2004 | Indiana University Sports

Coach is going to ask the Indiana Court of Appeals to overrule Judge Kenneth Todd, the Monroe County Circuit Judge who twice has frustrated Knight's attempts to get vengeance against Indiana University. (First, Todd ruled that IU did not violate terms of its contract with Knight when it fired Him; then he denied Coach's claim that the judge had made errors in his first decision.). Good. This will keep Coach stewing in his own bile for another year or so. Then He can appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. Then to the World Court. And perhaps, ultimately, to Jacques Chirac and Kofi Annan. (January 27, 2004) .

Michigan State's 6-11 center Paul Davis had a career-high 32 points in his team's easy 84-72 win over Indiana last night. The Indianapolis Star's story noted that Michigan State was consistently able to get the ball inside to Davis, in no small part because opposing center George Leach of Indiana chose to guard Davis from behind. Leach told reporters, "I don't know what the hell I was doing out there (guarding him from behind). I didn't do what I was supposed to do." Coach Davis told the Star that the game plan called for Leach to "front" the Michigan State center, but that Leach had not. "We talked about fronting inside and doing all kinds of things, but George is a shot blocker," Coach Davis said, "so when you're a shot blocker you want to stand behind guys. . .I think it was really a learning experience for George." So Leach acknowledges receiving instructions, his coach, Mike Davis, acknowledges giving Leach instructions, Leach acknowledges failing to follow them, and there are no apparent consequences--other than Paul Davis's career high 32 dingers, of course. So much for Mike Davis's authority as coach. I have a hunch it was not a "learning experience for George," either. (February 1, 2004)
It took the student newspaper to get into the record what close followers of IU sports have known for a long time, and what no one in the University administration was saying publicly: The Indiana University athletic program is in a sorry state of disrepair and despond, and the football program is at the heart of it, although incompetent leadership has had a major role in the decay. The Indiana Daily Student in a February 6 editorial quoted Adam Herbert, the new IU president--a man who's been publicly invisible since he took office last summer--saying that the school's athletic facilities are "unacceptable" compared to its Big Ten rivals, and quoted new athletic director Terry Clapacs telling a meeting of the school's trustees that the football program is responsible for a $2 million deficit plagueing the department, and that the only way to correct it is to improve the football program. This is fairly thin gruel, of course, but it is a small step into the light. For years, athletic officials wouldn't publicly admit there was any problem at all. And there's still little evidence beyond a few timid words in public that a single soul down there understands how serious the problem is or what a commitment it will require to solve it. (February 6, 2004)

