Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Pacers – Selfie from Roy Hibbert Shows Cramped Airplane Bathroom

by Kent Sterling

I'm not one to take selfies but I know y'all were wondering how I fit in an airplane bathroom and the answer is ... I don't. #crampedlife

I’m not one to take selfies but I know y’all were wondering how I fit in an airplane bathroom and the answer is … I don’t. #crampedlife

I always wondered what it would be like for him if his digestive system called.  I’m a foot shorter and 75 pounds lighter than Greg, and it’s a tight squeeze in the lavatory.

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We had a flight to Fayetteville, Arkansas, on a little plane where I couldn’t stand straight up.  Greg couldn’t sit straight up.  He never complained or whined for the 90 minute flight.

Pacers center Roy Hibbert is as big as Greg is, and posted some selfies on a plane yesterday to show how the confines of the facilities at 35,000 feet work for him.  They don’t.

Fortunately, height is the only similarity between Hibbert and Greg in the selfie department.

This picture also brought to mind a chapter in Wilt Chamberlain’s autobiography that described an interaction he had with a flight attendant in a passenger plane lavatory.  Hibbert’s pic that makes me doubt the veracity of Wilt’s claim.  Where there’s a Wilt, there’s a way, but this is physics.  You can’t put 204 ounces into a one gallon jug.

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Tom Brady Speaks to Michigan Football Team; Hard Guy Not to Like, and I Hate Him for It

by Kent Sterling

Looking at him is nauseating, but listening to him is revelatory.

Looking at him is nauseating, but listening to him is revelatory.

Tom Brady is an easy guy to loathe.  He plays for Bill Belichick – the biggest jerk in the history of modern football – a repellant man who has zero grace or empathy, but makes up for what he lacks socially by winning an awful lot.

Brady has only played for Belichick, so they are forever linked.  Brady succeeds wildly on the field because of that association, and suffers greatly off the field as a man reviled because he has too much going for him.

He won three Super Bowls in his first four years, and married Giselle Bundchen.  Society says that’s plenty for one man, so we don’t like him.

In the media, he projects a haughtiness that is off-putting, and he went to Michigan, the home of arrogance without justification.  And Patriots fans might be worse.  The walk around like they couldn’t be happier – like they know they are right.

I could go on with a laundry lists of bad reasons not to like Brady, but there is no team in sports that is more enjoyable to watch fail.  It’s hard to decide when to root against Brady and the New England Patriots because when they make it to the Super Bowl, their failure on sports biggest stage is delicious.

Then I watched this video.  Once I got through the two minute introduction by head coach Brady Hoke, who simply does not know when the opener should cede the stage to the headliner, Brady made me like him.

His counsel to the current Michigan team was as solid a four minutes of advice I’ve heard delivered to a group.  Brady didn’t bring Giselle, wear his hair in some peculiar formation, or project the ego I have always associated with him.

Brady was humble, and spoke of the joy of teammates uniting in a common challenge.  When he was done, I felt like playing football for Michigan.

Worst of all, I realized that I don’t dislike him, and that rooting against the Patriots won’t be nearly as much fun.  Watch the video, and then steer clear of all Belichick speeches to college students.  If he’s half as good as Brady, I won’t be able to root against the Patriots at all.

Martin Manley’s Suicide – Perplexing and Maybe Enlightening

by Kent Sterling

Maybe Martin Manley's death will be more meaningful than his life. That's the way he wanted it.

Maybe Martin Manley’s death will be more meaningful than his life. That’s the way he wanted it.

One week ago today, a sports department employee of the Kansas City Star took his own life in the most organized and fastidious way imaginable.  It’s wasn’t how he did it, but the intricate planning and organization of his suicide that makes it incredibly unique.

I hate suicide.  The act of ending it all by your own hand cheats the narrative of a life, and shows a decided lack of balls.  Facing the consequences and rewards of a life well or poorly lived seems to be the decent thing to do, and Martin Manley cheated that process.

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Manley spent 14 months planning his exit, and finally the day came and the final entry in the itinerary was executed.  A self-authored website went live that day that explains his decision of how, when, and why to die in historic detail.  He guesses that his suicide will be remembered as the most thoroughly documented and clearly elucidated ever.

