• Where did she find that?
• Why didn’t anyone try to stop her?
• Why hasn’t she paid to have this photo destroyed?

Things like that.

Image Credit: @si_vault via Twitter

When that exercise in befuddled questioning concluded about 45 minutes later, I started thinking about the other poor fashion choices made by college coaches over the years, which led me to create the Elite Eight of Fashion Faux Pas.

8. Mock Turtlenecks

Yeah, I’m talking to you Mike Brey.

Image Credit: SI.com

To be fair, I’m not a fan of mock turtlenecks in any occupation, but come on; you’re a college coach who makes more than enough money to spring for an actual shirt and tie.

And if you’re going to “rock the mock,” at least have the common decency to stay away from color combinations like Brey is sporting above.

7. Gene Keady’s Combover

When you type “Gene Keady” into a Google image search, the first two options that come up are “Gene Keady hair” and “Gene Keady combover.”  As you can see from this photo, Keady is still pulling this off (or should I say pulling this over) now that he’s at St. John’s.

Image credit: IdiotsOnSports.com

Very few things in college basketball, or sports in general, can claim this kind of longevity.

6. Team-Colored Jackets

Look, I get the desire to rep your school’s colors, but is it worth it at the expense of looking like you shopped the Lloyd Christmas line?

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that two of these guys aren’t coaching this season; and with Bruce Weber, the jacket isn’t even in the top five most annoying things about him.

As for Bruce Pearl, who would have guessed that a guy who looks to have borrowed his jacket from a used car salesman would turn out to be morally objectionable?  Go figure.

5. Sweaters

Four words of advice if you want to get into coaching: Do not wear sweaters.

While Bob Knight’s sweater is iconic in Indiana lore, the times when he would roll it up over his stomach still stick in my mind.  Throw in Rick Majerus (who I could have included in the mock turtleneck section as well) and “Cosby sweater” pioneer Lou Carnesecca, and this should be reason enough to shut down the sweater industry as a whole.

Since I am focusing on coaches here, I won’t comment on the Saint John’s uni in that photo, but feel free to try the home version of our game and create your own caption.

4. The many looks of Bob Huggins

Obviously the yellow suit is Huggs’ most egregious wardrobe foul, but it certainly wasn’t his only foray into fashion hell.

Image Credit: Chron.com via WSJ.com

Over the years, he’s also combined the mock turtleneck with a suit and vest while at K-State, and he has more recently gone to the far more casual windsuit look.

In the end, it looks like we’ll have to wait until his autobiography to find out what bet he lost that led to him donning this mustard-colored atrocity.

3. Hawaiian Shirts

I can’t heap all the blame on the coaches here, as to some extent the locale for the Maui Invitational lends itself to some touristy fashion transgressions.  Even the announcers can succumb to this phenomenon.

Image Credit: ESPN on Google+

Still, this gives me a chance to show another picture of Rick Majerus, who has now managed to pull off three of these looks so far.

Image Credit: Hugging Harold Reynolds

2. Rick Pitino’s White Suit

This, along with the Fashion Police section of US Weekly, goes to show that even people widely regarded as competent dressers can fall victim to unfortunate wardrobe selections.

Image Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images via SI.com

Pitino’s foray into the Colonel Sanders collection was widely discussed, particularly when sweating/transparency issues necessitated a suit swap at halftime.

1. Tom Hodges

Seeing the Morehead State women’s coach atop this list might seem like a surprise, but after wearing suits from John Daly’s clothing sponsor LoudMouth Golf last season, he’s earned it.

Believe me, I was just as surprised as you probably are to know that Craig Sager isn’t somehow behind this, but let’s just let these fine ensembles speak — or should I say scream — for themselves.

Image Credit: NashvilleCityPaper.com

Image Credit: TheHoopDoctors.com

There are my Elite Eight fashion faux pas by college basketball coaches.

Are there are any I missed? Or any other notable examples of these eight you feel need to be shared?

Comment below.

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Follow me on Twitter (@andybottoms) for my non-fashion thoughts on college hoops, and check out the latest edition of the Bottoms Line podcast.

On a presumably cold winter’s night in Bloomington back in 1991, Bob Knight unleashed a torrent of expletives and threats on a young, talented group of Indiana Hoosiers that spent most of the year in the top 10 and that was a year away from a Final 4 appearance and two years away from spending the majority of the season ranked as the top team in the land.

At the time each man was speaking, he was unaware that his words would ever leave the locker room, but they did.

In this post, a tale of the (secret) tape if you will, I am going to break down these two locker room speeches, which while similar in diction could not be more different in tone.

Quick Disclaimer and NSFW Warning

Longtime readers of this site know that we don’t throw curse words around arbitrarily here at MSF. When we do include expletives in a post, it’s for a specific reason or effect.

The rest of this post, including the two audio clips, is filled with cursing that some may find offensive. If you are such a person, feel free to just stop reading now because none of the audio is bleeped and none of the words are starred or dashed out below. If we’re going to discuss expletive-filled rants like big boys and girls, there is no point in censoring the fucking expletives. Am I right?

Growing up as I did in college football locker rooms, I was desensitized to this kind of language early on; and frankly, such language does sometimes have its place (depending on the personality of the coach) when emphatic points need to be made, which both coaches were attempting to do in these speeches.

With that said, let’s take at these legendary secretly-taped rants.

Ron Washington’s World Series Game 7 Pregame Speech

Not long before Game 7 of the Word Series, someone recorded Ron Washington’s final pregame words to the entire team. No one knows who may have recorded the speech, but the speculation on Dallas radio this morning was that it was probably a St. Louis staffer who was in the Rangers’ locker clubhouse. Seeing as how the audio was initially leaked by Matt Sebek of St. Louis-based Joe Sports Fan, and how no one associated with the Rangers would have anything to gain by leaking it, this is a pretty safe bet.

Here is the audio if you haven’t heard it:

Bob Knight’s Infamous Locker Room Rant

This next piece of audio features Bob Knight addressing his team before playing Purdue back in 1991. You have undoubtedly heard this before, especially if you’re a lifelong IU fan as I am or if you follow Big Ten basketball.

Now that both of these audio clips have been submitted for evidence, let’s break them down.

Ron Washington v Bob Knight: The Tale of the (Secret) Tape

Rate of Expletives

Here is an inventory of Ron Washington’s expletives:

• fuckin’ – 16
• goddamn – 1
• motherfuckin’ – 7
• motherfuckers – 1
• cocksuckers – 3
• motherfuck – 2
• shit – 4
• motherfucker – 1
• fuck – 1

Here is an inventory of Bob Knight’s explectives:

• fuck – 2
• fuckin – 14
• shit – 1
• ass – 3
• losing to Purdue – 1 (where I come from, this is considered an expletive)
• bullshit -1
• goddamn – 1

Knight uttered his 23 expletives in just under 80 seconds. Washington uttered his 36 expletives in about 5:00 when you remove the time when other players were talking. So Knight cursed once every 3.47 seconds while Washington cursed once every 8.3 seconds.

(Note: I have not yet worked out a Pomeroyian formula to figure out eFUCK – a coach’s effective curse word rate – but I’ll get to work on it after I finish this post.)

Advantage: Knight

Creativity of Expletives

Knight stuck with the relatively standard “fuckin” and mentioned “ass” a few times (counted for our purposes as a curse word since he ostensibly was not referring to donkeys). All in all, it was pretty standard cursing.

