Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Chicago Cubs Picked as the Worst Team in Baseball

by Kent Sterling

The flag on the right is projected to fly above the scoreboard 95 times during the 2014 season. The flag on the left – 67 times.

According to a smart guy named Clay Davenport who runs computer simulations and analyzes statistical probabilities, the Chicago Cubs will be the only team in baseball to win less than 70 games in 2014.

Don’t worry, the bevy of amazing and highly touted prospects the Chicago media crows about daily are only two years from being ready for the big leagues. If only Cubs fans could induce their own comas until March, 2016.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

The Cubs front office boobery loves to talk about the future – the distant future. What fans need to decide is whether that future will be bright because of Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler, C.J. Edwards, Albert Almora and the rest of the kiddie Cubs or if the chatter about the future like a set of keys shaken in front of a baby to distract them from their misery.

Davenport says that the Cubs as they are currently constructed are destined to finish the 2014 season with a 67-95 record. I invite you to visit claydavenport.com for all the tragic details (make sure and check out Darwin Barney’s EqA and VORP – it’s not important to know what those categories stand for or how Davenport calculates it, but trust me when I tell you his 2013 numbers were atrocious).

The next worst team is projected to be the rebuilding Houston Astros, who are actually expected to improve in GM Jeff Luhnow’s third season. He was hired eight weeks after Cubs president Theo Epstein, and somehow the Astros have built from the ground up, dumped salaries, and at the very least are projected to have made the strides needed to win 70 games.

Today, ESPN’s Keith Law, another statistics guy (how could a baseball expert not be), ranks the Astros minor league system as the best in baseball. The Cubs are ranked fourth despite the youngsters who were paraded around Chicago during the Cubs Convention as future conquering heroes before ever seeing a major league slider.

Fortunately, the Astros are gone from the National League, so they aren’t nearly the obvious comparative that they would be if they were still bottom feeders in the NL Central Division.

Milwaukee ranks last, so at least the Cubs have a good shot at passing the Brew Crew before the decade ends.

Davenport also projects the Cubs last in the majors offensively with only 598 runs scored, and second to last in the National League (behind Colorado) with 721 runs against. The last full season that the Cubs scored less than 600 runs and allowed 700+ was the scrappy 1956 club managed by Stan Hack.

Combine what appears to be woeful on-field product with an embarrassing year for the business office, and the Cubs appear to be run by the gang that can’t throw straight. The Wrigleyville Rooftop Owners should be nothing more than a petty annoyance for the Cubs, who idiotically signed away their rights to adjust the bleacher seating or erect signage for 20 years to that group in late 2003. The rooftop owners should be nothing more than a pebble in the shoe of the Cubs.

Instead, that pebble opened a wound that has become infected and now the franchise is stuck waiting for the rooftop owners to allow the Cubs to execute their brilliant business plan that will allow the Ricketts Family ownership to finally invest in some pitching, hitting, defense, and psychiatrists.

The Cubs – as usual – are being hoisted by their own petard. Owners change, management changes, the calendar changes, and the ways the Cubs find to ensure their own mediocrity change. What never changes is the result.

An ambitious group of entertainment pirates were granted legal status by the Cubs to prevent necessary improvements to Wrigley Field. This time it’s not Bartman, a black cat, or a Billy Goat. This time it was a moron at a conference table being outwitted by neighborhood rabble.

One of the first criteria for owning a baseball team is to have enough cash on hand to pay off some wing nuts who built bars on their rooftops. Do you think Mark Cuban would let the rooftop folks stand between him and winning – or additional net revenue?

So the Cubs are going to be the worst team in 2014. I could have told Davenport that without an algorithm or dial-up connection.

Northwestern Football Moves Toward Unionization – Is Pay for Play Next?

by Kent Sterling

Kain Colter is a change agent, a pot stirrer, and the leader of a movement. That’s putting a valuable education to good use.

The debate is simple. College athletes should either be paid to their value, or they should be happy with the educational opportunity they already receive as a scholarship athlete. The tough part of deciding which side you support is understanding the consequences of changing the financial structure of college athletics.

Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter announced yesterday that he and his teammates have filed the necessary paperwork to unionize the football team. The Wildcats are fighting for the right to sit at a table as the policies governing their post-career health coverage, ability to continue their education beyond the expiration of their athletic eligibility, and other issues are discussed.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

The NCAA involves student-athletes in discussions, but they have no legal standing to collective bargaining as they are not considered employees. Colter wants to change that.

Walter Byers, the inventor of collegiate athletics as it exists today referred to it in his memoir “a neo-plantation mentality.” It’s unfair that the young men and women who do the work have no place at the table where the rules governing their lives as athletes are discussed.

The NCAA, as you might guess, would prefer that the Northwestern football team remain an ad hoc group of gifted athletes without the benefits of belonging to a union would confer.

NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy simply stated the NCAA’s position, ‘‘Student-athletes are not employees, and their participation in college sports is voluntary.”

So what happens if the Wildcats are declared employees and granted the right to unionize?

