The rules are different this year, so the number of college basketball players declaring for the NBA Draft has exploded. Rightly so. College players who don’t hire an agent have until May 25th (10 days after the NBA Draft Combine) to declare their intention to return to school. This is a player friendly rule that […]
UConn kept its promise by winning its fourth straight National Championship last night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Dominance is tough to achieve. It requires discipline and leadership toward goals that are tied to process rather than result. Geno Auriemma is the coach of this collection of great basketball players, including the peerless Breanna Stewart, who […]
For the record, I would love to see a group of activist student-athletes make a serious statement by boycotting the NCAA Final Four. It would be an incredibly courageous sacrifice that would likely cause long-overdue action by academic bureaucrats and television network executives to share the enormous wealth generated by an event where the participants have never […]
There may come a time when Frank Vogel, Mike Brey, Matt Painter, Chris Holtmann, and Tom Crean qualify to be listed among the all-time greats in a state that is well known for its love and mastery of basketball. But that day is not today. This list – like all lists – is imperfect. Qualifying […]
As promised, here is part 2 of the internal dialogue I have with myself regarding the future leadership of the Indiana basketball program. Yesterday, we dealt with the negative – 10 reasons to replace Tom Crean as coach. Today, we list reasons to embrace Crean as the right man to coach the Hoosiers. As with everything […]
Butler University basketball coach Chris Holtmann’s name has popped up on a list of candidates to replace Jamie Dixon as the head coach at Pitt. Coaches have bounced out of Butler to higher paying, more prestigious jobs for more than 15 years, and for good reason. They are really good at it, and have learned […]
This is a huge weekend of basketball in Indiana. Both Notre Dame and Indiana will play Sweet Sixteen (and perhaps Elite Eight) games. The Pacers are on the precipice of earning a playoff berth (or dropping out of the race). The high school state basketball championships may feature the coming out party for a sophomore […]
When Indiana beat Kentucky Saturday to eliminate Big Blue from the NCAA Tournament, not only was it a triumph of good over evil, it may put in motion talks to resume a home and home series between two of the most storied basketball programs in America. Indiana playing Kentucky makes way too much sense […]
Two things happened simultaneously yesterday that Indiana basketball fans love. The Hoosiers won to move on to the Sweet Sixteen, and Kentucky lost to end its season. Yea and yea! There will be plenty of time later to talk about the challenge of competing against top-seeded North Carolina Friday night in Philadelphia. Today is a time […]
Indiana and Butler live, and Purdue’s dead. But day one of the NCAA Tournament was about more than results of local teams. There were upsets, reasons to feel good, moments of grace, life lessons, validation, local victories and defeats, some really good basketball, and other games that were difficult to watch (sorry, Stony Brook, but […]