Confirmed Sighting No. 37,299,508: The Salad Bar Chronicles

Coach was back in the news globally as February dawned. Same old story, but a new venue: an "upscale" salad bar in a Lubbock, Texas, grocery store. As always with Coach, facts are elusive. But the consensus is that Coach and his putative boss, Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers , were in a Lubbock grocery getting some salad for lunch when another Techie, Chancellor David Smith, spotted Coach and approached to congratulate Him on his recent good behavior. Coach took offense, went postal and, according to a confidential memo Smith wrote for University files (later pried out of its hands by an open records request by local media), Coach's "demeanor and habitus changed drastically. With a red face, his response was curt and angry as he responded, 'I always handle things well, and have always handled things well.' Coach claims Smith followed Him and said, "You've got issues. What are they?" Smith's version is that Coach followed him into the store's parking lot and that, by this time, Myers was trying to pull Coach away. Myers and Coach left in a car, but then, according to Smith, Coach stopped the car in the middle of the street, got out and approached Smith's car, with Myers now yelling, again trying to get Coach to come back. Several dozen passersby are said to have witnessed the street scene. Police indicate no physical assaults occurred. Early press reports indicated Coach might be suspended, but university officials came to their senses and gave Coach a mere reprimand. Coach's son, Pat, told eager reporters that Coach's first reaction was to resign as coach, but that He had reconsidered and agreed to "stay the rest of the season" and then decide. Coach issued a terse statement to the media in which He swore He "absolutely did not instigate anything." Coach's defenders leapt forward, and so did His critics. Within a few days, calm returned. It seems likely that folks in Lubbock are slowly beginning to understand what they signed on for when they brought Coach aboard. (February 5, 2004)
". . .Smith was like a zoo attendant who pokes a stick at the cranky polar bear." -- George Vecsey, writing in the New York Times about Coach's Most Recent Unpleasantness, this one with chancellor David Smith, in a Lubbock Texas grocery store.
Coach used to make such a public display of his ban on advertising in Indiana University's Assembly Hall when he coached there. And Coach loudly criticized other schools that did. Things are different now that Coach is at Texas Tech. Coach has been spotted this year on national television wearing a shirt with the Adidas brand prominently displayed on the collar, and an advertisement for O'Reilly Auto Parts stitched on the front. Coach's Texas Tech team plays in an arena named for United Airlines, with advertisements on the playing floor and on placards around the arena itself. Coach is not known to have uttered a single screech of protest about this. My guess is Coach is giving all the income from this advertising to the university. (February 7, 2004)
Coach has filed a motion to drop his big lawsuit against Indiana University. This after a series of "no" decisions on various motions and appeals Coach filed after his original suit was heard and rejected. It's not like Coach to back away from the vengeance trough, though. Better stay tuned. There may be more. (February 19, 2004)
Meanwhile, Indiana still faces a trio of lawsuits related to the Knight Unpleasantness. A group of Knight loyalists have sued , claiming the university violated the state's Open Door law to have meetings about Coach's firing; The Indianapolis Star has a suit pending over its attempt to pry loose some documents related to the case; and former Knight assistant Ron Felling has sued the University, claiming it is liable for Knight abusing and wrongfully firing Felling. My attorney, Kermit Sligo , who has nothing in any of this, says IU is likely to lose if the Felling suit ever gets to trial. My bet is IU will settle out of court to prevent any more damaging information from entering the already too public record of its gutless behavior. (February 19, 2004)
Those who saw the IU-Minnesota game last night (a 73-71 loss) now know that the IU team's basketball IQ meets the legal definition of mental retardation. Hideous. Just hideous. (February 19, 2004)
Intrepid reporters have uncovered another guy trying to cash in on Coach's notoriety. Coach's former house in Bloomington is for sale. A fella named Scott E. Swaffar bought it in March of 2003 for $375,000 and is asking $397,500 for it in an e-Bay listing. It was built in 1982 and carries an assessed value of $275,000. Swaffar apparently believes he's entitled to an unbridled capitalistic 6% profit for holding the property less than a year. He's probably a Republican. (February 22, 2004)
IU basketball fans are watching a mystery unfold. Coach Mike Davis prides himself on running a "pro offense." Presumably this is something that might appeal to the typical modern recruit. It's hard for an Indiana fan to understand what it means or what it's supposed to be. We know what we see, though, and we can read statistics. IU's team field goal percentage is below .400 for the year, at this writing. This is an astonishingly low figure. It is abundantly clear that this is a team of terrible, terrible shooters. Davis's pro offense is the worst possible answer for such a team. It produces lots of low percentage, crappy shots and almost limitless dribbling and wandering around to no purpose. Generally poor shots taken by poor shooters, the near-total absence of any effective frontcourt players, and a team basketball IQ and "court sense" that meets the legal definition of mental retardation are handicaps this team will never overcome. This is the worst IU team in decades. (February 22, 2004)
The Indianapolis Star's lead sports columnist, Bob Kravitz , was another of his edgy Rub Their Faces In It moods--the headline said "IU's Davis Is Staying So Just Get Used To It"--February 27 when he wrote assuring IU basketball fans that beleaguered coach Mike Davis has no intention of leaving and IU couldn't possibly have any intentions of firing him, chiefly because the university would have to pay Mike monster cash if it did, and it's already paying too many former coaches and athletic directors no longer employed, such as Bob Knight, Mike McNeely, and Cam Cameron. The irony is that Kravitz himself is one of the people chiefly responsible for IU's present multi-year obligation to Davis. Back in the spring of 2002, when Davis's team made a surprising run to the NCAA finals, Kravitz wrote a series of columns lobbying hysterically and whipping up public pressure for the university to tear up Davis's one-year-old contract and give him a new one. IU buckled and did, committing to Davis for six more years and over $5 million dollars. That's the contract it's saddled with today, thanks largely to Kravitz's campaign. (February 27, 2004)

Then Why Don't Suhr, Johnson, Roberts and Those Guys Start?

