A few disturbing things have got me thinking lately about "staying away from the edges".
How do I mean that? Well, I mean that in a lot of ways.
Does it mean be a fundamentalist? Well, not exactly.
Core versus periphery can be a stange juxtaposition of goals, conceptually and strategically.
What I guess I mean is do be centered and correct in our efforts and appetites, both physically and emotionally. If that falls over into the ranges of psychology, spirituality, sociality and professionality, then so be it.
What are the bad things?
Well, where to start?
Since I am a Hoosier, I will start with my home state. (Incidentally, I have been mostly elsewhere the last ten years...)
Kelvin Sampson wanted victory so much that he couldn't stop making extra phone calls to recruits, a bad habit that he was caught doing in Oklahoma. Indiana administrators knew this in hiring him and still pushed the limits by nabbing him from the Sooners.
It was an extreme move, especially considering that Coach Sampson had his best recruiting class ever to Norman that coming fall. No matter. He went to the extremes of switching schools for a dream job, and now he is an assistant coach in Milwaukee for the Bucks.
And the IU team is trying to pick up the pieces. They have only one returning player from last year; a former walk-on.
They picked a good one in Tom Crean. We Hoosier fans hope that he is extremely good, like previous coaches Bob Knight and Branch McCracken, but not extreme in his efforts to succeed in a sport and profession of many rules that limit the excesses of intentions to get the winning edge; also known as cheating.
Russia and Georgia have gone to extremes to secure or stridently assert their national interests in the regions of Ossetia, both north and south.
This is a very ugly situation, where thousands already are being either killed, terrorized or made homeless by fleeing from raids and bombings.
Over what? Extremist versions of what both nations and other ethnicities among them want: they need to find the moderate path of peace, which is something that neither Georgia or Russia seem willing to accept for the time being.
Which brings us as Americans to our Long War.
Extremists got us involved in a violent and deadly conflict overseas, in our attempts to prevent those same extremists from affecting more terror here.
And many of those populations overseas assume that we are now the aggresor in terrorism to our own standard.
Obviously there is a better standard than death and violence. Can we discover it? Ever?
Police and law enforcement seek after these answers day after day, year after year.
A never ending battle for the happy medium of protection of society versus the rights and freedoms of the individual.
Us sports fans know that we have to bestow almost absolute powers on a select few (i.e. coaches, managers, captains, etc.) in order to create a proper system of order and a system of discipline and success.
This is reality. The needs of the individual have to be supplanted for the greater good of the team and the bigger cause of the overarching goal.
And then my last disturbing thing or phenomena, which I have brought up before but it seems will never go stale as its neccessity to reiterate:
Pornography.
Sure all of us human beings enjoy the human form, and we all have desires to enjoy.
But to the extreme?
Let's keep the images in our eyes and in our minds moderate. Too much of any thing is bad.
Do you think there is a moderate usage of the above items? In the public sphere?
Should sex be displayed for all of us to purview?
Or is nudity a function of public pleasure?
Keep it private. Keep things to yourself and don't exploit those images that perhaps you have trapped in you but don't subject others to it.
It demeans the people that it exploits, but it also demeans and belittles our own dignity.
Sexploitation is not a sport. Neither is religious preaching, per se, which many might accuse this point and post of mine as being, but what I am advocating are the ground rules that I have tried to argue are the necessary functions of any game or endeavor in the first place.
No excesses, stay away from the edges.
Be modest in all your endeavors. Keep your clothes on and don't abuse the privacy of others.
A few Olympic swimmers have been guilty of going too far with their powers of "sex appeal".
Treasure turns into trash when not properly maintained.
Make sense?
And finally, this story to help illustrate my point.
A boss of a truck company was hiring drivers to make a dangerous run across the mountains.
He asked his first interviewee, "How close can you drive to the edge of the road and still get the job done?"
Wishing to please the potential boss and trusting in his own ability, the job applicant replied confidently, "I can drive within a foot of the edge, and I have done this with no probelm."
He didn't get the job.
The next applicant was asked the same question with this forsight from his unsuccessful buddy. He responded, "Sir, I can drive within six inches of the edge and get any payload through any range of mountains."
He was shocked to be turned down.
The final applicant, a person who didn't try to cut corners, boast or answer according to how he thought others would like, but trying to be true to his own values, after thinking about this question said," Sir, I drive as far from the edge as possible."
He got the job.
So, when you think of your own values, hopes and dreams, whether they be for your own life pursuits or for you sports teams or political or economic interests, try to remember:
Stay away from the edges, and don't let extremism be your downfall.
