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The Perception and the Reality: IU over the last 25 years


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35 minutes ago, hoosierdaddy_72 said:

I really didn't see the point of the article.  It was like 10,000 words to tell us IU has been mediocre over the last 25 years?  We knew that.  Maybe for a national reporter it would have made sense to write, but for an IU reporter it was kind of silly to me.  What does he want us to do, stop caring so much?

Yes, we all knew we have been mediocre for the last 25 years. But the writer did many hours of research to come up with a lot of convincing data to demonstrate that we are even further down than most of us would have guessed.

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I think some urgency needs to settle in around the program.  Our fan base is slowly dying off, literally.  IU is not attracting young fans the way Duke, UNC, UK, etc are right now.  If this continues for another decade or 2 the 50+ generation of baby boomers will be fading and we will be left with only gen x that could claim witnessing an elite IU basketball program at some point in their lives.  

I'd be curious to see some sort of data reflective of fanbase numbers and/or power over the last 2 decades.  I think we'd see a steady decline in IU bball and a steady rise in other "blue blood" programs other than UCLA and Arizona.

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55 minutes ago, CincyHoosier said:

I think some urgency needs to settle in around the program.  Our fan base is slowly dying off, literally.  IU is not attracting young fans the way Duke, UNC, UK, etc are right now.  If this continues for another decade or 2 the 50+ generation of baby boomers will be fading and we will be left with only gen x that could claim witnessing an elite IU basketball program at some point in their lives.  

I'd be curious to see some sort of data reflective of fanbase numbers and/or power over the last 2 decades.  I think we'd see a steady decline in IU bball and a steady rise in other "blue blood" programs other than UCLA and Arizona.

One thing that helps IU is that we have a very large alumni base.  The Big Ten schools in general, particularly the old guard (minus Northwestern) are huge state schools with large attendance.  I think we will have a larger pool of potential fans, what we need to do is start giving them a real reason to be the type of supporters that our older alumni currently are.

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14 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

One thing that helps IU is that we have a very large alumni base.  The Big Ten schools in general, particularly the old guard (minus Northwestern) are huge state schools with large attendance.  I think we will have a larger pool of potential fans, what we need to do is start giving them a real reason to be the type of supporters that our older alumni currently are.

Sure, but what makes programs like Duke, UNC, UK, Kansas so unique is their attraction of fans outside their alumni base.  I would guess less than a third of their fans are actual alumni, and maybe far less with Duke.  

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It’s like the Washington Redskins. From 1972 to 1992 they went to 5 Super Bowls, winning 3. The three wins came in a 10 year period from 1982 to 92. Joe Gibbs is a legendary Hall of Fame coach. George Allen, as well. 

From 1993 through 2019, they’ve been to the playoffs five times with a record of 2-5. That’s with the expanded Wild Card. 

They are a historic franchise, but I suspect the age demographic of their fan base is very similar to the Hoosiers. 

Conversely, I’m old enough to remember when the Patriots were a joke called the Patsies. But no one under 40 knows that. 

Indiana has the history and foundation to reclaim its status, but needs to start winning consistently 

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6 hours ago, hoosierdaddy_72 said:

I really didn't see the point of the article.  It was like 10,000 words to tell us IU has been mediocre over the last 25 years?  We knew that.  Maybe for a national reporter it would have made sense to write, but for an IU reporter it was kind of silly to me.  What does he want us to do, stop caring so much?

We are now on page 3 and I'm still trying to figure this out.   

I still believe IU basketball is a sleeping giant.  Look no further than 2011-2013.  The state blew up IU basketball at the taste of victory.  ESPN reran the watshot 1000000 times for free.  Hate duke and ESPN but Tom Crean simply blew it after that.  Take a look at recruiting after the Watshot.  Vonleh and troy Williams had already committed prior to that.  After a solid year of free advertising our next recruit class netted Blackmon and Rob Johnson, very respectable, but almost a full year after the watshot.  Sprinkled in with Holt, Max mt. And jer. April.

CAM, I feel, let some guys off easy in the hard work/culture accountability department and now he's back to year one.  Hopefully we catch some breaks soon.  

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1 hour ago, NotIThatLives said:

We are now on page 3 and I'm still trying to figure this out.   

I still believe IU basketball is a sleeping giant.  Look no further than 2011-2013.  The state blew up IU basketball at the taste of victory.  ESPN reran the watshot 1000000 times for free.  Hate duke and ESPN but Tom Crean simply blew it after that.  Take a look at recruiting after the Watshot.  Vonleh and troy Williams had already committed prior to that.  After a solid year of free advertising our next recruit class netted Blackmon and Rob Johnson, very respectable, but almost a full year after the watshot.  Sprinkled in with Holt, Max mt. And jer. April.

CAM, I feel, let some guys off easy in the hard work/culture accountability department and now he's back to year one.  Hopefully we catch some breaks soon.  

Pretty sure you have your recruiting cycles off. The Wat shot led to the movement signing up. Vonleh and troy were still a year plus out.

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7 hours ago, CincyHoosier said:

I think some urgency needs to settle in around the program.  Our fan base is slowly dying off, literally.  IU is not attracting young fans the way Duke, UNC, UK, etc are right now.  If this continues for another decade or 2 the 50+ generation of baby boomers will be fading and we will be left with only gen x that could claim witnessing an elite IU basketball program at some point in their lives.  