"I want to go, if I have to take Errek Suhr and Mark Johnson and Mike Roberts and those guys. Hey, they win (against the starters) every day in practice." --Mike Davis , IU basketball coach, quoted in the Indianapolis Star March 7 when asked how he felt about two of his starters (A.J. Moye and Bracey Wright) being quoted saying they did not want to receive or accept a bid to play in the NIT tournament. (March 7, 2004)

One Confused Puppy. . .

"Sometimes I think my game is better suited to the NBA. I really do." --Bracey Wright, member of the Indiana University basketball team, often reported to be seriously believing he is ready to play in the NBA, quoted in the Indianapolis Star . (March 7, 2004)

Clueless In Bloomington

Indiana University officials are backing basketball coach Mike Davis 100 percent following the close of IU's worst season in decades. The Star's beat writer, Terry Hutchens, quoted IU president Adam Herbert saying the basketball program has "been very competitive" over the last three years, and adding, "If you look at John Wooden or a number of other great coaches across America, you'll see that they've had down years, too." Herbert said he and new athletic director Terry Clapacs are "strongly committed" to bringing football and basketball "back to the levels that all of us expect (italics mine). And that's going to happen." The problem is the "level of expectations" Herbert cites. The president's apparent satisfaction that the basketball program has been "very competitive" is a telling clue. It suggests Herbert has no clue about the level of effort, commitment, and performance needed to achieve athletic excellence. You don't hear people at Duke or Kentucky or North Carolina or Kansas crowing about how excited they are to be competitive. Being "competitive" is far from good enough, if one aspires to the highest level of excellence. If Herbert and Clapacs are willing to settle for competitiveness, they ought to find other jobs, because they're settling for second-tier mediocrity. (March 8, 2004)

What Is It About 39.7 Percent That We Don't Understand?

The current Indiana University basketball team shot .397 overall, the worst in 36 years since the 1968-69 Hoosiers shot .391. Team shooting statistics are not recorded in the school's basketball media guide for years prior to 1952-53. In those 52 years, only eight Indiana teams have shot below .400. The 2004 team was led in scoring by Bracey Wright , whose season shooting percentage was .374. Not a single team scoring leader in the last 52 years has shot below .400 except for Wright. IU's five guards (Wright, Strickland, Tapak, Perry, and Wilmont) shot .346 combined. It seems a stretch for anyone to defend this team's terrible shooting by saying the boys are just not concentrating enough, or have lost their focus, velocity, or location. Time to spit out the truth: this team is as bad at shooting as any team most living IU fans have ever seen or imagined. (March 21, 2004)
We could have a new record--less than two weeks--at Indiana University for shortest-lived basketball recruit . Julius Ashby, a 6-9 junior college player at Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College, announced two weeks ago he was committing to IU. A week or so later he changed his mind and decided to attend the University of Colorado. (April 1, 2004)
Trivia encountered in today's Chicago Tribune: The NBA record for career games without a playoff appearance belongs to former Indiana University star Tom Van Arsdale : 929 games. (April 19, 2004)
It took barely nanonseconds for Coach's name to surface after Ohio State fired its basketball coach this month. Knowing what we do of Coach, it's difficult to imagine Him not being interested in this job. He's lying low in the weeds for now, leaving it to His friends and supporters to put out feelers, lay the groundwork. The Buckeye job would get Him right back in IU's face , offer a renewed opportunity for up-close-and-personal vengeance. He'd bring an instant national spotlight to Columbus, and restore the program to title-challenging status within a season or two. The chance for revenge may be the trump card, though. Anyone over in Columbus who protests the idea will simply be trampled by the big parade of acolytes and Kool-Aiders, high-steppin', tall hats swaying, batons pumpin'. Oh, sure, school officials will have to huff and puff about the university's dignity and standards. But once that's done, they should hire Coach. (June 15, 2004)
Ohio State University surprised many of us by not hiring Coach. Sources close to the bowels of the Buckeye program indicate that a bandwagon launched by cells of Coach's "people" found plenty of support among the University's fan base, but was cut off at the pass by a surprisingly authoritative university president, Karen Holbrook, who quietly ruled out hiring Knight. Not long after, it was announced the Buckeyes' new coach was Xavier's Thad Matta. Coach told eager reporters that "A friend of mine from Columbus called me to tell me the (Ohio State) athletic director has decided not to discuss the position with me." And thus Coach's boomlet was buried by a courageous woman who decided to stand for something, and perhaps a conspirator or two, as well. (June 28, 2004)

There'll Never Be A Better Offer. . .

