn’t have been pleased with that thought in October?

But is there trouble at Bankers Life Fieldhouse that the Pacers very successful regular season record doesn’t reveal?

The proof will be in the pudding of the next 15 games. Tomorrow night the Pacers will play the Knicks, and despite being a train wreck for the majority of the season, the team Phil Jackson will run beginning this morning has won six straight. Then the Pacers play Chicago at home, @ Memphis, @ Chicago, vs. Heat, and @ Washington over their next five games.

Whatever love the Pacers felt for one another and playing basketball appears to have waned. They have not beaten a team with a winning record since a 118-113 overtime thriller against Portland at home on February 7. That has as much to do with a schedule that hasn’t featured a lot of winners since then as it does with their level of play, but with the gauntlet of top teams awaiting them, it bears mention.

The 11-7 record over the last five-plus weeks is not nearly as troubling as the lack of affection the players show for one another during games. The extra pass isn’t being made, and there has been a recent lack of defensive chemistry and intensity.

The Pacers have done just enough to beat three of the worst teams in the NBA during their recent four-game winning streak. Early in the season, the Pacers were clearly the better team on the floor. Now? Not so much. Those great third quarters where the pacers put away opponents are now very ordinary most nights.

No one expected the Pacers to run through the NBA like the 72-10 1996 Bulls with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman, but if the first quarter of the season showed fans the passion with which this team was capable of playing, the last month has given them the opposite.

The final 15 games will show the intestinal fortitude of this group, and will determine where a potential game seven will be held if the Pacers and Heat collide in the Eastern Conference Finals like everyone expects.

While each of the remaining 15 games are important, the final two games against the Heat will go a long way toward determining who finishes on top of the East. If the Pacers win, that would give them an almost impossible to overcome 5 1/2 game edge with 13 games left in the balance. Lose them, and the margin gets uncomfortably skinny.

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Whether the Pacers can rally or not is impossible to predict, but this I know – watching them has been a hell of a lot less fun over the past month, and not because of the results. Basketball is like theater. When actors are more interested in listening to their castmates than delivering their own lines, plays become transcendent and magical. When only interested in their own activities, audiences get antsy and the reality of self-absorbed doofuses cavorting on a stage becomes obvious.

The Pacers are trying to recapture a rhythm that appeared natural and organic early in the season. Whether they are successful will determine the level of success they enjoy in May and June.

Indiana University Made Absolute Right Call in Refusing to Enter CBI

by Kent Sterling

James Blackmon Jr. was not yet in kindergarten the last time Indiana punched its ticket to a Final Four.

Prior to being snubbed by the tournament that theoretically invites the 69th-100th best basketball teams in the country to play in anonymity for a couple more weeks, the brain trust at Assembly Hall decided that Indiana would not seek nor accept an invitation to the CBI Tournament.

That was the right call – the only call.

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The alternative would have been to either lose in the CBI or win the CBI, and neither would have been an acceptable result for a mediocre season that teetered on the brink of success and failure throughout. It finally fell into the failure category late in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament with a torpid effort against Illinois that resulted in a 64-54 loss.

Win the CBI, and the impulse might have been to hang a banner commemorating the players overcoming adversity to beat several equally mediocre teams until there were none left to vanquish. Lose in the opening round, and the chorus of impatience would have grown louder and larger.

Better to put this dog of a season down for good, than to prolong it to the detriment of the brand and players.

Anyone saying that the players would have benefitted from the additional game work is not seeing things clearly. If the Hoosiers couldn’t muster the energy to compete with zeal during the Big Ten Tournament, how in the hell could they ever be expected to do it against Hampton, Siena, Tulane, Radford or the other teams who have entered the CBI?

There are reports that Indiana athletic director Fred Glass explained that the Hoosiers would shutter the season by saying “We’re Indiana.” He might have been better served by being a little less prideful, and asking the question back, “Why would we play?” That’s quibbling about style though, and I view comments to the media in the same way I evaluate a jump shot. If the ball goes in the bucket, I don’t care whether the shooter hiked it through his legs. The Hoosiers not playing is good enough for me.