To say it will be a mess is an insult to messes. Players might then be taxed on part or all of the cost of their scholarships. Schools could lose their non-profit status, which would mean among many other things including donations to schools no longer being tax deductible. That eliminates a significant incentive for those who write big checks, and would cause a massive financial hardship for the schools.

I could list the ways this thing could all spin wildly out of control if the National Labor Relations Board rules in favor of Northwestern, but none would change the question that you need to answer in your own mind – does the need to treat college athletes who are part of a multi-billion dollar machine as employees outweigh the potential changes it will cause to the collegiate athletic landscape as we know it?

Yesterday, on ESPN’s “Around the Horn, host Tony Reali wrapped up the lively debate over paying players by saying that they had spent 11 years and three months arguing about paying players, and are no closer to an answer. This morning, I read an article published in a 1986 edition of Sports Illustrated, and the question was discussed there in the same way it is today.

Hilariously, the piece refers to the TV deal for March Madness as growing “from a $180,000 afterthought in 1966 to the $32 million-a-year bonanza of today.” The most recent deal signed in 2010 is worth roughly $742,000,000 during each of its 14 years.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

That explosive growth in the wealth of the NCAA and its member institutions is part of the justification for those who want to fundamentally change the game for the people dubbed student-athletes by Byers in 1953 to help reaffirm the notion that athletes who happen to be students too are not employees. A lot of people are making a lot of money, but none of it funnels down to the participants themselves.

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

So, the decision becomes, should college football and men’s basketball players – responsible for so much revenue – be compensated to their value like everyone else in America, or should the current business model be maintained? The consequences of either path appears dire.

Colter sees what he believes is a wrong and is trying to right it, and to Northwestern University’s credit, they support his effort if not the notion of “employee-athletes.” He’s using the excellent education he received as compensation for sharing his athletic gifts quite well.

The game is changing, and before you make the call yourself as to whether doing the right thing is worth the consequences, you should read “Saturday Millionaires” by Kristi Dosh (who will be a guest at 9a this Saturday on ‘Ahead of the Curve; 1070 the Fan, Indianapolis). It lays out the realities of college athletic finance better than anything I’ve read, and if you feel sure what the right answer to these apparently simple question is, you will be much less sure after reading Dosh’s breakdown.

As for me, the cost of doing the right thing never negates the need to do it, and paying athletes in proportion to their value is the right thing whatever mayhem it causes. That chaos might cause the death of college sports as we know it, but the right thing is the right thing.

Filling in for Dan Dakich – Nothing But Fun and a Discussion About Athletic Department Money

by Kent Sterling

Talking about sports used to be so easy. Who won? Who lost? Why did one team win, and the other lose. Is Peyton Manning the best quarterback of all time? Will the Pacers win a championship? Will an Indiana team earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament?

Questions without black and white answers are wonderful for yipping and yapping, but I’m a fan of people being paid commensurate to their value, so I was compelled to talk about the business of collegiate athletics.

My feelings about paying the supposed student-athletes is, in my mind, well-founded and logical. It’s a conversation I’ve had a thousand times.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

I went a little outside my comfort area in talking about where the enormous sacks of cash generated by the football and men’s basketball team wind up, and since my day filling in for the great Dan Dakich ended at 3p, I have been researching the question as to where the money goes and why. Now, my brain aches.

There is a very good reason, my grade in A211 (accounting) at Indiana University was not very good. I get dizzy looking at columns and rows filled with numbers, and the last four hours have been filled with numbers.

The term “transfer pricing” is now engrained in my head, and to be honest, I would love to scrub it out – or at least turn back the clock to a simpler time when I had never read about it.

During the show, a question was asked whether the profits from the athletic department are funneled into the general fund. That’s where the work started, and why my head hurts.

Transfer pricing governs the interdepartmental fees that athletics pays the university for use of facilities, the marching band, office of legal affairs, library renovations, and bunches of other various buckets where the university decides extra cash needs to fall.

That makes the athletic budget a zero sum game at a lot of universities, and figuring out exactly how much money should fall in which buckets is the purview of each individual university.

Where the money allocated for the rent of the arena might go is anyone’s guess. To be honest, the whole thing sounded like a complicated scheme for laundering money. I mean no offense to the accountants who devised this system, but when I see money going from here to there, and then disappearing without a simple explanation, I see nefarious practices devised to game the system.

Balancing a checkbook is difficult for me, so describing the interdepartmental shifting of funds is as far beyond my intellectual means as understanding why “Two Broke Girls” is still on CBS.

The point of the conversation is that college football and men’s college basketball generates millions and millions of dollars for the 65 universities that belong to the five major conferences, and the money generated by football dwarfs that of men’s basketball. This is Indiana, so we include basketball.

If there are millions of dollars floating around, why shouldn’t the players get a taste for participating? Calculating exactly how much profit is generated is impossible because the game is rigged by transfer pricing that is totally at the discretion of the university. For example, in a ridiculously simple fake scenario, if the University of Mars takes in $100 million, and wants to show no profit, it can charge itself outrageous amounts for rental of the stadia, arenas, natatorium, snow removal, band fees, and legal advice. The deals are all negotiated between two departments under the same umbrella, so anything goes.

