Men’s Basketball

Jeremiah Rivers has been cursing Nico Perrino and the basketball Gods ever since Perrino's January 24th blog post.

So, all you out there in the blogosphere may have noticed (or not—whatever…) my lack of commentary on IU basketball lately. My last article on the team was on the 24th of last month, and since then I have been punishing myself for the things I said.
I feel like I jinxed the team: Since I wrote that article, in which I noted the tremendous effort the team was demonstrating every time they stepped on the court (I think the word I used was “heart”—shame on me), they have lost 8 straight games (maybe even 9 if they lose again tonight), and have demonstrated a complete lack of effort in every game without exception.
The team sucks and I suck. The team sucks, well, because they just suck… and I suck because I supported them at one point, and even (the case can be made) argued that they could compete in the Big Ten.
I couldn’t have been further from the truth. After many hours of forcing myself to watch Olympic ice skating (or dancing—I don’t even know what to call it… Is it even really a sport? Seems more like a performance art to me) as a form of penance for my sins I have now moved onto the final step in my self-prescribed recovery plan: Write a blog about how much I suck.

Yes, I suck.

Since that article was published last month a few things have happened to me that I can only imagine have come about because of what I wrote.
For one: I got a parking ticket. I know, I know, everyone gets parking tickets in college, but this was my first one and it came about because of… you guessed it… a men’s basketball game. Yup, I wrote that blog and I got a parking ticket because of it—a very logical conclusion. I have parked my car outside of Assembly Hall everyday for practice the past two years –even on days of men’s basketball games—and have been ticket free, but low and behold I write that article and a couple weeks later I get a parking ticket because I parked in the lot outside of Assembly Hall on the day of a men’s basketball game. FML.

I got redshirted for the outdoor season. Now this one is going to be a little harder to blame on the basketball team, but I’m going to do my best. So back on December 19th, 2009 I busted my foot pretty bad. It was the last day of practice before I went home for winter break, and I had one workout to go before the season started. Of course I ended up hurting myself and the injury ended up putting me out of commission for the indoor season, so the coach gave me the redshirt tag. No big deal, I figured I’d get healthy and be ready to go for outdoors. Not so fast. So, my foot still sucks and isn’t 100%, but I’ve been trying to run through the pain anyway because I didn’t want to give up on the outdoor season. Well, my coach has noticed that I have been limping and told me; yup… that he’s redshirting me for the outdoor season as well. God dammit. That’s the last thing I wanted to hear; competing is what I do! …Anyway I got to thinking during my bout of self-loathing and misery, and I realized that my coach gave me the news on the 24th! The one-month anniversary of my ill-fated blog post!  Damn you Basketball Gods, ye forsake me in times of personal crisis because of one petty blog? I knew I should have sacrificed a lamb and consulted the Oracle at Delphi before hand. Shame be to me!

In addition I have sucked at math lately. Well, I admit, this isn’t anything new, but I bombed a quiz on matrix multiplication yesterday and I’d like to think that it’s not because I’m full-retard when it comes to anything dealing with numbers, but instead something else’s fault. So… Let’s find something to blame it on. Okay… the IU men’s basketball team…? Yes! That works. It’s the only logical conclusion I can seem to come to right now…
And this is where I knew the Basketball Gods were trying to punish me for what I wrote: The slot where I put discs into my computer broke. No longer can I put DVD’s CD’s or any other D’s (stop that!) into my computer, and if I want it fixed it’s going to cost me a lot of money… I think. Now, my only idea as to why this happened to me goes back to that damned blog post last month. What else could it have been? It can only be that the Basketball God’s wanted to destroy the electronic device (aka my computer) that allowed me to disseminated such garbage. Oh, loathe be to me, what is there that I can do to end my suffering?
I don’t know if there is anything I can do in reality to undo my mistake and end my plight, but I sure hope the Basketball Gods will take pity on me after this blog is published.
Please give me one more chance to not fuck up. Everyone deserves a second chance, right?

Amen.

Men’s Basketball

Even with the loss of a stud freshman (Maurice Creek), mastermind Tom Crean has IU competing in conference play.

