DISQUS

I have referred several times to the crisis in leadership in IU hoops. Most responses to these posts have been defensive, questioning my judgement and loyalty. Most of those responses have used poor grammar and spelling. Well, are you ready to take your heads out of the sand yet?

I like a lot: the message boards, recruiting news, occasional eye candy, tons of effort and resources. Improve: we are all IU fans sure, but more legitimate, fair, balanced criticism of IU like the Lance Stemler boooing issue is welcome.

A young Hoosier man goes to Hoosier Daddy and says, "Pa, I'm gonna marry me a virgin."
Hoosier Daddy shows some concern and says, "Son, thats not a good idea."
"Why, Pa?" the kid asks.
"Well son," he confides, "If she ain't good enough for her own family, then she ain't good 'nuf for ours."

Wow, the IU recruits averaged about 16 points/game this week in high school. Stop the presses! This might be news if the lead of the story is about how weak this ruiting class appears. There is one missing report:
Devin Ebanks: Scored a career high on his favorite PS2 game.

Nice picture.

Sampson is to blame for the crisis of leadership on this team. When the leader is a cheater, then there are serious problems. The cheater is in a no-win situation now. The young people on his team are following the example he sets for them - bending the rules as the rules suit them. The fault for that poor example lies squarely on the leader, the cheater.
The Sporting News magazine article in the current issue is prophetic. It describes how number 23 is a derisive force toward team achievement. I read this article as I watched IU dismantle KU without superman.
Beside being a cheater, the "coach" can also add "liar" to his resume. I feel manipulated after he reported all week that number 23 would play against KU.
The CBS broadcast was refreshing compared to all the Lance Stemler love that the big 10 Network pours down our throat. It seems ironic that we are not inundated with media images of Stemler as the posterboy for overachievement and teamwork during the one game when superman does not play and they play their best as a team.

I like the picture of the UK shirt.

Pritchard has much Matt Nover in him. He has a legitimate college forward body with little athleticism. This shows even against high school competition. He showed good ability to block out and grab the ball. He is slow to move his feet on defence. In this respect he will fit in on IU.

It is not just Stemler. The whole team except for number 23 and White are marginally talented division 1 players.

Is there a point to the message, "Sampson you can call me anytime."? Is it supportive, derogitory, or nuetral toward Sampson and his repeated violations? It just does not make much sense to me.

Besides being "blue collar," us slow talent challenged white dudes are also "intlligent."

Fellow posters,
I commented in the previous article that Eric Gordon's game resembles that of Ben Gordon or Vinnie Johnson. Other comments disagreed. Well, who in the league does Eric Gordon's game resemble? If anybody thinks Michael or Kobe, then I disagree. I feel time will show that even if he stays healthy he will never be a transformational type or championship-quality difference maker. I also see some Michael Redd, Alan Houston in him- not much better then them offensively. He does show better defensive effort and energy.

IU looked good against teams which are borderline Division I teams. I think we caught a glimpse of how well this team can compete among elite teams. I posted it here when I first saw an IU exhibition game that offensively Gordon is a spot up shooter and that is it. Tonight he tried for the first game that I saw to drive, slash, penetrate, and create off the dribble. This is obviously not his game. He looked like a different player shooting contested shots. At 6' 4" he is undersized for this roll. He will never be a complete shooting gaurd. I watch a lot (too much) of the Bulls. Eric Gordon is Ben Gordon. They are limited as jump shooting specialists. Players like Vinnie Johnson contributed to championships in this roll, but he will not carry a team to a championship. The only other player with any NBA potential on IU, White, is also limited. Too slow to match up with an NBA wing, and too weak and small to play NBA power forward. I saw IU as completely overmatched physically last night. The Xavier team was just as quick and athletic as IU, but so very much bigger and stronger. Sampson is a cheater in recruiting, but there is no evidence here to suggest that he is pushing the kids to get gopped up on the goop. The good news is that they are pretty young. They have a few months to develop as a team. Their window is definately a few months, not a few years. The talent leaving is a lot more than the talent coming in the future years. This is the year.

Where is it documented that Basset is in the hospital?

I am alittle curious as to what advantage there is to not play with all the available scholarships. Would somebody help clear this up. Why not give a one year scholarhip to one of the non-scholarship players on the roster? I am assuming that a less-talented/less-recruited player is not offered a (four-year) scholarship so that in future years there are more available to recruit more desirable players. I are any of my assumptions on track? Could someboby answer these recruiting and scholarship questions.

Booing is appropriate for poor effort especially. The sort of coddling that goes on toward IU hoops in the media and apparently among their fans is very provincial. The world as I have come to know it just does not always work in this unconditionally supportive way. Poor effort and poor results deserve to elicit expressions of disappointment. Teenagers in the work-world find out all the time there are hurtful, negative consequences for poor job performance. When I was a teenager I was fired from KFC for putting chicken in the dishwater. It hurt my feelings to get fired. Basketball is the job of IU basketball players. They receive scholarships. They come to IU hoping to be in the spotlight. This team has a decent chance to win championships. I will be very disappointed if they do not due to poor effort. Here is my comment on the first half of that Chatanooga game: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I'm concerned with the leadership crisis in IU basketball right now. One of the areas we may see immediate fallout is in recruiting. The coach who left was a recruiting specialist on the East coast. It is great to see Ebanks onboard, but there are several top talents from the '09 class out East who are very much in jeopardy.I am afraid that next year will be a year of great transition at IU. I can imagine many different scenarios involving more coaching changes and/or increased sanctions. Also I see next year's team as a mostly young squad with no championship-caliber impact player(s). I do not see any interior/low post scoring for the Hoosiers after White leaves. Thomas will have to show a lot more before I am comfortable with him as the man in the middle. I have seen way too many perimeter-oriented IU teams over the years and I fear that is what we will continue to see after this year.

Were the other posters watching the same game I did last night? I did not see IU play well at all. They played with little energy against a completely overmatched Division II opponent. They were consistantly out of position on defence. Only their far superior athleticism made up for glaring defensive lapses. There was very little motion on offense away from the ball. When they would run a pick or screen, then the ball was committed to that player. Eric Gordon is a younger Ben Gordon. He is a spot up shooter. Perhaps it was part of last night's scheme, but I saw none of the penetration, slashing , or creating off the dribble that I was hoping to see from him. This team looks just as bad as last year's team from very early in the season. They are more a collection of fine athletic talent than they are a team working together to achieve the common championship goal. They will have to improve even much more than they did last year over the coarse of the season to make this year's final four. With this talent anything less than a final four will be an underachievement.

There is some cultural bias evident in this article. One of the author's first reaction is something like "Crack? Why not ecstacy?" Well, that is the trapping of preference among black youth in our country. Ecstacy seems more likely preferred by a frat boy from from the suburbs or hippie chick running aroud Bloomington.
So, what's up with the kid? Will he receive treatment/help? Has he been arrested, charged with a crime, etc.? Will he play ball in college...at IU?

If he does not play this year, then does he get another year of eligibility later?