I’ve known three people who have killed themselves.  Two shot themselves over girls while in high school or shortly thereafter, and a third couldn’t escape the addiction that consumed him.  All were good people, and all really pissed me off for not having the courage to confront another tomorrow.

There is an underappreciated movie made by Blake Edwards that deals with the attempted suicide of a film director that explains my response to suicidal thoughts pretty well.  It’s called “S.O.B.”, and William Holden gets to make a speech that is as close to a perfect description of my feelings about suicide as any:

“I’ve consumed enough booze to destroy a dozen healthy livers. I’ve filled my lungs with enough nicotine to poison the entire population of Orange County. I’ve engaged in sexual excesses that make Caligula look like a celibate monk. I have, in fact, conscientiously, day in and day out, for more years than you’ve been in this best of all possible worlds, tried to kill myself and I’ve never felt better in my life. So, if you’re really going to end it all, I can show you at least a half-dozen better ways to do it.”

Less than five months after S.O.B.’s release, Holden was dead after hitting his head on a table after a drunken fall.

Living a life filled with self-destructive habits isn’t my style, but it’s good to know there are better options than eating a gun, Manley’s chosen mode for causing his demise.

This suicide doesn’t fill me with disdain for Manley, or what he expected many to view as his “cowardice.”  He’s much more complete and blunt in explaining his reasons that I could ever be, but he wanted to leave before becoming a burden or incapable of bringing his plan to fruition.

Manley brings a strange rationality to the discussion of his own life and death that articulates what in the deep dark recesses of our minds we all know – that life is pointless.  There are seven billion people bouncing all over this planet among billions of planets, and our leaving will effect the tiniest sliver of them.  Because that is not the happiest thought, few of us think in those terms.  Most of us tend to view life through moments of the laughter, love of family and friends, and a spiritual reason for our existence.

We engage in a daily regimen of pursuing love, wealth, discovery, standing, and/or truth.  Manley had enough of those focuses, and decided his great accomplishment would be death on his own terms at the time of his own choosing.

Manley was someone who loved statistics, and worked hard to explain how sports work through mathematical analysis.  He invented the efficiency index in basketball, according to his obituary.  He knew what his natural death might be like based upon data, and chose to opt out on his own

People will examine and hypothesize about Manley.  Some will be angry that Manley cheated, and others will applaud that he didn’t allow himself to wring the last ounce of use out of his carcass and brain.

I read most of what he wrote, and was strangely hollow  Not mad, not satisfied, and not moved.  I didn’t know Manley, but it seems he didn’t let many get close, or they might have known that for better than a full year, the guy know exactly when, where, and how he was going to die.

Living without a reason to awaken with a smile isn’t a call to die, it’s life yelling at you to change.  Another day is another chance to make a difference, to make someone laugh, to appreciate others, to make them aware that they mean something, and to give others a reason to wake up smiling themselves.  When in doubt, give a gift.

One thing Manley’s suicide didn’t provide was a reason to smile.  Maybe his death can help others find clarity in their reason to live.  We have to make sense of it somehow.

Indianapolis Colts – Trading RB Delone Carter the Baltimore for David Reed Not So Meaningless

by Kent Sterling

David Reed may help keep T.Y. Hilton in one piece.

David Reed may help keep T.Y. Hilton in one piece.

That it was an incredibly slow news day explained why anyone even mentioned this deal in the media.  I heard about it minutes after it was completed, and thought I would pass on even mentioning it on Twitter because there was no way either guy was going to make their roster – and despite the trade, they still might not.

But maybe it is a bigger deal than first thought.

The one thing David Reed does well is return kicks.  The Ravens weren’t going to move Jacoby Jones out of that spot.  Delone Carter was stuck behind Vick Ballard, Ahmad Bradshaw, Donald Brown, and Kerwynn Williams, and that meant the Turk was going to show up at his locker sooner or later.

Sounding a lot like a deal designed to avoid being forced to cut people the respective GMs like, this trade was and is un-news.  But maybe – just maybe – it’s not.  Reed is a guy who was a spectacular kick returner before tearing his ACL.  If he can provide the same explosiveness Colts fans enjoyed in T.Y. Hilton, but keep the talented receiver from enduring the wear-and-tear of special teams play, maybe it makes sense.

Reed averaged 29.3 yards per return as a rookie in 2010 with a 103 yard touchdown.  The following year, the average rose to 29.7 before the ACL sidelined him.