Washington, however, was much more colorful. While his curse word crutch, like Knight, is “fuckin”, Washington also likes to get the word “mother” in there often. Eleven different times Washington uttered a version of “fuck” with “mother” attached to it.

He is also fond or the word “cocksucker”, though without having heard any of Washington’s other speeches, I have no way of knowing if this is a word he commonly uses or if it’s just something he uses when referencing the media and Chris Carpenter. (In the latter case, he surely isn’t alone.)

Advantage: Washington

Desirability of Tone

My answer here is going to be subjective, so feel free to disagree, but I think most people would much rather be spoken to as Washington speaks to his Rangers rather than how Knight speaks to his Hoosiers.

Washington is positive and uplifting, telling his team to “have fun” and mentioning how everyone in the organization has the players’ backs and how they all have eachothers’ back. He even does this without cursing:

“So fellas, have fun tonight, enjoy yourselves, and remember: all for one, and one for all…you know I got your back, the coaching staff got your back, the organization got your back, and you all got eachother’s back.”

Knight, on the other hand, makes his speech more about himself and is downright threatening:

“Now I’ll fuckin’ run your ass right into the ground; I’ll fuckin’ run ya…you’ll think last night was a fuckin’ picnic.”

…

“Now I am not here to get my ass beat on Mondee…I had to sit around for a fuckin’ year with an 8-10 record in this fuckin’ league, and I mean you will not put me in that position again.”

Granted, taking single snapshots at far different points in seasons and trying to rate which tone is more desirable is kind of silly.

Indiana was 2-0 in the Big Ten at the time, coming off two rather easy victories, and Knight undoubtedly wanted to make sure his team wasn’t taking Purdue lightly, especially after his famed ’89 recruiting class only got 8 conference wins the year before.

With the Rangers down to their last game, and coming off of a demoralizing Game 6 loss the previous night, Washington had little incentive to be anything but overly positive, as he was.

It would be unfair to give either coach an advantage or disadvantage here. I would much rather be spoken to as Washington did, but sometimes teams need verbal cans of whoop-ass opened on them, as Knight did.

Advantage: neither

Immediate Outcome

Ah, but this we can rate because we know what happened immediately after each speech.

Knight references an impending Purdue game in his rant. Without knowing exactly when the rant was record, we can’t know for sure which Purdue game he is referencing, but I’m going to use my supreme skill at parsing context clues to assume with great confidence that it was the first 1991 meeting with the Boilermakers. (He says “play up there Monday night” and then references a difficult four days to follow should they play poorly, which would have coincided with having another game five days after the Purdue game.).

The Hoosiers won that game 65-62 to move to 3-0 in the conference. In fact, they won 8 of 9 games after this rant, including another victory over Purdue. Whether you think this rant had a positive or negative impact on the team’s psyche, the bottom line aftermath of wins and losses was positive for the Hoosiers.

On the other hand, we all know what happened after Washington’s speech to his Rangers. They jumped out to an early lead on Chris Carpsucker, but eventually gave it all back and lost Game 7.

Advantage: Knight

Most Memorable Line

For me, Knight’s most memorable line is easy:

“This is absolute fuckin’ bullshit.”

It’s short, simple, and applicable to so many different situations. Plus, it plays in my head anytime I’m watching an IU game and a player does something stupid. Apparently I’ve listened to this audio clip a few times…

As for Wash’s, there really are two options:

“I just came outta that press conference, and all they want to talk about is motherfuckin’ Carp. And you know what I said? Motherfuck Carp.”

For anyone who has ever seen and loves the movie Adaptation, this line by Wash might remind you of this classic line by LaRoche (played by Chris Cooper). It did me, even though they aren’t all that related.

It’s just a funny line, and Washington’s players certainly agreed as the line was met with immediate laughter by the team. You don’t expect to hear an opposing coach speak so pointedly about an opposing player, but something tells me Carpenter’s screaming, staring ways galvanize similar feelings with many opponents.

I also loved this line from Wash:

“Ain’t nothing but a motherfuckin’ game that we can fuckin’ play.”

This struck me as a perfect line to instill in his team and the belief that even though it’s Game 7 of the World Series, and even thought they blew golden opportunities the night before, it’s just a baseball game and they’re still a great team.

Personally, I’ll always be partial to the Knight line, but Wash’s ability to be both funny and succinctly eloquent, in his own RonWashian way, gives him the nod.

Advantage: Washington

Audio Quality

For any secret recording, the quality of the audio that the clandestine recorder is able to get deserves scrutiny. If the audio sucks, what’s the point? What makes both of these recordings so great is that they are both easy to listen to.

That said, the Knight audio is the clear winner here. It is perfectly audible, whereas the Washington audio can be a bit difficult to hear at some points. Plus, it was recorded in 1991. That was before smart phones allowed easy recording at a moment’s notice, before the Internet, and damn near before Elvis Andrus. Yet, somehow, the secret Knight audio caper was able to capture audio that remains perfectly listenable 20 years later. Impressive.

Advantage: Knight

Final Verdict

If we tally it all up, the Knight audio wins 3-2, with one category being tied…at least, according to me.

And really, this is fair. The secret Knight audio is one of the most famous locker speeches ever captured and placed online. It’s been listened to on YouTube nearly 1.7 million times, and who knows how many times it has been listened to on other sites.

The Wash audio is still in its infancy, and has the benefit of today’s Internet to make it spread like wildfire within a day of it being posted. Let’s check back in a year or two years and see if it has the staying power of Knight’s.

What do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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If you take exception with any of my ratings, or if you think I missed another secretly-taped rant that would stack up well against these two, feel free to post below.

You know, “fun behind-the-scenes goings on” like Bob Knight feeling up 70-year olds.

Thank you Jay. I have no more use for the Internet today. Nothing can possibly top this.

And actually, though Bilas deserves credit for delivering this nugget hilarity to the Twitterverse, what it most illustrates is Bob Knight’s devilish sense of humor. Yes, Coach can be an insufferable jackass, but he is also one of the most quick-witted and hilarious men in the history of sports. (And yes, I am assuming that this is another example of his quick-wittedness, and that he was not actually feeling up the 70-year old lady.)

Anyway, just wanted to share. Now back to the regularly scheduled daily duties.

I am recording what should be a very fun podcast this afternoon (details to come) so I’m posting this early for you today.

In today’s edition, Kate Upton satisfies your carnal desires, Bob Knight goes overboard in criticizing Kentucky, Mike Leake’s mugshot reminds me of someone, and an interesting Did You Know that explains why the Dallas Mavericks hate Danny Crawford. And much, much more.

Today’s Best Beauty

I am on record as saying I don’t quite get the extreme fascination with Kate Upton, but she was the breakout star of this year’s SI Swimsuit Issue, so I know that my opinion is in the minority.

That said, I’m not blind. I get that she’s an attractive young woman, and she’s obviously all the rage on the Internet these days. So, because I want to give a shout out to friend of MSF Jimmy Traina, who interviewed Upton for his most recent version of the Hot Clicks podcast, (subscribe on iTunes here) I’ve decided to “play to the base” so to speak and make Upton today’s best beauty. (I know; I’m really making a sacrifice here, right?)

If you would prefer to see Upton model assorted swimwear, here is a gallery from BroBible that should suit your desires.