Perhaps we can all make it through this treacherous journey called life in one piece.
And we might like to enjoy our appetites and hopes in moderation, not getting too hurt in the process.
Four Coaches in Eight Years: Indiana's Knight Transition
As you might presume from my bio and if you know more about my background, I fashion myself a resident connoisseur of the Bobby Knight legend, to a degree. This is one of my strengths as a sports blogger.
But it is also a weakness, becasue I loved and hated the guy, but mostly love him almost like a son loves and respects his father. You didn't always approve of his outward "style", but you had to admire and appreciate the inner motor and heart, the passion, vigor and excellence to the rule. He is now the winningnest coach of all time in Division 1 basketball. Not too shabby, among all his other achievements and legacy as a fiery coach of young men.
And in September of this year we will mark eight years since his firing. Eight years since he grabbed that young freshman from nearby Brown County and said, "It is Coach Knight pr Mr. Knight, to you!"
I student taught that young man the previous year. He is one of three identical twins and a good kid. His stepfather had an open and public enmity with the General, and therefore things got dragged out of proportion.
Mike Davis did his best, but he was a first time caoch and he consistently lost great recruits to either other schools or the NBA. Davis made it to the championship game in 2002, but those were still Knight recruits with Davis in the background.
Then Kelvin Sampson brought his two years of excitement and controversy. And illegal phone calls, like with Bill Clinton promising that he had been unfaithful as a governor but would be chaste as the US executive. Whoops!
Kelvin left the cabinet quite empty, but Tom Crean brings a lot of prestige and energy, and a few top recruits. Mostly guards, however.
NCAA sanctions remain to be seen, and even if there is a post season ban for the upcoming season of 2009, it remains to be seen if the brand new IU basketball team can scrap through the Big Ten to make it contest.
Who knows? Maybe the the three big men can make a presence and the rest of the guards could run crazy?
Didn't work for Mike Davis as recently as 2004-2005...Losing season and first round loss in the NIT...
So now it is Crimson and CREAN, and us Hoosiers and other afficionados of the game of collegiate athletics await some glory.
Who knows? Maybe a line up of 80% guys 6'5 and smaller can win a few games, tourneys? Maybe the self sanctions of IU foregoing some scholarships will be enough self inflicted punishment to appease the NCAA board coming in the nest few weeks?
It is a time of transition and hope for the IU faithful.
But my guess is that Crean will bring the legend of Knight back to the courts and arenas of college basketball.
Watch out Kansas and UNC and Ohio State and UCLA:
McCracken got two, Knight three and Tom Crean is now in town. And the future is wide open.
Where were you when the Boston Celtics (presumably of Irish origin) first won their very first NBA ring?
If you are at all near my age, you were not born yet. What year was it?
1957, as I check my ESPN Sports Almanac.
My dad was a 19 year old from Wilmington Mass, (North Boston) and soon to be twenty. He would end up attending approximately five colleges, including four years of the Air Force and 2 1/2 years of the Peace Corps before moving to Indiana. Hence me.
And meanwhile, the Celts of Red Auerbach fame was racking up the wins.
Bill Russell won the last two of the sixties, and then they got two more in the seventies with Bill Cowens, 3 more in the eighties with Bird, McHale, Parrish, DJ and Ainge...
And the nineties came and went, sans Bias and Reggie Lewis...
And then Ainge came back (after Red had died) and got the right pieces.
And it happens again. #17.
Last time for me in 1986, I was 15. Now I am 37.
Put up another banner.
My dad never got any college degrees. I have three so far. I am in the running for a fourth (an Associates), and we shall see.
Ironic, this cycle of life.
I don't know if Red Auerbach ever earned a college degree.
Doesn't matter in the end.
Does Kevin Garnett have one yet? Doesn't matter right now. He is a tenured veteran of one of the most demanding schools in the world.
Paul Pierce attended Kansas. Ray Allen, Connecticut. Rajon Rondo, Kentucky. Kendrick Perkins? Not sure.
PJ Brown and Sam Cassell? I think the latter went to Cinncinnati. Like the Big "O". Eddie House? Leon Powe attended UC Berkeley, and Glenn Big Baby Davis LSU.
Pollard was a Jayhawk and Scalabrine a Trojan of Southern Cal.
Tony Allen got his training at OK State, right?
We have been to college, paid a few dues, and we win our championships in cycles.