If Reed can be an explosive return man while Hilton’s talents are saved for catching Andrew Luck’s passes, this is a deal that may be a little more worthwhile of mention than I originally thought.

As Chicago Cubs Continue Dealing Vets, They Fail in Developing Young Core

by Kent Sterling

This is the brain trust Cubs fans are forced to trust as the franchise razes the big league club to build a new team. How are they doing? (From left, Senior Vice-President/Scouting and Player Development Jason McLeod, Tom Ricketts, and Theo Epstein)

This is the brain trust Cubs fans are forced to trust as the franchise razes the big league club to build a new team. How are they doing? (From left, Senior Vice-President/Scouting and Player Development Jason McLeod, Tom Ricketts, and Theo Epstein)

There is some bad mojo going on at Wrigley Field.  Fans and media claim that team president Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are pressing all the right buttons in trading veterans for farm system bulk, and that the youngsters left behind are being tutored to play better at the major league level.

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With Matt Garza, Scott Feldman, Alfonso Soriano, David DeJesus, and those dealt in 2012 gone, the full weight of success and failure falls upon the kiddie corps.  If the young guys are improving, there is hope for a brighter tomorrow.

So let’s grade the progress of the four position players and two starting pitchers who seem to be foundation pieces for the future of the Cubs.

Here’s a look at the offensive numbers for young starters who have been with the Cubs for more than a year.  This doesn’t include a player like Junior Lake, because there is nothing to compare his stellar numbers to.  We also include pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Travis Wood.

The RBIs, Runs, and other non-percentage statistics have been projected for the full 162 game season.  They are listed in order from earliest season to 2013.  The earliest season used is 2011 because it’s the last year of the Jim Hendry regime.  Have the coaches brought in by Theo and Jed helped?

Darwin Barney, 27 – D

Barney’s primary value will always be because of his defense, but it would be a positive to see some growth in getting on base.  There is still value here, but he is an offensive non-factor who has become even more inert over his three full seasons in Chicago.

  • Batting average – .276, .254, .218
  • OPS – .666, .653, .594
  • Runs – 66, 73, 51*
  • Steals – 9, 6, 4*
  • HR – 2, 7, 8*
  • RBI – 43, 44, 46*
  • SO – 67, 58, 62*
  • BB – 22, 33, 35*
  • WAR – 1.7, 4.8, -0.3

* Projected over the course of a full 162 game schedule

Wellington Castillo, 26 – Incomplete

The Well is to shallow to gain any real insight into whether he has really regressed or not.  After only getting to the plate 190 times in 2012, the number that would tend to show a slip can’t really be trusted.  His .754 OPS in 2012 was significantly higher than his .701 in 2013, and the RBIs at an identical 22 from 2012 to 2013 despite twice as many plate appearances thus far don’t point upward, but the overall grade is incomplete.

Starlin Castro, 23 – F

This is a terrible year by any measure for Castro.  It should be noted that runs and RBIs are not entirely in the player’s control, but they still show a stark decline.  All wells flow from getting on base, and this year, Castro’s OBP is a pitiful .275.  From a developmental standpoint, the Cubs and Castro have taken so many steps backward here that he may be irreparably damaged.

  • Batting average – .307, .283, .240
  • OPS – .773, .753, .617
  • Runs – 91, 78, 63*
  • Steals – 22, 25, 10*
  • HR – 10, 14, 9*
  • RBI – 66, 78, 41*
  • SO – 96, 100, 135*
  • BB – 35, 36, 26
  • WAR – 3.0, 3.6, -0.8 (Yikes!)

* Projected over the course of a full 162 game schedule

Anthony Rizzo, 23 – C-

Rizzo played just over half the season in 2012, so the sample size is small, but he got to the plate 368 times, so where relevant we’ll multiply both the 2012 and 2013 numbers to reflect a full 162 game season.  In his second year, Rizzo is not far off his 2012 campaign.  The loss in batting average is almost entirely made up for in additional plate discipline which leads to extra walks.

