Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indianapolis Colts Thrash Chiefs 23-7 – Colts Go 5-for-5 Hitting Kent’s Keys for Victory

Sterling wears a too big sweater while raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Kent Sterling studied the Chiefs and Colts matchup, predicted the Colts win, although by a smaller margin, and identified five keys for a Colts victory. The NFL isn’t calculus, so predicting winning the turnover margin as a benchmark for winning isn’t worthy of a gold star from a fifth grade teacher, much less wild applause from football fans.

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But for the sake of examining whether Kent has a grasp on the fundamentals of the NFL, let’s take a look at those five keys, and see what effect they meant in the grand tapestry of the ass-kivking the Colts administered today in Kansas City:

1 – Win the turnover battle – The Chiefs are third in the league with 20 picks and #1 in forced fumbles. Oddly, the Chiefs lead the league the turnovers forced and are tied for the lead in least turnovers allowed. As you might guess, they lead in turnover margin with +21. If anyone asks you how the Chiefs have gone from 2-14 to 10-3 in one season, tell them their turnover margin was -24 in 2012 and +21 in 2013. Forty-five turnover turnarounds will bring a few extra wins. Good news for Colts fans is that the team the Chiefs are tied with for least giveaways is the Colts, but the Colts are in the middle of the pack with 21 forced turnovers.

The Colts won the turnover battle 4-0. Two of the turnovers led to Colts touchdowns. Check #1

2 – Get pressure to Smith He doesn’t beat himself very often. The Chiefs top in the NFL with only seven interceptions thrown, and are sixth in fumbles lost. Just because he isn’t going to beat you deep very often doesn’t mean he isn’t going to beat you. According to ProFootballFocus.com, Smith has the NFL’s lowest Average Depth of Target at 6.9 yards. Donnie Avery can get behind people, but Colts fans will remember his sub DHB hands. Let Smith pick you apart underneath, and the chains will move all day long.

Colts pressure caused a rare Smith interception, and caused what sure looked to me like an odd strip sack by Robert Mathis that was ruled an interception. The Colts were credited with four sacks that all seemed to come at the worst time for the Chiefs. Check #2

3 – Keep Luck clean If Luck gets time, he makes good throws. Sunday’s weather forecast in Kansas City is for a high of 26 and winds or 17 mph. Luck doesn’t play in the cold and wind very often, but the Colts aren’t built as a finesse team that requires a precision passing game. Give Luck lanes to run and some time to find check downs, and he will be fine. Hali and Houston are hellraisers, and with a lot on the line, they will be on a mission. Anthony Castonzo and Gosder Cherilous need to keep them out of Luck’s grill.

The Colts allowed one sack that came on the review of a play that was initially called an incomplete pass. Luck’s knee hit the turf just prior to the release. Other than that, for a patchwork offensive line, the Colts did a very solid job of keeping the Chief’s off of Luck. It was a bonus that Justin Houston sat, but solid work by the Colts. Check #3

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4 – Cover Dwayne Bowe, Dexter McCluster (who is expected back from injury), and Donnie Avery without help – If the Colts are going to succeed defensively, they need to focus their attention on Jamaal Charles as a rusher and receiver out of the backfield. That means the fewer resources needed to shadow Bowe, McCluster, and Avery, the better chance the Colts defense will have to minimize the space Charles needs to hit the turbo button. Charles has 1,836 yards from scrimmage this season which makes him priority one, two, and three, but if that leaves the other receivers wide open underneath, that’s target practice for Smith.

Bowe, McCluster, and Avery combined for nine catches, 89 yards, and zero TDs on 17 targets. The relentlessly efficient Smith was 16-29 for 153 yards, no TDs, and a passer rating of 41.3 his lowest mark of the season by more than 15 points. That’s good coverage and solid pressure combining to make Smith miserable. Check #4

5 – Get Trent Richardson with ball with somewhere to go – Richardson looked pretty good last week with over 100 yards from scrimmage, and they need to open some holes for his Sunday, or utilize him as a receiver more regularly. Not sure whether the refitted offensive line or if the Texans’ docile defensive pursuit accounted for the improvement in Richardson’s stat line, but the Colts better hope the line is capable of moving guys because taking chances throwing into the secondary leads to turnovers (see number one). If Richardson is going to be productive, somebody needs to block Mike Devito who is excellent against the run.