It must boggle Big Ten Coach’s minds.

How does a team like Indiana, whose talent is so sparse, compete on the court with teams in one of the best basketball conferences in the country? To me, there can really only be one answer:

Heart.

And I hate saying it so much –I can’t emphasize that enough. It’s so cliché and sounds like a line straight out of a bad Disney made-for-TV sports movie, but it’s true. How else can you explain it? With a starting five that is more reminiscent of a good high school basketball team than a powerhouse Div-I team, the Hoosiers manage to hang in there, and beat, some of the best college basketball teams in the country; teams that have more talent sitting on the bench than Indiana has in it’s starting lineup.

Pitt, Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State- all respectable basketball teams- have fallen to Indiana’s mop squad this year, while teams like Kentucky, Illinois and George Mason would have, had it not been for late second-half collapses by the Hoosiers.

If you look at the history, and the numbers, it’s unexplainable.

After Sampson was fired for being a douche bag the program went down the shitter. Eric Gordon left (but then again, who didn’t see that coming), and along with him, the rest of the scholarship players; the Athletic Department was forced to pay an enormous buyout; word started leaking that the team, under Sampson’s tutelage, had a whole array of drug problems (thanks Gordon); fans started hearing that for years players weren’t going to class –something coach Tom Crean called, “an abomination;” And the Hoosier faithful wondered how the team might ever recover…

But then something happened.

The Athletic Department hired Marquette head coach Tom Crean –an apprentice of Tom Izzo- to begin the long arduous process of trying to return the once illustrious Indiana basketball program to it’s glory days of the Bob Knight era.

He started from scratch. No players, but a ton of support. He fielded a first year team that was up to it’s neck in Div-1 rejects: He had a walk-on from Carmel, Indiana at starting point guard –an Indiana first; a slew of guards who left obscure teams all over the country to jump at the opportunity of playing for one of the most prestigious programs in the country; and a lanky, uncoordinated, 7-footer who couldn’t bend over to tie his shoe when he first got to Bloomington, let along dribble a basketball.

And he had a full Big Ten schedule that would show no mercy.

The team, as you could very well guess, finished with a pretty abominable record that included only a single Big Ten conference win. It was the worst single season in Indiana basketball history. But for some reason you could sense that Indiana basketball fans weren’t worried. They had trust in their coach. They understood his predicament and knew that one day the talent would come and with it the wins would start pilling up. They also knew, however, that no matter the talent on the floor Crean was going to milk it for all it’s worth – allowing no player to leave anything left on the court.

He made that promise to all fans.

It was the only way to play basketball when you’re so overtly outmatched: When you lack in talent you have to make up for it with hard work and spirited play.

And with hearts the size of Watermelons, they played.

Continuing their effort into the 2009-10 season they finally got some help. Creek, Watford, Elston, Hulls and Capobianco came to Bloomington, and with them came a collective sigh of relief from Hoosier nation.

“Finally some talent.”

Creek and Watford were some of the best players in their class, while Hulls –making the long trek from Bloomington South High School to Assembly Hall- came after just being anointed, “Mr. Basketball.”

Even with the extra help, things remained the same for the Hoosiers at the start of their second rebuilding season. Three straight losses to Mississippi, Boston and George Mason had many fans fearing a repeat of the 6-win season the year before. And things weren’t made much better with a loss to Loyola right before Christmas and the loss of their best player, and Big Ten Freshman leading scorer, Maurice Creek, the week after in a gimme game against Bryant.

Those who didn’t write Indiana off before the Creek injury definitely wrote them off after.

But that was a mistake. The Creek injury had the counterintuitive effect of actually improving the team – at least in the Big Ten wins and losses column.

They opened up with a huge Big Ten victory over Michigan – a very unexpected win after Creek went out: A win I bet you Michigan fans didn’t expect from the Hoosiers.

But Michigan exacted revenge a few weeks later, capping a three game losing streak for coach Crean and Indiana with a 69-45 home victory.