That makes the calculation of net revenue impossible to accurately assess.

Hey, maybe I did learn something over the past four hours.

It can work the other way too. If a school wants to perpetuate the belief that cash from athletics provides for academic good, the amounts for transfer pricing can be reduced, and a $65 million lump sum can be donated to build a new Science Building. Is that good or bad? Hell, I don’t know. The money came from somewhere, and science buildings are good, so I guess it’s good.

The only clarity in the fiscal scene of a university’s athletic department, and the value it places on football and basketball, can be derived by the amount of cash it pays a coach. A coach makes $ millions, the players deserve a cut.

That’s all I was trying to say.

Indiana Schools Looking at First March Madness Shutout Since 2005

by Kent Sterling

The point guard most likely to play in the 2014 NCAA Tournament is a fun to watch home grown senior named Jake Odum.

Indiana fancies itself as the state where basketball is king. NBA rosters feature a disproportionate number of men who grew up playing the game in Indiana, and only one time since 1980 have all college programs eligible to participate in the NCAA Tournament been shut out.

2014 might be the second, unless one of the ten teams gets hot in their conference tournament.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

Indiana State might be the best team in the state, and the favorite among Indiana teams to earn an at-large spot in the 68-game field. Greg Lansing’s team has the state’s best RPI at #45, and a 7-1 record in the MVC. Wichita State appears to be a prohibitive favorite to win the regular season title, but Indiana State might be able to raise some hell in the tournament. If Indiana State can win the remaining games in which they will be favored, 22-24 wins plus whatever they add during Arch Madness in St. Louis (the MVC Tournament) can make their resume’ nice and shiny.

The chin-strapped Jake Odum is playing point guard for what seems like his 14th year in Terre Haute, and if you haven’t had a chance to watch him play, you should.

The Sycamores 65-61 win over Loyola-Chicago (RPI #283) was nearly a catastrophic loss for the Sycamores and their chances to earn an at-large bid.

Key wins – vs. Belmont (RPI #62), @ Notre Dame (RPI #92), vs. Missouri State (RPI #82)

Key losses – @ Tulsa (RPI #124), @Belmont (RPI #62), @ St. Louis (RPI #27)

Indiana University has only missed the tourney six times since 1980. Three of those came after the arrogance and stupidity of Kelvin Sampson and Rob Senderoff led to NCAA sanctions that decimated the Hoosiers roster. Other than the 2009-2011 period, Indiana missed in 1985 (the first year the field expanded), and two consecutive years under the thoroughly reviled Mike Davis in 2005 and 2006.

At 3-4 in the Big Ten with an RPI of #68, the Hoosiers are likely going to need to finish their final 12 Big Ten games 6-5 to elevate their record to the point where an at-large bid becomes a likelihood. Failing that, Indiana will need to win the Big Ten Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Key wins – vs. Wisconsin (RPI #3), vs. Illinois (RPI #65) vs. Washington (RPI #70)

Key Losses – vs. Northwestern (RPI #122), vs. Notre Dame (RPI #92), vs. Illinois (RPI #65)

Notre Dame is having a long season – their first in the ACC. That 2-4 conference record, RPI ranking of #91, and a conference tournament with some of the nation’s best teams makes a clear path to the NCAA Tournament very difficult to see. Leading scorer Jerian Grant’s dismissal from the team for academic issues did not help the Fighting Irish, and losing four of five after stunning Duke is not a bellwether for success either.

Mike Brey has led the Irish to four straight bids, but this year appears to be a long shot.

Key wins – vs. Duke (RPI #10), vs. Delaware (RPI #66), vs Indiana (RPI #68)

Key losses – @ Georgia Tech (RPI #151), @Maryland (RPI #81), vs. NC State (RPI #67)

Butler has had a tough time losing overtime games in their first season in the Big East, and have lost every game they have played against competition with an RPI ranked 89th or higher. With an overall record of 11-9 and a conference mark of 1-7, the Bulldogs face a tough road at-large consideration. Their RPI is ranked 103rd.

If any team in Indiana has a real chance at turning their season around, it’s Butler. If they had scored a single point more in their four OT losses, they would be 15-5 overall and 4-4 in conference. Butler is the poster boy for teams being better than their record shows.

Villanova, Creighton, and Xavier appear to be the cream of the crop in the Big East, but Butler is going to be a tough out in the Big East Tournament.

Key wins – vs. Vanderbilt (RPI #85), vs Marquette (RPI #86), vs. vs. Princeton (RPI #96)

Key losses – vs. DePaul (RPI #102), vs. St. John’s (RPI #76), vs. Georgetown (RPI #72)

Purdue has an even lower RPI than the Hoosiers at #108, but had shown recent signs of life before a double OT loss at Northwestern a week ago. If the light goes on for A.J. Hammons, they could easily elevate into the first division of the Big Ten. That’s a long shot as Hammons has been to same guy since his season at Carmel High School.