Okay, this was written before it was a certainty that Donald Brown was going to play, so we’ll allow a enough wiggle room to replace Richardson with “Colts running backs.” Even given that change, the Colts had trouble move the ball on the ground minus the 51 yard touchdown run by Brown. Without that big play, the Colts ran the ball 33 times for 84 yards. That one run made them well in a lot of ways. Check #5

Before this game, it was easy to look at the Colts, post Reggie Wayne’s injury, as a team that could only beat the sub-par competition in the AFC South, but this was the kind of win against a playoff bound team on the road that serves as a great measuring stick for Super Bowl contention.

To earn checks in all five key areas means the Colts are a team on the come who must be counted as a contender for postseason success.

Indiana Football – Kevin Wilson Talks Recruiting, Cody Latimer’s NFL Decision, and Building Hoosier Culture

by Kent Sterling

Over the first three years of the Kevin Wilson era, Indiana’s football team has earned a 10-26 record, but the arrow is pointing in the right direction because Wilson displays the traits of a very effective leader.

Changing an almost relentless pattern of mediocrity at best doesn’t happen in a year or two. It takes time and the steady hand of a leader who knows when to ask for dedicated work, not just from his players and staff, but from himself.

That’s why I like Wilson – he publicly demands a great deal from himself and openly admits to taking an inventory of his own work and processes. It’s surprisingly rare in business and even more unusual in athletic leadership for a manager to look in the mirror to find methods of improving methods and results.

Insecurity generally causes poor decisions and worse results, and in no business is insecurity as common as in collegiate athletic coaching. At many schools, coaches are hired and fired by boobs running the asylum or committees named by even weaker lunkheads. When a coaching prospect hears the words “blue ribbon panel” they should run from the job like its at the University of Hell, but that’s the subject of a whole different post.

At Indiana, the AD is a strong and confident leader who expresses faith in his people and provides them the tools to lead to their potential. Wilson reflects that confidence, and the culture is taking hold.

Yeah, they were 5-7 this season, and the schedule next year isn’t easy, but in year four, I expect to see a significant forward jump. When players and coaches aren’t allowed to remain on the same path that caused a failure, change can occur. Abandoning dogma is a challenge for coaches, but Wilson sounds like a guy strong enough to admit and address areas of weakness.

Listen to the interview from today’s “Ahead of the Curve” on 1070 the Fan, and tell me you don’t hear confident self-assessment in Wilson. No whining, no excuses, just “hey, we gotta get better.”

Also, listen to hear Wilson discuss his staff as it is currently constituted and get his thoughts on whether receiver Cody Latimer is going pro – and what should drive that decision.

Indiana University AD Fred Glass Discusses $40 Million Gift from Cindy Simon Skjodt

by Kent Sterling

A significant amount of time is spent by athletic directors finding the cash needed to update facilities, and when Fred Glass welcomed Cindy Simon Skjodt and her $40 million dollar donation that will cover the tab for a much needed renovation of Assembly Hall, that represented a watershed moment in his era running the most visible department on IU’s Bloomington campus.

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Glass continues to get stuff done at a dizzying pace and with boundless enthusiasm. He’s like a very, very smart and ambitious kid in candy striped pants as he does the work to make sure Indiana fulfills the promise of providing the best experience and education possible during their time in Bloomington.

The very least a school should do, if the NCAA is not going to allow players to share the wealth they create while playing sports that generate revenue is to find a way for all athletes to spend their time in Bloomington as productively as possible.

The Excellence Academy is doing a lot of that heavy lifting, and that work will only be enhanced by announcements in the coming weeks and months. The facilities are a big part of what allows student-athletes to pursue their potential in all areas, and the $40 million isn’t just going to be good for the athletes, but for the fans.

How does that kind of moment come about, exactly what does it pay for, and how does it help IU achieve its mission? I asked Glass to explain.

Best Ever “Ahead of the Curve” on Tap – 1070 the Fan at 11a; Kevin Wilson, Rick Venturi, Fred Glass Join the Party

by Kent Sterling

The rain is falling in record setting amounts, this is the shortest day of the year, and Christmas falls on a Wednesday – meaning no long holiday weekend. You need a ray of sunshine as you pick up your last minute gifts, and today’s “Ahead of the Curve” can’t part the clouds, but Fox 59 sports director Chris Hagan and I will bring you all the fun and sports we can.