  • Batting average – .285, .232
  • OPS – .805, .762
  • Runs – 82*, 76*
  • Steals – 6*, 6*
  • HR – 28*, 26*
  • RBI – 89*, 87*
  • SO – 115*, 127*
  • BB – 50*, 77*
  • WAR – 2.3, 2.2

* Projected over the course of a full 162 game schedule

Jeff Samadzija, 28 – C-

Wins and losses are hard to hang specifically on any pitcher, but they are a relevant piece of the puzzle given the Cubs’ relative consistency in losing 90+ games.  If the Cubs had won 95 one year because they scored a ton of runs one year and then were lost offensively in the next two, that would make comparison useless.  Jeff became a starter in 2012, so only 2012 and 2013 are used.

  • Wins – 9, 9*
  • Losses – 13, 13*
  • ERA – 3.81, 4.12
  • WHIP – 1.219, 1.325
  • WAR – 1.8, 0.8

* Projected over the course of a full 162 game schedule

Travis Wood, 26 – A

Finally, a success story.  Travis Wood has been a very pleasant story this season for the Cubs.  His potential has been talked about for a long time.  He’s on a path that many productive lefties take, and the deal for his that sent Sean Marshall looks very good right now.  I’m not sure the Cubs can claim credit for Wood’s evolution into a all-star, but if we are going to cast blame for the mercurial Castro’s demise, sharing some love isn’t out of line.

  • Wins – 6, 9*
  • Losses – 13, 12*
  • ERA – 4.27, 3.13
  • WHIP – 1.199, 1.099
  • WAR – 0.7, 3.2

* Projected over the course of a full 162 game schedule

The Cubs as a whole have have a chance to reverse their trend of scoring less runs than in their previous season for the first time since 2008 – it had to happen sometime.  In 2008, the Cubs scored 855 runs their highest total since 1930 (the year Hack Wilson set the RBI record with 190).  Since, they have scored 707, 685, 654, 613, and this year they are pacing to cross the plate 632 times.  More good news, and Cubs fans will take it where they can get it, they are pacing to allow only 692 runs – virtually the same number allowed in 2007 (690) when they qualified for the playoffs.

More good news is that Dale Sveum is a quality manager, who job is virtually impossible.  The Cubs are roughly 150 runs scored away from the playoffs, and Sveum isn’t going to get that done on his own.  He needs players who can get on base and drive in runs, and while fans are all twitter over Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, Albert Almora, and Mike Olt, there is no evidence to lead anyone to conclude that once they arrive in Chicago, the pieces are in place to develop them into consistent run producers.

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Suggestion from Reader for New Purdue Video

by Kent Sterling

The commenters at kentsterling.com are some of the most creative on the web, and they did not disappoint when offering an alternative to the effort presented briefly earlier in the week.

It uses the “This Is Indiana” as the author is a wordsmith.  Melody is not his trade (hard to go a day without a “Sling Blade” reference).  The work is excellent, but somehow I doubt Purdue students will rush this into production.

We have great respect for Purdue, it’s students, athletes, coaches, and president at kentsterling.com, but we don’t cut funny.

Sung to the tune of “This is Indiana”

We’re from Indiana, but we are Peee-Yooo,
You likely dont care, less you’re from Tippy-cun-noo,

NCAA Champion banner, find a total of one here,
Our baller broads won one, but zero from our steers,

Heres the queer thing though, dont mean that like gay,
The coach won it all, then she left us the next day,

IU has 29 banners, compared to our one,
Don’t like to talk about that, but sure looks like its fun,

We’re from Indiana, but we are Pee-Yooo,
Basically irrelevant, but what you gonna do?

Baylor of the north, may be good but never great,
We’ll get back to our corner now, third college in the state,

Tonys! Oscars! Emmys! Grammys! Pulitzers too,
None in Lafayette, but you’ll find them at IU,

All is not lost here, with this catchy little tune,
40 some years ago, we put a hero on the moon!

We’re from Indiana, but we are Peee-yooo…..

Another Day, Another Video Produced by Untalented But Earnest White People

by Kent Sterling

A scene of Kato Wide Party is shot - I'm guessing - in Mankato.

A scene of Kato Wide Party is shot – I’m guessing – in Mankato.

State legislatures pass bills to protect us from bad food, bad driving, and bad doctors.  We can’t tamper with the mail, trespass on one another’s lawns, make too much noise, pour paint down a storm drain, ride a bike faster than 15 mph on the Monon Trail, or carry a non-transparent bag into an NFL stadium.  But any moron can produce a video extolling the virtues of any damn thing.

