Z’Blog

I fully expected the inevitable outcome of last night’s debacle. As projected, IU had no solution for the big Hogs underneath, other than Bassett, Stemler and DJ the Warrior, the Hoosier offense was non-existent and their overall physical posture (heads down, whining, lost looks, etc) showed they weren’t focused on anything more than getting the season over.I was also embarassed by the continued negative comments by the game announcers trashing the IU Athletic Department for hiring Sampson, choosing the wrong interim coach, announcing the search committee this week and indicating that the team had been given up on by the university. That really helps with a new coach search and possible recruits….not.

Eric Gordon should move on to the NBA next year as the reliance of the team on his supposed offensive brilliance was a big factor in their late season slide. Sure he’s a kid and in his final game for IU he epitomized the lost feeling of the whole team. No fire, no play, just going through the motions, looking ahead to the NBA Draft.

Last night, phenom Gordon spent most of the game cutting across the baseline to the weak side corner hoping someone would throw him the ball. I never saw him setting a pick or coming out to help Bassett and Crawford who were being swamped by the Arkansas guards. But his lack of play was just a part of a total Hoosier melt down.

More than anyone, I feel for the proud warrior DJ White a player we’ve watch grow from a gangly Alabama kid into a powerful Big 10 MVP player. As he’s done all season, DJ left it all on the court and made all Hoosier fans proud again he chose to stay and graduate from IU.

What happens next? An off-season filled with intrigue, false hopes and possible long time redemption for a program that deserves better from the AD down. We’ll see an exodus of players, shake-ups throughout, name calling and finger pointing, coaches hoped for, coaches refusing - a true sports drama about to unfold.

Coach Dakich was right with his post-game comments that ”…a lot of things have to occur within IU basketball, and a lot of things will occur within IU basketball, that need to occur here in the springtime. So it’s far from over.” Truer words were never spoken.

When the soap opera that is Indiana University men’s basketball finally gasps to its inevitable losing conclusion, fans will look back on this season as the biggest nightmare in Hoosier hoops history. Working from a playbook that would do Shakespeare proud, this IU season was foretold two years ago when the IU AD, looking for a cheap fix to replace the questionably departed Mike Davis, hired long time Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson at a bargain basement price.

Pummeled by 3 years of Davis’ mediocre coaching and social paranoia, the Hoosier Nation was more than willing to overlook Sampson’s record of low (if not aberrant) player graduation rates, a continual Juco parade of 2 and done players and shadowy recruiting tactics. Those were desperate times as Indiana sought to revive a program still bruised from the Coach Knight firing and Davis’ hiring.

 After a respectable first season ending with a low scoring loss to UCLA in the tournament, IU fans were suitably impressed by Coach Sampson’s on court abilities and off court recruiting skills. Yet in the back of every knowledgeable fan’s mind was this “Jury’s still out” feeling about Sampson as the man worthy to carry IU’s spotless basketball tradition forward.

This hesitation was realized when Sampson, unable to live up to his promise, fell back on the cell phone sword that preceded him to IU. The NCAA announcement of major violations for Indiana thanks to Sampson threw a pall over the entire program, the school, its alums and fans.

 Until Sampson threw 40 years of excellence away, IU had always stood for doing college athletics the right way. Our kids graduated, stayed 4 years, liked their team mates, respected their coach and represented all that’s good in college sports.

Today the IU basketball program is a smashed shell of one time greatness, epitomized by lackadaisical play, practice eruptions, dissension and a former IU player now coach whose face wears the agony of the season.

IU goes to Raleigh, NC to face a huge Arkansas team intent on beating up the Hoosiers in every way. The NCAA committee’s tournament seed of #8 basically indicated their feeling that IU was the #32 team in the nation. The underlying sentiment being the NCAA was punishing IU in advance of their June trial for infractions.

What happens now will be settled on the floor. For many, we wish for a quick conclusion to the season with hopes that Indiana will begin to rebuild their program and reputation with a new coach with no baggage and players who want to play for the glory of old IU - not the initials on their shoes of a cheating, lying fool who threw away the best opportunity any coach could have in college basketball.