Would it have played better if he explained how playing in a third tier event could only embarrass Indiana? I’m usually a big fan of honesty, but that would have unnecessarily pissed off a lot of people in college basketball.

If a TV game show had a wheel barrel filled with manure behind doors #1, #2, and #3, would you choose one or refuse to play? Glass is refusing to play because none of the results of participation are acceptable.

The question prompted by the supposed “We’re Indiana” comment is, “Who is Indiana?”

Here is who Indiana is:

Over the last 21 seasons, the Hoosiers have advanced as far as the Elite Eight just once, and have won exactly one outright Big Ten regular season championship.
They have earned a spot in the Big Ten Tournament finals just once in 17 tries, and have missed the NCAA Tourney six times in the last 11.
They have been ranked the #1 team in the country during parts of three seasons since 1980-1981.
Indiana has lost a minimum of seven games every single season back to 1994.
Steve Alford was the best player on Indiana’s last NCAA Champ. He will turn 50 in November.
James Blackmon, Jr. will be a sharp shooting freshman on next seasons team, and he was in Pre-K when Indiana made its last trip to the Elite Eight, Final Four, and National Championship game.

That’s history and math, and arguing with either is futile.

Indiana is what it is. The CBI is what it is. The two should never meet, but only because Indiana earns its way into the NCAA Tournament, not because it refuses to accept an opportunity. But better to refuse the invitation than to accept the results of playing.

Colts Owner Jim Irsay’s Arrest for OWI Is No Laughing Matter

by Kent Sterling

As you evaluate Jim Irsay’s choice of getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, remember that he is an addict. Addiction is a disease that Irsay has battled for long time, as did his father.

Driving while intoxicated can never be justified, but is especially stupid when you have the means an NFL owner like Irsay has. If I owned an NFL team, I would have a driver at the ready at all times, just because I could. Why drive whether intoxicated or not when you can employ a guy with a cool British accent and fancy name like Jeeves or Alfred can do it for you?

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There have been rumors from inside the Colts for a long time that Irsay was using again, so this arrest is not much of a surprise, but it is very sad.

The arrest for OWI and possession of a controlled substance does not mean that he was drunk – it means that he was accused of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, which can mean that he was under the influence of another substance, and given his arrest for possession, we need details before we infer what transpired during the hours prior to Irsay’s arrest.

For those who have seen addiction up close, it’s always tough to watch a relapse. The battle for sobriety is difficult, and especially so for those for whom there are very limited consequences. The question of “why not?” creeps into the subconscious, and then the conscious. Before long, it’s back to the pills, needle, coke, or booze.

Shame is really the only disincentive that Irsay deals with. He can hire attorneys who will successfully litigate his case, and he holds a very safe position within his organization – owner. He sure as hell isn’t going to fire himself.

Sobriety a daily battle, and one that Irsay will try to win again today and then tomorrow. Right now, as he sits in the county lockup, he’s wondering what the hell happened. How could he have been this dumb?

There is little question Irsay will head back to rehab to develop another set of tools to successfully wage war against his demons, and hopefully those will allow him to live a quiet life of responsible decisions and reasonable behavior.

In the meantime, there is the very pragmatic reality of what consequence will be brought to bear by NFL Commissioner, who cannot look the other way as an owner crosses a line for which players are correctly held accountable.

The Colts could face a substantial fine or the loss of a draft pick. Colts fans hope that Irsay is allowed to write a giant check rather than lose one of only five draft picks general manager Ryan Grigson has at his disposal in the 2014 NFL Draft.

There will be time to discuss the effect this arrest has on the Colts. Today should be one for hope and prayer for a troubled man who has to re-equip himself with the psychological means and discipline to say no to himself every minute of every day.

Indiana Basketball – Hoosiers Not Invited to NIT; Is this the New Normal?

by Kent Sterling

No NIT, no NCAA, and no CBI means the IU basketball season ended with Thursday’s loss in the Big Ten Tourney Thursday.