Links

I’m from Bloomington, so I don’t like Kentucky. Bob Knight also does not like Kentucky or its coach John Calipari. The Coach recently made comments that, unfortunately, seem to have been blatantly false about Kentucky and it’s players. Bad move Coach.

Hey, remember the jackwagon who insinuated that the Giants fan who is in a coma after being beaten up by Dodgers fans deserved his fate because he dared to wear a Giants jersey to Dodger Stadium? Well, he’s still a jackwagon. Predictably, he blamed the Internet for his comments achieving such ignominy. Look in the mirror dude.

I am embarrassed to say that this made me laugh, but it did. So I’m sharing. 10 fast foods that sound like they could be sex positions. (Only click if you have a sophomoric sense of humor like I do.)

From the “stuff you should know file” if you ever want to be 1/100th the man The Most Interesting Man in the World is (and don’t we all?): How to properly smoke a cigar.

An international team of scientists has developed a way to predict how much a person can learn, based on studies at UC Santa Barbara’s Brain Imaging Center.

I am fairly certain that this places us one step closer to the Idiocracy: Taco Bell is now making shells out of Doritos.

If you’re considering buying a new car in this era of economic uncertainty and rising gas prices, this post by Mint about the true cost of car ownership is worth considering.

Speaking of rising oil prices, secret memos have revealed a link between oil companies and the invasion of Iraq.

And from that same UK site in the previous link, here is a rather boring story with a most unusual and cuss word-filled URL. Umm…WTF?

Pics & GIFs

Reds pitcher Mike Leake was arrested for shoplifting. He makes $400K+ year, yet he stole six shirts worth less than $60. So he’s an idiot. He also this rather funny mugshot. I don’t know about you, but I think of Vincent Chase from Entourage every time I look at it. Anyone else:

Harrison Barnes has decided he will stay at North Carolina for his sophomore season. (Bravo Harrison, by the way.) That means I can post this inexplicable yet terrific animated GIF of Kendall Marshall playing some kind of flute and Barnes doing his best David Caruso impression.

GIF source: MakeAGif.com via Reddit

If you have a geeky Internet sense of humor like I do, this will make you chuckle.

DYK

Did you know…why graham crackers were originally invented? I bet once you find out you won’t look at them quite the same way again.

Did you know…how the Easter Bunny tradition got started? Now you will.

Did you know…the Dallas Mavericks are 2-16 in playoff games officiated by Danny Crawford? They are 48-41 in all non-Crawford games during the same time span. Things that make you go hmm…

Videos

Aroldis Chapman set a new MLB record speed record for a single pitch last night, clocking a fastball at 106 mph (if you believe the sure-to-be-inflated radar gun readings of today). I can’t show you the TV view of the pitch because Major League Baseball refuses to allow their videos to be embedded, but I can you this fan vantage point. I know it’s not great, but hey – it’s all I’ve got.

In honor of today’s best beauty, here is the now famous video of Kate Upton doing the “Dougie”.

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As always, we end Today’s Best by paying homage to the original inspiration for this post: Hot Clicks by Jimmy Traina.

We also encourage you to follow Today’s Best on Twitter and on Facebook. Also, if you like Today’s Best but hate everything else on MSF, then subscribe to just Today’s Best here.

Send tips to: tb@midwestsportsfans.com

The Hoosiers’ 2012 class is shaping up to be one of the best in the nation and may end up being IU’s best crop of incoming freshman since the celebrated 1989 class. If Tom Crean can add Gary Harris, the Hoosier faithful will really have something to get excited about.

Like the 1989 group, the 2012 class includes several top players from the Hoosier State, headlined by top-30 recruits Yogi Ferrell (who just led Park Tudor to a 2A state title) and Hanner Perea.

Hoosier fans—who have spent the last couple years watching Butler cut down nets, Purdue contend for Big 10 titles, and Kentucky reclaim its spot among the nation’s elite—have high hopes for these 2012 recruits. Indeed, the last class to arrive in Bloomington with such high expectations was the 1989 class. The Chicago Tribune’s Barry Temkin asked whether the seven freshman IU recruited in 1989 comprised the “greatest recruiting class ever”—not just at Indiana, but anywhere.

I remember that group well, having watched several of the “Stupendous Seven” (as Dick Vitale once called them) play in high school and having attended my share of Indiana games in the late 80s and early 90s. So I decided to take a closer look at the seven players from that 1989 class, the expectations they brought with them, and the results.

Calbert Cheaney

Expectations:

In the pre-Internet age, Cheaney, who broke a foot and missed much of his senior year at Evansville Harrison, was a bit of an unknown commodity. (The fact that Cheaney sat out the 1989 ISHAA State Tournament didn’t keep one of my college friends from boasting about Evansville Memorial’s 1989 sectional upset of “an Evansville Harrison team with Walter McCarty and Calbert Cheaney.”)

During his junior year, Bob Knight was reluctant to recruit him. When a healthy Calbert Cheaney took the floor at Assembly Hall, he set himself apart early on. But going into his freshman year, no one imagined that he would end up a Naismith award winner.

Results:

Well, he won the Naismith College Player of the Year award as a senior, and he remains the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer. Cheaney made the AP All America 3rd Team in 1991 and 1992 and the 1st Team in 1993. He led Indiana in scoring all four years and was arguably the best player on all four of those teams. (You could have made a case for Eric Anderson during the 1989-90 season.)

Lawrence Funderburke

Expectations:

Funderburke, from Columbus, Ohio, was the most celebrated member of the 1989 class, but he brought baggage to Bloomington that couldn’t be unpacked in a dorm-room wardrobe. Sir Lawrence clashed with his high school coach and sat out much of his senior season. Any questions about his talent or athleticism, however, were quickly put to rest.

I went to the two pre-season exhibition games in 1989 (one against Athletes in Action and one against a foreign national team of some sort), and Funderburke was impressive. He was easily the most exciting player on the floor, and he had the potential to be the best.

Results:

Funderburke went on to have a solid basketball, and academic, career—at Ohio State. I’m not sure he ever lived up to his full potential on the court, but he was a key player on some very good Buckeyes teams. As I recall, some of his best college performances were against Indiana. Funderburke had a nice career as a roleplayer in the NBA after a stint in Europe.

Greg Graham

Expecations:

I saw Greg Graham play several times in high school. In high school he had the size, speed, and athleticism of a great college player, but—to my 12-year-old eyes—his performance on the floor was underwhelming. Graham’s Warren Central team had two other Division I players, including Iowa State standout Ron Bayless. I always thought that team should have performed better in the state tournament and the Marion County Tournament. Granted, there was a lot of high school basketball talent in the Indianapolis area at the time.

The professionals who evaluate high school basketball players disagreed with me. Graham was one of two McDonald’s All Americans from that 1989 class. Bob Knight described Graham as a “good scorer but a mediocre shooter when he came to Indiana.”

Results:

Greg Graham made significant contributions as a freshman and got better each season he spent in Bloomington. His senior year he led the Big Ten in field-goal and three-point percentage and was arguably the league’s best defender. Along the way, he treated Hoosier fans to dozens of face-melting dunks.

The Hornets picked Graham with the 17th pick in the 1993 NBA Draft. (The Pacers passed on him and instead drafted Oregon State’s Scott Haskin with the 14th pick. Haskin played a total of 27 games in his NBA career.) Graham played five seasons in the NBA. He’s currently the head basketball coach at his alma mater, Warren Central High School.