The end of the Gene Keady Era was mostly barren of trips to the NCAA Tourney. They missed out in four of his last five seasons (2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005). Matt Painter missed his first season as he rebuilt nearly from scratch, but never since.

The Boilermakers have talent, but at 3-4 in the Big Ten with six of 11 remaining games against ranked opponents, can’t afford to lose any of the games left that they should win.

Key wins – vs. Eastern Michigan (RPI #60) @ Illinois (RPI #65), vs. Nebraska (RPI #73)

Key losses – vs. Washington State (RPI #170), @Northwestern (RPI #122), vs. Butler (RPI #103)

Click here to trust your dental care to the best – Dr. Mike O’Neil at Today’s Dentistry in Fishers

IPFW is in the single bid Summit League, where they boast a 4-1 record. Their RPI of #144 puts them well outside consideration for an at-large bid. The teams from the Dakotas are pretty good in the Summit League, and they will pose the biggest threat to sending IPFW home.

Key wins – vs. North Dakota State (RPI #42)

Key losses – @ Texas A&M CC (RPI # 247), @ South Dakota (RPI #211), @ Miami of Ohio (RPI #140)

Valpo with an RPI ranking of #189 is not going to get a bid without winning the Horizon League Conference Tournament, and if not for the UW-Green Bay Phoenix they might have a good shot. There are three distinct sects of teams in the Horizon League – the bottom feeders (UIC, Detroit, and Oakland), the good teams (Wright State, Youngstown State, Cleveland State, UW-Milwaukee, and Valpo), and the best (UW-Green Bay).

The Phoenix are undefeated in conference and against the all teams they have played outside the top 60, while the Crusaders are 4-3 in the Horizon League.

Key wins – None

Key losses – @ East Tennessee State (RPI #226), vs. Evansville (RPI #214), vs. Wright State (#213)

Evansville – RPI #214 – is the best team ranked #200 or worse in college hoops. They came very close to beating Xavier on the road, but have found a way to only win seven of 18 against division one opponents. Seven of their 11 losses have been to top 100 teams.

They are going to have a tough time winning the MVC Tournament, but could post an upset of two. Marty Simmons is an outstanding coach who has some young talent – including his son Blake.

Key wins – vs. Mercer (RPI #63)

Key losses – vs. Jackson State (RPI #233), @ Murray State (RPI #189), vs. Drake (RPI #159)

Ball State is 3-12 and winless in the MAC. The Cardinals have one win over a D-1 opponent. There is always hope that they might be able to catch lightning in a bottle, but the light that hope creates in Muncie wouldn’t light a tiny corner of Worthen Arena.

This is James Whitford’s first year as coach, and it’s going to take time for him to build the roster and establish the brand. He came from Arizona, so he has seen how building a winner is done.

The RPI of 314 will improve in year two.

Key wins – none

Key losses – all

IUPUI is 2-17 with an RPI of #311. They have lost their last ten. To write more than that about the 2013-2014 Jaguars would be piling on. The key to success in Indy is to find a way to keep a couple of really good Indianapolis kids home each year. If Indy has a down year producing mid-major quality high school seniors, that will spell trouble for IUPUI – and it has.

Key wins – none

Key losses – all

Indiana Basketball – Dante Exum Declares for the NBA Draft, and That’s Just Fine for Hoosiers

by Kent Sterling

Dante Exum deserves a chance to play in the NBA as soon as he is deemed worthy – and he will be.

One-and-done basketball players have no place on a college campus, as they enter their chosen university with no desire to earn a degree or see college as anything but a stepping stone to the NBA. Other schools might dream of dipping into the pool of very talented players prohibited from entering the NBA by its idiotic age limit, but Indiana University should be above that.

Australian stud Dante Exum has declared his eligibility for the NBA Draft, according to ESPN without playing a minute of college basketball because the NBA’s age limit does not apply to international players, and that is just fine.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

The 6’6″, 188 lbs. point guard will be selected among the top five in the June draft, according to various projections, and would have been planned on being a one-and-done player if he elected to play in Bloomington as was expected.

While winning is fun, it should be done with bonafide students, not those serving time in the pampered purgatory of a major university waiting for the calendar to roll over so they are eligible to achieve their dream.

Indiana, minus a brief stretch of misbehavior by Mike Davis and Kelvin Sampson, has always prided itself in winning while adhering to the NCAA’s rules – as well as embracing the spirit of those rules. Indiana graduates its student-athletes while providing them with actual educational opportunity.

To do anything less would be to cheat the athletes who deserve something more than a hearty handshake for filling Assembly Hall and driving TV ratings and sponsorship opportunities that drive revenue for the school.

Exum, if the reports of his excellence and dynamism are to be trusted, would have been a game changer for Indiana or another school, as he had not committed yet to play for Tom Crean.

Going straight to the NBA is exactly what he should do if that is his goal, and it’s what other players should be allowed to do.

The one-and-done rule is wrongheaded – existing only for the benefit of the NBA owners – and universities shouldn’t give its tacit approval for it by enrolling NBA players in waiting.

