Building Mackey's Great Wall

First appeared on December 17th, 2015
in The Lebanon Reporter

All told, China’s Great Wall is estimated to be around 13,000 miles long, or roughly the driving distance from Indianapolis to Evansville before the completion of the I-69 extension. After 2,000 years, the Wall still snakes across China like a wild river, the only manmade object visible from outer space. Built on the backs of prisoners and slaves, hopeless souls allotted only rice and water, it was the brainchild of a maniac and life preserver that kept Chinese society afloat until the advent of gunpowder.

It took the Chinese over 2,000 years and far too many empires to name here to finish their wall, it took Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter around 48 months to build his. But what he’s created is impenetrable. It is imposing. It is historic. It is the Great Wall of Mackey.

What the Boilers have in A.J. Hammons, Isaac Haas and Caleb Swanigan is the best kept secret in college basketball. For, despite an undefeated start, few are talking about Purdue, and Painter would seemingly have it no other way. When you’re blue collar to the core you don’t have time for praise, yours is a life dedicated to productivity and industriousness.

The Chinese were certainly an industrious bunch. They gave the world gunpowder, fireworks, whiskey and toilet paper and is there really anything else one needs come Friday night? But now your brother in law, staring across at you from the booth you're sharing at the Golden Wok Buffet, has you convinced the Chinese really do serve dog meat. And suddenly, next to your glazed beans and precious sweet bun, those pieces of chicken do seem oddly misshapen and far too large.

“Think of all the dogs you’ve seen in China, ever seen one wearing a collar?” He asks as you nervously push your General Tso around thinking this is the same guy who once told you cell phones cause testicular cancer and has numerous times offered to smash them with a hammer (and yes, we’re talking about cell phones).

The waitress is friendly, smiling ear to ear in the Chinese fashion, as she hustles your plates off to the back room. And, despite some incredible Lo Mein and silky-smooth Won-Ton, in the end you come to the realization you will most likely die having discovered there is nothing on Earth more fantastic than Chi-Chi’s cornbread.

If you’re going to beat Purdue there appears no obvious game plan. Their size is so glaring they look like forty year old men playing Biddy Basketball. They have athleticism and shooting and, yes, they’re going to play defense because their head coach is still named Matt Painter. And size, athleticism and shooting just happen to be at the top of any checklist for any coach trying to assemble any basketball team anywhere at any level.

So as the rest of basketball is busy going small, pushing the ball and relying on perimeter shooting, spacing and athleticism, Painter has remained true to his smash mouth style; he’s just upped the ante by adding a historic front line. Still, how such an unconventional approach can be hugely effective remains a mystery. Perhaps some things are just impossible to explain, like how Americans still maintain faith their government will address the real issues facing us, or why my four year old chose to draw a portrait of me with flowers for hands.

Purdue is good. Scary good. And, despite their high ranking, they’re still not completely on the national radar. They’re not sexy enough and they’re not exciting, but by mid-January most will recognize they’re going to be one incredibly tough out come tournament time.

© 2015 Eric Walker Williams

Crean's Hoosiers in the Giving Mood

First appeared on December 9th, 2015
in The Lebanon Reporter

Tis the season for generosity and compassion and, as Americans, ours is a rich history indeed. From disaster relief in third world countries to the Peace Corps, we’ve proven time and again we’re far above recent headlines; no matter how ugly.

American’s give. From school groups organizing canned food drives to keeping the less fortunate warm by donating used coats, we care and we give. Even the blustery Donald Trump has embraced the holidays as, for months now, he’s been giving Republicans nightmares that he will eventually become their nominee.

Tom Crean’s Indiana Hoosiers have been in the holiday spirit as well, proving early on they’re absolutely committed to giving back to others. Whether it be giving up lay-ups or wide open three pointers, an uncontested jump shot or straight line drive to the basket, the Hoosiers have been one of the most generous teams in Division One men’s basketball so far.

Didn’t get the shot you wanted last time? Here, just let us try to pull a spin move while splitting three defenders and we’ll give you another chance. Generosity is a noble attribute in almost every setting outside of competitive sports. And Indiana’s generosity has resulted in a disappointing 6-3 start. It’s been a start Hoosier fans equate with finding a chunk of coal in their stocking or hearing Purdue is better than they were last year; like, a lot better.

So Tom Crean took his team to Hawaii and you were left at home shoveling out. In the flickering television light, you saw an endless horizon outlined by a rolling sea. Angry waves crashing ashore, raking away at sparkling sands dotted with tanned bodies. You saw it and you longed to be there. To feel the heat of a volcano, taste the Kalua pork, learn to cut a pineapple and succumb to the spell of a swaying grass skirt. You wanted Hawaii worse than the Republican National Committee wants anyone other than Trump.

And then you watched the first ten minutes of Indiana’s game with Wake Forest and decided your $5,000 was better spent somewhere else; anywhere else. As if caring were the last thing they were prepared to do, Crean’s Hoosiers appeared wholeheartedly apathetic, especially on the defensive end.

Unfortunately for the Hoosiers, Christmas is supposed to be the season of caring. For one month out of the year Americans do their best to pump the brakes on their busy lives in order to consider others. We want the holidays to be magical. We want to hear our favorite songs, pick out symmetrically flawless trees, give our children moments that will never fade and finally wrap a present that doesn’t wind up looking like it was done by someone wearing boxing gloves.

So you sit watching your neighbor jerking angrily at a tangled bundle of Christmas lights the size of a hay bale, and you find yourself thinking basketball isn’t supposed to be hard. You hear the extension ladder bang sharply off his house as the wife asks him to move the wreath three inches back to the right, and you’re left thinking how truly simple the sport is.

You pass the ball to your team, you know, the guys running around in the same uniforms. You work it around for the best shot and you keep your man from scoring. It’s really far less difficult than it sounds.

But the willingness to care is at the root of everything. Unfortunately, through 9 games, Indiana simply hasn’t cared enough for defense and, until they do, they’ll continue to give games away; tis the season after all.

© 2015 Eric Walker Williams