Pat Graham

Expectations:

Pat Graham was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1989 and, like Greg (no relation), a McDonald’s All American. He led Floyd Central to the ISHAA’s final four. Knight described Pat Graham as “one of the best shooters the state has turned out for a long while.” 12-year-old me thought he was the second coming of Steve Alford.

Results:

Pat Graham was a nice player, but injuries kept him from reaching his full potential. He redshirted one season because of injuries and missed another season’s worth of games over the course of his career at Indiana.

Chris Lawson

Expectations:

Lawson was a Bloomington native, but I never got to see him play in high school. He was 6-10 and, according to this Chicago Tribune article from the era, reminded “some of former Hoosier pivot Kent Benson.”

Results:

Lawson wasn’t Kent Benson, but he had a nice college career . . . at Vanderbilt. Lawson and Billy McCaffrey (another transfer) took Vandy to the Sweet Sixteen in 1993.

Todd Leary

Expectations:

When Jay Edwards made his ill-advised decision to bolt for the NBA, Knight had one more scholarship to play with. He offered it to Todd Leary. Though Leary led Lawrence North to the 1989 state championship and was selected to the Indiana All-Star Team, he was the least heralded of Indiana’s seven recruits that year.

I suspect that Knight had hopes (however slim) that Leary would lure high school teammate Eric Montross to Bloomington. Montross (a junior) had not yet committed to North Carolina and was still considering other schools, including Indiana.

Results:

Leary was a bit player early on and redshirted the 1990-91 season. Leary had a coming-out party of sorts in the 1992 Final Four against Duke when, after Indiana had more or less conceded the game, he hit three three-pointers in the final minute. Thanks to Todd Leary, Indiana only lost that game by three points.

During his senior year (one year after many of his classmates had graduated), Leary played significant minutes. Still, when news stories about Leary’s recent arrests for a mortgage scam and burglary referred to him as a “former IU standout,” my first response was, “Standout? Really? That’s a stretch.”

Chris Reynolds

Expectations:

Reynolds came from Peoria, Illinois, so I never saw him play in high school and didn’t know much about him. (An aside: Indiana great A.J. Guyton also came from Peoria. First order of business for new Bradley coach Geno Ford? Petition the State of Illinois to shut down I-74 so that no more great guards can leave the city.) It became apparent immediately that Reynolds was a character guy and a natural leader.

Results:

I remember Reynolds being a nice complement to Jamal Meeks, another point guard from Illinois. Reynolds was a better athlete and defender, Meeks a better shooter. Both were scrappy and both were capable floor generals. Reynolds set himself apart as a senior, running the show for the best Indiana team of the last two decades.

The Entire Class

Expectations:

This group was supposed to hang a banner in Assembly Hall, maybe two. To quote the Indiana University Basketball Encyclopedia:

Indiana’s 1989 recruiting class arrived in Bloomington amid a clamor of hype and fanfare. College basketball analysts and recruiting specialists were spouting hyperbole such as calling IU’s group of seven high school standouts the greatest recruiting class ever assembled in college basketball, while Hoosier fans across the state of Indiana were blustering that this group would lead IU to multiple national championships and would rival the legendary accomplishments of Hoosier teams in the mid-1970s.

Temkin in the Chicago Tribune was more cautious. He suspected that Funderburke might be a problem and wrote, prophetically, “Knight signed seven players, and junior phenom Damon Bailey of Bedford, Ind., already has said he will add to the logjam in 1990. This means a lack of playing time for one or two recruits, and that spells t-r-a-n-s-f-e-r.”

Results:

None of the members of the 1989 recruiting class won a national championship (either at IU or elsewhere). Two of them transferred early in their Indiana careers.

The 1989-90 team got off to a hot start against a weak non-conference schedule but struggled in the Big Ten and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

In 1990-91 Indiana tied Ohio State for first in the Big Ten and earned a 2 seed in the tournament but lost to Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen.

The following year IU again entered the tournament as a 2 seed, having finished second to Ohio State in the Big Ten. That team advanced to the Final Four, after punishing top-seeded UCLA (and avenging an early season loss) in the Elite Eight. There Indiana lost to Duke the eventual champion.

The 1993 squad, led by seniors Cheaney, Graham, and Reynolds and fifth-year senior (and star of Blue Chips Matt Nover) ended the regular season 28-3 overall, 17-1 in the Big Ten, and ranked #1 in both polls. But starting forward Alan Henderson (in my opinion the best IU player from that era) injured his knee late in the season and was far from 100 percent in the NCAA Tournament. Indiana lost to Kansas in the Elite Eight.

Leary and Pat Graham were still around in 1994 when the fifth-seeded Hoosiers, led by Damon Bailey and Henderson, went to the Sweet Sixteen and were upset by Boston College.

All-in-all that 1989 class gave Indiana fans two really good teams and one great team, several memorable games against some fantastic Ohio State and Michigan teams, two Big Ten titles, four Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights, one Final Four, and zero NCAA titles.

*****

When Calbert, the two Grahams, Reynolds, Lawson, Leary, and Funderburke enrolled in the fall of 1989, Indiana was the reigning Big Ten champion. The Hoosiers were little more than two years removed from a national championship and had won three national championships in the previous fourteen seasons. If that class fell short of expectations, it was mostly because Indiana fans had gotten used to hanging a banner once every five or six years. (I remember thinking that Indiana was due for—or even entitled to—an NCAA title in 1993.)

Circumstances are obviously different for the 2012 bunch. Yogi, Hanner, Jeremy Hollowell, and company have the burden of returning Indiana basketball to its former glory and keeping their coach off the hot seat along the way. In that regard this class is similar to North Carolina’s celebrated 2002 class, headlined by Sean May, Raymond Felton, and Rashad McCants. That group came to Chapel Hill one year after the Tar Heels had gone 8–20 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1974. As freshmen, they led UNC to the NIT, and their coach lost his job. The following year, with Roy Williams at the helm, they were back in the NCAA Tournament, though they got bounced in the second round. As juniors, that class led the Tar Heels to a national championship.

So what should Indiana fans expect from the 2012 class? It would be unfair to expect too much from teenagers, but one would hope that this group—along with Cody Zeller, who arrives one year ahead of them—will re-create a culture of winning in Bloomington, compete for Big Ten titles, and be relevant in March. A lot can happen when recruits become student-athletes. You never know who will develop, who will regress, who will become a superstar, and who will leave early. But if this group accomplishes half as much as their 1989 forebears, the Hoosier faithful should be delighted.

Josh Tinley is the author of Kneeling in the End Zone: Spiritual Lessons From the World of Sports. Follow him at twitter.com/joshtinley.

It should go without saying that the reaction to said documentary has been decidedly mixed.

Many people, including our own Jon Washburn, had positive things to say about it. Others, like Jason Whitlock, thought it was more fantasy than documentary. Grant Hill, who was spoken of in unflattering terms in the doc, went so far as to write an editorial in the New York Times expressing his disappointment.

How do I feel about it? Frankly, I think the truth lies where it usually lies: in the middle. Some of the comments by Jalen Rose and Jimmy King that set off the firestorm of controversy were curt and unflattering, no question; but the reaction from Hill and teammate Bobby Hurley, among others, failed to take into the account the true context of the comments that offended them.

Luckily, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski decided to confront Jalen Rose about his comments, which ultimately led to a burying of the hatchet. Don’t believe me? The photographic evidence is pretty clear below.