Then Indiana won a thriller against Minnesota that ended with an incredibly embarrassing court storming that ESPN anointed the worst court storming in the history of court storming. Non-the-less it was a win over a Big Ten team that started off the season ranked –a win many saw as a huge step forward.

Next was a win over Penn State at Penn State, and the obvious question from most sports writers, “how?” How can Indiana, now on a two game winning-streak in the Big Ten (Woo hoo!) be .500 in Big Ten play and right in the middle of the conference in the Standings?

They were a white-wash squad: A team assembled from the wreckage of hurricane Sampson, meant to wash the slate clear and erase the memories of an era gone astray.

The answer to the question, which can’t be found in the statistics because, quite frankly, they aren’t good, has to come from somewhere else. From somewhere -from something- that can’t be found on the stat sheet, but can only be seen when you watch the scrappy team move up and down the court in Assembly Hall.

From respect for tradition, from respect for their coach, from respect for the fans, from a commitment to the pursuit of excellence: From the heart.

Nico Perrino

Football

When I saw late last week on ESPN’s bottom line the breaking news announcing Urban Meyer’s resignation as head football coach at U of F for health reasons, I wasn’t much surprised- and I was even less surprised when he went back on the resignation.
 
 Growing up in a football family where your fall afternoons and entire weekends are consumed by games and practices it’s easy to see how it can wear a man and a family down. My brother and I both started playing football at a very young age, and my dad had coached all throughout our childhood. I have vivid memories from when I was younger of my mom complaining about how she had nothing to do while we were practicing and my dad was coaching, and it became commonplace for her to joke around about how she didn’t have a husband in the fall.
 
As my dad rose up through the coaching ranks with us as we got older -finally ending up at the high school varsity level- he became increasingly scarce around the house. Coaches meetings, practices, games, early morning lifts; all of these coaching commitments amounted to more time at the school with the team than with his family. And with me moving out of the state to go to college, my mom had an even smaller pool of family to spend time with while my dad and brother were off doing their thing during the football season.
 
With my brother going off to college next year and my sister being in high school and at the age where she no longer thinks it’s cool to spend time at home, my mom forced my dad to quit coaching. Although he was only a high school assistant coach –and did it as a hobby instead of a job (he volunteered)- with all the time he spent attending to his coaching responsibilities, my mom didn’t want to be home all alone; empty-nesting by herself.
 
The often hidden part of football is the time commitment that coaches actually take to prepare for the season and each week’s games.  My dad played high school, college, and professional football, and has seen the amount of time that coaches spend on the field or in their offices and away from their families. He’s always told me that a coach has got to love the game to do what they do, because it’s an incredible sacrifice, and it only gets worse as you move up the coaching ladder.
 
The sacrifice is not only one carried by the coach, but one also carried by the coach and his family. When I was discussing with my dad the possibility that Urban Meyer would go to Notre Dame last month the first thing that came out of his mouth was, “no way.” And he didn’t say “no way” for the reasons you, and I, and ESPN might say “no way”, but he said “no way” because of how the move would impact his family- something you don’t hear discussed on any other forum or media outlet.  In a Chicago Tribune article today Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said that during the season he is usually in the office every morning at 6:50am and often times does not leave until 11pm. That gives him nearly zero time to spend with his family. Now why would Urban Meyer’s wife be at all interested in leaving sunny Florida for barren South Bend? If you’re the wife of a head college football coach and never get to see your husband during the fall, why would you want to spend that alone time in a place like South Bend instead of Florida? Although Urban Meyer did say ND was his dream job, do you really believe his wife will let him take that job, which essentially means that she is going to have to stay alone inside all fall instead of alone outside in the sun? Not a chance.
 
It’s the hidden side of sports. Talk of how a coaching change might impact the families of those coaches who are being considered for the jobs nearly never comes up when analysts are breaking down whether or not a coach will accept a job, but I can guarantee you that the family has way more to do with the decisions than the public is let on to believe.
 