Indiana University has revealed, with suitable indignation, that a Big Ten rival offered IU a pile of cash to "sell" one of its 2004 home games and move it to the rival's larger stadium. IU self-reported that it never for a moment considered the offer. "We would never do it," said once-again acting athletic director Terry Clapacs, adding that "in the long run it would hurt your program." Coach Gerry DiNardo revealed the offer to eager reporters. Neither DiNardo nor Clapacs would reveal the name of the offending school. Apparently it is still more important for IU to be a loyal lodge brother than to name names. In this it is far from alone in the world. Meantime, Clapacs, who still seems to be given athletic department projects to meddle in, has announced he plans to propose to the trustees this fall a $65 million upgrade to IU's athletic facilities. This would include a $35 million in improvements to Memorial Stadium to make it more fan-friendly and enticing. This will solve nothing, since the problem is the football program, not the stadium. If Ohio State or Michigan played in IU's Memorial Stadium, it would be jammed every Saturday. The terrible truth is that selling home games is the only asset with market value the football program has at present. Why not sell them all and get the program out of debt? (August 6, 2004)
Dang! Bad news for Indiana's basketball team. Seven-foot recruit Robert Rothbart from California has announced he's going to play professional ball. This is the second player (NBA-bound Josh Smith is the other) in the Class of 2004-5 who's turned pro instead of enrolling at IU. Rothbart made it the ultimate insult by signing to play in France. (August 19, 2004)
The utterly preposterous Bob Knight still can't let go. He's filed another suit against Indiana University, His former employer. This one claims IU should have to pay His legal fees and other costs incurred while defending Himself from a lawsuit filed by His former assistant coach, Ron Felling . Knight settled the case in 2002 and paid Felling $25,000. Coach is also suing His then insurance company, contending they, too, should have paid for all this. (August 27, 2004)

Light A Candle For Rick

Rick Greenspan is the new athletic director at Indiana University, the school's fourth since Clarabelle Doninger resigned in 2000. Greenspan has been the AD at Army the past six years. He has 20+ years of experience at such places as Illinois State, Miami (FL), and California-Berkeley. I would expect him to be a man of discipline, fortitude, courage, integrity, loyalty, and faith. His experience in fund-raising and dealing with a chronically losing program are appropriate for IU, the only athletic department in the Big Ten currently losing money . Of course he arrives bearing the burden of the ultimate sin: he is an o-u-t-s-i-d-e-r. Few things are more dangerous to the crowd of provincials schmoozing and clucking on the Varsity Club veranda. Prayer seems in order. (September 3, 2004)

On September 8 Indiana University announced it had recruited a 6-10 basketball player (Lucas Steijn) from The Netherlands and three days later (Sept. 10) the Bloomington cops nailed him for underage drinking. This is not a confidence-builder. (September 11, 2004)
It took only nine days on the job for Rick Greenspan , Indiana University's new athletic director, to zero in on the cause of poor attendance at football games: not enough television exposure . "I tend to believe," Greenspan told beat reporter Terry Hutchens of the Indianapolis Star, " that television exposure, even at home, increases the interest in your program." I tend to believe Greenspan has it exactly reversed, at least on IU football: the less TV exposure the better, until IU stops placing such a grotesquely inept product before the moaning masses in the TV audience. IU football is uniquely horrific--even worse than the normal, non-televised horrific--when it appears on television. The reality, which seems to escape many in the Indiana family, is that television producers find no economic justification in airing crappy, ridiculous products, and IU football is the worst product in Big Ten football history. Until television becomes a public charity or until the University can pay for the coverage, there will be no reason for it to punish viewing audiences with regular broadcasts of Indiana football as it has been played on approximately 70 out of every 100 Saturdays since the late 19th century. (September 24, 2004)
Less than 24 hours after Greenspan's theory was in print, 24,471 fans showed up at IU's Memorial Stadium (52,000 capacity) to see Indiana throw away a 20-7 halftime lead and lose to Michigan State, 30-20. Apparently most people were home pounding their remotes, looking for the game on television. (September 25, 2004)
Time to repeat an eternal truth for Rick Greenspan: Put a consistently competitive program (by objective standards, not those of IU apologists) on the field, and attendance will improve. (September 26, 2004)