If the image is not loading properly or quickly, click here to view it at Imgur.

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Unfortunately, Coach Knight appears to have been up all night working on his brackets, because he appears sound asleep as Francessa tries to introduce him.

———-

For a second after they cut back to Francessa from the unresponsive Knight, it sounds like you can hear Knight waking up. Someone says “Hello” and clears their throat, but they never show him again, so who knows.

Poor Coach. It’s clearly tiring being a coaching legend and perhaps the greatest oracle of basketball knowledge alive today.

Or maybe he has narcolepsy?

Image source: Sports Illustrated

I spent last night stewing about Indiana’s terrible 69-60 home loss to Penn State, and I told myself that I’d wake up this morning, put it behind me, and have a productive day. But I can’t. Not without first venting and then second putting everything into perspective so that I can move forward with some semblance of optimism.

Lucky for me I run this here sports blog, so I have a place to do both and can invite other frustrated IU fans to commiserate with me.

As I know is the case for many of my IU brethren, home losses to teams like Penn State – which lost to mighty Maine in its previous ballgame – just don’t sit well with me. Three game losing streaks don’t sit well with me. IU appearing listless and disorganized does not sit well with me. Yet here we are, with all three of those unfortunate realities staring us smack dab in the face.

If I tried to sum up how pissed off and frustrated I was after last night’s loss, I know that I would fail in trying to find the right words. Fortunately YouTube exists, which allowed me to play this over and over again and relieve a little bit of my frustration.

Note: video contains audio of an angry old man using extremely bad language. You’ve been warned.

Yes, in the aftermath of Indiana’s 9-point loss to Penn State, I was hoping that the current Hoosiers were receiving a tongue-lashing somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-50% as strong as the one you just heard. One line in that infamous recording sums up perfectly how I felt during the minutes and hours after the IU-Penn State game went final: This is absolute fucking bullshit.

And it was.

I am all for patience, I understand just how bad a shape the IU basketball program was when Tom Crean took over, and I am still firmly in his corner as I will explain later. All that said, I do believe it is reasonable for IU fans to now consider a loss like last night’s unacceptable.

And, as a quick aside directed at Coach Crean:

I don’t want to hear any excuses about Christian Watford having back spasms or “old demons” rearing their ugly head. If we had just lost a close game to Ohio State or Purdue or Michigan State, and played well in doing so, I’d be much more willing to listen to that kind of explanation, given the reality of where our program is. But this was a home game against Penn State, a team picked by everyone to finish at or near the bottom of the Big Ten, and we came out with no sense of urgency and no cohesion on either end of the floor. That is a problem, and it’s your problem. Last night was a night for you to accept blame for your team being outcoached, outsmarted, and outhustled, because they were. And the responsibility is yours to get that turned around.

We will all now see if Tom Crean can, in fact, lead this Hoosier squad out of its current doldrums and into something resembling a smart, competitive basketball team. While Coach Crean has done a lot of things in his short tenure to inspire confidence and support among the Hoosier faithful, it is this most important task that he has yet to prove he can handle.

For the sake of discussion, here is a quick rundown of what I want out of Indiana’s basketball coach:

1. Win games, compete for Big Ten championships, make regular NCAA Tournament appearances
2. Do the above without making egregious rules violations* that call into question the integrity of the program
3. Consistently get the best high school players from the state of Indiana
4. Put a team on the floor that plays hard, no matter what, and that represents Indiana well off the court
5. Respect and honor the Indiana tradition and what this basketball program means to so many of us

* – I think it’s pretty clear that we are now in an era in which the NCAA rulebook is so convoluted and enforcement is so contradictory and seemingly arbitrary, that I have a hard time getting worked up over secondary violations like what forced Tom Izzo to be suspended for one game. I still believe Tom Izzo leads the Michigan State program with integrity and would be proud to have him as my coach. I understand that honest mistakes can happen, but I can accept those if there is an overall atmosphere of compliance and a commitment to doing things the right way. And no, I would not sacrifice #2 to ensure #1. They have to go hand-in-hand.

If you want to know why I stand firmly in Tom Crean’s corner despite all the losing, it’s because he has absolutely nailed 2-5 above. Three years ago, Crean famously said “It’s Indiana” when asked why he took the job. He has proven that he understands exactly what that means.

But, and it’s a big but…the further and further removed we get from the wreckage that Crean inherited, the more he has to take ownership of the product on the floor. And as much as I like Crean, and as much as I want his energy and passion leading our program, there is no question that the bottom line is what is listed #1 above: win games, compete for Big Ten championships, make regular NCAA Tournament appearances.

This is the first time during Crean’s tenure that I am having legitimate doubts about his ability to ultimately achieve #1 consistently. However, I also believe that this is a good time for IU fans to give themselves a perspective check and for all of us to make sure that our expectations are in line with reality.

It is inevitable that until the end of time all Indiana basketball coaches will be compared to Bob Knight. His shadow continues to loom large over our program more than a decade since his firing, as it should. It is because of Coach Knight, and Branch McCracken before him, that “It’s Indiana” means what it meant to Tom Crean and to so many others.

Furthermore, the fact that Indiana has had two coaches win multiple national championships should also provide IU fans everywhere with a sense of confidence. It’s not like Bob Knight led Army to the three titles. IU had a pretty good tradition when he got here, having won two titles under McCracken (’40 and ’53), and Coach Knight took it to the next level (winning titles in ’76, ’81, and ’87).

So as great as Knight was, and as large as his shadow still looms, it’s important to remember that Tom Crean said, “it’s Indiana” not “it’s Bob Knight.” The program is bigger than one man, no matter how legendary that man is. Yet, when IU fans watch the IU team of 2010-11, we all still compare every movement, every shot, and every decision to Knight’s teams. (At least, I find myself doing this. Perhaps it’s presumptive to assume that all IU fans do the same.)

When our offense stagnates or we run set play after set play, we all long for the masterful way so many IU teams ran the motion offense. When our defense is out of position, we long for the days of the IU teams that always seemed so well-drilled and prepared to play 40 minutes of consistent man-to-man defense. At the ends of games, when the current Hoosiers seem clueless and unable to get a good shot, with Crean often having to call timeouts to set up set plays, we long for the days of Knight refusing to call timeouts while instead relying on his team to run the motion and understand how to get its best shooter a high percentage shot.

So here is what we all have to realize: Tom Crean is not Bob Knight…and that’s okay. In fact, when it comes to teaching college players how to execute on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, Tom Crean isn’t even close to being Bob Knight. I’m sure even he would admit that, and there would be no shame in such an admission. For 30 years, Indiana fans were blessed to have one of the 5-10 greatest coaches in the history of basketball. There will always be debates about how to order John Wooden, Henry Iba, Coach K, Coach Knight and the other legends of college basketball, but even the biggest Knight hater would admit that he’s among the best ever. And you can’t really fault IU fans for constantly reminiscing about the beautifully and consistently executed brand of basketball that Knight teams played, and the expectations that developed over 30 years.

I also don’t think you can fault IU fans for wanting to see more of that consistency and execution from the current crop of Hoosiers, but we all need to realize that it’s just not going to happen.

