Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Basketball – Four Ideas for Maurice Creek’s Scholarship

by Kent Sterling

Will Sandi Marcius relocate to the other Big Ten basketball program in Indiana?

With Maurice Creek leaving Bloomington for a program closer to his child, the Hoosiers have a slot available, and coach Tom Crean can do one of four things with that scholarship.

Crean can stand pat, pleased with the six returning players and six incoming freshmen. There is the option of pursuing an uncommitted incoming freshman – the only kid remaining in the Top 100 is top ranked Andrew Wiggins. He can gift the scholarship to one of the many walk-ons who bust their asses while paying their own way. Or, finally, Crean can grab a kid who has a single year of eligibility and thus can compete immediately.

Personally, I love the idea of putting a walk-on on scholarship for the year. Walk-ons are unsung heroes, and if that had happened to my son, we would have had a party that would still be raging. Barring that selfless decision, I’m a big fan of grabbing a graduate with a year left. The risk is non-existent and the upside can be decent.

There are currently 21 graduates and soon-to-be graduates who are transferring and would be eligible for a single year beginning next season. There are four I would give a little thought to before telling Jeff Howard he’s the man – until it’s given to a freshman next year:

Sandi Marcius, 6-9, Purdue – This would be a pisser both for the Boilers and the Hoosiers, as Marcius is not quite good enough to help the Hoosiers a lot, but every little bit of production would be like paper cuts to the Purdue fans. Teams in the Big Ten can never have enough size, and for his flaws, Marcius is big at 6’9″, 270 lbs. I’ve read the rules on graduate transfers, and I am unsure whether Purdue grants the waiver prior to the naming of the school Marcius plans to contact, or whether the waiver must be granted for each contact. This is why schools have big compliance departments. If Marcius must ask for an Indiana specific waiver, this entry may be deleted from the list of possibilities.

Mike Moser, 6-8, UNLV – A hell of a good player, but he is said to be on his way to Washington. Moser a forward who was injured most of last year, but in his sophomore year averaged 14 ppg and 10 rebounds. He was originally at UCLA, but left after his freshman year. Tough to tell whether a kid is worth the risk, but for a year, there aren’t too many chips on the table. He’s from Portland, OR, and seems to have an affinity for that part of the country.

Errick Peck, 6-6, Cornell – This is a vanity pick for me, as I love Errick Peck as a kid and player. The Indianapolis Cathedral product spent the last four years in the Ivy League, and scored 10 ppg over the last two seasons. He’s athletic, smart, and very coachable. He looked me in the eye and did what I said during the rec game in which I coached him. If that doesn’t make a kid coachable, I don’t know what does.

Allen Roberts, 6-3, Miami (OH) – Played 27 minutes a game, averaged 12 points and three boards. He’s a geographic fit from Ohio, and is a reasonably adept three-point shooter at 35%. He scored in double figures 21 times for the 9-22 Red Hawks. Indiana is short a shooter, unless one of the incoming freshman can fill that role. He fills that need, but is he a better player than what is coming in the freshman class?

Indiana Basketball – Maurice Creek Leaving Bloomington to Be Near Child

by Kent Sterling

The sad saga of Maurice Creek has ended in Bloomington

The math is now swinging in the opposite direction as the Indiana Hoosiers will for a time have one more scholarship available than people hoping to claim it, as Indiana announced today that Maurice Creek will forego his last year of eligibility in Bloomington to play closer to his home in Maryland, where he has a child.

Creek will be eligible to play immediately at a school where he can start, play increased minutes, and help raise his child.

Creek’s career started very strongly as he was the one player as a freshman in 2009 who could be counted on for offense. He averaged 16.4 points, and was the best player on the floor during the game against Kentucky that featured John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson, DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Liggins, and Darius Miller among others. His 31 points led all scorers as he single-handedly kept the Hoosiers in the game into the early portions of the second half At the end of the non-conference season, Creek suffered a catastrophic knee injury, and was never quite the same.

Creek averaged just short of eight minutes in 24 games in 2012-2013, averaging 1.8 points.

His story in Bloomington will always focus on what might have been. Unable to play at the pre-injury level, it was humane and decent for Crean to give Creek an accurate appraisal of his future in Bloomington.

