Greatest Year over Year Turnarounds

[The Daily Hoosier]

We take a look at the best single season turnarounds as the Hoosiers look to add another to this list.

Got another one that we didn't include?

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/indiana-basketball-greatest-single-season-turnarounds/

[milehiiu]

This turnaround took a number of years to develop.  As IU started playing BB in the 1900-1901 season. And it took until IU's first full time coach Everett Dean to secure  IU 's first co-big ten championship in 1926.

 

Yeah. I know. Before all of our time.  However, Coach Dean truly was... IU's first great BB coach. 

[rico]

To this day, I still scratch my head about the '76-'77 team.

[Hoosierhoopster]

I’ve been thinking we may well see a turnaround like when Cody joined that 2011 team. Romeo may have that same impact and with the guys returning the stage is set 

[jblaz13]

I still feel bad for the 88-89 class in a way.

That particular class led to a lot of bittersweet memories of IU Basketball, for me . I can't shake the feeling that fortune worked against them as much if not more than most other things. There was some responsibility there to be placed over some departures, and some high profile recruiting misses.. The high profile transfers didn't help either. In honest hindsight that is where the real problems at IU really started to have a negative effect on the program. Yet there were so many household names here on those teams, and the state embraced the game with much more appreciation in those times. It was really a slow decline from being elite if you get to the bottom line.People like to  point to the Knight firing, but it was those years Knight openly recounts where it started to really ferment to the beyond repairable point where it has remained ever since. Just saying. RMIK's comments about having wished he had left for NM are actually revealing about what the players in the 88-89 class arrived amidst. It was truly unfortunate for them as kids who were just doing what seemed right and coming so close off the title.  There aren't so many secrets about the political ____storm going on behind the scenes back then and enough boiled into the public, especially locally in Bloomington. That sums up most of what I've managed to gather about it over the years between both people I've known who were  close to the situation, and whatever has surfaced publicly since. A lot of what held IU back wasn't a big secret , though. That was also around the then-modern(3- point shot era)  renaissance of the true center, and Indiana didn't really have a great true center in those days. IU had some really good 4's and they pretty much lived and died by that position since there were several great Gs and SFs that came through the program. That's not to take away from 4-5's who played with that core like Anderson, Nover,  Henderson, and anyone I might be leaving out, later. Not having a more complete team in terms of the basketball being played at the time, and the talent level in the college game with less early entry into the NBA, seemed very tangible. As the general time period goes, it's hard to pick what bummed me out most between Funderburke transfer, Edwards issues, and not getting Montross,  but missing on Montross sure felt the worst.

 

Just some random thoughts .Thanks for the share!

[IU Scott]

21 hours ago, jblaz13 said:

I still feel bad for the 88-89 class in a way.

That particular class led to a lot of bittersweet memories of IU Basketball, for me . I can't shake the feeling that fortune worked against them as much if not more than most other things. There was some responsibility there to be placed over some departures, and some high profile recruiting misses.. The high profile transfers didn't help either. In honest hindsight that is where the real problems at IU really started to have a negative effect on the program. Yet there were so many household names here on those teams, and the state embraced the game with much more appreciation in those times. It was really a slow decline from being elite if you get to the bottom line.People like to  point to the Knight firing, but it was those years Knight openly recounts where it started to really ferment to the beyond repairable point where it has remained ever since. Just saying. RMIK's comments about having wished he had left for NM are actually revealing about what the players in the 88-89 class arrived amidst. It was truly unfortunate for them as kids who were just doing what seemed right and coming so close off the title.  There aren't so many secrets about the political ____storm going on behind the scenes back then and enough boiled into the public, especially locally in Bloomington. That sums up most of what I've managed to gather about it over the years between both people I've known who were  close to the situation, and whatever has surfaced publicly since. A lot of what held IU back wasn't a big secret , though. That was also around the then-modern(3- point shot era)  renaissance of the true center, and Indiana didn't really have a great true center in those days. IU had some really good 4's and they pretty much lived and died by that position since there were several great Gs and SFs that came through the program. That's not to take away from 4-5's who played with that core like Anderson, Nover,  Henderson, and anyone I might be leaving out, later. Not having a more complete team in terms of the basketball being played at the time, and the talent level in the college game with less early entry into the NBA, seemed very tangible. As the general time period goes, it's hard to pick what bummed me out most between Funderburke transfer, Edwards issues, and not getting Montross,  but missing on Montross sure felt the worst.

 

Just some random thoughts .Thanks for the share!

I am sorry but if you couldn't enjoy the teams from 90-94 then you sure have a problem.  You had 4 sweet 16's two elite 8's and a final four and that is one of the best stretches of IU basketball except for 72-76.  The down turn for RMK was the Reed and Patterson class because they totally underperformed.

[jblaz13]

4 hours ago, IU Scott said:

I am sorry but if you couldn't enjoy the teams from 90-94 then you sure have a problem.  You had 4 sweet 16's two elite 8's and a final four and that is one of the best stretches of IU basketball except for 72-76.  The down turn for RMK was the Reed and Patterson class because they totally underperformed.

Nope. I enjoyed them more than any core in my life at the time they played.I'd just started to really understand the intricacies of the game at that time..I still remember being on the bus ride home from Moorseville with the BHSS Freshman team when IU beat the Fab 5 up in Ann Arbor .I can't think of many times where I was that happy with an IU sports outcome in my lifetime.

 I just think you may not be in the know of how close a few of my family ties were to IU and people who knew things behind closed doors.It wasn't Bob Hammel level access , but close and I had as -if not a more reliable pipeline of info than most modern day "insider stuff". As an already IU -crazed young teenager in the early 90's , I worked my cousin over for every last detail his father had shared with him every time we hung out.Not only was he on the IU Football roster for a short time , but was the child of a soon to be administrator and his father has close friendships to this day with several of the more well- known players (in both FB and BB) from the "good old" days you mentioned.I'm literally  talking about the beginning of the end of those so think what you want. 

I'm still sorry that  having a wider, clearer view of reality leads you to the narrow conclusion of "problems" on my part .  Bittersweet was my exact term, so I guess I didn't gush enough for you to take away something accurate?  Fact is, having a legit source to accurate info on real issues going on really put a damper on my enjoyment, especially worrying if RMK was headed out the door or not. Craziest thing to me is, I still don't think I truly realized how close RMK was to leaving since he obviously didn't. I have no issue whatsoever with people who choose to remember what they want about their times as a fan. 

 Those were definitely Elite NC level teams.  IU was wearing the bullseye with pride and playing mostly (in my lifetime)the best ball I've saw to this day in a nasty B1G . and there's  no denying it sucked they didn't get to put #6 in the rafters.We can point to whatever reason we want for that , but it doesn;t change it .. I have nothing but love and respect for the 88-89 team and the early 90's iterations that came together around therm. It doesn't change that my heart's always going to hurt a little for that core never finishing in the NCAAT. 

 

[hoosiertildeath]

Thanks for your post !! Because of all of the negative Coach Crean posts I had forgotten the Crean actually beat those Kainsucky Cheaters and won 27 games that same season  [VBG] !! Nice trip down Memory Lane !!