What better than two hours of radio about a historically good time in Indianapolis sports. The Pacers rolled to an easy win last night against a good Western Conference team, the Hoosiers are basking in the glow of a $40 million gift from Cindy Simon Skjodt, and the Colts are back in the game for a first round bye.

That is a lot for Hagan and I to talk about in just two hours, but there’s more. Danny Granger returned to the Pacers last night and played 22 minutes. He looked rusty, but if he can return to a reasonable facsimile of what he was at 25, how much better does that make the Pacers?

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Indiana University football coach Kevin Wilson will join us at 11:15a to talk about how the 2013 season met with his expectations, and what is ahead for the program. There are some recruits that have recently signed their letters of intent, and will enroll for the spring semester. We’ll find out about them too.

Coach Rick Venturi will join us at 12:15p to preview the Colts vs. Chiefs matchup that before last Sunday looked to be a rehearsal for the wild card weekend game in the playoffs. Now, the Chiefs are playing for the AFC West Championship and #1 seed, and the Colts will have a good chance at the #2 seed if they win. It’s a big game in a hostile environment, and if the Colts are going to make a deep run in the playoffs, they need to find a way to win a game like this. Rick worked as a defensive genius in the NFL for 26 years and now prepares for Sunday games as he used to so we can be better informed fans.

We’ll also spend some time at 12:45p talking to Indiana University athletic director Fred Glass about the effect a $40 million gift has on the student-athletes at Indiana. Glass is committed to keeping the promise made to athletes that they will leave with a meaningful degree, and have the best facilities possible to allow them the best chance to reach their potential academically and athletically.

As always, there will be gentle mockery. Hagan will bust my chops for my unnecessary use of polysyllabic words, and I will find a way to work in a few jabs about Hagan’s man crush on Michael Buble’ – the Perry Como of the 21st Century.

I can’t wait for the show to start. Hope you will join us on 1070 the Fan/107.5 FM in central Indiana, 1070thefan.com digitally, or on the 1070 the Fan app for your smart phone.

Indianapolis Colts – The Five Things the Colts Need to Do to Beat the Kansas City Chiefs

by Kent Sterling

If the Colts are going to win Sunday, Tamba Hali is not going to get this close to Andrew Luck too often.

This is a weird game because in two weeks these two teams could be playing again in a playoff game in Indianapolis. Neither the Colts nor Chiefs will be holding anything back on Sunday, but it’s damn tough to beat a good team twice in 14 days. That means Sunday’s loser might have an advantage once the second season starts.

No doubt that logic is cockeyed, but my ability to craft bizarre arguments that justify losing was honed honestly during a lifetime as a Cubs fan.

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And losing is the likely result this Sunday for the Colts as they matchup poorly on the road against the Chiefs. It’s not Jamaal Charles who should worry Colts fans, although he’s a dynamic player as evidenced by his monster 5 TD day last weekend against the Raiders. No, it’s quarterback Alex Smith that has a good chance to vex the Colts.

One day short of a full year ago, the Colts traveled to Kansas City to play a very different version of the Chiefs. In that bizarre game, the Colts triumphed 21-14 despite giving up 352 yards rushing (226 for Charles; 101 for Peyton Hillis). The game was tied until 4:12 to play when Andrew Luck hit Reggie Wayne for the final seven yards of a monster 13 play, six minute drive.

A big difference between that game and what we look forward to Sunday – Brady Quinn was the Chiefs starting quarterback. This time, it’s Smith.

Last Sunday, Smith put together the first perfect QB rating of his career, completing 17-20 passes for 287 yards and five touchdowns. While it’s true that a significant chunk of the 287 yards came as Charles ran away from the Raiders defenders, but he is a very similar thrower to Philip Rivers in that he gets rid of the ball before pressure gets to him, and Smith is much more mobile than Rivers.

To give you an idea of how nimble Smith is, this season he has run for 19 yards more than Andrew Luck.

Worse for the Colts than Smith’s agility has been his aversion to turning the ball over. He throws an interception once every 49 passes, but does allow himself to be sacked a couple of times per game – which is preferable for coach Andy Reid to throwing the ball too soon into coverage.

The Colts may also be dealing with a newly healthy Justin Houston, who was near the NFL lead with 11 sacks after 11 games before dislocating his elbow against San Diego. (Is it just me or does a dislocated elbow sound incredibly painful? It’s one of the few injuries that causes me to wince out loud.)