The question now becomes what Crean will choose to do with that scholarship. He can bank it for 2014-2015, or look for a seventh member of the incoming freshman class.

2012 NFL Mock Drafts Make NFL Draft Is a Media Phenomenon Like No Other

by Kent Sterling

Not only does no one know what’s going to happen tomorrow night’s NFL Draft, but in most cases it doesn’t matter a damn. Yet, we search mock drafts to try to figure out who the Rams will take with #16 and #22, and what the Colts will do with #24. We watch Todd McShay and Mel Kiper on ESPN like their opinions represent reasonable approximations of what GMs of the 32 NFL franchises think.

It’s a ridiculous but fun way to pass time.

There is no way to predict the way the draft will play out. Even if we eliminate the potential for trades, as soon as one team steps out and breaks with our belief, the whole thing is shot to hell. It’s not even possible to project positions because GMs can get flaky as they evaluate talent vs. need, and they don’t share their thoughts with us.

But because every NFL fan is fascinated by the inner workings of their team, and will read an average of 96.2 online posts about draft evaluations, every respectable sports content provider in the world produces multiple mock drafts. It’s not important that they are right, and thank God for that because they never are. The only reasonable criteria in their mock draft is that the explanation they advance can be explained.

The result of the draft itself is not always important either. Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles took defensive lineman Fletcher Cox at #12. The Rams then grabbed DT Michael Brockers at #14. At some point, people are going to be able to assess the value of each player to his team, but right now, nobody knows if the Eagles were right or wrong in tabbing Cox as the better option. Cox vs. Brockers just didn’t matter.

Those who assemble mock drafts do more work looking at the mock drafts of others than evaluating the players with their own eyes. How many mock draft authors took the time to fly to Mobile, Alabama, for the Senior Bowl? Maybe a couple dozen – tops. The NFL Combine is a big deal and is covered by hundreds in the media, but they aren’t allowed to do anything more than talk to the athletes. They watch the workouts like the rest of America on the NFL Network. As for results of the Wunderlich Test and interviews to measure behavioral aptitude, those are kept confidential.

The media does a great job covering the rest of the media, and the results so far are that Tavon Austin goes #13 to the Jets or whomever trades for that pick, so the Rams grab either Kenny Vaccaro or Alec Ogletree at #16. Then they take DeAndre Hopkins, Eric Reid, or Cordarelle Patterson at #22. The Colts are obviously going to tab Datone Jones, the DE from UCLA.

If you have a little money and enjoy a mostly friendly wager, I will give you Austin at #13, Vaccaro and Ogletree at #16, Hopkins, Reid, and Patterson at #22, and Jones at #24. I’ll take the field. If any of the players I listed are taken in those four spots, you win. I might as well have a Brinks truck roll into my driveway and dump cash on my front stoop.

The NFL has figured out that its product, if staged correctly, can be a 12-month a year concern for even passive sports fans. There are the real games that draw giant viewership, and then they have been smart enough to recognize the lust fans have for events that allow for predictive journalism that can be pulsed throughout the year to churn audience.

They have expanded the draft to three days beginning Thursday night, instead of doing it on a Saturday and Sunday. That allows not only for more revenue from primetime coverage, but to own every sports section in the country and ESPN from Thursday through Monday morning. Major League Baseball has actual games being played, but the minutes dedicated to NFL draft coverage on ESPN’s Sportscenter outpaces MLB highlights roughly eight-to-one.

The magic of the NCAA Basketball Tournament is that any tool can fill out a bracket and win a pool because no one knows what the hell is going to happen beginning that first Thursday at Noon. You can do the exact same thing with the NFL Draft. Because virtually everyone is wrong at every pick, we are all equally poor at projecting results.

And how could we not be? Each of the 32 teams has scouts everywhere who gather real information, share it with the front office staff that works 16 hours a day for three months to try and figure out who they want throughout the entire seven round draft. Even with all that work, when the Browns go on the clock at #6, the Cardinals (drafting #7) are going to call ESPN’s Adam Schefter to find out who the Browns plan to take.

For both the Rams and Colts, the heavy lifting was done on day two and three, and that’s likely to be the case again this year. When Vick Ballard, T.Y. Hilton, Daryl Richardson, and Chris Givens were taken last year, no one in St. Louis or Indy knew who they were. But we are smart enough to pay attention throughout the weekend, because now we know that the seventh round pick can be huge too.