Look at Tom Crean’s record at Marquette:

• In the six years Crean coached Marquette when they were in Conference USA, he won one conference title (the year he had Dwyane Wade and went to the Final Four)
• In the three years Crean coached Marquette when they were in the Big East, he never finished higher than tied for 4th and never made it to the Sweet 16.
• In nine years overall at Marqueette, Crean made five NCAA tournaments, three NIT tournaments, and missed post-season play altogether one year.
• In nine years, Crean had single-digit losses only two years: the 01-02 season and the 02-03 season. Those were the two seasons Crean had Wade, who would then go on to become one of the best players in the NBA.

Here is what I think we can surmise from Crean’s track record before coming to IU:

• He is a solid but unspectacular coach who will win a little less than 2/3 of his games
• When he has a supremely talented player, Crean’s team can thrive because said player will have the freedom to dominate games with his individual talent
• Crean can recruit and attract the talent necessary to compete in a big conference and get consistent tournament berths, but he has not shown the ability to produce great teams consistently.

So, what’s my point with all of this? My point is that anyone who expected Crean to quickly turn Indiana back into the program it was in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s was sorely overestimating his ability and what was and is within the realm of possibility. While I do believe that Crean’s ceiling at Indiana is higher than what he was able to achieve at Marquette, there is nothing in Crean’s history to suggest that he will be able to produce a program at IU that is even 75-80% of what Knight did. This does not mean that we as fans should temper our hopes, dreams, and goals for what IU can become, but it does mean, I think, that we need to remember to be realistic in our expectations as we move forward with Tom Crean.

One reason is that unless Brad Stevens declares that he is ready to move to Bloomington, who would Indiana hire right now that would be a better fit than Crean? Is there anyone? I cannot come up with a name off the top of my head – and I even have some doubts (not a lot, just some) about Steven’s ability to handle a more high profile job like IU. It’s possible he and Butler are simply the perfect fit and that it is in everyone’s best interest for him to stay put.

Another reason to be realistic in what we expect from Crean is that we all knew from the beginning that his system demands guards with NBA-level talent to succeed on the level close to what we all expect. Mo Creek has some NBA potential once he gets back to full health, and Victor Oladipo could possibly develop into that, but neither is close right now. Jordan Hulls and Verdell Jones? Please. Both are nice college players who will not sniff the NBA. Thus, the ceiling for this year’s team is very limited with the system Crean employs.

Fortunately, Crean does have commitments from high school players who project as the kind of talented guards Crean’s system demands. We can wish for a return of the Knight motion offense all we want, but it’s not coming back. With Crean as coach, we need guards who can consistently create their own shots and penetrate individually to create shots for others. Until we have that, we will always be inconsistent offensively. (And yes, we also need to find a consistent post presence, but that hasn’t exactly been a staple of Crean teams in the past.)

Thirdly, and I think most importantly, let’s remember that while Coach Crean is struggling right now to deliver a product on the floor that we can all buy into, he is doing everything else right. He turned the program’s academic standing and character around. He’s recruiting like a madman in the state of Indiana, and he’s succeeding – and as far as we know he is doing it all with integrity. He also seems genuinely proud of IU’s tradition and passionate about honoring it. Also, Crean’s IU teams have, for the most part, impressed me with their effort.

So as frustrating and unacceptable as last night was, now is not the time for IU fans to start jumping ship or making outrageous statements about Crean needing to go. He is the best man to lead our basketball program right now, and continues to deserve patience.

Are we allowed to get pissed off and voice our displeasure with results like last night’s? Absolutely. The “honeymoon” is certainly over in the sense that three game losing streaks and home losses to Penn State are no longer acceptable without reproach, nor are excuses. However, there is a difference between a honeymoon period with a new coach and a support period. The honeymoon period is the time when losses and poor play pass with relatively little criticism, and when moral victories are chalked up. That time is done, as was proven last night. The support period, however, remains so long as the program is continuing to take steps forward overall, even if there are momentary blips and stumbles.

The honeymoon may be done for Tom Crean, but I think it is unquestionable that IU fans should still be firmly in his corner. This is a basketball program that was rocked to its absolute core before he got here, and Tom Crean has done a good job overall of rebuilding it. As the games and seasons pass, the on-court product will grow more and more important, and Crean will ultimately succeed or fail in Bloomington based on wins and losses, and how he does in the Big Ten and NCAAs. But bottom line time is not here yet.

Based on his track record and what we have seen so far, I don’t know if Crean has it in him to bring IU basketball to the level that we all hope for and expect. What I do know is this: based on the totality of his tenure in Bloomington so far, Crean has earned more time than this for judgments to be made and more benefit of the doubt before support is withheld.

Tom Crean will never be Bob Knight, and I doubt he’ll ever be Branch McCracken. As IU fans, it will make our lives a little bit easier if we understand this as we move forward. There is, however, a nice spot between the highs of Knight/McCracken and the lows of Davis/Sampson that Tom Crean can settle himself into. And isn’t that really the best case scenario? Maybe that spot includes a national championship and/or consistent Big Ten titles, and maybe it doesn’t. Time will tell, and it will obvioulsy need to include one or the other for Crean to be in Bloomington for 15-20 years, but after the last decade of IU basketball, I honestly just want to get back to good again before I start worrying about being great.

I don’t know about the rest of the IU basketball fans out there, but I can’t wait for the next time we win 9-10 games in conference play, let alone compete for a title. I can’t wait for the next selection Sunday when I see Indiana pop up on the screen, regardless of the seed. We can worry about great later. That time will come. But Tom Crean will make Indiana basketball good again; as many questions as I have about Tom Crean as a coach, I do not doubt that.

And if that’s as far as he can take us over the next 5-10 years, fine. I’ll still consider the Crean Era a success, all things considered, and it would then probably be someone else’s turn to see there is magic left in Bloomington. I happen to believe that there is and still have some confidence that Tom Crean could be the guy to bring that magic back. Let’s be honest with ourselves Hoosier faithful: at this point in time should we really be asking for anything more?

Let’s keep supporting our coach. Flaws and all, Tom Crean is still the right man for the IU job right now. Our patience does need to last into perpetuity, but it is still warranted even on the morning after a 69-60 home loss to Penn State. Yes, the honeymoon is over, but so what? No honeymoon lasts forever. It’s good that there are now higher expectations and disappointment at losses like last night’s. It’s good to see passionate, even knee-jerk reactions to terrible losses no matter how misguided and emotional they might be; it means the fan base is getting re-engaged. Add it all up and it means the program is being rebuilt, little by little, even with a few steps backs mixed in with all the steps forward.

Right now, that’s good enough for me.

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For the best IU basketball coverage, visit our friends at Inside The Hall or the always great Peegs.com.

Former Hoosier favorite A.J. Moye has suffered a stroke. Prayers out to him and his family: http://bit.ly/dngcWp

Unfortunately, the account of Moye’s stroke and the latest news from the website of his German professional team is not particularly encouraging.

Update: Since posting this, I saw the following tweet from Indy radio personality JMV. Halelujah.

from reps of former IU player AJ Moye in Germany.After suffering a stroke he is doing well and full recovery is expected.

Obviously the info from JMV is very encouraging. Here is what the team news website says about Moye’s condition and the events that led up to his hospitalization:

Skyliner forward Ajene Moye (193-G-82, college: Indiana) has suffered a stroke and is currently in a Frankfurt hospital undergoing intensive tests.