My boy is almost two now. Celtics win it, like they did in 1973 when I was that little almost.
Congrats to the continuing cycle.
Gleen Doc RIvers? You tell me.
Danny Ainge? I'll tell you. He went to the university where we of my faith credit an 18th century visionary, Brigham Young.
No more cigars lit by the GM for now.
Just another ring for the Celtic finger and another banner in the rafter.
to qualify, I had to like the team previously... as in, before the season (started).
(years I liked the team)
1) 1987 IU Hoosiers, college b-ball (1975-present)
My hometown and eternal love. The reason my parents moved to Bloomington in the first place in 1967? A guy in Sierra Leone in the Peace Corps told my father that if he wanted to attend IU, he had a connection. I guess that was it! And then he quit his studies and established his career there. And there I was. Home.
Hoosiers is home. Anywhere in the world, the roundball takes me back. And 1987 was my best moment of victory. My sophomore year of high school at Bloomington South. Steve Alford, Daryl Thomas, Ricky Calloway, Dean Garrett, Keith Smart and the bench players Joe Hillman and Steve Eyl.
Wow.
2) 1984 BYU Cougars, college football (1978-present)
I didn't follow this team as closely as I would have liked. I was not as invested in college football as I would soon be. Perhaps this result lead to it. I saw BYU beat Michigan in the Holiday Bowl on TV, and it was a perfect season, enraging the future BCS leagues to be.
History, all right. LaVell Edwards deserved the credit for so many great teams from the late 1970s until that pinnacle year with Robbie Bosco.
They were perfect. They beat ranked Pittsburgh and everyone else, including the annual PAC 10 opponent.
They shall make it there again.
Bronco is on a mission. I heard him speak. He's powerful.
3) 2005 Chicago White Sox, MLB (1992-present)
Tim Raines not only got me to switch alliances with teams, from the Montreal Expos to the Chicago White Sox, but eventually to prefer the AL over the NL.
Raines, Sr. did not last in Chitown too long, just long enough to really enjoy Frank Thomas and Ozzie Guillen and the organization.
10 years after his departure from the snake bit Pale Hose, they have their breakthrough season while I was back down in Chile.
I missed most of the second half of the season, but through the Internet and a fortuitous friend in the Angol City of the 9th Region, I was able to see history achieved. Just a little over 5000 miles to the south. Maybe six.
4) 1996 New york yankees, MLB (1994-1998)
Rock Raines, childhood hero since his his rookie year of 1981, got picked up with the resurgent Yanks. I had started pulling for the Yankees a couple years prior, due largely to guys like Don Mattingly, a native Hoosier who was simply fun to watch play the game. Pettite and a few others were a fun team to see come together, like Big Cecil Fielder.
And Raines helped these guys come back against the Braves and snag their first ring since the 70s of Reggie Jackson, the first World Series for my guy Timmy in his fifteen year career. I was 26. I had waited for this since I was 10.
5) 1981 IU Hoosiers, CBK (1975-present)
I was young but I appreciated this team more as time wore on. Isaih Thomas, Ray Tolbert (my favorite), Landon Turner, Ted Kitchell, Randy Wittman and bench player Jim Thomas were the first 9 loss team to win it all.
Reagan was shot and then the Tar Heels cam up short.
Zeke had his day in Philly and went pro. Knight had his second championship in Philadelphia.
And this pushed me to want and expect more from my Hoosiers. The hunger and expectation has been there ever since.
6) 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, CBK (1975-present)
I was a tike of five years old. But this championship, the first for the General and the last undefeated team in NCAA basketball made its mark.
Kent Benson was a giant who entered my parents' copy shop. Quinn Buckner went on to play with Larry Bird in Boston. Scott May was the All-American who had broke his arm the year before.
Other names float around, including the names established by the '73 Final Four Hoosiers...Bobby Wilkerson, John Laskowski...
7) 1989 Detroit Pistons (1981-1994)
Zeke, Dumars and the Microwave, OH MY!
Laimbeer, Rodman, Spider Salley and Rick Mahorn made them the "Bad Boys", but I was so relieved at the change of the guard from the Celtics and Lakers.
All hail Isaih! He got his rings. And Rodman and the other big guys were pushy but you had to love Joe and Vinnie Johnson.
8)2004 Boston Red Sox (1975-1980s, more or less 90s, 2002-present)
Ahhh, put the ghosts to bed. My grandpa can rest easy in his grave. What a relief. So much talent, so little gratification.
About time, Beantown!