I’m glad Indiana was not put in a position to cross to the dark side where other coaches and universities – notably John Calipari’s Kentucky and Bill Self’s Kansas – find morally bankrupt success.

College should be for students-athletes, not pros in waiting.

Seven of the top ten draftees on Chad Ford’s latest mock draft are current college freshman, and Indiana’s Noah Vonleh is among them. Whether he is able to go to the NBA after his freshman season is yet to be seen, but a year ago it was impossible to tell whether Vonleh was going to be a one-and-done player. He was skinny and a year younger than others in his class.

That gray area is impossible to enforce, and while my seemingly selective application of virtue might be viewed as being through cream and crimson glasses, I draw the line where the development of a player is unforeseeable – as was Vonleh’s.

Click here to make the best dentist in Indiana your dentist – Dr. Mike O’Neil at Today’s Dentistry

The enrollment of Exum would have been an impossible-to-ignore transgression – perfectly legal, but perfectly wrong.

Indiana fans should be happy that Exum has chosen to be a pro at the time he’s ready, rather than at the first moment of eligibility. The moral high ground is still the Hoosiers to claim – if not another chance for a banner.

Chicago Cubs and Rooftop Owners Appear to Be Headed to Court Over Giant Signs

by Kent Sterling

The ass-side of that video board will turn the buildings across Waveland Avenue back into apartments.

The battle between the Cubs and the owners of the rooftop saloons that overlook Wrigley Field from across Waveland and Sheffield Avenues is a little like a grade school fight between bullies. Both guys losing is the only acceptable outcome.

Cubs owner Smilin’ Tommy Ricketts would like to erect giant video boards that obstruct the view of the rooftop patrons. The revenue from the advertising on those video boards was to pay for the renovation to Wrigley Field that was to render it a reasonable facsimile of a major league ballpark.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

Those signs would obstruct the view of those perched on the rooftops across the street, which transforms them into ultra expensive bars without a competitive advantage over the simply expensive bars near Wrigley.

The Wrigleyville Rooftop Association released a statement today reaffirming its desire for a day to court to settle the fracas, “This is an unfortunate turn of events because our hope was to find a solution to this matter. Rooftop owners believe any blockage of our views violates the contract we have with the owners of the Cubs. We have instructed our legal team to proceed accordingly.”

Picking sides in this fight is futile. The Cubs are money grubbers convinced that fielding a non-competitive team with the third highest average ticket prices in baseball is the right way to run a professional sports franchise, and the rooftop owners are comfortable selling tickets to watch a game they have no right to offer.

Sure, Cubs resident business “genius” (the quotes indicate sarcasm for anyone who is confused by them) Crane Kenney negotiated a contract with the owners in 2003 that legitimizes the piracy of the view from areas less distant from the field than seats in many stadiums, but that only makes it legal, not right.

That deal was negotiated during a previous ownership, and its existence does not please Ricketts, who bought that deal along with the team.

The 20-year contract expires in 2023, which means that if the Cubs plan changes to Wrigley Field that affects the sight lines from the rooftops to the games, the rooftop owners have a packet of papers they can wave under a judges nose to stop the Cubs as surely as the Red Line passing the park distracts Starlin Castro when he’s at shortstop.

Over the past few weeks, the Cubs and rooftop owners have gotten together to try to work out a deal that would allow everyone to get what they want, but there appears to be such an advanced level of acrimony and distrust between the two organizations that it was doomed before it started.

Both sides say they hoped for an amicable outcome, but like divorcing couples, hoping for amicable means the other side admits the error of its ways and surrenders. Amicability never equates to meeting in the middle.

The Cubs wait to erect their video boards, and the rooftop owners continue to take reservations for groups who want to drink and eat unlimited amounts for a fixed price while watching another pathetic Cubs team destined again to lose 90+ games.

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

As the Cubs continue to suck, the demand for rooftop tickets will decline. If that goes on long enough, the property value of the buildings upon which these saloons are perched will decline. For the Cubs, without the signs they will lose the revenue stream that was going to pay for the renovation that allows Wrigley Field to exist for another 50 years. Without the improvements, the Cubs will have a tough time finding the cash to pay for the players needed to improve the team.

What we have here is mutually assured destruction the likes of which was preached to us by Joshua the Computer in “WarGames” as it almost started World War III just to see what would happen.

A judge will try to settle this mess, and the losing side will appeal. At some point in that process, 2023 will come and the agreement will expire. The rooftop owners will lose their legal standing, and the Cubs will lower the boom and raise the signs.

This fight isn’t going to end soon, but it will end ugly. And there is a hell of a lot better chance it will end with two losers. Someday in the 22nd Century it will be part of the curriculum in a University of Chicago class that attempts to explain just how dumb human beings used to be.

Indiana Beats Illinois 56-46 to Put the Hoosiers Back in the Race for NCAA Bid

by Kent Sterling

Yogi Ferrell scored 17 points on seven FG attempts in today’s win vs. Illinois, so he has reason to smile.

This was an ugly if ultimately rewarding game for Indiana as they began the second six-game stretch of the Big Ten season. For Illinois, it was ugly and not rewarding, and signaled tap city, as Al McGuire used to say.

