Another great Hoosier Basketball story..

Just came across this on Peegs.com. I can't vouch for the validity, but if it's true, it is an awesome story about what makes a Hoosier fan and the extreme 'coolness' of Tom Crean. Courtesy of hoosier4life, posted at peegs.com:

Was in town for the holidays, and went to the college mall to start our day. While there my 4yo son and I had the pleasure to run into Tom Pritchard & Kory Barnett what 2 great kds they are. They came over and shook my sons hand and mine and were very nice about turning around and letting us interrupt their day.

So here is the best part of the day, around 3pm my son and I went over to see if we could get into Assembly Hall and just look around and take some pictures. As we walk in we see Coach Crean sitting at the scores table doing some paperwork. I shouted down and said hi to him and stated we just wanted to look around, so he tells me to bring my son down to the floor and let him look around. As we enter the floor Coach gets up and greets us, at which time my son instantly asks if there are any basketballs to play with. Coach says sure help yourself and feel free to shoot around as long as you like we don't have practice to 4. So as we shoot around on the court Coach brings over a brand new hat and program and signs them to my son with the words always work hard Tom Crean(How Awesome). I then have my son stand at center court for a picture, and Coach sees this and asks if we want him in the picture with us, which of course we say yes to. We stayed about 20-25 mins, and as we leave he says you sure you don't wanna stay and continue shooting hoops? What great Man we have as a coach and our players are just as exceptional.

Picture from anythinghoosier.blogspot.com

Rock on! IU won last night.

What a year it's going to be? IU basketball. I'm pretty excited with the win over Northwestern State. Yep, I said it. It's going to be a long season, but it is resulting in some great articles. My favorite comments so far are from Eamonn's analysis in his article "The Morning After". Here's a few of my favorite comments:

On recognizing the new players,"After about five minutes last night, I had to admit something to myself. I didn’t know who was who. It’s sad, I know, but I doubt that I’m alone here, and I hope it’s not too bold of me to admit it. It took me a second to figure out that Verdell Jones was No. 12, that that wasn’t Devan Dumes, that Dumes was the off-guard wearing No. 33, and who is that little dude with the Rip Hamilton facemask on? That’s not Finkelmeier, is it? And oh my God is that Tijan Jobe?!"

On Tom Crean's enthusiasm for the job, "The best basketball coaches are salesmen, and Tom Crean could sell me a ticket to Kelvin Sampson: The Broadway Musical. He’s done the same sales job on his team. Effort will not be a problem this year, at least not anytime soon."

On the team's attitude and effort, "They are going to play hard. They are going to have good attitudes. All of that. Even when they’re not playing with a good attitude it will seem that way, because you can’t have worse attitudes than last year’s team, and as long as Matt Roth doesn’t smoke a crack pipe at midcourt and punch a cheerleader in the face, pretty much anything will seem like an improvement."

On Tijan Jobe, "Oh, Tijan. Tijan Tijan Tijan. God bless him. He looks incredibly interested in playing hard basketball, in rebounding, that sort of thing. That’s probably the nicest thing that can be said about his basketball ability right now."

For the entire article click here: Inside the Hall "The Morning After: Your 2008-09 Indiana Hoosiers, I think."

Personally, Indiana's going to be fine. They have a good coach. As fans, we all have low expectations for this season. What we want is a team that plays hard, hustles, makes other team's beat us? That's what we are going to get. I just can't wait until we beat Purdue this year.

Fun, Fun, Fun.

Support IU Basketball - Tom Crean Public Address

Coach Crean is giving his first public address to the IU student body and Bloomington community. He will be discussing the upcoming season and his future plans for the basketball program. There will also be an extensive Q&A session to follow. Below is more information:

Coach Crean Lecture
Monday, 10/6
7:00pm
IU Auditorium
FREE to all - no tickets required


Come and support our new coach!!

Kelvin Sampson is gonna get fired.

As an IU fan, I'm pretty excited about the new opportunity at IU. Dakich will get first shot, but the program will likely look to find a more effective X's and O's persona over the off-season.

On the flip....here's a photo that I have been emailed a gajillion times.