The tandem of Tamba Hali and Houston with 11 sacks each will be a great challenge for the Colts reconstituted offensive live, but this isn’t the first time they have been tested. Robert Quinn and Chris Long of the Rams, Cameron Wake and Olivier Vernon of the Dolphins, and J.J. Watt of the Texans, and John Abraham and Calais Campbell of the Cardinals are elite pass rushers, and the Colts came through those tests with the following results – vs. Rams – 3 sacks, 5 turnovers; vs. Cardinals – 1 sack, 0 turnovers; vs. Dolphins – three sacks, one turnover; vs. Texans (first game) – 4 sacks, 0 turnovers; vs. Houston (game two0 – not statistically reliable because the Texans quit.

So what do the Colts need to do against the Chiefs to succeed? Here are the five answers:

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Prediction – This game looks like a tough one for the Colts. Because everything lines up against the Colts, I’m picking them to find a way to win a squeaker 17-16. That’s my heart talking, and I’m almost always sorry I listen to my heart, but what they hell fun is it to pick a home favorite with a dink and dunk artist like Smith?

Bob Knight Assembly Hall Would Have Been Looney Tribute Applauded Only by Kooks

by Kent Sterling

There are still people in Indiana and elsewhere who believe that Assembly Hall should have former coach Bob Knight’s name affixed to it forever despite Knight wanting nothing at all to do with his former place of employment.

The way Knight was treated by Indiana University during his last year was shameful. The zero tolerance policy that was designed to trip up Knight and remove culpability from those administrators who wanted him out at IU embodied weak and spineless management. That said, Knight’s continued aversion to all things IU speaks to a childishness that should keep Indiana University from honoring Knight in a way more impactful than his placement in its Athletic Hall of Fame.

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This isn’t about wins, losses, graduation rates, self-indulgent outbursts, or questionable tactics in managing young men into adulthood. It’s about a petulant man who has consistently refused olive branches extended by university leaders who had nothing to do with the feeble effort to shame and remove him as men’s basketball coach over 13 years ago.

A gracious man would have returned, allowed himself to be thanked, and maybe even become a small part of the process of teaching the game again to young men in Assembly Hall. But that didn’t fit into the narrative of relentless crotchetiness that Knight has fashioned for himself.

This isn’t about Knight being a bad guy. I don’t think he is. There was no more impactful person at Indiana University during his 29 years in Bloomington. He taught the entire student body a great deal about basketball and life. I never missed his speeches at the IU Auditorium, and his pre game shows were must viewing because he shared game plan details that were very helpful in understanding the complexities of the Hoosiers man-to-man defense and motion offense.

Knight did a great deal to raise money and build Indiana into a national brand of college basketball excellence, but his continued ill-conceived boycott of all things Indiana reflects the side of Knight that unfortunately dwarfs the good, and makes his name on the smallest fixture in Assembly Hall a terrible idea.

It’s a shame that the school that employed Knight and the man who created the modern brand of Indiana Basketball can’t coexist happily, but that is the decision Knight has made each time he has rebuffed overtures to return to Assembly Hall.

And still the minions clamor for Bob Knight Assembly Hall instead of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Cindy Simon Skjodt not only routinely pledges her love and admiration for all things Indiana University, she donates a significant amount of her family’s cash reserve to IU, and yesterday presented a $40 million check to renovate 42 year-old Assembly Hall.

Let’s see – $40 million in cash versus a guy who can’t let go of a grudge against people who are now either retired, employed elsewhere, or deceased. Not much of a decision, but people still in love with the glory days of 1973-1993 still allow their blood to boil at the suggestion that Indiana University is bigger than a man capable of both unique kindness and intolerable cruelty.

The winners are the players and fans who will get to enjoy an iconic if quirky cathedral of basketball, and the losers are Knight and another generation of kids who might learn about basketball and life from a man capable of teaching both very well.

Knight should have come back years ago when Indiana first approached him, but like virtually every public move he has made since abruptly abandoning his final Texas Tech team, Knight chose the graceless path.

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It’s his choice. He made it, and like everything else in his life, I’m sure he has no regrets. Admitting foolishness is a sign of weakness in Knight’s world. Growth requires an admission of imperfection, and unless I missed a significant moment in the 33 years I’ve paid attention to Knight, that admission has yet to have been made publicly.