The Hoosiers outscored the Illini 13-5 from the foul line, out rebounded them 42-28, and hit 40.8% compared to Illinois’ 33.3 repeating.

So now Indiana is 3-4 in Big Ten play, only one game out of a tie for fourth. Illinois dropped to 2-6, one-half game out of last. The two programs started the day within a half-game of one another. One survived, and one was declared DOA. That’s how wacky the Big Ten is in 2014.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

Michigan remains undefeated at 7-0 and Michigan State is 7-1. Iowa is alone in third at 5-2. The rest is a total mess.

We don’t know much more about Indiana today than we did three weeks ago or four hours ago, and I like feeling like I know something. This might be the most frustrating Indiana team in memory if only because it’s impossible to figure out a single component of it, or see a way that these pieces fit as one.

Is the coaching good or bad? Who can tell? Is Noah Vonleh a great player being taken away be defenses, or a player who hasn’t figured out how to be productively assertive yet? Is Troy Williams full of untapped potential, or a guy like Ricky Calloway or Charlie Miller who will be remembered in Bloomington for what might have been more than for what was?

The defense can be very good, while the offense appears muddled and out of synch much of the time. If the Hoosiers are unable to score in transition, putting the ball in the bucket gets tough. Illinois collapsed four defenders on Noah Vonleh every time he caught the ball on the block today, and he managed only four points on six shots. The Hoosiers won, so fans will overlook much of the ugly underbelly of this one.

There are almost constant corrections about positioning, and coach Tom Crean could be clearly heard admonishing Vonleh for setting up on the wrong side of the floor late in today’s game.

I don’t know what to make of this group, and I’m afraid the future will be filled with some fans pining for what could have been, while the others are glad what might have happened didn’t. Instead of bar room arguments, there might be a lot of shrugged shoulders.

That’s the fate for many teams that lose 70% of their points from one season to the next, as well as the entire board of directors. The Hoosiers lost more leadership than offense after last season with the graduation or abdication of Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford, Maurice Creek, Derek Elston, Victor Oladipo, and Cody Zeller.

Fans asked who the heir apparent to the leadership mantle might be, but that question is still unanswered. When Indiana players gather on the floor, several speak simultaneously, and you know what they say, “If everyone’s talking, no one’s listening.”

The upcoming five games might see the Hoosiers gel a little bit, but the road is damn tough. Thursday night, Indiana travels to Nebraska, then Michigan visits Assembly Hall on Super Bowl Sunday. After that, Indiana visits Minnesota, hosts Penn State, and then plays the Boilermakers of Purdue at Mackey Arena.

If Indiana wins three of those games, their Big Ten record will be even at 6-6.

After that, four of the final six opponents are ranked in the top 21, and Michigan – the #21 team in America – will climb after beating the Spartans last night.

In two months, it will all be over, and the talk will evolve into what effect James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson, and Max Hoetzel might have on the roster. Will the departures of Will Sheehey, Jeff Howard, Evan Gordon, and Taylor Wayer cause problems? Will Vonleh’s stock rise high enough to prompt him to be Indiana’s first one-and-done since Evan’s brother Eric in 2008? And if so, will Hanner Mosquera-Perea be ready to play more than the one minute he logged today?

So many questions. So few answers. That’s Hoosier basketball in 2014.

“Ahead of the Curve” at 11a on 1070 the Fan Might Be Finest Effort Yet!

by Kent Sterling

Last week, we had a good show. Lots to talk about, and unbelievably good guests.

This week, there might be even more to talk about – the Pacers win last night that shouldn’t have been, Indiana’s continuing Season on the Brink II with a must win game against Illinois, and the continued evolution of the Indianapolis Colts roster.

And there is plenty more for Fox 59 sports director Chris Hagan and I to talk about.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

The legacy of Peyton Manning is going to come into much clearer focus in eight days. Will he be seen as the best who ever played, a top five quarterback, or a top ten guy? Being the first to win a Super Bowl as the starting quarterback for two franchises would go a long way toward giving Manning a leg up on the ladder.

College athletics are getting ready to undergo what could be a dramatic sea change with the 65 major conference schools developing an unprecedented amount of authority. In the past, the smaller schools stood in the path of evolution because there are more of them, and voting as a bloc stunted changes like allowing schools from paying for the full cost of attending college.

By creating a separate class for the schools who are able to generate a tremendous amount of wealth, a more reasonable world will be created. Fred Glass is the athletic director at Indiana University, where growth is occurring though out their 24 programs. Fred will talk to us about college athletics, and specifically how the potential changes will affect the Hoosiers.

Fred also teased a series of structural improvements in athletic facilities during the announcement of the Assembly Hall renovation, and we’ll try to pin him down on a timeline – at least for the future announcements.

Also joining us will be Colts inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman, who should be in Hawaii this weekend for the Pro Bowl. Instead, he’ll spend time with Chris and me. Not only did Freeman lead the Colts with 126 tackles, but led all inside LBs with six forced fumbles. Freeman uses his speed to make plays, and has gone from a guy where people wondered if the Colts could improve at his position to being a guy Colts fans are thrilled to have in Indy.