Whether we are right or wrong in our projections is immaterial. In most cases, the teams won’t have any idea whether they got this draft right for three years. Hell, Rams fans are still divided as to whether drafting Sam Bradford was the right thing in 2010.

That’s what makes the NFL Draft fun and captures our imagination. The science of the draft is so resolutely imperfect that getting it right is impossible for geniuses. That makes us idiots their equal, and we like that.

Here are my picks in the #16, #22, and #24 slots:

Rams #16 – Tavon Austin (WR), West Virginia – The Rams need a playmaker, and if Austin is available, he’s the best weapon out there. The Rams lost Danny Amendola and Brandon Gibson, and picked up Jared Cook. The need a dynamic guy that will require defensive gameplan adjustments. Coach Jeff Fisher enjoys building an offense that is an impossible puzzle for opponents. Austin helps fill that void.
Rams #22 – Eddie Lacy (RB), Alabama – The Rams lost aging running back Steven Jackson, and their is no way they are ready to turn over the bulk of work in the backfield to either of their second year RBs Daryl Richardson or Isaiah Pead. This is a this draft for RBs.
Colts #24 – Menelik Watson (OT), Florida State – The Colts first, second, and third priorities need to be keeping franchise QB Andrew Luck upright and healthy. They need to get a CB too, but there is help there deeper in the draft. Watson is big, long, and his big hands. He’s raw, but projects well, according to Gil Brandt, and that’s good enough for me.

I guarantee that I’m wrong, but no more wrong than anyone else.

Indiana Pacers Need to Sack Up and Dominate; or Josh Smith Needs to Play Soft

by Kent Sterling

Young teams in the NBA learn from mistakes. The Bulls in the late-1980s couldn’t out tough the Pistons, or they would have won championships. The Pacers themselves couldn’t get by the Knicks and Bulls in the mid-1990s. The Jazz and Suns never got over the hump in the 90s either. LeBron’s teams until last year – same deal. A big part of the equation in winning a championship is talent, but part of it is a conscious decision to do anything to win.

The Pacers aren’t picked to win the NBA title this year. They were the third seed in the East, so if the Knicks close out against the Celtics, it’s likely they would have to win three series on the road to hoist a big banner. That’s a difficult course to the crown.

But the Pacers can out tough the Hawks to end their season. The Hawks played Sunday like they would be just as happy moving toward the light. The Hawks are scheduled to lose more than half their roster to free agency (Josh Smith, Devin Harris, Zaza Pachulia, Kyle Korver, Johan Petro, and seven others will be free agents), and it appeared that most of those had already checked out. Josh Smith was near his averages in game one at 15 points and eight rebounds, but he sure appeared disinterested.

A guy playing for his next contract on national TV should be able to bring more than that, but maybe playing for a coaching staff that thought matching up Kyle Korver on Paul George was a good idea was too demoralizing. Regardless, out-toughing Josh Smith shouldn’t require much effort.

The Pacers are capable of toughness, but the primary barometer for sack remains the NBA’s Most Improved Player for 2013 Paul George. When he goes to the bucket and creates contact, he is a dynamic beast of a scoring machine. When he settles for jump shots, the Pacers play soft, and are capable of losing to anyone.

The Hawks were upset about the disparity in foul shots in game one of this series, as the Pacers took 34 to the Hawks 14, but that’s what happens when a tough team plays a soft team. The Pacers were in the bonus with 9:26 left in the second quarter, and free throws ensue when five fouls are committed in the first 2:34 of a quarter.

The first shot for the Hawks in each of the four quarters were jumpers from 20-feet, 27-feet, 26-feet, and finally a three-footer from Johan Petro. Josh Smith scored 10 of his 15 points in the paint on five-of-six shooting. Outside the paint, he had five points going two-for-nine, including one-of-five in the first quarter. That’s the kind of tone Pacers fans need to hope Smith sets in tonight’s game.

In the first quarter, the Hawks settled for 15 shots (six makes) outside the paint, and took six inside (four were good). The Pacers were eight-of-ten inside the paint, and five of-11 from outside. As you might guess given the shot selection, the Pacers had a six-to-two advantage at the line as they built an eight-point lead.

