Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Donald Davidson Remembers Three-Time Indy 500 Champion Bobby Unser

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Bobby Unser was my favorite driver when I was growing up.  He was a balls to the wall competitor who seemed to want victory more than life.

His car was cool.  He honesty was cool.  And he four ways to win that at the very least challenged the interpretation of the rules.

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Unser has been no less controversial as a former driver, speaking his mind in private and public conversations.

He made the Indianapolis 500 more interesting when he drove in it, and he makes it more interesting today by expressing his opinions about it.  Some people are blessed with an ability to sugarcoat their feelings, and Bobby Unser isn’t one of them.

Maybe it’s age.  At some point in life, men seem to realize that their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs have an expiration date, and that not being unvarnished dilutes whatever effect they might have.  That might explain it, but I never remember Unser being any different.  He seems to have been born with the gift of transparency.

Love him or think he’s a wingnut, he sure could drive the hell out of a race car.

Ed DeChellis Leaves Penn State for Navy – Huh?

by Kent Sterling

College basketball is nutty.  On its face, the Ed DeChellis to Navy move looks like the act of a mentally unstable man.

Why would a guy leave the Big Ten for a Patriot League gig at a military academy where the academic standards are rigid and very high?

Add to that, Billy Lange, the coach who preceded DeChellis, apparently bolted voluntarily to sit next to Jay Wright at Villanova, and the whole thing seems preposterous.

But what if Lange knew he was on exceptionally thin ice with an athletic department who thought less and less of him, and DeChellis had an all but bare Nittany Lion cupboard with the expiring eligibility of Talor Battle and Jeff Brooks.

Sure, in 2011, DeChellis led Penn State to the Big Ten Tournament final and a berth in the NCAAs for the first time in a decade, but he may have been less than popular with the athletic department too.

DeChellis finished his eighth season on a high note, and after eight years, an AD knows exactly what he has, and what DeChellis didn’t bring a lot of smiles to Happy Valley.

With a record of 117-139, DeChellis’ winning percentage of 45.7% is the lowest for any coach in the history of the program.

It’s likely that DeChellis saw the writing on the wall, and with a salary of $642,000, his buy-out is probably comparatively weak, and striking while the iron is hot to roll to a job where success isn’t measured by success in one of America’s best conferences started to look pretty good.

Annapolis affords coaches a relatively nice life.  Not surprisingly, there are very few calls from players who in in trouble with the law or a girl, and few are in academic distress.  There is almost no chance of running afoul of the NCAA.  Compliance isn’t a big issue when athletes and ordinary cadets (although calling them ordinary seems quite inappropriate) are required to have a congressional appointment for consideration.

It’s all starting to make a little more sense.

What may be tougher than figuring out why DeChellis is leaving is the job of finding a coach to take over a program that is clearly not going to be as competitive as it was last year – overachieving to post a .500 record in the Big Ten.

Summer vs. High School Basketball – 10 Reasons Why Kids Like Summer More

by Kent Sterling

Basketball purists hate summer basketball.  They say it erodes the specialness of the high school seasons, and features kids doing little more than what they used to do at playgrounds in previous generations.

High school coaches hate it as it erodes the influence they have over a kid.  College coaches love it because it allows an affordable and convenient way for them to evaluate and impress kids and families with their presence.  Parents hate the expense, but enjoy the rest during the summer.

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What do the kids think?  Here are 10 reasons (not in any particular order) they prefer summer over high school basketball:

  1. Limited scouting. This is mano a mano stuff.  It’s up to the kids to figure out how to beat their opponent.  When you play eight games in three days, it’s impossible for coaches to spend much time evaluating others, and that means the kids can focus on what they do best.
  2. More games than practices. The entirety of the summer season might feature 75 games and 20 practices (if the coach is interested in holding practices).  High school seasons are close to the converse.  Many of the games are de facto scrimmages anyway, and a decent coach can teach as well through games as during practices.
  3. The competition is superior in the summer. The number of future NBA players at top summer events is dizzying.  You want to match up against the very best?  That is best done in the summer.
  4. Summer ball is like summer camp. Spending 24 hours per day with friends for 20 days in July, plus all the weekends in April and May is just like camp, except the games are more competitive than the events at summer camp.  The kids spend all day and night together hanging out, and friendships are made that will last for decades.
  5. Travel. It’s fun to head to Houston, Pittsburgh, Vegas, and even Fayetteville, Arkansas for three or four days of physically punishing tests of basketball skill.  The plane travel gets a little old, but for awhile, the kids are living their dream.
  6. Kids choose their teams.  The kids at the high end of the food chain get to pick the team for whom they will play, and many times get to encourage friends to come along too.  Instead of being stuck with teammates based upon a geographically drawn districting map, they actually get to play with kids who play as well as they do, and against the same level of players.
  7. Coaching. There are high school coaches who are assholes, but because most parents aren’t going to sell a home to facilitate a change in leadership, the kid is stuck for four years with a guy more interested in his own legacy and bloated self-importance than the development of the kids.  In summer ball, getting away from the idiot coaches (and there are plenty) changing teams is accomplished through a phone call.  Indiana is lucky in that many of the best high school coaches in the country work here, but there are still some dopes out there.
  8. Access to eyes of college coaches. Go to the Adidas Invitational in Indianapolis in two months, and watch Coach K, Roy Williams, Tom Crean, Matt Painter, Tom Izzo, Brad Stevens, Rick Barnes, and every other D-1 coach in the country sit on the opposite side of the gym as the best players in the 2012 and 2013 classes play.
  9. Tournament play is more fun. The difference between tournament play, where a missed shot can send a team home early, and a regular season game where the outcome is only meaningful because of pride and the praise or crap taken at school the next day, is stark.  Tournaments are high stakes poker.  High school’s regular season is checkers at the barber shop.  Sending teams home early from tournaments is joyous.
  10. Every weekend brings another trophy. In July, the trophies can come three per week.  In high school, there is the state tournament, and maybe a county or city tournament.  The games are more fun when the format invites drama.

High school proponents want to limit summer ball because they are threatened by its success, but basketball should be about having fun, and if players are enjoying summer basketball, what the hell is wrong with that?  If lovers of high school basketball want change, they need to consider very seriously what changes they hope to cause through their actions because forcing kids to choose between high school and summer could cause a serious erosion in talent from the high school game as many of the best kids may choose summer over high school without a second thought.

The system as it is today works for both.  By the end of the summer season, players are ready for the structure and fans of high school games.  At the end of every high school season, the kids can’t wait to see their summer teammates, and to play against the very best players in the country.

Donald Davidson Remembers “Hurk” – Jim Hurtubise

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Jim Hurtubise never won the Indianapolis 500, but when you talk to the drivers from a half-century ago, there are always stories about Jim Hurtubise.

He was a character, but also a great driver.  An accident at Milwaukee robbed him of some of that ability, and he became known for trying to qualify front engine cars and rolling up a car to the front of the qualification line after the gun sounded, if I have my facts straight, popped open the chassis, and revealed the engine had been replaced by dozens of ice cold bottles of Genesee Cream Ale.

Donald Davidson Remembers 1957 Winner Sam Hanks

Sam Hanks was a phenomenal Indy 500 driver, who finally won the race in his last attempt at the age of 43.

For those who are curious about the history of the Indianapolis 500, listen to “Talk of Gasoline Alley” every night except the night before the race during the month of May.  Host Donald Davidson is the official historian of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and no one knows more of the 500.

Indiana Basketball’s 2012 Class Ranked Tops in Country

by Kent Sterling

Tom Crean is rolling.  The years of building relationships with summer and high school coaches, and families around Indiana is paying off.  The result is a 2012 recruiting class that Rivals has named the best in the country.

Already committed are (with Rivals ranking in parentheses):

PF Hanner Perea (#15)
PG Kevin Ferrell (#28)
SF Jeremy Hollowell (#42)
SG Ron Patterson (#115)
C Peter Jurkin

Waiting in the wings are uncommitted recruits like Hamilton Southeastern’s Gary Harris (#26) and North Central’s (but headed to Oak Hill Academy next year) D’Vauntes Smith Rivera (#21).  Seven-footer Kaleb Tarczewski and 6’10” Mitch McGary have offers from IU, according to Rivals, but I’ve not heard of any serious interest from either.

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This is the watershed class that Hoosiers fans have waited for, and the wait will continue for one more year.  But the light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting a little brighter.

Rankings are a decent ballpark estimate of the potential kids have shown, but are more than fallible.  I’ve seen all those kids quite a bit, and would adjust the rankings.