On Monday, Moye and another player collided with their heads, but the two players were able to continue to practice. On Monday night, the step father of Moye spoke with his step son and noticed that he had problems speaking. On Tuesday at the morning shoot around before the Eurochallenge game against Maccabi Haifa, there was abnormal behavior detected with the Los Angeles native. As his behavior got more intense, Moye was brought to a Frankfurt hospital. At the hospital his condition worsened. The diagnosis that Moye had a stroke has been confirmed in the hospital. Further diagnosis about his recovery and therapy can not be determined at the present moment.

It’s always difficult to see someone you’ve cheered for and admired suffer something that sounds so terrible and ominous. The difficulty is even more acute when it’s a guy the same age as you, and it occurs in an apparently freak way like this…because if him, why not me?

Obviously my thoughts and prayers are with AJ and his family. I am really, really hoping that the next report we get on him is more positive and optimistic than this one.

My list of beloved Indiana basketball players is a long one. That’s what happens when you’re obsessed with a team from the time you’re 8 years old. But it doesn’t take long to get to AJ Moye on my list of all-time favorites:

1. Calbert Cheaney
2. AJ Moye

I loved him even before he got onto campus when I read an interview with him after he’d committed to play for then-coach Bob Knight. He talked about how similar he felt he was to Knight, how intense he was, and how hard he worked. These are all traits that proved true during his time at IU.

He also was responsible for the signature IU basketball play that occurred during the time when I was a student in Bloomington: the block on Carlos Boozer in the Hoosiers’ historic, incredible comeback upset of Duke in 2002. The 6’3 Moye doing whatever his team needed him to do win, in this case blocking a 6’9 future NBA All Star…that play summed up AJ Moye’s career in Bloomington.

I was reminded of this while reading the words of the people in the organization Moye now plays for. It’s clear nothing has changed about him since he left IU.

AJ is the most professional player that ever played in our organization.

AJ is a strong person, he will pull out of this situation.

A.J. is a very good player in my eyes because he was very tough to score against. He played with his heart and left it all on the court. Get well soon because basketball not only needs you, life itself do.

Amen to each sentiment.

If I were to ask people to describe the quintessential IU basketball player, I think most people – not all, but most – would immediately think of Steve Alford – a white, fundamentally sound, coach’s son who grew up in Indiana. Certainly, that’s a pretty apt description. As for me, someone with a pretty well-rounded understanding of the history of IU basketball, I’d say AJ Moye. And I bet many people who went to IU during the time I did, and who participated in the “AJ MO-YE” chants at Assembly Hall would feel similarly.

AJ embodied and still embodies everything I believe an IU basketball player is and should be. I recently said that I thought current freshman Victor Oladipo reminded me of Moye. It’s not a comparison I make lightly; in fact, it’s the greatest compliment I could give a young IU player.

Get well soon AJ. I know that I will be just one of an entire throng of IU basketball fans (along with Big Ten and college basketball fans in general) wishing the best for you in your recovery.

That is not a typo.

Making the score even more egregious than it is – yes, that is possible – is that Wisconsin’s best offensive player, running back John Clay, did not play in the game. Yet even without him, the Badgers hung 83 points – 83! – on my Hoosiers.

I know we’re basketball school, but that’s ridiculous.

I contemplated doing a thorough analysis of the game and IU’s floundering football program, but I’ll leave that to someone else. I’m much better at providing the lighter, more ridiculous side of the story…which is what I do below in our latest MSF photo story.

[Note: if for some reason the image doesn't show up, view it here.]

I know I shouldn’t kick my school like this when it’s down, but honestly, I don’t know how else to cope.

Thank goodness the basketball team is 1-0 and recently got a commitment from the #15 player in the class of 2010. At least it looks like the basketball program is on the right track.

As for the football team, well, all I know is that those 8-win Mallory seasons sure sounds pretty nice right about now…

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But just because Izzo isn’t packing his bags for the West coast doesn’t mean that he won’t pack his bags and leave East Lansing…if his Spartans win the National Championship.

According to sources close to Izzo, the New Jersey Nets have made clandestine overtures too attractive and convincing for Izzo to ignore. And, the source explains, if Izzo wins his second title — on the heels of making the Final Four in six out of his last 12 seasons — he will have little else to prove at the college level and will be ready for a new challenge, among many reasons why he’d leave.

If the Spartans win, it’s a “done deal,” says my source.

Speculation about Izzo’s possible move to the Nets will intensify once a recent statement new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov gave to Belarus Sports Magazine gains traction in the U.S.

According to the most recent issue of B.S. Magazine, the billionaire has had his sights set on Izzo ever since acquiring the team.

I have given immense study to basketball and what makes successful basketball player and team. Often I have heard about the, what you call it, “izzone” that players credit for good performance. “I was just in the izzone that night,” they say. In the Nets, we want to have this izzone on nightly basis. Money is no concern.

While Prokhorov is careful not to explicitly state his desire to pry the Michigan State coach away from the Breslin Center, not wanting to create a distraction for the coach during the Final Four, the inference is clear.

My source for this story, who did not want to be identified for obvious reasons, has said that the initial contract offer for Izzo is $10 million per year plus perks like unlimited corporate jet use. The source explained that it will not be an easy decision for Izzo because of his Michigan roots and affinity for Michigan State University, but that the money and opportunity simply may be too good to pass up if he can win his second title.

Plus, Izzo knows that the Nets will be actively courting the NBA’s best free agents and will likely get one or two of them. Previous college coaches have failed in the NBA because they often went to terrible teams. The Nets are awful this year but could be turned around immediately with the addition of one or two superstars and a competent coach.

Additionally and on a related note, I was given a tip regarding documents floating around the Nets marketing department that are rather interesting. These documents reveal that work is being done for a remix of a song first recorded by Prokhorov’s Nets co-owner Jay-Z in 2000. The song, called “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)“, would obviously have new relevance and be purportedly be given an eponymous second life as the official theme song of the Nets and their new coach.

The next obvious question for Spartan fans and Big Ten fans is who would take over at Michigan State in the event that Izzo leaves. When I posed this question to my source, he answered almost before I get the question out: Tom Crean. In fact, the ability to hand the job over to Crean would be a motivating factor in Izzo leaving.

Remember, Crean was hired by the Spartans in 1989 as a graduate assistant by Jud Heathcoat based on Izzo’s recommendation. That hire led to this awesome picture:

Once Izzo got the head job in East Lansing in 1995, he immediately hired his tan friend to be one of his assistants and the two built Izzo’s national title team together before Crean left to take the Marquette job.

Now, Crean is coaching at Indiana and mired in a two-season stretch during which he’s gone 16-46 and is already feeling heat from petulant, impatient, unrealistic IU zealots. Izzo apparently feels that Crean is in a no-win situation and would love to help his friend out by turning over Michigan State’s well-oiled machine to Crean. Considering the hand Crean had in getting the program to where it is today , Izzo feels — according to my source — that he owes him and that it provides further impetus and justification to leave for the Nets.

And that’s where this story gets really interesting.

The name I am hearing whispered as Crean’s possible replacement in Bloomington? You’ll think I’m making this up, but it’s Bob Knight.

The university is reportedly ready to offer Knight a blank chank, rename Assembly Hall after him, replace the statue in Showalter fountain with one of Kent Benson boxing out, and give him final say over everything basketball-related, as well as a 50-tolerance policy in place of his previously mandated zero-tolerance policy — meaning he can engage in 50 blowups, assaults, profanity-laced lambastes, etc., before the university will consider action…like how things were in the 80s.

