IU Basketball - How cool is this

I think I have found my favorite quote of the year, and we're only 5 games into the season. John Gasaway, author of the basketball blog, Basketball Prospectus, made this statement in a recent blog entitled, "Closing a Chapter: The NCAA bans Kelvin Sampson"

That was then. The current Indiana team spent last week in Maui, playing in a tournament whose tip times are dictated by the convenience of viewers several time zones away. At the press conference after his team lost by 26 to St. Joseph's, Crean actually choked up when he talked about how hordes of red-clad IU fans had filled the stands at the Lahaina Civic Center before eight in the morning local time to support a team of freshmen and walk-ons that just hours before had been blown out by 38 points.

I submit that if you have fans that will do that, and a coach who will not only notice and salute that fact but will actually get a little verklempt when he talks about it, your program is already operating at a very high level. It's going to take a while for the final scores to catch up to the truth, but this is already an elite program.

How cool is that? That's why I bleed red & white. Go hoosiers!!!!

As the world turns...the soap opera of Indiana Basketball

In a recent article by L. Jon Wertheim, entitled Tom Crean's Big Red Challenge, we learn about the soap opera history of Indiana Basketball in the last decade. He really brings to light the mistakes made by Indiana University and the challenges ahead of the program. Most of all, Tom Crean, Indiana's new head coach, has begun to re-structure the program. As it states in the article, "While it might be in slightly used condition, the soul of Indiana basketball is not for sale."

Here's a quick piece from the story:

When Illinois coach Bruce Weber, perhaps still smarting from Sampson's ethically questionable recruitment of Eric Gordon, predicted in June that "Indiana will suck" this season, surely he could have chosen more delicate words. But few would disagree with the sentiment. As Crean warned his players, "The perception: You're probably going to be picked to finish dead last in the Big Ten. The reality: [At least] you're going to make it big on television."

Crean balances Midwest pragmatism with heaps of optimism. Here's a man who doesn't see the glass as half full. He sees it as overflowing. With Dom Pérignon. From 1975. The challenges, he says, have only hardened his resolve "to see this through." He is "pumped up" by the reception he's received from fans. The hard times that await? "I didn't take this job for the immediate--and I've had to remind myself of that at least eight dozen times--for where it's at now. I took this for where it's been and where it can possibly go."

Tom Crean's Big Red Challenge by L. Jon Wertheim - Full Article -

2008 IU Men's Roster