I'd be curious to see some sort of data reflective of fanbase numbers and/or power over the last 2 decades.  I think we'd see a steady decline in IU bball and a steady rise in other "blue blood" programs other than UCLA and Arizona.

I actually think the NIT helped IU in this, look at how many fans showed up that normally would not be able to attend! And they came with their kids! That should help immensely going forward! 

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1 hour ago, Riverrat said:

Pretty sure you have your recruiting cycles off. The Wat shot led to the movement signing up. Vonleh and troy were still a year plus out.

 you are correct but the bowel movement was already signed.  I stand corrected but until troy committed October 2012 it was almost a year after the watshot before the next major recruit.  Vonleh came in november 2012 out of left field.  

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14 hours ago, milehiiu said:

Ken Bikoff has done some great work in terms of documenting IU history.  In fact , if you never read his series on the history of Assembly Hall... you owe your self a favor by going on line and checking it out.  It's been years since Ken and I communicated when I was part of the team, before HSN left 247.... and he came back to Peegs and became a part of the 247 team. I want it understood that Ken does great work. Always has. And continues to do so.

Having said that. I find it disturbing on his part, knowing his history... to cherry pick the whole history of Indiana University basketball. The perception and history of IU basketball over the past 25 years ?

What about the history of IU basketball over the past 100 years ?

What about the five banners hanging in Assembly Hall ?  The very Assembly Hall that Ken documented in his great series over 100 years ?

Why pick out just 25 years ?

IU has been playing basketball for 119 seasons.

Why not talk about that ?  Why cherry pick just 25 seasons ?  What about the 1833 victories spanning the entire time IU has been playing basketball ?  Why not talk about those victories which places IU among the greatest programs of all time ?

The five banners hanging in Assembly Hall, aside.... what about  the number of IU wins in the NCAAT, which currently stands at 68, resulting in 8, final four appearances.

 

Folks.  Let's let's focus on what IU has accomplished... not the past 25 years.  But for the past 119 years.

 

 

I know what you mean, Mile. I've been a loyal IU fan since the '50s. I won't go into detail.

But, if you're a Blue Blood, you're defined by the number of National Championship banners, and that's it. Not total wins, not Final Fours, not National Championship games, not seeding, not conference championships, not rankings. And, besides for the banners hung for tourneys played before the Korean War ended, it looks like we have three won with a hot young coach over an 11 year period that ended some 30+ years ago. I'm not happy with where we are now. And I don't need a boatload of stats to show me where we are.

But I'm hopelessly optimistic about IU basketball. Yes, I know what oxymoron means.

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On 4/1/2019 at 10:48 AM, IUCrazy2 said:

That all sucks.

I am trying to temper my expectations about the program but the Board of Trustees and Administration who have run this program for the past 25 years have absolutely destroyed one of the gems of this University.

I am all fine with Archie getting some time now but I am still royally pissed at what happened to this program.  With all of the built in advantages we should have had here, to hear that Miller basically laughed about the way some of the stuff was being run at Indiana is infuriating to say the least.  

I'm curious to know what things Archie didn't agree with and laughed at...care to share? Apologies if it was discussed somewhere else previously.

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56 minutes ago, T-Free20 said:

I'm curious to know what things Archie didn't agree with and laughed at...care to share? Apologies if it was discussed somewhere else previously.

The one I have heard for sure was how much we compensate other schools for those one off games in Bloomington.  I believe changes were made to the training table too.

Someone else could probably fill in more.

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9 hours ago, IUCrazy2 said:

The one I have heard for sure was how much we compensate other schools for those one off games in Bloomington.  I believe changes were made to the training table too.

Someone else could probably fill in more.

I didn’t hear the Podcast where some of this cake out yet, but I think there were just a lot of organizational things that matter that he was really surprised about. One thing I remember seeing posted was something about the compliance department basically treating their job as to try and bust them as opposed to working with the coaches to navigate the recruiting landscape. 

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Had a painful conversation with a lady today who is college shopping with her daughter. They’ve lived in Indiana briefly but aren’t from the Midwest. She said they are looking at IU & Purdue among others. Then she said, ‘I’m a big basketball fan, so of course I’m pushing Purdue”.

Almost gagged 

 

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16 minutes ago, 13th&Jackson said:

Had a painful conversation with a lady today who is college shopping with her daughter. They’ve lived in Indiana briefly but aren’t from the Midwest. She said they are looking at IU & Purdue among others. Then she said, ‘I’m a big basketball fan, so of course I’m pushing Purdue”.

Almost gagged 

 

You should have replied, "Your daughter is ugly, so she should fit right in there!"

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20 hours ago, 13th&Jackson said:

It’s like the Washington Redskins. From 1972 to 1992 they went to 5 Super Bowls, winning 3. The three wins came in a 10 year period from 1982 to 92. Joe Gibbs is a legendary Hall of Fame coach. George Allen, as well. 

From 1993 through 2019, they’ve been to the playoffs five times with a record of 2-5. That’s with the expanded Wild Card. 

They are a historic franchise, but I suspect the age demographic of their fan base is very similar to the Hoosiers. 

Conversely, I’m old enough to remember when the Patriots were a joke called the Patsies. But no one under 40 knows that. 

Indiana has the history and foundation to reclaim its status, but needs to start winning consistently 

I also grew up a Redskins fan. Snake bit!

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