Indiana Basketball
Pat Forde had this explanation today how far Indiana Basketball has fallen. I'm not going to disagree with the argument that the high schools shouldn't have gone from one class to four clases and four tournaments. That's a bummer. But the rest of the article is kind of overblown. It seems like he's making too much of recent events with the Pacers, and too much of only 3 years of results in Indiana.
For the Pacers, clearly Artest has been a debacle. But they're still making the playoffs every year. Ron is gone, and they're moving on.
I really disagree with his college basketball points. Judging a state by a three-year trend is like judging a conference by a 3-year trend. There is just too much turnover in players to make a call.
The first "yeah, but..." that jumped into my head was the quality of the mid-major programs in Indiana. You will probably recognize these names as being solid basketball schools: Butler, Indiana St, Valparaiso, Ball State, Evansville. And don't forget the delightfully-named IUPUI. Yes, as Pat Forde points out, those guys have not done as well in even making the tournament in the past 3 years, but only four years ago Butler made the Sweet 16 as a 12-seed. Most mid-major programs do go through a cycle. What makes mid-majors so dangerous these days? Experience, relative to the major programs that only get one or two years out of their best players. These Indiana mid-majors are waiting for another magical senior class to cycle through. Look for them in the next couple years.
Pat's right that Notre Dame, Purdue, and Indiana have fallen way off from past glory. But Notre Dame is a football school first. Digger Phelps led them in the glory years of Irish hoops, but they're only going to challenge for a national title every few decades. Purdue looked ugly as Gene Keady passed his prime before passing the reins. I think both of schools will come back around soon enough. But the big question here is IU, and I'm expecting big things from the Hoosiers.
I think with the right coach, they should be as good as Kansas. And I think Kelvin Sampson might be the right coach. He took a football school in a football state and made it into a national title threat. I think he'll do more with a basketball school in a basketball state (a la Kansas).
So don't listen to Pat. Indiana basketball is going to be fine.
For the Pacers, clearly Artest has been a debacle. But they're still making the playoffs every year. Ron is gone, and they're moving on.
I really disagree with his college basketball points. Judging a state by a three-year trend is like judging a conference by a 3-year trend. There is just too much turnover in players to make a call.
The first "yeah, but..." that jumped into my head was the quality of the mid-major programs in Indiana. You will probably recognize these names as being solid basketball schools: Butler, Indiana St, Valparaiso, Ball State, Evansville. And don't forget the delightfully-named IUPUI. Yes, as Pat Forde points out, those guys have not done as well in even making the tournament in the past 3 years, but only four years ago Butler made the Sweet 16 as a 12-seed. Most mid-major programs do go through a cycle. What makes mid-majors so dangerous these days? Experience, relative to the major programs that only get one or two years out of their best players. These Indiana mid-majors are waiting for another magical senior class to cycle through. Look for them in the next couple years.
Pat's right that Notre Dame, Purdue, and Indiana have fallen way off from past glory. But Notre Dame is a football school first. Digger Phelps led them in the glory years of Irish hoops, but they're only going to challenge for a national title every few decades. Purdue looked ugly as Gene Keady passed his prime before passing the reins. I think both of schools will come back around soon enough. But the big question here is IU, and I'm expecting big things from the Hoosiers.
I think with the right coach, they should be as good as Kansas. And I think Kelvin Sampson might be the right coach. He took a football school in a football state and made it into a national title threat. I think he'll do more with a basketball school in a basketball state (a la Kansas).
So don't listen to Pat. Indiana basketball is going to be fine.
posted by Prof. A at 12:41 PM
1 Comments:
Pat's is an interesting article, but I agree: little substance. It's fair to be troubled by the departure of in-state talent - after all, seems everybody is - but the broad damnation of the state is irresponsible.
On Sampson: I agree. He's supposedly a tireless recruiter, which should help, especially in light of Ford's article. Washington State was never better than when Sampson was at the helm, and we've never recovered from his departure. A quick correction, though.
While unquestionably a football school, Oklahoma has some basketball heritage. They were NCAA runners-up in 1988, which until 2002 was more recently than Indiana itself. So, while he was clearly playing second-fiddle, Sampson did have something to build on.
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