Shuckin' And Spinnin' Over IU Radio

IU has canceled broadcast programs featuring Mike Davis (basketball) and Gerry DiNardo (football). This rather startling news was buried in the more eye-catching story about football attendance, but it was never made clear if the cancellation involved both radio and television programs or only one of the two. IU's version is that the shows are "no longer profitable" and that "times have changed" and "it's not 1978 anymore." The IU Varsity Club's Mark Deal offered the peculiar rationale that, "In the old days when the games weren't on TV, the coaches' shows were the only ways you could see the highlights, but now the majority of games are on TV and even if not, you get the highlights on ESPN or wherever." One of the Varsity Club's activities is selling sponsorships for these coaches' shows. So in one story you had AD Rick Greenspan complaining that IU football got poor television coverage and Deal saying that fans now can get whatever information they need from television, and the University announcing the cancellation of shows which gave the basketball and football coaches significant air (radio or television) time. Reporter Terry Hutchens went on in this story to report that Purdue had only lined up two or three TV stations for the Joe Tiller Show (football) and quoted a Purdue athletic department official saying that Purdue "typically had to pay stations to carry the program in recent years." Hutchens' irritatingly incomplete account did not reveal if IU had been paying stations to carry its shows. A reader can be forgiven for wondering if the Star didn't leave out an important element or two and allow Deal to speak in coded spin on others. (September 26, 2004)
Former IU assistant coach Ron Felling has settled his lawsuit against the University for $35,000. He got a $25,000 settlement from Coach. Felling sued both in connection with his firing by Knight in a confrontation between the Coach and Felling in 1999. Sixty grand. I think he let 'em off way too easy. Neither case went to trial. (September 28, 2004)
October closed with a run of beautiful fall days and a crowd of 22,282 showed up for Indiana University's homecoming football game on the 30th against Minnesota. Every single one of them was caught off guard by a surprising 30-21 IU victory. It was the smallest turnout in 40 years at Memorial Stadium and the fourth smallest in stadium history. Sad situation, but fans are voting with their wallets and feet. Crap's not selling well in Bloomington. (October 30, 2004)
Apologists keep fishing around for excuses for Indiana's terrible football crowds. One hilarious speculation in the local paper was that the occasional 11 a.m. game times are just too early for students. They could get out of bed for whores and free beer--why not an 11 a.m. football game? Time to get serious.
Attendance for Indiana's final home game of 2004 against Penn State, was 24,092. IU averaged 28,377 in five home games, the lowest in 42 years since 1962's figure of 24,717. Sooner or later, this will get IU's concentrated attention. Obviously not yet. (November 14, 2004)
A brief announcement in the local paper involved the answer to a minor IU basketball trivia question: what player scored the final field goal in Indiana's 86-68 NCAA championship game victory over Michigan in April, 1976? It was Mark Haymore, then a 6-8 sophomore reserve, with a follow-up tomahawk slam dunk on a teammate's missed shot in the final seconds. Haymore transferred to Massachusetts after that season. He died in Amherst, Mass. at age 48, apparently of heart trouble. (November 30, 2004)
Athletic director Rick Greenspan surprised most of us by firing Indiana University football coach Gerry DiNardo less than two weeks after a season-ending 63-24 loss at Purdue. DiNardo still has two years left on a contract and IU thus adds another half million or so of payouts to fired coaches and athletic directors (Bob Knight, Cam Cameron, Michael McNeely and DiNardo) in a budget already several million in the red. DiNardo's record was 8-27--plenty crappy but not out of line in a program that's lost two of every three games it's played since taking up the sport in the late 19th century. (December 2, 2004)
You can make a plausible argument that DiNardo and his team were about half a dozen plays from an additional three additional victories, a 6-5 season, and a ride for Gerry around the Coliseum on a satin pillow. But, alas, at IU, those game-turning plays almost never go in our favor.
DiNardo got a $616,564 buyout for being fired at LSU. He'll get half a million or so from IU. That's over a million dollars for not working. Of course if he'd have worked for MCI, Enron, or many other places the parachute would have been in the hundreds of millions. It's rugged out there.
Dick Vitale and his ESPN sidekick mantra'd on and on last night during the IU-North Carolina basketball game: "They've got to get Bracey more shots. They've got to get Bracey more shots." The reference was to Indiana guard Bracey Wright. Dick must not have had access to last year's statistics. Bracey shot .379 from the field last year (.347 from three-point range). Why would you want a terrible shooter to take even more shots? Why not somebody who shoots better? Even a 40-percenter would qualify. And it should not be Bracey's sidekick, Marshall Strickland. He shot .361 last season. The Star this morning reported that IU shot 33% last night. Bracey's 6-for-18 and Strickland's 4-14 added up to .313. (December 2, 2004)