Go inside, get fouled. Shoot jumpers, no fouls. That’s true at every level of basketball, and it will be true again tonight, as the Pacers can effectively end the series by asserting their will and taking a 2-0 lead with games three and four in Atlanta. If the Pacers win tonight, the Hawks will need to win four-of-five games, including at least one in Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The malaise the Pacers showed after the seeds were all but wrapped up late in the season made them look vulnerable to such a run, but Sunday’s effort makes it seem improbable that they could lose four after going up 2-0.

Even less likely is anyone but Indianapolis native Jeff Teague playing for the Hawks like they want to delay the annual offseason trips to exotic locales any longer than necessary.

The shame is that Josh Smith is going to continue making more money each year than any five of us will in our lives for not pursuing his potential. The former Indiana University commit made $13.2 million this year to bring his career earnings to $64,339,623. That’s a lot of cash for playing soft, and someone is going to give him that kind of contract again.

The Pacers need to sack up, play with urgency, and remove all hope. If the Hawks want to head to Cabo for two weeks of R&R, let them. Everyone needs to go to the rack on the offensive end, and make Smith pay for doing anything but shoot jumpers.

Three Weeks into the 2013 Season, Chicago Cubs Are in Deep Trouble

by Kent Sterling

Save this picture. Unless he’s gritting them, you likely won’t see Cubs manager Dale Sveum’s teeth until 2015.

There is only so much a man can take. Dale Sveum is the manager of the Chicago Cubs, but he’s a competitive human being first. He’s tired of losing.

Sveum vented last night before the Cubs blew another save – this one in the 13th inning – to lose to the Cincinnati Reds 5-4. Imagine his mood after.

Sveum said that everyone is accountable, and that jobs are on the line for everyone. Sure they are. Starlin Castro has been the same sleepy boob from day two of his major league career, and the consequences have included coddling, enabling, and waiting patiently for the light to go on.

The Cubs hired Dave McKay, a great move, to try to instill some St. Louis Cardinals style professionalism. So far, Castro and the Cubs are mired in the same swamp of malaise that has defined the franchise for the past four years.

It’s hard for a manager or coach to lose, even when the team is built to avoid success, and it sounds like Sveum is getting to the end of his rope. He’s even talking about his own job being in jeopardy. Right now, a firing would be a mercy killing.

The child of Billy Martin and Tony LaRussa couldn’t win 70 games with this odd bunch of spare parts. The Cubs keep churning bodies hoping that someone can adequately hit, catch, throw, run, and hit for power – or any of those five tools.

This insanity will continue for at least another season, as Sveum waits for the arrival of the young talent the Cubs are stockpiling in the low minors. They will earn draft picks at or near the top for the foreseeable future, and maybe team president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer are right in that making a conscious effort to lose 100 games a season for a while will yield the level of success never seen at the nearly century old Wrigley Field.

In the meantime, poor Sveum may lose his mind. Maybe he’s trying to shake things up as the Cubs certainly appear to be aware that they are as miserable a collection of ballplayers in the long and recently mediocre history of the franchise.

The Cubs are hitting less than .150 with runners in scoring position, and the bullpen has already blown five saves – by five different relievers.

The Cubs rank at the bottom of the National League in walks with 42 – less than half the total of league leader Cincinnati. If not for the Hitless Blunders playing in Miami with an incredible .212, the Cubs would be in last place in batting average and OBP too.

Fielding is not a strength either. The Cubs rank next to last in both fielding percentage and errors. They also lead the National League in unearned runs scored against them with an astronomical 14 in just 18 games.

Yes, the Cubs are terrible, and there is no hope at all for more than marginal improvement throughout this season. If Sveum is threatening jobs, and even questioning his own, it won’t be long before he makes former Cubs manager/volcano sound like a choirboy with an outburst of historic proportions.

The fans at Wrigley Field will start to become ill-tempered as well. They should. But their rage should be directed away from the angst-ridden Sveum and toward the self-impressed billionaire pulling the strings.

College Football Corruption – Don’t Blame the Coaches Like Gene Chizik

by Kent Sterling

Two lessons from former Auburn football coach Gene Chizik – back your guys so they stay quiet, and don’t wear reading glasses at the podium.