It’s stunning that Indiana’s basketball program has gone from #1 seed in the 2013 NCAA Tournament to unfit for an invitation to the NIT in exactly 52 weeks.

There is also the CBI for schools unable to qualify for the NIT, but Indiana Athletic Director texted earlier tonight that if not selected for the NIT, he and Tom Crean had decided that a bid to the CBI would not be accepted.

The question that is being asked after a season so disappointing that it could not place in two tourneys who invite a total of 100 teams, is whether the Sweet Sixteen appearances in 2012 and 2013 or this season of mediocrity was the aberration.

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Do the expectations of Big Ten contention and routine NCAA Tournament qualification need to be recalibrated? In the past 11 seasons, Indiana has missed out on the NCAA Tournament six times, and played in the NIT once. That includes three years of rebuilding, but the 2014 season was not supposed to end quite this way.

The outright Big Ten Championship celebrated last season was the first in 20 year, and the Hoosiers have earned a spot in the Big Ten Tournament finals only once in 17 tries.

A 17-15 final record, despite a very weak non conference schedule, fell short of even the most pessimistic projections.

Worse might be a look at the future. A team that was unworthy of the NIT will lose a 1,000 point scorer, a postgraduate guard, Jeff Howard, and very likely the Big Ten Freshman of the Year – who is listed as a lottery pick in every respectable online mock draft.

That leaves point guard Yogi Ferrell, Stanford Robinson, Troy Williams, Hanner Mosquiera-Perea, Austin Etherington, Jeremy Hollowell, Devin Davis, and Peter Jurkin who will be joined by soon-to-be freshmen James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson, and Max Hoetzel. Can that group be expected to surpass this season’s result when they appeared to care less and less for one another as the season progressed?

How many of the players scheduled to return will decide to continue their careers elsewhere as their eligibility clock ticks more and more loudly?

When questions like that are asked, it’s a good idea if the guy running the show has some plausible answers, but it’s likely Crean is as flummoxed as the fan base.

Anyone who knows anything about Crean knows he will respond to this latest ration of adversity the same way he has built his career – through hard work and diligence. Whether that doggedness will bring a meaningful adjustment to the level of success achieved at Cook and Assembly Halls is the most important question and the answer is at least eight months away.

The support among Indiana fans has always been a little soft for Crean – sometimes unfairly so – but this season’s on court work, and the trouble off of it have people asking whether Crean is the right guy to continue to coach the Hoosiers.

There has been a lot of good, but the brief suspension for an undisclosed behavioral issue of Jeremy Hollowell, and the even briefer rip for Hanner Mosquiera-Perea after being arrested for OWI at three in the morning during a 72-hour window between two important conference games have fans wondering whether the inmates are running the asylum.

One thing is certain, Indiana will not move on Crean until there is more evidence that the program will not move forward with him at the helm, and that means he will definitely be back next season, and it will be a year that likely determines his fate. A step sideways or backwards, and the chorus of naysayers will grow in number and volume.

Indiana fans can be a surly bunch, and one trip to the Elite Eight or beyond since 1993 has them on edge.

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A once elite program can’t look itself in the mirror and call itself that anymore. The difference between Indiana and other middling Big Ten basketball programs like Illinois, Iowa, and Purdue lies only in the ever aging National Championship banners hung by the work of young men now at least 45 years old.

Was this mediocre season a solitary diversion from regular success, or a troubling backslide that is the first chapter for another era of disappointment? Time will tell. Once the snowball starts rolling downhill, it’s hard to slow down. The snowball picked up a lot of steam over the past month.

NCAA Tournament – Love This Bracket; So Many Great Matchups, Including the One I Asked for

by Kent Sterling

Of the 68 teams that start the NCAA Tournament, four will make it to Cowboys Stadium, and only one of those can be champion. That’s what puts the madness in March.

For the second time since the field of the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64, the state of Indiana was shut out by the selection committee, and no team even warranted discussion as a potential invitee.