There are things coaches do do, however, to try to alleviate the strain coaching places on the families. In the same Tribune article Fitzgerald said he mandates that all coaches leave work at 5pm on Thursdays for what he calls “date night” so that they have time to go home and spend time with their families. Fitzgerald also takes 2 vacations to Naples, FL each year with his family, one after national signing day in February, and one two-week vacation in July. But even with these initiatives, the sacrifices coaches and families make can take an incredible toll on those affected.
 
I’ve experienced it first hand with my dad (granted, on a smaller scale), and I have no doubt that the long hours away from his family, and nearly unbearable burden Urban Meyer bears at Florida has contributed to his poor health and the decision at the young age of 45 to take a leave of absence.
 
Yet Meyer is the lucky one: He has a very secure job at Florida; one that doesn’t show coaching changes on the horizon. Some coaches aren’t so lucky. Some coaches every couple of years pack up their families and move across the country to accept a new job. The strain this puts a coach is enormous and often overlooked, yet it no doubt puts greater strain on already stressed out coaching families. The constant threat of job loss and subsequent moving amidst the prospect of a poor season must be a hefty weight for coaching families to bear.
 
This is why Urban Meyer’s resignation did not surprise me. I’m actually more surprised that this doesn’t happen more often in schools all across the country. But like I said, when he went back on his resignation I was even less surprised because as my dad has always said, “you’ve got to love the sport” and Urban Meyer, and most other college football coaches, do indeed, “love the sport.”

Nico Perrino

With the Big Ten recently announcing that it would spend the next 12-18 months exploring the possibility of an expansion to 12 teams the question naturally comes up, “if the Big Ten does indeed decide to expand, who would the 12th team be?”

Taking for granted that the Big Ten is probably looking most closely for schools that fit three different criteria -1) Solid Football program 2) Solid Basketball program 3) Good academics- three schools have come up frequently on message boards and in the media: Notre Dame, Missouri, and Pittsburgh. But last week, Jack Swarbrick, the Notre Dame AD, after hearing much hoopla over ND to Big Ten rumors, came out and openly stated that Notre Dame does not wish to join the Big Ten mainly because the school values it’s football team’s independence.

With Notre Dame out of the picture the school that stands out most to me as the best possible addition to the Big Ten appears to be Pittsburgh. Nothing against Missouri, but Pittsburgh seems to be a better fit for the conference both academically and athletically and here are 10 reasons why:

1. The school ranks 56th overall in the US News and World Report’s rankings of national Universities, which is ahead of many other Big Ten schools.
2. The addition would renew the natural in-state rivalry with Penn State.
3. Pittsburgh would help tie Penn State into the conference geographically because at the moment Penn State is somewhat of a geographic outcast from the rest of the Big Ten.
4. Pittsburgh is a member of the Association of American Universities –An Association of the leading 62 research universities in the United States and Canada. All current Big Ten schools are members of the Association.
5. The football team has a solid tradition, attending 25 bowl games in their history and being among the top 20 teams on the all-time win list.
6. The school doesn’t have strong roots within the Big East; it hasn’t even been a member for a full 2 decades – It joined in 1991. The football team was previously independent.
7. Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett and Mike Ditka all played football at Pittsburgh, and two of the 3 currently are prime-time football analysts. The addition would further entrench the Big Ten within sports media. Tony Dorsett also won the Heisman.
8. The basketball team has developed into a Big East power as of late. They have 21 NCAA tournament appearances in their history and advanced to the elite-8 last year before falling to Villanova. They won the 2008 conference title.
9. Joe Paterno suggested them as a possible addition to the conference in June.
10. They belong to a large media market in Pittsburgh.

Study Tables: It’s one thing every Freshman athlete at Indiana gets to look forward to. A loud -often crowded- room. Late nights. The suffocating feeling of knowing you have one day left to get 6 study table hours in because you’ve been neglecting them all week. It’s something all of us feel or have felt. For those of you who are unfamiliar with study tables, they are required athletic study halls, done at your own pace, at whatever time your available (during the 8am-10pm hours of course), in the academic center within assembly hall. Every athlete is required to get a certain amount of study table hours in during the week, and that number is usually set by the coach (some teams -such as football- have team study table periods where the whole football team meets at one time).