Every week, I pledge to vent about the Cubs and their clear desire to avoid improving until the farm system starts producing help at the major league level, but with everything going on in Indiana, this week might not be the week for that either – despite losing the auction for Japanese wunderkind Masahiro Tanaka. The Cubs never believed for a minute they were in the game for Tanaka, and used the process to sell fans on the concept of them not spending because they were marshaling their resources for their bid – which was abject nonsense.

And we want to take your calls. We have not spent a lot of time taking calls because I don’t like turning over control over the quality of the show to anyone who can dial a phone. During the few segments where we have asked for people to share their thoughts, we have been anything but disappointed. We have had really smart callers, and I think they have added to the quality of the show. So, let’s hear from you.

Fred will join us at 11:45, and Jerrell will call in at 12:15.

If you’re in the car, or relaxing in the house before getting out in the weather, turn on 1070 the Fan or 107.5 FM and spend some time with us. If you live outside the area, you can listen at 1070thefan.com or on the 1070thefan smartphone app.

It’s the best two hours of my week.

Security at Sochi Olympics – Would You Go If You Had the Chance? I Would in a Second!

by Kent Sterling

Every time the weather sucks, I ignore it and go about my business. When Indianapolis got 11-inches of snow a couple of weeks ago, I lived my life like I always do.

Some places where I tried to buy a burger were closed, but I was out in the mess doing what I would have done on the typical 75-degree day. The only concessions I make to the weather are to drive more cautiously, and to wear more clothing.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

My way isn’t the only way. Thousands respond to a slightly adverse weather forecast by completely wigging out. They buy loaves of bread and gallons of milk as though nuclear winter is coming rather than a snow storm.

The 11-inches was the second highest total snowfall on any one day in Indy since weather records have been kept, and in two days all businesses were open and life returned to normal. Still, people run to the store because they are frightened of running out of food.

I used to call them idiots. Now, I realize we are all just wired a little differently, and some people spend a lot of time worrying that life will harm them if they don’t take precautions. See, we can all evolve into more tolerant people – even after we turn 40.

The Winter Olympics in Sochi is getting some bad press as the security in the southern Russia resort community is questioned. “Black widow terrorists may already be on the ground in Sochi with explosives they plan to detonate in suicide bombings during the Olympiad,” the solemn news anchors tell us.

Sounds ominous.

Because of the reports questioning security, many are choosing not to travel to Sochi – including some parents of the athletes.

The average suicide bombing takes roughly 30 lives – some more and some less. Even if three of these kooks successfully blow themselves up and take 30 tourists or athletes with them, that’s 93 deaths.

In 2012, 10,322 died in car accidents caused by drunk drivers in the United States, and 500 people were murdered in Chicago. People still drive every day, and nearly three million continue to live in Chicago.

If I had any inclination to watch live a Winter Olympics that I will avoid on television, I would think nothing of traveling to Sochi. The threat of some lunatic with an explosive strapped to her chest flipping the switch marked “BOOM!” within the range needed to cause me harm would be no deterrent to my plans whatsoever.

When we change our lives because of fear caused by psychopaths, the psychopaths win. They are called terrorists for a reason – their work is designed to prey on our instinct to fear – and I’m not giving in.

The Israelis have written the book on how to deal with terrorists, and that book’s message is, “Live your life as you would otherwise, and never lend power to them through reaction.” By ignoring them, we strip them of meaning and power.

In fact, I would be more likely to travel to Sochi given the threat, and I would make sure I spent my energy laughing and enjoying life just to spite the sociopaths who would choose to harm me because of the political message they yearn to send.

The potential for harm exists everywhere. Last year, a fisherman in Belarus was killed by a beaver while attempting to take a picture with the animal. The beaver bit the man, severing a large artery in his leg. In 2011, Jose Luis Ochoa died after being stabbed in the leg at a cockfight in California by one of the birds that had a knife attached to its limb. In 2010, Mike Edwards, cellist for the band ELO, died when a large round bale of hay rolled down the hill and smashed his car while he was out driving. The potential for disaster is everywhere. Whether it’s cancer, murder, fire, or a chicken with a razor strapped to its leg, we are all going to meet our doom one day.

Click here to trust your dental care to the best – Dr. Mike O’Neil of Today’s Dentistry

That’s life. In 100 years, something fatal will have happened to virtually all of us.

We can either enjoy every second, and embrace being thrilled by the unknown. Or we can adjust how we live our lives based upon our fears.

I’m enjoying the ride, and would be in Sochi next month for the sheer joy of being defiant if the majority of the events in the Winter Olympics weren’t so damn dull.

[polldaddy poll=7742508]

Justin Bieber Arrested for Being an Entitled Mope Among Other Things

by Kent Sterling

A smiling Justin Bieber looks like the kind of guy who will only learn through a more profound failure of judgement that he suffered from this morning.

