Zuckerkorn

Over our past coach searches (oh, I hate using the plural form of that word) I recall various rival schools mocking us for not wooing a big-name, established coach - as if any of them would have ever left their current teams. At those times several of us speculated about just who or how the current elite teams would replace their legendary coaches. Now we're seeing that none of them thus far have pulled in the Stevens', Donovans or poached a coach from any other perennial contender. Nope, it's a passing of the guard for multiple blue blood type teams. History has shown that the failure rate is pretty high for coaches who directly succeed HOF coaches. It will be interesting to see how much sway Duke/UNC will have going forward based solely on past reputation.

People, especially young people, don't realize how high the cost of a punch thrown in anger can be. Uwe Blab's son died in such a tragic way. https://www.hoosiersportsreport.com/2010/01/blabs-son-killed-in-altercation/

I had no idea of the origin, but that article makes perfect sense - Doc Counsilman was an innovator and way ahead of his time. I was told in the mid-70's that some of his training techniques were adopted by coach Knight (a relative who has no direct connection to IU told me, so IDK if it's true). On a semi-related note, several years ago I found out about the origins of "Indiana, our Indiana" - kind of disappointed that the music was not original. You'd think with such a distinguished school of music that someone would have composed it specifically for the school.

Just a few thoughts on CAM: - Maybe with a guaranteed handsome income, coming off what had to be a stressful tenure at IU, he might decide to just spend time with his family for a while. I believe his daughter is in her teens and they have no other kids - couldn't fault the guy for wanting to make up for lost opportunities to spend time with her and his wife while he can. - I don't know if we'll ever know to what extent any constraints were placed on him when he took over. If they they were significant, I could see them (along with some bad luck injuries) preventing him from building a national contender. But, even with whatever hand he was dealt, his teams still under performed and failed to develop and compete at an acceptable level - not only at IU, but any B10 program. - In retrospect, I just don't think Archie was as passionate about being at IU as we would hope or expect. Certainly his predecessor and successor showed/show much more enthusiasm for the job. Someone said that it might have been a case of the opportunity being too good to pass up, but not a "dream job". I really think that was true.

Realizing that we're all totally biased, and new coaching hires always bring optimism, I have to remind myself that the proof is always in the actual pudding - but this time seems very different. It's almost like we've been trying to build our house by ourselves for the last couple decades and finally hired a reputable construction crew. In a sense I'm enjoying the fact that it seems the rest of the B10 and CBB world have already discounted this overhaul of the program.

Yep, me too. One of the most memorable feeds I have ever seen. I have to watch it in replay & slo-mo to fully appreciate it.

Wasn't the Holiday Bowl win against BYU that same year? Fun times.

My recollection was that he was a really highly sought after recruit and, at the time, the rumor was that he was coming to IU. Years after his death, I've read that his recruitment wasn't settled for IU and there were several schools he was considering. But at the time it felt like we were about to get another superstar player out of Chicago, on the heels of Isaiah Thomas departure.

Bird & Turner are two good ones. I'll add another: If Ben Wilson had not been killed AND had come to play for Knight in the mid 80's.

I wonder what percentage of posters in this thread have ADD? 🤪

It is quite rare to see a recruit or transfer that doesn't have GA listed as "interested". Some things never change, I guess.

I have to wonder. Does Woodson, after viewing video and/or workouts, sit down with some players and say "You have potential and I know we can improve your game, but you probably will never be in the NBA. So it may be in your best interest to redshirt for a year to improve your game and body."? I presume every player dreams of playing professionally and it may be hard to accept being told it is very unlikely to come to fruition, but a kid can play on a competitive team, and carve out a special role as opposed to sitting with the walkons.

I no longer pay any attention to the NBA, but I did for a long enough period to recognize one thing about the Pacers (which I began following in 1970): The Simons are, first and foremost, business people. Their primary interest is to have a profitable franchise. Sure, they want to win, but they aren't going to overpay for success. It's their team and they have every right to do so - and they've been quite successful at it.

"Mike effin' Woodson!"

So far it's difficult to point to a single failure from the new coaching staff. It's pretty rearkable IMO. Woodson and his assistants have definitely hit the ground running! It seemed Archie was never able to quickly close the deal with recruits - even the ones who came. It was almost like we were rarely their first choice. I believe it all comes down to trust, vision and personality of the head coach.

As long as by "football" you don't mean "Australian Rules football", it IS encouraging....😄

When I think back to how Rob was active in helping to convince Romeo to come to IU, I have to think he wants to be a Hoosier. Unfortunately, he chose IU sight unseen and was done no favors by a staff that was not good at player development.

I empathize as a fellow right-fielder who once committed an error before our pitcher ever threw the first pitch of the inning...

Agree. And I'm sure something can be worked out in regard to the delay in salary....

Same here. Let's face it - some schools have advantages others don't have. Duke with tons of free publicity from ESPN is a blatant recruiting advantage. Some schools have great geographical attraction. Some have great facilities because of wealthy alumni. Certainly I don't condone payoffs or other extreme rules violations, but you have to take advantage of loopholes in the rules if you want to be among the top dogs. The concept of having an agreement with an assistant, but not hiring him so that he can continue to have contact with potential recruits is a "loophole" and an advantage. Does anybody suggest we NOT exploit that situation? I hope not!

I'd certainly liked for him to return but having watched several highlight videos of X. Johnson, AF would have been a distant second on that count.

💩

I think most are now on board and enthusiasm is building. I will say this: Much like Bobby Knight was sick of losing to Purdue, I'm even more tired of being more enthusiastic/optimistic in the off-season rather than during the season. I'm really eager to see that change!

I didn't even think to try it via the website (doh!). I've watched via the IHSAA roku app for a number of years. I have no idea why the regional games required registration and payment via the app a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps it was because of whoever was supplying the feed?