May's Account of IU Recruiting Contradicted By Star Reporter

Coincident with its coverage of Indiana's big game with North Carolina, the Indianapolis Star ran an account of Carolina star Sean May's comments at a media press conference which left many of us baffled. May, the son of former IU all-American Scott May, grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, graduated from high school there, and was a nationally-touted recruit. He told eager reporters a day before the game that IU didn't recruit him very hard when he was a prep star, and left the clear implication that IU Coach Mike Davis was surprisingly indifferent in his wooing of May. Davis himself was quoted soon after these startling remarks, saying that he really had recruited May hard. May and Davis were observed embracing at mid-court the night of the IU-North Carolina game, but no account of what they said to each other has yet surfaced. Later, at the Star's website, in a "Question & Answer" section run by the paper's IU reporter, Terry Hutchens, a reader asked if there was any truth to May's allegations. Hutchens' reply was stunning . "I couldn't believe what I was hearing," answered Hutchens, in reference to May's statements. "If IU didn't recruit May as hard as other schools it was because very early in the process Sean May went to Mike Davis and told him in no uncertain terms that he planned to play at IU. . . .(May) was in Assembly Hall most every day when he went to Bloomington North (high school), and he gave the Hoosiers every reason to believe that he was going to IU. . .Someone in their program told me once that May even asked Davis not to recruit another big man because he (May) was definitely coming." Central to this whole story is that May and his father went to Lubbock, Texas, to spend a weekend with the father's former Coach , Bob Knight, now the coach at Texas Tech University, and that only a day or so after returning to Bloomington from this visit, young May surprised many by announcing he was choosing North Carolina. Speculation has been widespread among Indiana followers that Knight, who had been fired in September, 2000, by Indiana, convinced young May not to go there. The principals--young May, his father, and Coach--deny Knight even attempted to influence the lad's decision. The burning questions emerging from Hutchens' strong assertions about May's assurances to Davis that IU was his choice are these: why did Hutchens allow young May's press conference assertions that IU was essentially lackadasical in its recruiting efforts to go unchallenged by never reporting them in the newspaper (note: the "Q & A" material appears only on the website, not in the newspaper itself), in light of Hutchens' personal knowledge that the facts strongly suggested May's version was a gross distortion of what actually happened? This precise question has been submitted to Hutchens' "Question & Answer" forum and it has not been answered. I am aware of no charitable explanation why a reporter would deny his readers such unquestionably pertinent information. (December 15, 2004)
Dan Patrick interviewed Coach as a lead-in to ESPN's big game between Ohio State and Texas Tech (coached, of course, by Coach) this week. Patrick mentioned the Recent Unpleasantness Involving The Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons Fans, then asked Coach to comment on the apparent decline in good behavior in America's world of sports. Coach's reply was that standards of behavior have declined. Neither Coach nor Dan Patrick betrayed even a hint of recognition or amusement at the absurdity of Coach lamenting the bad behavior of others. (December 17, 2004)
Three or four players (among them Bracey Wright and Patrick Ewing) trotted on the floor wearing white head-bands and wrist-bands for Indiana University's basketball season-opening game against Eastern Illinois. This was apparently Coach Mike Davis's latest concession to players' freedom to design their own uniforms. But some adult in a position of authority must have tugged Davis aside and spoken to him about it, because the adornments disappeared for the second game and have not been seen since. Davis still lets the lads express their inner yearnings by free-lancing in subtler ways, though--we see at least three different socks-lengths (anklets cut off so little to no sock is visible, regular ankle-length, and the traditional over-the calf version) plus a variety of T-shirts and undershirts worn beneath the IU jersey itself. (December 20, 2004)