That none of the 10 Division One teams calling Indiana home were good enough to be included doesn’t make March Madness any less fascinating. The members of the selection committee were nice enough to set up some great matchups that will be worth watching this weekend.

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My favorite game will determine whether a mid-major upstart or the blue blood of the tournament will punch its ticket to Indianapolis for the Midwest Regional. If Kentucky can get past an overrated Kansas State team led by the nutty whiner Bruce Weber, they will almost certainly play #1 seed Wichita State.

A surging mid-major sending home the fan base who believes winning titles is a birthright would be a wonderful moment – even more amazing that watching them lose in the first round of the NIT at Robert Morris last year. It would unfortunately mean that Louisville and Kentucky would not play each other in Indianapolis during the Sweet Sixteen round in Indianapolis – an easy drive for fans of both.

If Wichita State does falter against the Big Blue Horde, watching them lose in our hometown against their most hated rival led by a cache who fled UK and is considered a traitor would be almost as good.

Louisville will likely have to find a way past the Bilikens of Saint Louis to make it to Indy, and don’t sleep on St. Louis. Yes, they faltered down the stretch, but if they regain their legs, Jim Crews’ team plays a smothering defense.

I love the opening round 5/12 matchup between North Dakota State and Oklahoma, which could very easily see the Summit League champ send Boomer Sooner home early.

Baylor vs. Nebraska is another great game, and what could be more fun than watching a great guy like Cornhuskers coach Tim Miles prematurely end another NCAA run by Scott Drew.

Enough of my petty peccadillos against coaches and programs I don’t care for. If the right teams win next weekend, look at the Sweet Sixteen we could enjoy. In the Midwest Region in Indianapolis, Louisville, Kentucky, Duke, and Michigan could advance. At the beginning of the season, that would have been the pick by many experts for the Final Four.

In the West, Arizona, Wisconsin, San Diego State, and Dougie McBuckets’ Creighton squad could advance to Anaheim. New York will be the destination for East Region combatants, and those could be Michigan State, North Carolina, Virginia, and Villanova. Some great dry rub at the Rendezvous might be on tap in Memphis for Florida, UCLA, Syracuse and Kansas.

There is a lot of Indiana flavor in this tournament, regardless of the mediocre disposition of the Hoosier based teams. Maurice Creek had a great bounce back season (averaging 14.3 points per game) at George Washington – a nine seed that will play #8 seed Memphis in round one (and regardless of the terminology advanced by the NCAA, the games played prior to Thursday are “play-in games”, not the “First Round”).

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The past two Indiana Mr. Basketballs will play for Michigan State and Michigan. Gary Harris is a first team All-Big Ten selection for Sparty and a teammate of Brandon Dawson from Gary Wallace. 2013 Mr. Basketball Zak Irvin plays for the Wolverines, along with Glenn Robinson (Lake Central) and Spike Albrecht (Crown Point). The ageless Stephan Van Treese attended Lawrence North High School. He’s one of these kids who seems to have been playing college basketball for decades.

Right now, there are 68 teams with dreams, and the great thing about the tournament is that with each round the dream lives for half the teams. Finally, there is only only left standing. Sixty-seven sets of teary-eyed kids who have worked their entire life for a chance to live this dream, and only one that gets to experience the exultation of emerging from the carnage a champion.

Can’t wait for Thursday.

Indianapolis Shines Hosting Big Events Like Big Ten Tournament

by Kent Sterling

No city does this better. The only huge sporting events the City of Indianapolis will never hold are the World Series, a Summer Olympics, and the Daytona 500. The rest of them it has hosted, and no city does it better

Sure, Indy’s layout allows for a great experience where a fan can walk from the hotel to the restaurant to the arena or stadium, and the downtown becomes a vibrant carnival of color and light, but the reason Indianapolis is so good is that it always strives to be better and more friendly the next time.

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I remember the meetings for the various committees that precede and follow the Big Ten Tourney every year where Jack Swarbrick, now the athletic director at Notre Dame, would congratulate everyone, and then tell us to raze the structure that was so successful and rebuild it better for next year.

