Archie Miller's Greatest Challenge

[hoosierBGH]

14 hours ago, IUwins0708 said:

If only you knew how close it was, thankfully for us we came out better.

I absolutely agree we came out better. Oh, I don't doubt there was some, likely fairly strong, level of mutual interest between Billy D and IU but when you are only getting a small part of the story and only from one side it is pretty easy to make the mistake of thinking it is the whole story. The rest of the story is that the interest wasn't strong enough for both parties to get it done so it wasn't really a "done deal" that just fell apart. It's not like something similar had happened with Donovan before when he got cold feet. 

I don't doubt that Crean's personality and ego rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, especially when those people are used to being treated with deference by other coaches. I'm also sure that his intensity put a number of recruits off. I'm equally sure there's more to the story with both coaches and recruits though and that it is not all on Crean, especially with the players. 

[hoosierBGH]

13 hours ago, milehiiu said:

  Knight stopped by the house after a fishing trip.  In a 4X4.  Either Eric did not like 4X4's, or Knight wreaked of the smell of fish.  LOL

I kind of took the points of that anecdote to be that, A) Knight was arrogant (ie. saying Montross was "probably good enough to play for him") and didn't make a special effort and B) Dean Smith went out of his way to appeal to Eric's desire to play in the NBA and made a special effort to present himself as the one who could help Eric get nice things(ie. showing up in a limo). Of course given what we now know about Carolina, extending even into the Dean Smith years, showing up in the limo might have been a not so subtle suggestion of the unsanctioned perks of playing at UNC. 

[milehiiu]

6 minutes ago, hoosierBGH said:

I kind of took the points of that anecdote to be that, A) Knight was arrogant (ie. saying Montross was "probably good enough to play for him") and didn't make a special effort and B) Dean Smith went out of his way to appeal to Eric's desire to play in the NBA and made a special effort to present himself as the one who could help Eric get nice things(ie. showing up in a limo). Of course given what we now know about Carolina, extending even into the Dean Smith years, showing up in the limo might have been a not so subtle suggestion of the unsanctioned perks of playing at UNC. 

That ,my friend, was at a time when the "Wheels for Heels" program was well under way.  And well known.