The IU basketball team is this year in what we Hoosier fans call a transition year. To those of you who have not followed IU basketball since the much revered Bobby Knight was so rudely run out of Bloomington, I will bring you up to speed by simply saying that having a basketball team comprised of wholesome players who actually made grades and attended classes was not a priority until Coach Crean arrived on the scene a couple of years ago. Say whatever you will about Coach Knight, but one can never accuse him of not having the grades and graduation of his players as the most important aspect of his basketball and life coaching requirements. It is much to Coach Crean’s credit that he too seems to be able to see the whole persona of a well rounded college athlete. During the recent basketball games that IU played against both Purdue and Illinois, Coach Crean’s team showed their stuff. While IU lost both of these games in the last few seconds, all of us Hoosier fans knew that we on our way back.
So it was that Hoosiers settled into their television viewing seats for what we all figured would be a slam-dunk day both for college basketball and professional football. As I watched the IU-Northwestern game I could not believe that this was the same team that almost beat Purdue on Thursday night…to allow Northwestern (of all teams) to take the lead and never look back? Those of us who refer to the Big Ten, which now has eleven teams in the conference, as “the Big Ten plus Northwestern” could hardly comprehend what we were seeing. AND Coach Crean, I thought he was going to have a hissy fit and possibly even throw a chair as he watched his team play in Evanston. I don’t think I would want to have been on that team bus travelling down I-65 as it returned to Bloomington.
We all had just enough time to refill our wine/beer glasses and grab the chips before it was time for the next chapter of Indiana sports. I think the only people in this country who did not think that the Colts would win were those people living in Louisiana. How could the Colts, not win? After all Payton Manning was a Colt and the only games the Colts lost this year were games in which the name brand players did not play so it just made sense that if Payton was playing then the Colts were destined to win.
The first half of the Super Bowl game looked like the Colts that we here in Indiana know and love…however, it seems that we all in Indiana had forgotten that valuable and vital lesson that the Milan, Indiana basketball taught us in 1954, never doubt or under estimate the spirit and will of the underdog.
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