Merry Christmas Hoosier Fans

First appeared on November 30th, 2010
in The Lebanon Reporter

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad Hoosier fans. Here’s to a good Kwanzaa and a Happy Festivus too. The time has come to celebrate so bust out the fruitcake and a plate of Buneulos. Tell the kids to fill the Unity cup and put up the old aluminum pole.


November 2010 will go down as a turning point for the Indiana University men’s basketball program. For not only have their fortunes changed, but the last month has confirmed what so many Hoosier fans were beginning to doubt. As far as rebuilding what once was one of the nation’s top programs is concerned, Tom Crean is the right man.

In signing Washington’s Cody Zeller and getting a verbal commitment from Park Tudor’s Yogi Ferrell, Crean has amassed a group of recruits that will serve as a steroid shot to the arm of his program. And not just your run of the mill “I’m a 150 pound shortstop who wants to slam 40 homers “steroid shot either. Rather we’re talking the kind of steroid shot that would have had Barry Bonds slamming balls not just over McCovey Cove, but across all 5,500 miles of the Pacific Ocean.

A Home Run ball long enough to shatter the window of Kim Jung IL’s palatial Pyongyang palace before ricocheting off his head. A shot hopefully strong enough to do irreparable damage to the tiny pea brain his bulbous, gourd-like skull protects. For hitting a rocket like that, Bonds might even once again regain American Hero status.

If there were any doubt after a 16 and 46 start to his career in Bloomington, this has to be the sign so many were looking for. All his tempered comments, all his hustling around the nation keeping a finger on the pulse of AAU basketball and all his titillating tweets appear to be finally paying off.

In landing Zeller and Ferrell, Crean has not just ensured a competitive future on the court for the Hoosiers, but he has also ensured they will once again be a viable option for the nation’s top talent. Prospective in-state kids will now see Indiana as a desirable place. And, once Zeller and Ferrell are on campus, prospective out of state kids will see many IU games on ESPN.

In landing Zeller and Ferrell, Crean is also one step closer to fulfilling his goal of building a program on local talent. For too long Hoosier fans have watched as the state’s top kids migrated to better locales, but now Crean has taken a major step towards taking the state back.

And while the forecast for the long term looks promising, the short run still promises a mighty hill for Indiana to climb. To this point Crean’s Hoosiers have taken advantage of a lighter than normal preseason schedule to get out to a solid start. But with 5 teams currently ranked in the top 20 nationally (3 in the Top 10), the Big Ten schedule may be one of the most brutal in recent memory.

Which brings us back to Crean. Contrary to popular belief, the measure of a good coach isn’t always wins and losses. A good college coach sells his program to his kids. A good college coach sells his vision to kids. A good college coach can keep a group of young men together in the face of tremendous adversity.

For Crean, he has proven he can sell his program and his vision. His next test is to keep his kids together in the face of a difficult Big Ten schedule. If he can do this, the wins and losses are sure to follow.