The latest is a video love letter from the town of Mankato to the Minnesota Vikings to thank them for spending a few weeks each summer there for training camp.

Not only is “It’s a Kato-wide Party” a train wreck artistically like the two videos from Purdue we’ve been exposed to over the past couple of days, it’s especially repellent because it was produced by a radio station in Mankato.  The station filled the video with bits filmed at sponsor locations.  To profit from your artistic inabilities is especially repellent.

Unlike the Purdue videos, (you thought “You Ought to Be Proud” was the only video produced by these Boilermakers?  The first celebrated engineering, and it was equally brutal), the video with there is an African African sighting or three, although it’s the first is a strange interlude with a black lady sitting on a pile of Vikings sway.  Leslie Frazier and some players are also included later, without ruining their fred.

The most off-putting aspect of this mess, yes even more offensive than whoring clients into it is the percentage of people who are honestly trying to captivate with their performances.  Appearing cool in these thing is not an option.

For those who missed both the basketball and engineering videos from the little group that couldn’t in West Lafayette, those are below.

For the love of God, can’t these be stopped?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkUrAXshzXg&feature=youtu.be

Indianapolis Colts – ILB Jerrell Freeman Tells a Familiar Story of Coming to the NFL

by Kent Sterling

Jerrell Freeman will be one of 53 great reasons to be a fan of the Indianapolis Colts in 2013.

Jerrell Freeman will be one of 53 great reasons to be a fan of the Indianapolis Colts in 2013.

The road travelled by Jerrell Freeman to the NFL was a longshot.  To become a starter for a playoff team was even more improbable.

Freeman joined Fox 59’s Jeremiah Johnson and me to talk Colts football, his recovery from injury, and how the hell he got to the NFL in the first place.

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He played college football at Mary Hardin-Baylor – a division 3 school.  After being signed as an undrafted free agent by the Tennessee Titans in 2008, he was released prior to the season.  “Next stop Saskatchewan!” isn’t the phrase a kid with NFL dreams wants to hear, but Freeman made the most of it.  He was a special teams stud as a rookie in the CFL, a starter at linebacker in the second, and led the CFL with 105 tackles in his third.

That was enough for the Colts to give him a shot.  Freeman answered that challenge too.  He made 145 tackles, which ranked fifth in the NFL.

This isn’t the first time the Colts have taken a chance on an underdog inside linebacker.  Gary Brackett was signed as a UFA in 2003, and became the starter in 2005 – a position he held through the 2010 season before injuries hastened the end of his career.  At Rutgers, he was a walk-on who became a captain.

The more we talk to professional athletes, the more clear it is that the stories behind their success are not those of a magical athlete being anointed as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but of hopeful and hard-working men who found a way around rejection to the realization of a dream they refused to let go of.

Listening to Freeman is to learn why you should root for him in the same way Colts fans embraced Brackett.

IDS Column About IU Not Needing “to Secure its Basketball Border” Just Plain Wrong

by Kent Sterling

Tom Crean can speak for himself just fine, and doesn't need an IDS columnist to do it for him.

Tom Crean can speak for himself just fine, and doesn’t need an IDS columnist to do it for him.

When did Indiana Basketball secure the state border in the first place?  At no point in the history of the program has IU been able to simply choose who it likes from among the state’s best players.

Connor Killoren of the Indiana Daily Student would like you to believe that Indiana has chosen to recruit nationally rather than locally.  The truth is that Indiana basketball coaches have never batted 1.000 in attracting great players from its home state, and if they step outside the borders it’s not always because the grass is greener there.

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Before Glenn Robinson III decided to head for Ann Arbor to play for John Beilein, his dad chose Purdue over Indiana.  Thirty years before Gary Harris pledged Michigan State, Plymouth’s Scott Skiles did the same thing.

Mike Davis was never impressed with Indiana kids, nor they with him, so players like Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Rodney Carney, and Josh McRoberts all abandoned ship.  Maybe Kelvin Sampson would have established a foothold, but he arrogance cost him a chance.

The recent decommitments of Trey Lyles and James Blackmon from the class of 2014 weren’t the first and won’t be the last Indiana recruits to decide to look elsewhere as they check their options, regardless of who the coach is.

What Killoren wrote is typical of the non-critical view people are taking of the Indiana Basketball program.  It’s all roses and buttercups, rather than an honest look at reality in Bloomington.  Justifications abound while reason is abandoned.