As much as I loathe those who parade around as though the rules of reason don’t apply to them, Justin Bieber’s arrest early this morning near South Beach in Miami served as a reminder that I wasn’t exactly perfect at 19 either.

Society tends to look at young men like Bieber – an enabled dolt surrounded by yes men – with disdain or worse because he allows himself to believe that a modicum of talent excuses him from behaving as though disaster is afraid of showing its face near him.

Click here to follow Kent on Twitter

Being 19 years-old with almost limitless resources would land many of us in the pokey or worse. The problem with a deep, thick, and tall pile of cash is that it allows people to ignore parameters and those who set them.

The bail for Bieber was set at $2,500. That’s the kind of money he runs through every minute in a strip club. It’s nothing. For the rest of us, putting together $2,500 would take a little work, and serve as a minor disincentive. Bieber is accompanied by bobos with many times that amount of cash with them because it won’t fit in Bieber’s 26 X 26 jeans.

Twenty-five hunge is a parking ticket for Bieber, who will smile for the judge, apologize, and accept his minuscule penalty for driving under the influence, resisting arrest nonviolently, and driving with an expired license. The fine will be paid painlessly, and Bieber will continue his moronic rampage the long way around adulthood.

When I was 18, I was lucky enough to have parents who thought very little of the idea of allowing me to drive one of their cars. I was not niblet cute with the voice of an angel, so buying my own set of wheels was far beyond my means. I was self-aware enough to know that driving while socializing was a bad idea, but now and then guilt over never driving got the better of me, and I asked Mom and Dad to allow me to borrow the 1967 Buick LeSabre.

This was a purple beast of a car, big enough to seat six comfortably and as many as 12 if creativity and ambition were exercised. I fancied myself an outstanding driver, capable of flawlessly controlling a car regardless of the speed, conditions, or stupidity of the situation. The car maxed out at 82 miles per hour, as I learned many times. It was a heavy car, and something would usually drag the pavement as the level of the pavement changes. People constantly told me about the sparks coming from underneath the car.

Kim Houston drove a red VW Rabbit, and several times we drag raced on Charleston Road. I never beat her, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. As the road narrowed to two lanes, Kim would force me into the left lane – the lane reserved for oncoming traffic. I never backed off until headlights heading toward us forced me to break to duck in behind her.

The girls who were in her car would excitedly tell me about the stream of sparks exploding from the bottom of the car. Knowing the car was a beater, I claimed it was a clever and expensive add-on – like dual exhaust or fluorescent tubing.

As occasionally dangerous as operating the LeSabre could be, it was my Mom’s next car that brought sanity to my decision making.

The big moment came when I was 19 and my parents allowed my to drive the magnificently powerful used 1974 Pontiac Catalina they had recently purchased. It was creamy yellow and just as roomy as the LeSabre, but with an engine nowhere near to its last legs. The car roared and flew.

At a party woefully short on beer, we decided to head to the liquor store to stock up and set a new speed record for the car on the way. Between the party in New Albany, Indiana, and Cut-Rate Liquors in Jeffersonville was a five mile stretch of interstate that served our purposes well. I rounded up four friends, and off we went.

Within a mile, we were cruising at 95 mph without breaking a sweat. No rattling from this monstrosity, unlike the LeSabre. More gas, more speed, and soon we topped out at 110 mph. We hit some traffic and had to back off, but I wanted to peg the speedometer at 120. The pedal went to the floor as soon as we cleared the last car roughly a mile before our exit.

We got it back to 110 with the exit racing toward us. Funny how the exit charges at a car going 110. I waited until the last possible second before hitting the brakes while swerving onto the exit ramp. The car ignored the brakes, and continued way too fast up the ramp. I stood on the brake pedal with every ounce of my 147 pound frame, and the car sped toward the stop light.

The light at the top of the ramp turned red, and cars were cruising across the intersection. The wheels of the Catalina stopped spinning, but the car kept sliding up the ramp toward the stoplight. Did I mention a light rain started to fall a quarter mile before we got to the exit? Didn’t think so.

Brakes locked, red light, slightly damp pavement, no ability to stop the car more quickly than physics would allow, and four friends trusting I knew what the hell I was doing.

Yikes.

The car halted precisely at the white line marking the beginning of the intersection. Today, those friends would beat me senseless, and I would spend days in a cardiac care unit from the stress of nearly killing them. That day, the 19 year-olds cheered and high fived like we had won the Indianapolis 500. We bought the beer for the party, and returned with me as a much smarter and prudent driver who knew exactly how close he had come to causing total disaster.

It didn’t take a run in with the police, an injury, or a severe penalty from my parents for me to learn my lesson. It took losing control, and putting friends’ lives at risk.

That moment shook me, and I learned my lesson. I don’t exhibit any of the behavior that led to that near catastrophe.

Clearly, Bieber needs to learn that driving a rented yellow Lamborghini 60+ mph in a 30 mph zone after reportedly drinking, smoking pot, and taking prescription anti-depressants is dangerous. Some people, like me, are damn lucky to learn a lesson without mayhem. Others need a more serious consequence.

As little as I think of Bieber, I hope this was enough to get his mind right.