9) Hmmmm... Honestly, that might be it No. There are many more favorite teams that should be added. But: do conference and league champions count? Hmmmmm...
Conference champions count, right? Like the 2000 Pacers and the Utah Jazz in 1997 and 1998...
There are other conference champs that I must include.
.There are other teams that I have enjoyed immensely in seeing win it all, but they were bandwagon victories...I guess there are a few IU and BYU teams in there, but not necessarily .........................."Champions"overall...... .................................................. .................................................. .................................
Oh yeah, 2005-6 Indy Colts (1984-present)--but not by getting upset by Pittsburgh! An then the Wild Card goes all the way... My sister wants to own them..someday... (updated March, a month and more later).
You know what I just realized? I totally negected the sports of tennis, the Olympics, soccer and boxing!
Connections of Basketball Threads: Connecting the Dots
A. I am from Bloomington, Indiana. I grew up a few blocks away from the IU campus. I attended Bloomington South from 1985 to 1989. I was a big basketball fan then and now. Church ball, high school, college and pro.
B. Another guy who attended Bloomington High School South those years was a big kid named Chris Lawson. He was 6'10" and pretty good on the basketball court. He signed with hometown school Indiana University and Bob Knight, in 1989, the year of our graduation.
C. That freshman class with Chris had a number of talented players. Greg Graham, Pat Graham (no relation), Calbert Cheaney, Chris Reynolds and Alan Henderson. Did I leave anyone out? This was a very heralded class. Three of the above players went on to enjoy some years in the NBA, not a common feat for a Bob Knight class.
D. Alan Henderson went on to play a long career in the pros. He ended up playing with the Mavs and then the Cavs. He played with Nowitski and King James. The former is from Germany and the latter is from Ohio. Lebron has played with PG Eric Snow who starred at Michigan State in East Lansing.
E. Robert Montgomery Knight hails from the state of Ohio, where he then went on to play for the OSU Buckeyes, that went on to win the NCAA chmapionship with players such as Jerry Lucas and ________, coached by Hall of Fame coach __Fred Taylor. Coach Knight later would recruit and coach Uwe Blab, a 7'2" German center. He had bright red hair, a bit like Chris Lawson. (see B)
F. An hour east of IU's main campus in Monroe County is Indiana State in Terre Haute, Vigo County. Larry Bird attended both, leading one of them to the NCAA championship against Magic Johnson of Michigan State. In 1979, 10 years before yours truly earned that prestigious high school diploma. (see A)
G. Larry Bird, of course of Boston Celtic fame, hails from French Lick, Indiana, some 75 miles south of my home twon of Bloomington. Orange County, Indiana. Very rural. The Celtics currently (2008) have a red headed bench warmer named Brian Scalabrine. He played at USC, not Orange but Los Angeles County, a mere 15 miles from Orange County, California. Some redheads are actually viewed as having ":strawberry blonded" hair, which could also pass for orange.
F. The colors of IU are red. Michigan State's are green. Like the Celtics. The Trojans of USC are maroon and gold. Like the colors of Bloomington North, where Jared Jeffries and Sean May once played. They both went on to play in the NBA. One to the Wiz and the Knicks, the other to the Charlotte Bobcats. All three of those teams have blue in their colors, like the Indiana State Sycamores. Jeffries played for IU, May went to UNC. Chapel Hill. Close to Duke and Coach K.
G. The Orangemen of Syracuse received help from a senior who hails from my hometown of Bloomington Indiana, Kueth Duany. Duany had one of the best dunks in the championship game against the Kentucky Wildcats, 2003. The Orange wear orange, the Wildcats blue. We don't like Kentucky. Hurrah Orange! But Illinois is the only orange color school in the Big Ten. Caveat.
H. Heck, I could go on. But do you get the point?
Have you connected them?The world is a giant orange basketball, and don't think that redheads have not made their impact on the game.
Remember Bill Walton? Redhead. Redbeard. Celtics. Trailblazers. UCLA Bruins.
Wizard of Westwood. From Martinsville, Indiana. You do the math.
Can you connect the dots?
Arnju smart? Keith Smart? He is with the Golden State Warriors. He hit the game winning shot for IU in 1987, my sophomore year at BHSS.
He wore red. The Warriors have orange. All these colors are grand.
Tom Crean has now been at IU a month, and the number of players he has dismissed is large. The exodus from Bloomington has followed the regime change from Kelvin Sampson to Dan Dakich to the heir apparent of Bob Knight.