Former Auburn football coach Gene Chizik is busying himself this week by defending his brief and erratic reign against a report by Selena Roberts that quoted former players as saying that players were paid, grades were fixed, recruits were excessively entertained, and that a significant number of players tested positive for synthetic pot.

He’s being paid just over $208,000 a month for the next three years by Auburn, and that buyout cash is available to Chizik only if the program is clean by NCAA standards. That he is strident in calling the work of a well-respected journalist “absurd” is predictable – and itself absurd.

The system is broken. When a coach can fail to the tune of a $7.5 million buyout like Chizik did, the hog is in the tunnel. Here’s another relevant Hunter Thompson quote, “In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

College football is a closed society, and the truth is that cheating happens everywhere whether or not it’s sanctioned by the schools. It’s been that way since the beginning of football, and no amount of grave consternation or self-righteous posturing is going to change that.

Coaches for big-time college football programs are not paid to make sure student-athletes graduate with meaningful degrees. Boosters do no write giant checks to the athletic fund because players are sober. Fans do not filled stadia because the players earn their grades. The meaningful metric is winning, and from winning all good things spring.

The only danger is in the loose lips of the players who may not even realize that what regularly happens to and for them is against the rules.

A society where the rules and the reality are so wildly divergent cannot function happily for long, and the perpetuating acts of the NCAA is to load their musket with one lead ball per year to take down one of the many programs that operate by the laws of the pack rather than their rulebook.

Auburn is doing everything they can to stave off the investigators as long as they can, but eventually the musket will be fired. The damage is likely to be restricted to Chizik and maybe athletic director Jay Jacobs.

Anyone looking for a fix for this problem will first have to find people who believe a problem exists. More money is being made today in college football than ever, and when the SEC Network launches in 2014, today’s cash will look like a short stack. The kids are happy – easy classes, getting some cash from boosters and agents, and a chance to play on Saturday in front of crowds that dwarf what the NFL draws.

Schools are thrilled. They have a business model that allows them to print money without compensating the people doing the work. Coaches are REALLY happy. Sure, the job sucks sometimes, and the pressure to win is immense, but they take home huge money. And if somehow the ship capsizes, they get buyouts totaling more than most ordinary folks will earn in their entire lives.

Fans are happy because their teams are able to compete with the other teams in their conference, and may go to a bowl which provides them a chance to hop on a plane, drink scotch, smoke giant cigars, and congratulate each other for attending the same university as is playing in the game 40 years before.

Mark Emmert, the head guy at the NCAA, is a smart guy. He knows what the score is. If I know that people are getting paid and that academics is the farthest thing from the minds of most coaches, surely it hasn’t escaped him. Like most administrators, his win is for the noise to stop. Emmert gets testy when constantly quizzed about corruption that he has no power to end.

Maybe the problem is with the people who continue to see any of these issues as the problem. The time has come to – as my Dad used to say – crap or get off the pot.

The root cause of college corruption is the sway the boosters hold because they write giant checks to the athletic fund that build buildings, endow scholarships, and fund buyouts. All the program needs to do to keep the cash tap flowing is win, so what needs to be done to make winning more likely is done.

Let’s do what Vanderbilt did almost a decade ago, dump the athletic department. Fold that beast into the division of student life. If boosters want to pour money into the general fund, that’s great, but it will go to make collegiate life better for all students.

Winning becomes less an issue, and as members of the gen-pop, the athletes are held accountable as students. Coaches go back to being coaches rather than wardens, and ADs cease to exist at all (apologies to one of the great guys in this mess, Indiana University’s Fred Glass).

It will never happen because solutions require problems, and while Chizik has a problem today of weathering this storm so the $208,000 checks continue until the end of 2015, but that’s an isolated issue that won’t infect the rest of college football.

It’s not Chizik’s fault, but it’s someone’s turn to get shot with the musket.

Auburn Football Is in Trouble, But It Shouldn’t Be

by Kent Sterling

Auburn AD Jay Jacobs denies every allegation of misdeed in Selena Roberts report.

The buzzards are circling at Auburn University. Selena Roberts authored a report with quotes from former players who allege grade altering, cover-ups of dirty drug tests, payments to top players, and spending on recruits during official visits that exceeds NCAA rules. The school and former coach deny everything.