Study tables are mandatory to encourage good study habits for incoming student-athletes and they are also used to help students make the adjustment from high school to college. If you get a 3.0 your first semester, you are done, but if not, you are subjected to yet another semester of study tables until you make grade.

For those of us who come into college good students study tables can sometimes be quite the hassle. For 1) You are forced to do the hours at a specific location (at least you were when I was a freshman) and this could often be very inconvenient and not conducive to effective studying. Not only can study tables -especially at night- be loud (that’s what happens when you have 40 athletes in the same room), but when it’s 10 degrees below zero outside, dark, and you have to walk 15 minutes from your dorm to get there, you often wonder what you signed up for.

For me I liked to do my studying at my dorm, and that is where I usually did it. So when I would be forced to get my hours in I would usually go and end up plugging a dvd into my computer and watching it, or read a book or serf the web. Usually something that was not studying.

However, I did have a friend on the soccer team that thought study tables were great and were a big part of why he received great grades his first semester. Even though he got a 3.0, and was effectively done with study tables, he gave himself study table hours anyway to force himself to study.

These days, however, when I’m not forced to be at study tables, I sometimes come anyway because it’s a convenient place to study before or after practice. As I speak, actually, I’m sitting at study tables, writing this blog, and hoping to get out of here before memories of first semester freshman year creep back and alienate me from this place forever.

See ya!

Basketball

For the Hoosiers Hoopsters to improve before Big Ten play, Perrino says, "Stop with the Jeremiah Rivers love parade!"

Having a 6-25 record is not usually something you strive for at the beginning of the season, yet that is exactly the record Indiana ended it’s dismal campaign with last year. This year they have already amassed half of their 6 victories, having tallied a 3-4 record, but they had a similar record at the same point last year, so what gives. Is this team better? Will they win a single Big Ten game? To both of those questions I answer, “yes.” But, there are a few things Indiana needs to fix before heading into Big Ten play if they wish to compete.
 

Indiana’s 5 Keys to Big Ten Success:

• Stop turning the ball over! Although, they have turned the ball over fewer times this season cumulatively than their opponents (116-131), they still average nearly 17 turnovers a game, which is way too many. Plus, they seem to like to commit turnovers during crucial parts of the game (namely the end) when they get restless because they are down.
• Get inside the arc! After watching their game against Maryland it became pretty apparent that IU loves to pass the ball around the top of the arc to nearly no end. It appears it is impossible for IU to drive underneath the basket, which forces them to settle for the deep ball. But, unlucky for them, they are not the greatest 3-ball team. Dumas loves to shoot them, but he loves to miss them even more. Get the ball away from trigger happy Dumas and feed it instead to Watford and Pritchard who need to do a better job of driving inside.
• Stop with the Jeremiah Rivers love parade! He’s scrappy and sloppy and doesn’t score. I don’t understand the hype…
• Play with your opponents when it matters! All of last season IU would be able to stick with their opponents through the first half, but would get demolished in the second. This year it is the same story, but they appear capable of playing it close until the game clock winds down to about 6 minutes, when they see it conveniently fit to let their competitors cover the spread. Yea it’s all fine and good that you can play with the good teams most of the game, but it means nothing if you can’t close. Haven’t they ever seen American Pie? Watch that movie –or any other teen movie- and you’ll understand the importance of closing.
• Keep feeding it to Creek! Maurice Creek leads all Big Ten freshman in scoring averaging 16.7 ppg and he is obviously your go to guy. Him along with Elston, Jones, and Watford comprise the foundation of this team and it is of the upmost importance to keep getting them the ball throughout the rest of the season.

Perrino says Damarlo Belcher and Tandon Doss make up the best receiving tandem in the Big 10.

Nico Perrino

Football

Every football team sets goals at the beginning of each year. It is an important part of preseason preparation, if not the most important part, because it gives the players an idea of what success at the end of the season would be. It goes without saying, however, that goals are different for every team depending on the type of program you play for: For Florida the goal as of late has been winning a BCS National Championship; for Navy the goal might be beating Notre Dame; for the ESPN College Game day crew their goal might be a successful attempt at propelling Tim Tebow to a level of divinity in the public eye by the end of the season. Whatever the goals are- you get it…- they are all different and the path to successfully accomplishing them is never the same.