Most recently it is DeAndre Thomas, the 6'8" 300 pound senior behemoth, plus the confirmation of the expelling of his former Juco teammate 6'5 SF Jamarcus Ellis, as well as two year starter 6'1" sharpshooting guard Armon Basset.
The redshirted 6'9" Eli Holman of Richmond, California, apparently requested a transfer and the police were called at the end of the interview.
Things have settled in Bloomington.
Settled for change and regrouping.
No starters are back. Joe Crawford, 6'3" sophomore SG, is the only significant scorer returning, and former walk on 6'8" Kyle Taber had gained experience on the court and earned a scholarship. He'll be back.
Perhaps these two will start.
Brandon McGee, 6'7" sophomore SF is expected back. He might start.
Two Sampson commits are still coming, Roth is a shooter and Pritchard is a big man.
Now we have Juco transfer Devin Dumas 6'2" SG (PG?) guard and big guard freshman from Alabama Nick Williams.
As Madonna says as Evita Peron: "Where will we go from here?"
NCAA Champs: Coastal States versus the Inland Powers--Who is Better?
If you don’t like talking a little sports history, than perhaps this article is not for you.
But then again, if you do not like sports or history, maybe you should give this a try and re-evaluate your interests. But let me make this disclaimer: I am talking a lot of sports, particularly college basketball, and the history of this sport at the division 1 level.
From 1901 to 1938, there was no NCAA national championship to verify a national champion, but rather it was voted on much like the BCS champions of college football today. Only the twist on that is this voting was retroactively implemented by the Helms Foundation of Los Angeles. There are a few discrepancies of four years and those results as to ultimate winners of that era, but most do not affect the tally of this study.
The question I have posed is this: Who has had more national championship teams, universities located in coastal states or those programs landlocked or inland within the United States? Does it make a difference? And are the tensions still felt today?
I will try to argue that yes, there are still coastal/inland tensions in the college basketball world today.
Recently I read a good post that declared that the four most storied/powerful programs are UCLA, UNC, Duke and Kansas. I reminded him that Indiana and Kentucky are to be counted as well.
So if we can presume that these six teams are the pre-eminent college basketball teams of all time, especially since World War II, at the NCAA Division 1 level, then make this comparison in final results.
NCAA Championships of the coastal schools:
UCLA ………11
UNC………….4
Duke………….3
Total: 18
NCAA Championships of the inland teams:
Kentucky……..7
Indiana………..5
Kansas………..2 (three depending on Monday 4/7/08)
Total: 14 (or 15)
Of course, this is simply a snap shot of the elite schools of each side since 1940.
Between 1901 and 1939 , North Carolina was credited for being the best in 1924, while Kansas the same in 1922 and 1923, plus Kentucky in 1933. (And Helms also picked Kentucky instead of Philly based LaSalle in 1954, despite the latter being counted for coastal states out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.)
That would bring the all time tally of these two trios up to 19 to 18 (or 19). Very close.
That would alter this tally to seem that they are at best even as far as the best competitors go of coastal programs versus inland ones.
But what about the rest of the schools? And how should they be counted? I decided to count Pennsylvania as a coastal state. And even though Durham and Chapel Hill are a bit inland from their respective coastal region, all the states that touch the oceans or gulfs or bays of the salty seas are counted. (Except UTEP, that shortly explained). Even Washington State, much closer to inland Idaho than Seattle, gets the nod as a coastal win.
And therefore here are the results as of 2008, now counting the Memphis/Kansas eventual champion as an inland victory:
1901-1938: Coastal champs 20, inland victors 18.
1939-2008: Coastal champs 36, inland victors 34.
So you can see there is a slight advantage to the coastal states. But not by much. Two more per era, four overall. And another technical note. I considered Texas Western, now known as UTEP, as an inland team with its one win in 1966 among all those Bruin wins. Despite it being in a state on the Gulf of Mexico, it really belongs more to the inland realm. It is some 500+ miles from the ocean, as far as Lexington, Kentucky, is from the Atlantic. And don’t worry coastal folk, Pittsburgh is far from the sea (as is Philadelphia, really), but those are counted for as coastal championships, like Syracuse.
So the coastal states have a slight edge as we have accounted for. But now we have the current tensions of the times. 21st century.
Where do kids want to thrive nowadays? Obviously the best programs, regardless of coastal distance, attract the best talent and there are few if any programs within five miles of the sea (I attended UCLA two years and it is probably between 5-10 miles from the beaches of Santa Monica). Miami and Rhode Island and St. John’s might also come mighty close to a beach or two, not to mention the San Diego schools and Portland, etc.