Of course they do, but they shouldn’t. The truth of how big time college football programs operate is unpleasant. Players are paid. Grades are either altered or cupcake classes are prescribed. Recruits enjoy their trips to campus for a variety of reasons the NCAA doesn’t endorse. And we can’t handle the truth.

Coaches should stand tall like Colonel Nathan Jessup, Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men” and shout, “You damn right we did it! We paid the players, made sure grades were maintained, and waited until after the glory of the BCS National Championship before amending the rules to add spice (slang for synthetic marijuana) to the list of banned substances. You know why!? Because if we don’t, other programs will, and they’ll beat our asses on the field.”

Paying coaches millions and allowing them free reign to do whatever is necessary to win games rewards winning. If it comes at the expense of everything else, that’s not a problem. Show me a coach whose kids graduate with meaningful degrees but lose more than they win, and I’ll show you a future broadcaster with a sweet buyout.

Being a head football coach is a damn hard job with so many plates spinning that it’s impossible to keep them all from falling and breaking. The plates that require the most attention are those that contribute to winning bowl games. Grades, drugs, NCAA compliance other than APR requirements, and policing boosters who like to share their wealth are not among those plates. They crash unnoticed unless someone in the media is smart enough to find chunks of them.

Boosters who write checks to athletic funds enjoy watching winning football, and one of the primary functions of an athletic director’s job is to raise money. The validation that comes from those big checks is intoxicating stuff for ADs who enjoy sharing great news with university presidents.

The only disincentive for ADs and coaches to maintain any semblance of control over their “student-athletes” is the noise that results from the media sinking its talons into their nether regions, as Roberts has.

Auburn coach Gene Chizik was paid $7.5 million as he was fired after riding the football team from a national championship to 3-9 record in two seasons – actually, he is being paid in 36 monthly installments of $208,334. They will keep rolling in as long as Chizik is not shown to have violated NCAA rules, so let’s forget about telling the truth. Despite it being the right thing to do, forfeiting two hunsky a month for taking the moral high ground by admitting the morality in college football is in a river bed and not on a mountaintop is a bad call for a man with a family.

Getting 85 pampered jocks on scholarship to toe the line while in college is impossible, and no one should expect a coach to be responsible for the behavior of their players any more than a math professor should be. Hell, getting telecom majors on a strict allowance to behave is impossible. Doing dangerous/illegal things is what protects many college students from psychological incineration between boring lectures.

That football players at Auburn smoked spice does not reflect badly on Chizik any more than kids drinking underage sullies Notre Dame’s reputation. It happens everywhere.

The only unpardonable sin for college football players at Auburn is talking about their sins. The former athletes that spoke to Roberts are backpeddling faster than a first round cornerback dropping into coverage, and AD Jay Jacobs is refuting all charges.

The system is broken, and every once in a while, someone inside it tells the truth. That sets off a storm of denial, posturing, and character assassination against the journalist who dared to ask the questions that elicited an honest response.

The hypocrisy in college football is transparent. It would be wonderful for the people running this crazy game to step up and admit their role in perpetuating it. Thieves copping to their crimes would be nice too. Neither will happen any time soon.

As long as the rewards for winning are so enormous and penalties for losing so punitive, the cycle of rule breaking and denial will go on and on and on.

If Auburn should pay, so should damn near everyone else.

Indiana Pacers – Larry Bird’s Controversial Drafts Built This Playoff Team

by Kent Sterling

Larry Bird never wore a suit as easily as the Celtics green and white, but he drafted with the same excellence as he played.

Watching the Pacers NBA Playoffs win yesterday against the Atlanta Hawks, it was impossible not to see the immense impact Larry Bird had in building the roster.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean Bird ran the draft for nearly a decade, so the roster is damn near all him. But the hell he took for making what occasionally seemed debatable picks has been shown to be the product of uninformed minds.

The prevailing logic – and a good case can be made for this perspective – was that the Pacers needed to hit rock bottom to be able to climb back to relevance. That never happened, and Bird was unapologetic for not tanking games late in a losing season, or destroying his roster to hasten the Pacers’ demise.