Perea scored four points at Bloomington South last year, and the 15th best player in the country ought to be more productive than that, even with triple teams shadowing him everywhere.  Jeremy Hollowell can look disinterested, and while his former and supposedly less talented summer team is taking home trophies, the team with all the IU commits loses.

I believe Ferrell and Harris are ranked beneath than their play, so it will probably all come out in the wash.

Physically, 7’0″ albatross Jurkin is very similar to JaJuan Johnson at the same point in their development, but the question that needs to be answered is whether Jurkin has JJ’s ability to listen and passionately work on his game.

These kids will have a little time to develop as IU will have a number of players, who if healthy, are going to be able to carry some of the load themselves while the freshmen get their sea legs.  Maurice Creek, Christian Watford, and Jordan Hulls will be seniors.  Victor Oladipo and Will Sheehey will be juniors, and Cody Zeller and Austin Etherington sophs.  That’s a nice roster – minus the lack of a big man.

Indiana and Crean are entering a critical stretch of time in the evolution of the Hoosiers program.  All but the easily disenchanted remain patient, and are willing to wait for the nation’s best recruiting class to play for a year before casting judgment on the Crean Era.

Whether Indiana is successful will always depend upon the strength of the in-state players available to Crean.  IU is not a national program like Kentucky, and it’s doubtful it ever becomes one.

Bob Knight’s teams were best when the in-state talent was best.  He was able to grab some kids from Ohio and Illinois as well.  When players from that area were outstanding, Indiana won championships.  When IU left the midwest to grab kids, the results didn’t hang banners.

Purdue rebuilt its program with kids starting with the great bounty of the 2007 high school class, and 2012 looks to be that next great group of Indiana basketball excellence.

From day one on the job at IU, Crean has worked his ass off to generate relationships that would allow him into the homes of Indiana’s best, and those relationships are paying off, along with the facility upgrades IU has made.

The academic facilities and construction of Cook Hall have made a huge impact, as has the development of the Excellence Academy that parents love as a difference maker.  That Indiana cares enough about its athletes to invest this heavily in the development of young men and women, rather than simply finding methods to keep them eligible and get them through so the program’s APR doesn’t drop is a big deal – maybe not for all the kids, but smart parents embrace it.

At some point the lost horizon of the fading past and relentlessly approaching future needs to become the current reality, but for the moment, shangri la appears to be approaching.

Donald Davidson Remembers Eddie Sachs – the Clown Prince of Racing

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Eddie Sachs died in a fiery crash during the 1964 Indianapolis 500 that also claimed the life of Dave MacDonald, and what followed was one of the most memorable moments in sports broadcasting history.

Sid Collins, the original voice of the 500, eulogized Sachs in a poignant and extemporaneous performance that was remarkable, and stands today as some of the best work every done by a talent with a live microphone.

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But what of Sachs the driver and man?  He should have won the 1961 race 50 years ago, and was exactly the kind of personality the IndyCar Series so desperately needs today.

Below is the video of the crash.  It’s awful.

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Donald Davidson Remembers the Late Bill Vukovich

by Kent Sterling

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A year after I moved to Indianapolis, I grabbed a bunch of old and dusty reel-to-reels of Indy 500 highlights and sat down to try to understand the allure of this event.

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So many feel such enormous passion for the Indianapolis 500 that I must have missed something as I watched it the previous year.

One of the reels contained memories of Sid Collins, the voice of the race from its first broadcast through 1976.  There were also race highlights, and when he spoke of the 1955 crash that claimed the life of Bill Vukovich, everything clicked.

Sid did an amazing job of conveying the sense of loss, daring, and risk that built the race in both the horror he expressed during the highlight and his remembrance.

He ran the 500 only five times, won twice, led 485 laps, and led 50 or 56 laps during the race in which he was killed.  If not for that incident, there is no telling how many 500s he might have won.

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Chicago Cubs – The Search for the Bottom Continues

by Kent Sterling

The last time the Chicago Cubs allowed as many as seven runs that were all unearned – Hall of Famer Ernie Banks was a 26 year-old shortstop.  Now 80, if Banks was watching the mess last night in Cincinnati, he would have said, “Let’s play none!”