But when it comes down to it, does this all make a difference? Does UNC and Duke, and now UCLA again pull in the best players because of their coastalness? Do talented kids reared from a drive away from the beaches really consider being landlocked for their college years as a factor?
I suppose it is always a subjective and personal decision in the end. Coaches and fan support can sway the kids, too. Who is hot, who is not? Powers of the past have come and gone (Chicago, Columbia, Penn) and new ones have arisen (Arizona, Florida, Connecticut).
But surprisingly, or maybe not so much so, the balance seems to go on and I predict will do so for the next century to come.
And of course, I hope Indiana will eventually catch those Wildcats and Bruins to prove where the game is really played to perfection.
North Carolina knows this. Both their last champions were riding on the shoulders of Hoosier-bred big men, Sean May in 2005 and Eric Montross in 1993.
How did Kansas do it this year? No Hoosier boy on the Tar Heels. Simplistic but true. And yes, the 1982 squad didn’t need one for obvious reasons. (MJ).
And finally, a plea to all the players back in the heartland: play close to home. Especially Hoosiers. If not IU, we still have Purdue, Notre Dame, Butler and IUPUI. Plus Indiana State and Evansville!
Remember Larry Bird? Millions of Hoosiers do. And the rest of the world.
And then he went on to get 3 more rings for the very coastal Boston Celtics, elite of elite. But that is the pros, and that is subject for another article.
Tom Crean signs a historic deal with Indiana University to be the new head basketball coach, succeeding Dan Dakich, brief interim coach, Kelvin Sampson, would be Hall of Famer turned hall of shamer, Mike Davis, six year overall disappointment of the the legend Bob "Robert Montgomery The General " Knight. Three national titles.
And we are waiting for more.
Go Hoosiers.
Indiana's basketball program will move forward with former Marquette coach Tom Crean leading the way.
He had nine years at Marquette, and was a formidable producer of talent like Dwayne Wade and now Mighty Mouse PG Dominic James and other competitors of the Mighty Big East.
He worked as an assistant in the Big Ten for a number of years since 1989, quite a few with Michigan State, so he knows the confines of Bloomington and Assembly Hall very well.
If only the current players stand fast, stay united and the future recruits keep filing in as they were with Sampson, this program may get past the upcoming sanctions and find itself back on the road of ...
SUCCESS.
More titles.
Glory.
Indiana Basketball.
Life is OK right now.
Crean & Crimson.
The Hurry'n Hoosiers will be back.
Clinch rogers to all his homies in b-ball land.
Tom Crean listens to fans sing the IU fight song outside the Hilton Garden Inn Tuesday evening on College Avenue. Crean signed a letter of agreement with IU to fill the vacant head men's basketball coach position. Jacob Kriese • IDS
BREAKING NEWS 6:24 PM Crean is the next IU coach Tom Crean has signed a letter of agreement and will be the next coach at IU, said IU trustee Philip Eskew Jr. BLOG: Basketblog
Tom Crean went 190-96 in nine seasons at Marquette, including a Final Four appearance in 2003.
AP
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Indiana is turning to Tom Crean to bring respectability back to Hoosiers.
A couple dozen wins each year would help, too.
After a tumultuous season and turbulent coaching search, the Hoosiers finally hired Crean on Tuesday as what they hope will be a long-term replacement for Kelvin Sampson. Sampson resigned in February amid a phone-call scandal that included five major allegations from the NCAA.
The Hoosiers' rabid fans hope that the tinge of NCAA allegations, the craziness that overshadowed basketball for the past six weeks and the disciplinary problems that have continued in the program will all be forgotten now. Crean is expected to be introduced at a news conference Wednesday morning.
I have lived in a few different sports areas and I am faithful to these places and their passions, give or take. I was born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana (1970-1989). Bob Knight was a central figure. I then lived in Chile for two years, where soccer became more of a presence on my global map. After returning to the Hoosier state one year, 1992, I became more aware of college football for a five year stint in Provo, Utah (1993-1997). BYU Cougar football! I made another return to Indiana from 1997 to 1999, and then spent the last six years in southern California, minus the last six months of 2005, in southern Chile again. And I got back yesterday, UPDATE:Now in Loudoun Cty, Northern VA! I am in the South! I love sports enough to think that they matter...Some how.
BLOG: 
Tom Crean went 190-96 in nine seasons at Marquette, including a Final Four appearance in 2003.
AP