One of Knight’s great gifts to Hoosiers is occasionally showing all of us how not to behave, and that’s not enough to affix his name to an office, a hallway, or a faucet in the restroom of a building that was built to celebrate some of the finest student-athletes in America – much less to the building itself. Forty-million very large and a lifelong love of the university deserves that recognition far more.

Indiana Basketball – Contest to Determine What Fans Should Call Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall?

by Kent Sterling

Come up with a decent short name for Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and win a $25 gift card to Kilroy’s Sports Bar in Bloomington.

Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall doesn’t exactly or easily roll off the tongue, but that is what it will be called once the renovation Cindy Simon Skjodt’s $40 million donation will pay for is finished, so fans will begin the search for a name that’s quicker and easier.

ESPN’s Chris Berman wanted to call Lucas Oil Stadium, the “Oil Can” before the Colts and NFL raised hell because “Oil Can” does Forrest Lucas and his company very little good for their massive investment for naming rights. If a network wants to continue doing business with the NFL, they take that complaint call, listen, and correct the source of the disharmony.

Indiana University can urge the media to use Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in all references, but no one can mandate that students sitting at Kilroy’s Sports Bar say, “We better pound these three pitchers and start walking or we won’t make it to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in time for the beginning of the second half.”

They are going to say something, and it might be as simple as the current “Assembly Hall.” College students should be a little more creative than that though.

When I was a student, we had little to do other than come up with snarky names for people, traditions, and buildings. We were wise asses because their was no disincentive. With 35,000 of the 35,050 students at IU Bloomington being strangers, that meant we could offend 25 per day and never run out of targets.

People have been less mean during the time since my friends and I called our adolescence over and began sanding off the edges to rough for businesses. So we have to rely upon current students for their wit in naming the new version of Assembly Hall.

Sure, the renovation won’t be finished before 75% of the current student body graduates, but the name you share here can survive forever.

In Phoenix, when the stadium where the Arizona Diamondbacks play in was called Bank One Ballpark, people shortened it to “The BOB.” Easy. Not terribly clever, but easy and vaguely reminiscent of Bank One.

The acronym SSAH really doesn’t evoke anything meaningful or funny, so I’m at a loss, and when I’m at a loss, I turn to you.

To the person with the best and most clever name for that crazy cathedral of hoops, a $25 gift certificate to Kilroy’s Sports Bar is yours. The lone judge is me, and if none of the entries reach the level I deem worthy of winning, I will take the gift card and buy a round or two the next time I’m there.

If no one enters, I’ll chalk it up to students being on Christmas Break, and spend the gift card on Dan Dakich, Paulie Balst, and me the next time we’re together.

Just submit the idea as a comment, and leave your email address. The deadline is December 31st, 2013.

Renovated Indiana University Basketball Arena to Be Renamed Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall

by Kent Sterling

Assembly Hall’s south entrance won’t look much like this in 2016 after the completion of the $40 million renovation.

It was bound to happen eventually as what can be sold will always be sold, but the renaming of Assembly Hall as Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall will allow the most unique arena in college basketball to be upgraded and enhanced in a way that will improve fan and player experience.

The naming rights didn’t come cheap, as Cindy Simon Skjodt will write a check for $40 million that will cover the renovation of a building that is more or less exactly the same as it was 42 years ago when it opened.

There is a new scoreboard and scorer’s table, some trophy cases and pictures that weren’t always there, and a new floor, but the rest is almost exactly as it was during the 1980s when I was a student there.

The name will become a permanent fixture of Assembly once the work is completed, perhaps as early as 2016.

So what with $40 million buy these days?

According to the press release from Indiana Athletics:

Refurbishments of Assembly Hall will focus on improving amenities to enhance the fan experience while preserving the current seat configuration and seating capacity. The south lobby will be restructured with a new entryway and dramatic atrium. Escalators will replace ramps in the south lobby. Throughout the arena, new branding and graphics will be updated to celebrate the tradition and success of IU basketball.

Existing bathrooms and concession stands will be remodeled and new bathrooms will be added. A large state-of-the-art video scoreboard will replace the current bifurcated scoreboard, improving fan experience for all fans in Assembly Hall, especially those sitting in the balcony. Box seat-style seating will be added above the south baseline bleachers and will generate revenue to pay for this seating and to help fund ongoing upkeep of Assembly Hall.