Light Another Candle

Indiana filled its football coaching vacancy with Terry Hoeppner , who is coming off a quite successful run at Miami of Ohio, a Mid-American Conference school. Hoeppner will be paid $600,000 annually ($250,000 in salary, $50,000 in deferred compensation, and $300,000 for public appearances, radio and television shows, and other marketing efforts). This ranks Hoeppner and Indiana last among the Big 10's eleven schools. The next-lowest paid football coach is Northwestern's Randy Walker, at $950,000. Then come Joe Tiller (Purdue) and Ron Zook (Illinois) each at $1 million; Lloyd Carr (Michigan) at $1.052 million; Penn State's Joe Paterno at $1.3 million; Barry Alvarez of Wisconsin at $1.35 million; Ohio State's Jim Tressell, at $1.4 million; and Kirk Ferentz (Iowa), John L. Smith (Michigan State), and Glen Mason (Minnesota), all at $1.5 million. (December 22, 2004)

	Scoundrels, Knaves & Fools American Pile Whoops & Squawks Splinters From the Bench Indiana University Sports Lists & Other Minutiae Contact the author	2009 \| 2008 \| 2007 \| 2006 \| 2005 \| 2004 \| 2003 \| 2002 \| 2001 \| 2000 \| 1999 \| 1998 \| 1997 \| 1996 \| 1995 \| Pre-1995 Indiana University Sports Coach is going to ask the Indiana Court of Appeals to overrule Judge Kenneth Todd, the Monroe County Circuit Judge who twice has frustrated Knight's attempts to get vengeance against Indiana University. (First, Todd ruled that IU did not violate terms of its contract with Knight when it fired Him; then he denied Coach's claim that the judge had made errors in his first decision.). Good. This will keep Coach stewing in his own bile for another year or so. Then He can appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. Then to the World Court. And perhaps, ultimately, to Jacques Chirac and Kofi Annan. (January 27, 2004) . Michigan State's 6-11 center Paul Davis had a career-high 32 points in his team's easy 84-72 win over Indiana last night. The Indianapolis Star's story noted that Michigan State was consistently able to get the ball inside to Davis, in no small part because opposing center George Leach of Indiana chose to guard Davis from behind. Leach told reporters, "I don't know what the hell I was doing out there (guarding him from behind). I didn't do what I was supposed to do." Coach Davis told the Star that the game plan called for Leach to "front" the Michigan State center, but that Leach had not. "We talked about fronting inside and doing all kinds of things, but George is a shot blocker," Coach Davis said, "so when you're a shot blocker you want to stand behind guys. . .I think it was really a learning experience for George." So Leach acknowledges receiving instructions, his coach, Mike Davis, acknowledges giving Leach instructions, Leach acknowledges failing to follow them, and there are no apparent consequences--other than Paul Davis's career high 32 dingers, of course. So much for Mike Davis's authority as coach. I have a hunch it was not a "learning experience for George," either. (February 1, 2004) It took the student newspaper to get into the record what close followers of IU sports have known for a long time, and what no one in the University administration was saying publicly: The Indiana University athletic program is in a sorry state of disrepair and despond, and the football program is at the heart of it, although incompetent leadership has had a major role in the decay. The Indiana Daily Student in a February 6 editorial quoted Adam Herbert, the new IU president--a man who's been publicly invisible since he took office last summer--saying that the school's athletic facilities are "unacceptable" compared to its Big Ten rivals, and quoted new athletic director Terry Clapacs telling a meeting of the school's trustees that the football program is responsible for a $2 million deficit plagueing the department, and that the only way to correct it is to improve the football program. This is fairly thin gruel, of course, but it is a small step into the light. For years, athletic officials wouldn't publicly admit there was any problem at all. And there's still little evidence beyond a few timid words in public that a single soul down there understands how serious the problem is or what a commitment it will require to solve it. (February 6, 2004) Confirmed Sighting No. 37,299,508: The Salad Bar Chronicles Coach was back in the news globally as February dawned. Same old story, but a new venue: an "upscale" salad bar in a Lubbock, Texas, grocery store. As always with Coach, facts are elusive. But the consensus is that Coach and his putative boss, Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers , were in a Lubbock grocery getting some salad for lunch when another Techie, Chancellor David Smith, spotted Coach and approached to congratulate Him on his recent good