The earliest Bird ever drafted was 10th – a spot where experts say only complimentary players can be found. If Paul George, (taken 10th in 2010), is a complimentary player, he is the finest in NBA history.

When the Pacers were unable to get the player they wanted, they used picks to acquire other players via trade. Bird did that exceptionally well also.

Let’s break down every draft since 2005:

2005 – Danny Granger (17th overall) – The five players who immediately preceded Granger in the draft were Yaroslav Korolev (12th – Clippers), Sean May (#13 – Bobcats), Rashad McCants (#14 – Timberwolves), Antoine Wright (#15 – Nets), and Joey Graham (#16 – Toronto). Korolev played a total of 34 games for the Clippers. May played 119 games until 2010 and is currently a part of the Paris-Levallois ballclub in France. McCants averaged 10 ppg in five seasons for Minnesota and Sacramento. Wright started 96 games for four teams in six NBA seasons, and has seen the world since – playing in China, Spain, Venezuela, and Reno. Graham averaged 5.9 ppg and started 84 games for three teams. We can dig back one more pick to #11 for the Orlando Magic. Fran Vasquez never left Spain. Granger has scored more than 2,000 more points in his career than those six players combined.

2006 – Shawne Williams (17th overall) – Yeah, Williams was a bust, but history has shown this to be a miserable draft. Bird could have had the prescience to draft Rajon Rondo, who fell to #21 and the Celtics. There were plenty of teams who drafted prior to the Pacers who managed to take a significantly worse player. How about Patrick O’Bryant and Mouhamed Sene, who went to the Warriors and Sonics at #9 and #10. I’ll even give the Bobcats a bit of a break for taking Adam Morrison at #3.

2007 – Pick traded to Atlanta for Al Harrington and John Edwards (not the cheating prick of a presidential candidate) – Atlanta used the pick to grab Acie Law, who washed out after the 2010-2011 season. He’s currently in Greece. Thaddeus Young was taken with the pick immediately following Law’s, and while starting for the 76ers is nothing but resume’ padding, he’s a very functional player who averaged 13 ppg over his six seasons. Not-so Baby Al scored 15.9 ppg for the 35-47 2006-2007 season.

2008 – Roy Hibbert (#17), Brandon Rush (#13) – This is a complex draft as the Pacers acquired a bunch of people who were here briefly for their 11th overall pick – Jerryd Bayless, who didn’t last long in Portand either. They also got the #17 along with others for Jermaine O’Neal, in what might be the biggest fleecing in the history of the franchise. O’Neal’s contract was disproportionately huge compared to his production, so they dumped him for T.J. Ford, Maceo Baston, and Rasho Nesterovic and the draft rights to Roy Hibbert. To get anything that looked like a basketball player for O’Neal’s contract was a slice of genius. That they got a guy who can play center at #17 was genius.

2009 – Tyler Hanbrough (#13) – This is where Bird briefly lost his mind. Hansbrough is very popular in Indianapolis because of his work ethic, and because he looks a lot more like the majority of the fans at Bankers Life Fieldhouse than the rest of the Pacers. Jrue Holliday, Ty Lawson and Jeff Teague went #17, #18, and #19. Hanbrough can be a valuable component on a very good team because he is a massive pain in the ass for opponents. Every great team needs a dirty work guy, and Hansbrough is as good at that as anyone in the NBA.

2010 – Paul George (#10), Lance Stephenson (#40) – George is the only player taken in this draft to earn a trip to an all-star game. Remember all the quizzical glances of Pacers fans when the pick was announced? “Who? Paul who? Christ, Larry!” He was taken one slot after Brownsburg’s Gordon Hayward. I wanted the Pacers to trade down and get Eric Bledsoe. Again, Larry knew what the hell he was doing. In the second round, Bird grabbed a freshman from Cincinnati, and that pissed me off. Everyone knew the kid from Coney Island was squirrelly and selfish. There were charges that were dropped in an assault against his girlfriend. Stephenson reportedly shoved her down a flight of ten stairs after she came home drunk. The story circulated that the girl was paid to drop the charges. Stephenson was said to be the most talented player on the Pacers from the moment he walked through the door, and now it seems that the maturity Larry asked for while Stephenson grew up a little bit has paid off. Once again, Larry appears to have been right.