This isn’t to say that Crean can’t or won’t win big in Bloomington with a national focus; he might.  But to suggest that he has consciously decided to recruit kids from all over at the expense of Indiana kids is silly.

Crean swung hard at Hamilton Southeastern’s Harris and lost to Tom Izzo.  Harris is now projected to be a lottery pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.  Mitch McGary wandered north to Ann Arbor, and helped Jim Beilein reach the NCAA Championship game.  The latest Mr. Basketball from Indiana, Zak Irvin, is now also at Michigan, as are Indiana products Robinson III, Spike Albrecht, and Andrew Dakich.  Brenden Dawson and Russell Byrd are Harris teammates in East Lansing.

Hey recruiting Indiana is tough.  Coaches from all over like to recruit Indiana for a very good reason – Indiana kids win.  They are fundamentally more advanced, and have a higher hoops IQs than kids anywhere else.  In no way am I saying that Crean should win every battle in Indiana, but to somehow assert that Indiana is now a national program by choice and that “securing the border” is something Crean no longer needs to focus upon is ridiculous.

“It’s simply not realistic to have Indiana natives form a significant portion of each recruiting class.”  Killoren cites summer travel tournaments as the justification of recruits choosing to go elsewhere, “With high school prospects across the nation playing for AAU programs participating in tournaments nation-wide, those same prospects have the distinct opportunity of forming friendships and relationships with individuals in the basketball community all over the country.”

If that’s the best he can do in pointing fingers somewhere other than directly at Crean for the failure to win battles with Michigan, Kentucky, Michigan State, and other programs, he’s not doing a very thorough job as a Crean apologist.

There are plenty of reasons Killoren could have cited before writing about the travel habits of teens, including – the four players in the 2013 class that are from outside of Indiana fit Indiana’s system better than Indiana high school players and throwing up a mythical fence to keep recruits from elsewhere out is as silly as thinking we can build one to keep kids in.  Another is a picture of Victor Oladipo, whom Indiana fans seem to love just as they would a Lawrence North graduate.

No one is going to win every recruiting battle, and maybe with the recent focus on raising the percentage of out of state students at Indiana University, it makes sense to reach beyond Indiana borders to recruit basketball players.

I’m not critical of the strategy, just of the reasoning Killoren employed to avoid holding Crean and the program accountable.  There is a lineage of great work done at the IDS by men like Bob Kravitz and Eamonn Brennan, who stood up to men like Bob Knight and Kelvin Sampson.

Crean put together a top five recruiting class with two of six players coming from Indiana, and explaining the strategy that led to it really isn’t necessary.

Indiana Basketball – Calbert Cheaney Leaves IU for St. Louis for All the Right Reasons

by Kent Sterling

UnknownCalbert Cheaney is leaving Indiana University for a second time.  Twenty years after he was the sixth player taken in the 1993 NBA Draft, Cheaney is leaving his position as the Hoosiers’ director of basketball operations to take the spot on Jim Crews’ Saint Louis University staff vacated by Jim Whitesell.

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The difference between the two jobs explains the motivation for the move.  DOBOs cannot recruit, but full assistants can.

If Cheaney is going to build a resume’ as a candidate to be a head coach, which is his goal, he needs to build a network of recruiting contacts, and the best way to do that is to recruit, something rules prohibit him from doing as the DOBO.  At St. Louis, he’ll be able to get that done.

Getting several points of view as to how a head coach should attack his job is a good thing too, and there are few better at that than Jim Crews, who put together a fine first season at SLU after the sad passing of former SLU head coach Rick Majerus.  Tom Crean has an indomitable work ethic, and Crews is a master strategist, having played and worked for Bob Knight, and coached with Majerus, one of the best defensive coaches in the history of the game.  That combination of mentors should help mold Cheaney into an excellent candidate for his first head coaching gig.

There are those who will look at this as something more than a young coach trying to build a skill set that will allow him to pursue his dream, but the hole opened at SLU is a really good fit for Cheaney, and Crews was smart enough to see that.  This is about Cheaney going to a great situation for him, not a disgruntled coach leaving a bad one.

This also gives Crean a chance to hire another DOBO who will have a positive impact on the Indiana Basketball program.

Cheaney will be missed at IU as a coach just as he was as a player.