These events a the focus of those who are the best and brightest in Indianapolis and serious thought and effort is given to providing a great experience for the visitors who want to see some great basketball in person.

The selection of Chicago as an occasional host through the run of this event is something that I have always taken personally. Where the Big Ten Tournament is a civic focus in Indy, for Chicago it’s a distraction. In Indy, the goal is to make welcome thousands of visitors. In Chicago, the objective is cash.

If some additional tax revenue is collected to fill Indianapolis potholes because of a significant athletic event, that’s all well and good. In Chicago, the point of the thing is bucks, and that goes for every aspect of the visitors’ experience. Here, people greet you with a smile and a “How ya doin’?” In Chicago, the greetings come in many forms and gestures – none suitable for print.

(I grew up in Chicago, lived there until I was 30, and my ancestors called Chicago home for generations. My Mom and sister still live in the western suburbs, and I love Chicago, but it’s a place that grins maniacally when visitors with bulging pockets cross the city limits.)

Anyway, this post isn’t supposed to be about bashing Chicago, there are plenty who are better at it than I. This is an exaltation of the right way to host the visitors who make a destination of a Big Ten Tourney, NCAA Final Four, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400, Super Bowl, World Basketball Championship, and the many other giant events that have very happily called Indianapolis home.

The reason it’s done so well here is the point of differentiation in all cities – its people. Indianapolis is a welcoming place that trusts visitors, and works hard to make sure their expectations are exceeded (not too hard with some as many incorrectly view Indianapolis as a meaningless outpost without charm or purpose).

I’m going to spend the rest of the day and night celebrating college basketball at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and the surrounding establishments that should be loud and raucous on a St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

It’s important that the media gets to live the life of those fans who consume the events we cover, or at least that’s my excuse for having a hell of a good time in a town I regret living in only because I can’t visit.

“Ahead of the Curve” Sat. Morning from 8a-10a – Andrew Dakich, Austin Etherington, Errick Peck, and ESPN’s Mike Wells

Another Saturday, another lineup of fantastic guests for Fox 59’s Chris Hagan and I to talk to – as if bickering with each other isn’t enough for two hours of sports fueled mayhem.

The Big Ten Tournament is in town, and that means college basketball will be front and center. Indiana and Purdue are both home, and have been for more than a day.

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Yesterday, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News posted that sources have told him that a group of boosters are putting together a buyout package to finance a coup d’etat that would install former Hoosier Mike Woodson – the soon to be ousted – as the new coach of the Indiana basketball program. There was zero truth to the report, but that’s journalism in the 2010s. We’ll talk about the report and just how warm Crean’s seat is.

There are additional rumors flying in West Lafayette about Matt Painter and the Purdue program. We’ll talk about Painter and the changes coming to the Boiler program.

The Colts have agreed to terms with former NY Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks. The one-year, $5.5M (including bonuses) deal is going to be well worth it if the foot and ankle injury victim can stay healthy. Big Joe Staysniak and I debated the merits of signing Nicks today as I filled in for Michael Grady, and my position was that everything Joe said about Nicks was also true when the Colts signed Ahmad Bradshaw. But it’s a one-year deal, so what the hell.

Sure, the Pacers beat the Philadelphia 76ers 101-94 last night, but given their 19-game losing streak, that’s not much to celebrate. The 21 turnovers are a problem even if the result doesn’t hurt them in the standings. They would probably have lost with that effort against anyone else in the NBA.

The guests will be stellar throughout. We’ll ask Andrew Dakich about the best parts of being a walk-on at a program like Michigan. Indiana’s Austin Etherington will talk about leadership as the only fourth year player for the Hoosiers next season. Purdue Boilermaker Errick Peck will talk about the challenges of being a fifth year senior in the Big Ten after getting his Ivy League degree at Cornell. And ESPN’s Mike Wells will join us at 9:45a to talk about the Colts busy week where it seems Ryan Grigson got exactly who and what he wanted.

That’s all from 8a-10a on a Saturday. You listen to that, you are ready for the day, baby! I can’t wait to get started,