Okay, fine. Indiana isn’t ready to give Knight all of that. I take it back. April Fool’s! Ha, ha. But…for obvious reasons he would be the #1 choice should the Izzo-Crean dominoes fall as described above. And why not? The Indiana fan base has had nothing to feel good about in over two years while reports have circulated ever since he left Texas Tech that Knight still wants to coach. Knight would reportedly want to bring his son Pat with him and then hand the program over after 2-3 years.

We’ll have to wait and see on that one. IU fans shouldn’t get too excited yet as a lot still has to happen for the Red Sweater to be back roaming the IU bench.

Now the question for Michigan State fans is this: knowing that Tom Izzo will probably bolt East Lansing if the Spartans win the title, do you want them to win it all and then have Tom Crean take over next year? Or would you rather the Spartans fall just short, as they did last year, but keep your coach and the expectation of a Final Four once every two years?

Chime in below.

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.

This evening the two schools face eachother for the first time this season. Matt Painter brings his 8th-ranked Boilermakers down to Bloomington for a 6:00 CT meeting with Tom Crean and Indiana. (The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.)

We can safely assume that Crean’s young Hoosier squad will go a second straight season with no dancing in March. Painter and the Boilers, on the other hand, are actually inspiring something rarely heard around West Lafayette: legitimate Final Four talk.

If Painter wants some advice on how to reach a Final Four, he’s come to the right place.

Indiana’s multitude of banners will be a nice reminder of what Purdue simply wants to do once; and, despite Painter’s current advantage over Crean, only one of the two coaches has Final Four experience.

So hopefully Painter and the Boilers are wise enough to take advantage of the winning tradition they will be immersed in tonight. If they’re smart, they’ll get themselves a few complimentary Dance lessons from a school that actually knows what it is doing in that regard.

I wonder what such a dance lesson would look like…

(Kudos to the fine folks at JibJab for making the above video so easy to create. And yes, I realize that’s two JibJabs in two days; no, I cannot promise that this one will be the last. They’re too much fun.)

You know, it really was nice of Matt Painter to don a red dress and show his respect for the superior school and basketball program. Even he, apparently, is not foolish enough to believe that a two-year blip on Indiana’s radar will be anything more than just that, a two-year blip.

Painter is surely wise enough to remember that Purdue was nearly as awful as IU is now when Painter first took over for Gene Keady. He got things turned around in relatively short oder, as Crean will over the next few years in Bloomington. Then the IU-Purdue rivalry will regain some of its importance.

IU-Purdue was once, not too long ago, an annual matchup of the nation’s elite. Remember the classic battles between Calbert Cheaney’s Hoosiers and Glenn Robinson’s Boilermakers? I certainly do.

And even when one of the two teams was not its usual strong self, the bi-annual matchup drew widespread interest because it usually influenced the Big Ten race and had the added intrigue of the rivalry between Bob Knight and Gene Keady.

Indiana and Purdue will be hard-pressed to recreate the rivalry’s heyday, but certainly things will become more compelling over the next few years than they are currently. I know that I am all set to leave work a little bit early and do nothing but focus on the game this evening, hoping the Hoosiers can pull off the upset at home. But I’m a die-hard; I look forward to the day when this game is once again on the radar screen of all college basketball fans.

As for tonight’s matchup, it’s very important for Purdue (18-3, 6-3) if they have hopes of a regular season Big Ten title and a #1 or #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. For Indiana (9-11, 3-5), this game is important because it would be the signature win for the first two years of the Tom Crean era. Certainly it would give frustrated Hoosier players and fans something to feel good about in the midst of another tough rebuilding season.

The inexperienced and inconsistent Hoosiers are going to have a tough time playing well enough over 40 minutes to beat a talented, experienced team like Purdue. But the game is in Bloomington, and you can never count an IU team out when it’s playing in Assembly Hall.

I’m not going to give a prediction because I’m feeling good about IU’s chances and I don’t want to jinx my Hoosiers. But if you’re a casual fan and you want to see one of the best atmospheres in college basketball absolutely rocking and rolling, tune in to ESPN tonight. Assembly Hall will be going crazy, as it always is, when the PUkes are in town.

And if Tom Crean’s boys come ready to play 40 hard-nosed minutes of basketball, you should get to see a pretty damn good game too.

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* – Matt Painter photo credit: AP Photo/Michael Conroy via SlamOnline

What I did not realize until I woke up this morning was what Knight actually said during his speech, which is making the rounds this morning and rightfully so.

What did Bob Knight say? Basically he said exactly what I’ve been saying about John Calipari for years now.

“We’ve gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that’s why I’m glad I’m not coaching,” he said. “You see we’ve got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he’s still coaching. I really don’t understand that.”

To which I really have only one response:

The crux of Knight’s comments about Calipari is something that has been cited here at MSF more than one: that John Calipari is the only coach in the history of college basketball who has had two Final Fours vacated. The first was at UMASS involving Marcus Camby and the second was at Memphis involving Derrick Rose.

To be fair, Calipari has never been explicitly implicated for wrongdoing in any investigation by the NCAA. And to be realistic, Calipari is a megalomaniacal control freak (like all college head coaches) who most likely knows when his players use the restroom, let alone who is giving them side money or taking their SATs.

Am I speculating here? You betcha. But I am most certainly not the only one. And know that the Ethical Asshole, my beloved Coach Knight, has come out and said the exact same thing…well I feel just a little more confident.

Something tells me that Coach Knight probably privy to information that you and I are not, and I doubt that he would lambaste another high profile coach in public if there wasn’t a little fire to go along with all of the smoke that trails Calipari everywhere he goes.

We’ll see how things go Kentucky. So far, he’s delivered championship-level cheaters at every stop along his college basketball coaching tour. The Wildcats certainly are no stranger to bending (shattering?) the rules, so this may just be a match made in heaven.

It will be entertaining to see Calipari’s smug response. He’s smile his greasy smile, feign respect for Coach Knight and act like he’s almost flattered Coach was thinking about him, and then talk around the issues and say something about being focused on this year’s team. And then it will probably end there.

But we can all hold out hope that Bob Knight comes storming into Calipari’s next press conference like this, ready to kick Calipari’s ass.

Hmm…I guess Coach Knight isn’t the only one of Calipari’s peers who doesn’t like him. Probably just a coincidence.

Well done Coach Knight. Thanks for saying what a lot of the rest of us were thinking.

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* – John Calipari begging photo credit: Scott and Holman

* – Bob Knight coaching photo credit: Indy Sports Nation

* – American Beauty audio file courtesy of RossWalker.co.uk

Today’s edition of PHOTD (remember, that means Photo Hilarity of the Day) comes courtesy of the incredible SI Vault (via today’s edition of Hot Clicks). Andy Gray is filling in for Jimmy Traina this week at Hot Clicks, and included some pretty hilarious SI Vault photos among his clicks. He also provided his twitter account address so you can follow him, which I highly encourage you to do. Tons of great pictures linked just on the first page of his recent tweets.

But the greatest one, from my perspective, is of my favorite coach of all-time, Bob Knight.

The photo, which you can see below, is a picture of Coach Knight apparently passed out in a chair in the locker room during the 2002 season. He was at Texas Tech then, and you can see his players in the background. (Click here to see the full-sized picture).

Though it is obviously unintentional in this case, the picture is just further proof of why Coach Knight is one of the most hilarious and entertaining coach of all-time.