Hoosiers Will Rise Again

I'm baffled by some of the comments about Indiana basketball I've seen recently...mostly from Wisconsin fans. They seem to think IU hoops has been on such a downward spiral since the mid 90's that it's just another mediocre program. Like Cal, or Providence. As a Bucky fan, Goldy said he's been more worried about programs like Minnesota and Iowa, among others, than Indiana in the past 15 years. And the infamous "anonymous" said he would almost put Northwestern at Indiana's level. Northwestern?? Do they even have an athletic program?

For the record, I'm not an Indiana (or Crean) lover. Just hear to say IU will be back. Back in a big way. Why?

1) They were never really gone (relative to most programs). Oh, the luster wasn't as shiny as it once was, no doubt. But even the "dark ages" of IU basketball were not terrible. Indiana has made 12 of the last 14 Brackets. Included was a trip to the NCAA championship game. God I hated Tom Coverdale. Speaking of players, IU has had 6 Big-11 POY's in that time span as well: Cal Cheany, Brian Evans, AJ Guyton, Kirk Haston (Yikes!), Jared Jeffries, and DJ Bubba White. That's a run %97 of teams wish they had. Not too shabby for "down years."

2) Stability. Say what you will about Tommy TanTan...the guy stayed at Marquette for 8 years despite being linked to other opportunities seemingly every off season. Conversely, Mike Davis was reportedly run out of town every off season. People were just waiting for him to get fired, no matter what his record was. Plus, Crean runs a clean program which graduates players. Lets just say Kelvin Sampson didn't. Even the end of the Knight era was like waiting for Three Mile Island to explode. Crean brings stability.

3) "It's Indiana." As Crean said, it IS Indiana. Certain jobs just need the right guy to once again become elite. IU is the basketball equivalent of Texas football, circa 1997. Texas was a former powerhouse that hadn't lived up to its name for well over a decade. The David McWilliams and John Mackovic eras just didn't do it for people. Enter Mack Brown. He got the players (namely VY) to win a title, and is now riding 7 straight 10+ win seasons. Indiana hoops is one of those kind of jobs. Just like UCLA hoops pre-Howland, USC football pre-Carroll, Florida football post-Ball Coach and pre-Meyer, and Minnesota Hockey pre-whoever was there before the current guy. Some jobs just need the right guy.

4) "It's Indiana," Part II. As in, The Hoosier State....Basketball Country...did you see the movie? Despite it's modest population, Indiana produces a huge number of quality college players. I remember before the 2006 tournament hearing something like 35 of the 65 teams in the field had at least one Indiana kid. That's amazing. Just off the top of my head, here's a list of Indiana kids that did NOT sign with IU in the last few years: Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Luke Harangody, Dom James, Josh McRoberts, E'Twaun Moore, Scott Martin, and Rob Hummel. I bet the tire fire of a coaching situation for the last decade had something to do with it. And, as we know, Crean can recruit.

Yes, Indiana should be Penn State-West for the next couple years. But, if you think they can't once again be among the nation’s elite, you’re kidding yourself.