As self-help guru, Brian Tracy, once said, “if you don’t set goals for yourself, you are doomed to work to achieve the goals of someone else,” and being that it’s not realistic for Indiana to adopt the same goals as Flordia (because let’s be honest with ourselves here….) and Navy (because they don’t play Notre Dame, Duh), their goal since their 2007 “Play 13” campaign has been just that: to “Play 13.”

That Goal -set for his 2007 team by coach Terry Hoeppner just before his death due to complications with brain cancer- has remained for his successor, Bill Lynch, but has yet to be achieved since that turbulent year when they were awarded a bid to the Insight Bowl and lost to Oklahoma State. Since that season Indiana has gone 7-17 and has not even come close to their goal of “playing 13.” Although drastically improving since last year, Indiana’s season was not a success according to their pre-season goals. Now any good coach will re-evaluate his team’s goals as the season progresses and new goals are within reach due to unforeseen success or unintended failure, but it’s hard to imagine that Indiana achieved any midseason, re-evaluated, goals either –especially since they didn’t beat Purdue- so what can be learned/taken from a season that for the most part was a sheer failure?

Here are five things I learned from the Hoosiers’ 4-8 season:

#1: The Fans will come out

• Twice this year Indiana sold-out it’s student section and was forced to add additional student seating to accommodate the demand. For the end of the year, “this means nothing,” game against Purdue Indiana sold 15,000 student tickets –something that hasn’t been done since the 90’s.

• Also, Indiana’s nail-biter against Michigan during week 4 was the second highest rated Big Ten game in ESPN2 history, drawing around 2.1 million viewers. The only game with more viewers? Illinois and Ohio States 2006 matchup.

#2: Big Ben Chappell can be a Big-Time Quarterback

• In his first full season as the Hoosiers’ starting quarterback junior Ben Chappell had a QB rating of 126.4 while completing 62.6% of his passes and throwing for 17 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. Now I understand that these numbers may not be all that spectacular, but having watched Chappell at the beginning of the season and at the end I saw a quarterback that has matured by leaps and bounds and has the potential to become a big-time player for the Hoosiers next year.

#3: Tandon Doss is the Hoosiers’ playmaker:

• I’ve said it all season, Tandon Doss is the Hoosiers’ go-to-guy and my sentiments were confirmed when he was named the All-Big Ten WR this past week. Couple Doss with Demarlo Belcher (#88) and I think you’ve got the best WR tandem in the Big Ten lining up for the Hoosiers.

• An IU Athletic Department Press Release encapsulates Doss’ season best:

Doss led the team in receptions in nine games and receiving yards eight times, and he paced the team with 962 yards, 77 receptions, five touchdowns and 80.2 yards per game. The Indianapolis native finished second in the Big Ten and 27th nationally in yards per game and third in the league and tied for 21 nationally in catches per game (6.64).

His 962 yards were 14th in the country and the second most for an underclassman. Doss closed out the year second on IU’s single-season receptions list, just two shy of James Hardy’s record of 79 in 2007, and fifth in the school’s single-season yardage rankings.

Along with his three 100-yard receiving games, Doss owned 533 kick return yards, 127 rushing yards, 44 punt return yards and led the conference with 138.8 all-purpose yards per contest. He finished ninth on IU’s single-season list with 1,666 all-purpose yards, surpassed 100 all-purpose yards in seven of the last nine games and eight times in 2009, including a season-best 242 against Purdue.

#4: Fred Glass is the man (Look to my previous blogs for a more in-depth analysis):

• Even though he’s not working with a winning football team, Glass was able to entice students and fans to come out to the games and give IU it’s first 40,000+ attendance average per game since 1992 – Up from a 31,782 average last year.