Behind the scenes, Assembly Hall’s HVAC and other infrastructure systems will be updated and a state-of-the-art broadcast technology center will be added to enhance IU Athletics video production and game day broadcasts.

There are fans brought to tears by any change, I suppose because change reminds us of our own mortality, but if anyone can explain to me how this is a bad thing, I’m all ears.

This is a woman who graduated from Indiana in 1980 and sees the preservation and enhancement of a building of which she has great memories as being worth a $40 million check. As a robust thanks, IU is going to put her family name on it. As long as she is cool with that deal, why should anyone else grouse?

Simon Skjodt said of her families relationship with IU and Assembly Hall, “I grew up going to Indiana University games and have great memories of watching basketball games with my father,” said Cindy Simon Skjodt. “The atmosphere in Assembly Hall is truly unmatched anywhere in college basketball.”

“Everyone in our family has enjoyed incredible experiences with Indiana University,” added Simon Skjodt. “We feel fortunate for our IU relationships and it is rewarding to give back. We hope others in Hoosier Nation who are able to do so will also give back to help make the Catching Excellence campaign a success.”

Assembly Hall has morphed in our perception from a bizarre error born of great intentions into to a beloved and iconic building that captures all the memories – good and bad – of a basketball program that has been the chief branding point of Indiana University for more than a half century.

This gift will allow for the arena to be given a facelift, rather than falling so far behind the arc of current stadium science and design that the only rational option is to replace it with something bereft of the shadow of Knight, Buckner, May, Thomas, Dakich, Alford, Cheaney, Guyton, Davis, Sampson, Zeller, Oladipo, and Crean.

People can call a building what they like. If Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts sold the naming rights to Wrigley Field, I would never call it anything but Wrigley Field out of an impossible to break habit and to be a pain in the ass to a profiteer who is resolute in throwing a triple-A team on the field year after year despite the third highest average ticket price in baseball. But I will refer to Assembly Hall and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall because I appreciate an IU grad stroking a check to make an IU icon new.

For those who are steamed Assembly Hall will never be named after Bob Knight, do what Knight should have done when he was in his teens like the rest of us – grow the hell up. He won’t come back to be a part of the fabric of a place that employed him for 29 years despite all the people who ran him out being long gone? That tells me all I need to know about Bob Knight.

Indiana Pacers Enjoying Almost Nonstop National Coverage After Loss to Miami Heat

by Kent Sterling

The heat is on for the Indiana Pacers, and it’s the kind of heat that moves tickets, merchandise, and ratings.

After a decade of languishing among franchises like the Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Bobcats, and Washington Wizards, the Pacers are now in a media spotlight almost as intense as that enjoyed by the Miami Heat.

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And they are doing it without taking themselves too seriously or attracting fans that enjoy them only because it has become fashionable.

No matter how good the Pacers get or the outcome of their battle to the golf with the Heat and whomever they might play in the NBA Finals, (if they can advance that far), it’s unlikely the Pacers develop the kind of bizarre coterie of fans that follow the Heat’s two stars.

Indiana doesn’t much care for stars, or more accurately treating people as though they are stars. I’ve seen Peyton Manning at the height of his popularity in early 2011 eat in a McAllister’s completely unharassed minus a brief and hilarious interruption by Fox 59’s Chris Hagan, 6’10 Dale Davis walk along a crowded Monument Circle sidewalk unbothered, and stood in line immediately ahead of 6’11” Antonio Davis in line at a crowded Taco Bell on 86th Street without any acknowledgement.

Indianapolis is the best city for a professional sports star to life because Hoosiers leave them be because they just aren’t very impressed by them.

They do like to buy tickets to watch them though when the teams are good, and the Pacers are not only very good, but are being aggressively promoted on every SportsCenter.

Pacers Sports and Entertainment can buy dozens of billboards, come up with creative (or silly) catch phrases, and host dozens of generous charitable events, but none of them can do what yesterday did for the franchise’s popularity.

Yeah, the Pacers allowed the Heat to go on a 10-2 run in the last 3:30 last night to eke out a tough win, but the game was a monster regular season event that galvanized a focused curiosity locally and nationally, and then paid it off with a fascinating narrative.

Paul George, Roy Hibbert, George Hill, Lance Stephenson, and David West are stars on the level the Pacers haven’t had since Reggie Miller. They are good players and good guys, which is what separates them from the goofballs whose character was revealed in the Brawl and in subsequent events driven by terrible judgement.