The Cubs committed four errors in one of the worst performances in a history filled with more than occasional poor play.  Two leads were blown in the 7-5 loss, and that happens throughout a season.  What doesn’t happen very often is the series of little league-esque botched plays the Cubs authored.

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The voices of youth coaches yelling, “Don’t throw it around!” rang in my head as I watched the carnage last night.

The Cubs are among the highest paid and worst performing teams in baseball, which is quite an odd combination.  It’s good that owner Tom Ricketts continues to hold no one responsible for the on-field idiocy that his team displays night after night because it gives hope to mediocre management hoping to last another two weeks before the CEO or owner discovers he or she is the reason for failure.

Last year, the Cubs led all teams with an astronomical and comical 99 unearned runs.  By comparison, the Cincinnati Reds allowed 37, the San Diego Padres gave up 32, and Minnesota 33.  The Cubs committed one less error than the worst fielding team in baseball, and also led baseball in walks allowed.

This year, 25% of the way through the miserable 2011 season, the Cubs lead the National League in walks allowed, and are last in all of baseball in walks earned.  They have stolen eight bases – one off the baseball worst seven by the Atlanta Braves.

The Cubs team batting average is second in baseball at .277, but they are 21st in runs scored.  How about that for offensive efficiency!

Anyone who thought Mike Quade would change the culture of the Cubs has been very disappointed in the play of the Cubs this season, and the no-shows at Wrigley Field serve as testimony to that disenchantment.

It’s mystifying to me that the Cubs continue to operate as though a different result should be expected given the construct of their team.  Blaming the injuries of Andrew Cashner and Randy Wells didn’t help, but as they weren’t expected to win Gold Gloves, steal bases, or have any clue as to the strike zone as the stood in the batter’s box, they don’t seem to have much to do with the problems plaguing this group.

Given the enormous amount of money invested in players like Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, and Kosuke Fukudome, there isn’t much Quade can do, but there sure isn’t much that he has done.

After 40 games – the quarter pole for the season, here are the grades earned by this group of lost souls in blue:

Starting pitching – D+

  • Not terrible overall.  Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza have improved recently.  The bullpen has been effective too.  But given the propensity for defensive hi-jinx, the Cubs need to control the number of baserunners, and leading baseball in walks allowed is a controllable cause of disaster.  The overall ERA is 4.58 which is good for 28th of 30th.  They are right at the league average for hits allowed, so you can see how important those walks and the defense are.

Defense – F

  • The Cubs are brutal in the field, not just because of the errors and unearned runs allowed, but because they are last in baseball in double plays and routinely miss the cutoff man.  Minus shortstop Starlin Castro and second baseman Darwin Barney, who both have plus range, the Cubs serve as little more than stationary obstacles for hitters to avoid.  By every meaningful statistical measurement, they are poor to terrible.  And they look worse than that because the mistakes are so unique for a major league team.  The Cubs are worth watching for the same reason the Miami Heat are in the NBA – because you are likely to see them do something you have never seen before.

Hitting – B

  • The Cubs are hitting for average, but because of a lack of plate discipline, speed, and power, those hits don’t account for runs.  Castro, Barney, Fukudome, and Marlon Byrd are hitting .327, .343, .323, and .309, and still the Cubs are in the bottom third in runs scored.

Power – D

  • Minus the barrage of 11 dingers Soriano accounted for through May 2, the Cubs have managed to hit 19 home runs.  Few home runs, no speed, and poor strike zone knowledge and discipline is no way to score runs.

Speed – W

  • If speed were a college course, the Cubs would simply withdraw.  Their plodding station-to-station baserunning is brutal, and makes you wonder just what Hendry values among offensive assets he targets.  The Cubs do literally nothing meaningful well with the bats or their legs.  Their eight stolen bases project to 32 for the season, which would be the lowest total since the historically slow 1969 Cubs who swiped only 30.

The Cubs should be a team in transition from old and overpaid to young and hungry, but Hendry continues to dump youngsters from the farm system in exchange for chewing gum with which he tries to plug a dam leaking from multiple gaping holes.

Tom Ricketts continues to refuse to confront the problem facing the Cubs that requires his immediate attention.  Hendry is incapable of making the tough decisions that will allow the Cubs to succeed in 2013 and 2014 because he’s trying to win 78 games in 2011.

I’ll keep watching, so you don’t have to.