• In addition to increasing attendance –and therefore increasing Athletic Department revenue- Glass has tried to start new traditions, improve facilities and staff, improve relations with the student body and the community, provide greater support for his coaches, and most importantly he has reemphasize the importance of sticking to contracts:

“I think contracts need to mean something again at Indiana University,” Said Glass. “He’s (Head football coach, Bill Lynch) in the second year of a four-year contract … I hope that, and really think that, coach Lynch will be very successful.”

In an age in college sports where contracts mean squat if you’re not winning,

Glass’ assertion that it’s important to Indiana that they honor their contracts with coaches is a breath of fresh air. How is any coach supposed to feel comfortable doing what he believes needs to be done to win if he constantly feels pressure and is insecure at his position? I know I wouldn’t write a good blog if I had someone looking over my shoulder right now threatening to break my computer if I wrote something he/she didn’t like, I can’t imagine what it’s like for football coaches these days who must be afraid to unpack their moving boxes for fear that one bad season might send them packing again. Look at Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz; he’s been there for 11 years and now that stability that he’s been given by the Iowa Athletic Department is starting to show some positive results; they went 8-0 for the first time ever! God Bless Fred Glass for demonstrating that Indiana University is an institution of character and will no longer go back on their contracts with their coaches; Indiana’s word means something again. Thank God.

#5: Indiana will be good in 2010 if they can replace five key defensive starters:

• Next year the Hoosiers will be without their five best defensive players: Jamie Kirlew, Austin Thomas, Will Paterson, Ray Fisher and Matt Mayberry. These players account for 5 of the teams’ 7 leaders in tackles, with Mayberry and Thomas ranking 1^st and 3^rd, respectively. Jammie Kirlew is the Hoosiers’ two-time team MVP and defensive leader, and they will undoubtedly miss his team leading 6.5 sacks in 2009. In order to win next year players will need to step up to fill these huge holes that graduation will leave. I doubt there is another defense in the entire conference that will be as decimated by graduation as Indiana’s will be.

Breaks such as the one this week for Thanksgiving are always difficult for athletes. You see all your friends leaving early because classes have been canceled Monday and Tuesday, but you are forced to stay until late Tuesday night because you have practice. When you are a Freshman and are missing home these forced stays can dig at you, but as you get older you start to accept the fact that you have made a commitment and with that commitment comes sacrifices. The beauty with this realization is that once you accept that you will be alone with your teammates in a deserted college town for days, and often weeks, on end you begin to have fun. I can honestly say some of the best times with my teammates have come during the last week of winter break when we are required to be on campus to practice for the early January competitions, and during spring break when there are absolutely ZERO people in town because all of them have gone to Panama City for a week of drunken debauchery on the beach. Your friends and family will always be there, but your teammates are only your teammates for so long and college is short lived, so it’s not worth is to dwell on the fact that everyone gets to go home. After all, us athletes should view ourselves as the lucky ones, we get to stay in a college town without any responsibilities, with our expenses paid for through per diem, for what always ends up being a great time.

So last year the Athletic Department started this new marketing campaign for the football and basketball games which I think is pretty cool. They hired an artist to make these “cartoonish” posters that in every case depict the Hoosiers’ upcoming opponents getting abused in someway by “something,” and the creative cartoons are accompanied by catchy, dare I say sometimes pathetically funny, phrases which corresponds with whatever is happening in the image. For example, one poster says “Brand the Broncos,” and it has a picture of the Western Michigan bronco getting branded. I think you get the point.

The posters are always in white and red, and the Athletic Department hangs them up all over Assembly Hall and campus to promote their upcoming games. As of late they have sort of become a collectors item so students almost always tear them down as soon as they’ve been put up and hang them in their dorms, apartments or houses.

Check out the pictures to see what a few of them look like; I think these are pretty unique to IU:

Isn’t it strange how when you’ve been around a coach for a long time they can just stare at you and you know exactly what they are thinking? It’s a phenomenon I won’t ever quite understand, but I’ve experienced that sense of understanding often lately and have been thinking about it quite a bit. I don’t know whether I like it or not yet… I’ll get back to you on that one soon.