Unlike many cities, it’s not enough to be successful in Indiana. Teams need to be successful while players and management live normal lives. That makes winning especially tough, but also especially sweet.

The Pacers have found the right combination of talent and character that not only vibes with fans, but with the media. The local media have actually become unabashed fans of this group. That include some of the hardboiled old school guys who’ve been around the block several dozen times. The players treat the media with respect, and the media reciprocates.

With apologies to the fun teams of the late 1990s, the Pacers are entering an era with the potential to be its best since entering the NBA. The burgeoning rivalry between the Pacers and the Heat is helping facilitate a national awakening to what Indiana is learning just ahead of the national curve, and that is that the Indiana Pacers play basketball the right way, and live public lives the right way too.

There will be a lot of wins and a few losses, but fans will continue to watch, listen, and read those who cover the Pacers because they are worth that effort as a professional franchise made up of good men.

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Hey, I know I sound like a cheerleader. Frankly it’s a hell of a lot more fun to fire clever Howitzers at pious self-indulgent twerps who pose as thugs, idiots in the front office who don’t have the vaguest notion of how to build a roster, and coaches whose best strategic thinking is done over a menu. I would much rather make myself laugh taking easy but accurate shots at Chicago Cubs President Theo Epstein than extolling the virtues of Larry Bird, but the work Bird has done is one of the great roster reformations in sports history.

Sometimes calling a spade a spade means writing and talking about something exciting and positive.

LeBron James Just Fine as Indiana Pacers Lose Heartbreaker to Miami Heat 97-94

by Kent Sterling

Last year’s graphic will likely work just fine for the 2014 NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

All the media driven consternation over whether LeBron James was going to play was just that as he appeared to suffer no ill effects from a tweaked ankle during the Miami Heat’s 97-94 comeback win tonight against the Indiana Pacers in Miami.

Pacers forward Paul George is a good player who may evolve into a great one, but James left no doubt tonight who wears the king’s crown in the NBA. James’ plus/minus was +16 to George’s -7. It didn’t help that Roy Hibbert picked up his fifth foul with 8:33 left in the third. Hibbert’s absence gave the Heat the ability to drive and finish or dish, and that turned the game although the Pacers biggest lead grew to 15 points three minutes later.

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If the Heat were good to their word that this was just another game, the Pacers would have coasted to a win, but like happened in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, when the time came to fight or lay down their weapons, the Heat reloaded and went to work.

As nauseating as it is to watch Heat fans celebrate a win tonight, the Heat were the better team when it mattered, and if George believes a referee like Joey Crawford is going to call a foul on James for having a hand on his hip as he takes a last second shot to tie, he hasn’t been watching the NBA for very long.

It’s not that George wasn’t good – he was. Scoring 25 with eight boards and six assists almost exactly duplicated James’ 24 points, nine boards, and seven assists. In fact, both hit eight field goals and seven foul shots, and committed three turnovers. James had three steals to George’s two, and George committed one more foul, but when the game was on the line, James made the plays on both ends to change the result.

If this was a preview of the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals, sign me up for tickets to all seven games – and there will be seven. These teams raise the bar for competitiveness in the league, and makes the two-and-a-half hours each of these games last an absolute joy. There is no doubt that both teams save their best for the other, and are very aware that a championship will come only after vanquishing the other.

It’s a little early to irrevocably claim the irrelevance of the other 13 teams in the East, but since the injury to the Chicago Bulls Derrick Rose, that’s exactly the sad state of affairs in that half of the league.

It’s a shame that these two teams won’t play again until March, as if we needed another reason to hate winter, but the two games left will be all-out wars the likes of which we don’t see often in the regular season, so we should look forward to them rather than lament their scarcity.

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By the way, Dwyane Wade was pretty good tonight too, but even scoring 32 points on 15-25 shooting, James’s shadow made it almost impossible to see his contribution.

How good was the effort at both ends? The two teams totaled 11 offensive rebounds on 81 missed shots. That means there were a lot of guys doing exactly what they were supposed to with some serious fundamental vigor.

People who whine about the quality of hooping in the NBA must not be watching, or at least they weren’t watching this game. There might have been a time when the NBA was dull and the effort lacking, but those days are about 35 years past.

This was a great basketball game played by different teams built in different ways at different points in their evolution. There will be additional chapters written – probably nine this season, and I can’t wait to see how they unfold.