Indiana MSU no rivalry now, but just wait

First appeared on December 31st, 2011 in The Lebanon Reporter
Ford vs. Chevy. Us vs. the Soviets. Kramer vs. Kramer. Elmer Fudd vs. Bugs Bunny. And, come November 2012, President Obama vs. someone the Republican Party really doesn’t want to nominate but at some point had to. We as American’s have a long history of being captivated by rivalries. They both fascinate and drive us. By nature we eat them up (and, as the most obese nation on Earth, apparently rivalries aren’t the only things we enjoy eating up).

When it comes to college basketball however Indiana vs. Michigan State doesn’t scream “rivalry” in any sense of the word. Fans of Indiana men’s basketball have come to appreciate rivalries. During the Bobby Knight era they learned to hate the General’s alma mater Ohio State and a jacket tossing, comb-over sporting Gene Keady only cemented their generational dislike for Purdue. More recently Hoosier fans failed to embrace the rivalries Kelvin Sampson tried to cultivate within the NCAA office of compliance.

But as for Michigan State, in the Tom Crean Era at least, the match up has been anything but a rivalry (for this to be the case Crean would actually have to win a game first). And before you blame everything on Coach Crean, the Hoosiers program has struggled for some time in East Lansing (their last win there coming during Bush the Firsts presidency). Clearly this can’t entirely be his fault, unless you factor in that many of those losses were dealt to the Hoosiers while Crean was on Tom Izzo’s bench, then it most likely is his fault.

But Wednesday night there was something lurking beneath the surface of the Big Ten opener. Something found beyond the 4 point 3 rebound performance of Super Frosh Cody Zeller and the fact Crean is now 0 for his life against his mentor (Izzo). Way past the fact sharpshooter Jordan Hulls likely had his worst shooting performance as a Hoosier, somewhere drifting far below the knowledge that the league’s best Sixth Man (arguably and Will Sheehey) did not play was the discovery that what we may have in Indiana Michigan State is a fast budding rivalry.

For example A that this is a budding rivalry consider the sight of both Izzo and Crean jumping around, veins popping in their necks and foreheads while throwing vicious uppercuts into the air as if they’d just finished Rex Kwondo’s eight week self-defense program for only $300 (as first seen on Napoleon Dynamite). This was a clear indicator that this December game was more than just a Big Ten opener.

One key ingredient in a rivalry is hatred and for the Indiana faithful there are numerous reasons to loath State. Beyond the fact Sparty has supplanted Indiana as the resident National Title contender in the conference, one Hoosier who was instrumental in making the last run for a Title in Bloomington is now on the bench in East Lansing (see Fife, Dane).

One must also remember Blue Chip recruit Gary Harris recently announced, after considering IU amongst a host of other schools, that he will take his talents north of the border and join Izzo. Harris is not the first recruit to choose State as currently there are 3 Hoosiers on Indiana’s roster including Brandon Wood who transferred from Valparaiso after scoring 1,000 points there. One thing remains clear. If this is to become a true rivalry, one capable of repeatedly generating the type of electricity we saw permeating the Breslin Center Wednesday night, Indiana will have to beat Michigan State. Their next opportunity comes on February 28th when Sparty travels to Assembly Hall.

© 2011 Eric Walker Williams