2011 – Kahwi Leonard (#15) – Leonard was a Pacer for only a second or two as he was traded for guard and Indianapolis native George Hill. This was a great deal for both teams. The Pacers are thrilled with the play of a professional like Hill, and the Spurs have someone who can tutor their elderly players on how to best use social media. Leonard averaged 11.9 ppg as a starting wing. Hill averaged 14.2 ppg and 4.7 assists.

2012 – Miles Plumlee (#26), Orlando Johnson (#36) – Way too early to tell whether either guy will become a meaningful contributor.

Bird’s legacy as the franchise’s steward will be as outstanding as it was as a coach. He was patient and thorough. That he was a little bit prickly about criticism was a surprise, but he was. He developed a serious dislike for his critics, which seemed senseless to me as he is Larry F**king Bird, and should be above responding to critics.

Regardless of his disposition, the guy did his job like he has done everything – exceptionally well. If the Pacers move on to the Eastern Conference Finals, which they should if they can stay focused every game through the first two rounds, Bird will have done the near impossible – rebuild an NBA team through the draft while never picking in the top nine.

Stalter & Duncan to Replace Bernie Miklasz on 101ESPN

by Kent Sterling

You don’t replace a host like Bernie Miklasz, whose talents and work ethic are singular. You find the best people you can, and trust that the audience will find them enjoyable to listen to.

That’s what will happen after Bernie leaves his show at the end of the month when Chris Duncan and Anthony Stalter begin take over for the godfather of St. Louis sports.

Most in St. Louis have heard Dunc on The Fast Lane with Randy Karraker and D’Marco Farr. He is as adept behind the microphone as he was crushing boomskis as the left fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals in the mid-2000s before his career was shortened by neck and hip injuries. He is one of the rare talents able to say things that stick. He’s not only informed and funny; Dunc works harder to prepare for a show than anyone I’ve known.

Anthony has been the producer of The Fast Lane for a year, and for the last eight months had hosted “Pro Football Sunday” with Tony Softli. Anthony is a well-regarded NFL expert, who writes as a national pundit. He played baseball at Central Michigan, so he knows that game well too.

The best part of this teaming by program director Hoss Neupert is that these two guys get along really well, and have great chemistry. Both are real, know their stuff, and enjoy the hell out of talking about St. Louis sports.

Bernie felt a measure of guilt in choosing to leave 101ESPN to unify his work under one roof at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and stltoday.com, but for everyone who leaves, someone gets an opportunity. In this case, Dunc’s life improves because he gets to spend more time with his wife and family, and Anthony gets an opportunity he has earned through years of paying his dues as a producer and learning his craft.

I’m looking forward to hearing the show, as well as keeping up with Bernie’s work.

The thing that made my time at 101ESPN so rewarding was earning the right to call these guys my friends. To see Anthony, Dunc, and Bernie earn these opportunities validates all that can be good about media.

For those of you outside a 60 mile radius of St. Louis who listen on 101.1 FM, check them out on 101sports.com. It’s a great radio station because everyone involved with it is an outstanding person who works his/her ass off.

Cathedral Basketball – Jalen Coleman Talks About What He Needs to Do to Get Better

by Kent Sterling

Jalen Coleman is two-and-a-half years away from playing big time college basketball somewhere. There are a lot of programs who like Jalen a whole lot – and rightly so – but in order to achieve his dreams, there are areas in his game in need of improvement.

I didn’t tell Jalen that when we spoke. He told me. That’s the best part of this sophomore at Cathedral (Indianapolis). He knows exactly what he wants and who he is, good and bad.

Anyone who watched Cathedral make its run to the Indiana state championship game, or Jalen’s Indiana Elite summer team has seen the talent. He is capable of scoring the basketball in ways that few can. Others try, but the body control needed to spin, knife through traffic, and elevate while also shooting the ball with accuracy is a rare trait.

Another rare trait is that he can take complex instruction about physical movement, and put it into practice almost immediately. Coaches love a guy who they can tell, “Why don’t you try this,” and then the kid does it perfectly. Kids like Jalen makes coaches feel smart, and there is nothing coaches relish more than feeling smart.

What is Jalen working on? Watch the video to find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l929cNmKKEY