When it comes to my favorite sports teams of all-time, there are the 1992-93 Indiana Hoosiers mens basketball team…and then everyone else.
Yes, they trump the 2001-02 Hoosiers that made it to the title game when I was a student at IU. Yes, they even trump the 1991-92 Hoosiers that made it to the Final Four with many of the same guys as the ’93 team. And yes, despite not winning a National Championship or even making it to the Final Four, the ’93 Hoosiers even trump the 2005 White Sox, who brought the first World Series title to Chicago in over 100 years.
There was just something special about the 1993 IU team and I, like many other Hoosier fans, will go to my grave believing that we were one torn ACL away from hanging banner #6 in Assembly Hall.
And you know what? The fans are not alone.
Many of the players from that 1993 team believe the same thing, including then-senior guard Greg Graham, who played about as well during the second half of the Big Ten season that year as any guard in IU history, perhaps even – for that short stretch – Big Ten history.
And no, that is not hyperbole.
Earlier today, I actually had the tremendous good fortune of getting to talk to Greg Graham, who is the latest guest on the MSF Podcast.
MSF Podcast with Greg Graham
(listen using player below or download from iTunes)
Picture of Greg Graham scanned from the cover of the 1992-93 IU media guide
If you want a quick preview of what we talked about, here are a few of the topics:
- Greg’s memories of the 1992-93 season.
- His thoughts on his career as a whole and whether or not the vaunted 1989 recruiting class that he was a part of lived up to its expectations and potential.
- What it was like playing for Bob Knight and how that experience has influenced him as a coach today.
- His relationship with Calbert Cheaney and what it was like for them to play together.
- Greg’s thoughts on the current state of the IU program.
(Note: Big thanks to MSF columnist and former podcast guest Mary-Rachel Dick for setting up the interview with Greg. She unfortunately could not join us, but it wouldn’t have happened at all without her effort.)
And now for my thoughts on the interview.
It is hard for me to put into words what it is like to talk to one your boyhood heroes.
I grew up in Bloomington and cannot remember missing a game during Greg’s time as a Hoosier, which spanned from 1989-1993. My dad and I had seats behind the IU bench, about seven rows up, and you better believe I was on my feet cheering like a maniac for every Greg Graham drive or triple, for every baseline jumper by Calbert, and during every William Tell Overture timeout.
Those were special times for Hoosier fans.
Bob Knight was still at the top of his game, Indiana was an annual contender in the Big Ten and nationally, and legendary players like Greg, Calbert, Alan, Damon Bailey, and Brian Evans were wearing the cream and crimson at the same time.
Contrast that with the state of IU basketball today and you can probably see why today’s interview with Greg and the writing of this post have been so exciting and such a welcome respite from the frustration of the past couple seasons.
The other reason why I was so excited to talk to Greg is because it has given me the opportunity to shine some much-deserved light on a career that I believe is one of the more underrated four year runs in IU history.
Because Greg was in the same recruiting class as Calbert Cheaney, who is still the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer, he was always overshadowed by #40. Once Indiana high school legend Damon Bailey joined them in Bloomington, Bailey’s legend and production grasped a lot of the spotlight as well. And then, of course, there was the gargantuan presence of Coach Knight, who overshadowed everyone.
And what often got lost and still gets lost today is the fact that Greg Graham was one of the most productive and clutch guards ever to play at Indiana.
Consider this:
- Greg Graham is one of the most prolific scorers in IU history with 1,590 career points.
- He played on two Big Ten title teams and a Final Four team.
- For his career, as a guard, he shot 51.4% from the field.
- Greg still holds the single game record for free throws in a game – 26 against a Purdue, a game I attended.
- And, what I think is truly underrated, as referred to above, is that Greg had one of the most impressive individual seasons – especially during Big Ten play – of any guard in the history of the conference. He shot 55% from the field, 51.4% from downtown, 82.5% from the line, and averaged 25 points per game down the stretch in Big Ten play after Alan Henderson got hurt. IU went 17-1 in the conference that year and was ranked #1 in the country heading into the tournament, prompting one columnist (whose name I cannot remember) to call Greg, and I quote, “the best guard in America” after he dropped 32 points on Michigan State at home on senior night.
When people talk about Indiana legends, you hear names like Isiah, Calbert, Alford, Woodson, Benson, May, Smart, Bailey, Henderson, Guyton, and others. Not often enough do we hear Greg Graham’s name mentioned in the same breath, yet I believe that he deserves to be there.
Greg may not have stormed out of the gates as a freshman and sophomore like Calbert did, he may not have led the Hoosiers to a title like Isiah, Alford, Benson, and May did, and he may not have scored as many points or grabbed as many rebounds as Woodson, Henderson, or Guyton did, but what he did do was improve every year, become an outstanding all around player, and come up huge over and over again in clutch spots when his team needed him.
No two individual athletes gave me more indelible memories and produced more excitement for me as a sports fan than Calbert Cheaney and Greg Graham. Calbert has always gotten his due and rightfully is among the handful of players in the discussion for greatest IU basketball player ever. Greg may not be in that discussion, but he’s in the very next tier.
Calbert provided me with the single most memorable moment I’ve seen live at a sporting event when he sunk his baseline jumpshot against Northwestern to break the all-time Big Ten scoring record, so it seems only fitting that, 17 years later, Greg would provide me with the single most memorable moment of my time as a sports blogger.
Thanks for the many memories as a player Greg, and thanks for allowing me to live out a sports blogger’s dream today. It’s not every day that we sports bloggers get to interview one of the guys we idolized growing up and then actually share it with an audience. MSF could crash tomorrow and I’ll always get to say that I did.
And for any Warren Central players that read this, hopefully it reinforces just how great a player their current coach once was, and how much he meant and still means to scores of IU fans across the state of Indiana, even as far away as Dallas. Greg Graham is part of the fabric of what makes IU basketball so special.
Hopefully the current Hoosiers can turn things around over the next few years so that the positive feelings and excitement of the 1992-93 team won’t feel like such a distant, though pleasant, memory.
For all the IU fans out there, I’ll end this post for old time’s sake with an image that should be worth at least 1,000 happy words considering the last two years:
Yes, those truly were the days. My thanks to Greg Graham for helping me to relive them today.
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