behavior. Coach took offense, went postal and, according to a confidential memo Smith wrote for University files (later pried out of its hands by an open records request by local media), Coach's "demeanor and habitus changed drastically. With a red face, his response was curt and angry as he responded, 'I always handle things well, and have always handled things well.' Coach claims Smith followed Him and said, "You've got issues. What are they?" Smith's version is that Coach followed him into the store's parking lot and that, by this time, Myers was trying to pull Coach away. Myers and Coach left in a car, but then, according to Smith, Coach stopped the car in the middle of the street, got out and approached Smith's car, with Myers now yelling, again trying to get Coach to come back. Several dozen passersby are said to have witnessed the street scene. Police indicate no physical assaults occurred. Early press reports indicated Coach might be suspended, but university officials came to their senses and gave Coach a mere reprimand. Coach's son, Pat, told eager reporters that Coach's first reaction was to resign as coach, but that He had reconsidered and agreed to "stay the rest of the season" and then decide. Coach issued a terse statement to the media in which He swore He "absolutely did not instigate anything." Coach's defenders leapt forward, and so did His critics. Within a few days, calm returned. It seems likely that folks in Lubbock are slowly beginning to understand what they signed on for when they brought Coach aboard. (February 5, 2004) ". . .Smith was like a zoo attendant who pokes a stick at the cranky polar bear." -- George Vecsey, writing in the New York Times about Coach's Most Recent Unpleasantness, this one with chancellor David Smith, in a Lubbock Texas grocery store. Coach used to make such a public display of his ban on advertising in Indiana University's Assembly Hall when he coached there. And Coach loudly criticized other schools that did. Things are different now that Coach is at Texas Tech. Coach has been spotted this year on national television wearing a shirt with the Adidas brand prominently displayed on the collar, and an advertisement for O'Reilly Auto Parts stitched on the front. Coach's Texas Tech team plays in an arena named for United Airlines, with advertisements on the playing floor and on placards around the arena itself. Coach is not known to have uttered a single screech of protest about this. My guess is Coach is giving all the income from this advertising to the university. (February 7, 2004) Coach has filed a motion to drop his big lawsuit against Indiana University. This after a series of "no" decisions on various motions and appeals Coach filed after his original suit was heard and rejected. It's not like Coach to back away from the vengeance trough, though. Better stay tuned. There may be more. (February 19, 2004) Meanwhile, Indiana still faces a trio of lawsuits related to the Knight Unpleasantness. A group of Knight loyalists have sued , claiming the university violated the state's Open Door law to have meetings about Coach's firing; The Indianapolis Star has a suit pending over its attempt to pry loose some documents related to the case; and former Knight assistant Ron Felling has sued the University, claiming it is liable for Knight abusing and wrongfully firing Felling. My attorney, Kermit Sligo , who has nothing in any of this, says IU is likely to lose if the Felling suit ever gets to trial. My bet is IU will settle out of court to prevent any more damaging information from entering the already too public record of its gutless behavior. (February 19, 2004) Those who saw the IU-Minnesota game last night (a 73-71 loss) now know that the IU team's basketball IQ meets the legal definition of mental retardation. Hideous. Just hideous. (February 19, 2004) Intrepid reporters have uncovered another guy trying to cash in on Coach's notoriety. Coach's former house in Bloomington is for sale. A fella named Scott E. Swaffar bought it in March of 2003 for $375,000 and is asking $397,500 for it in an e-Bay listing. It was built in 1982 and carries an assessed value of $275,000. Swaffar apparently believes he's entitled to an unbridled capitalistic 6% profit for holding the property less than a year. He's probably a Republican. (February 22, 2004) IU basketball fans are watching a mystery unfold. Coach Mike Davis prides himself on running a "pro offense." Presumably this is something that might appeal to the typical modern recruit. It's hard for an Indiana fan to understand what it means or what it's supposed to be. We know what we see, though, and we can read statistics. IU's team field goal percentage is below .400 for the year, at this writing. This is an astonishingly low figure. It is abundantly clear that this is a team of terrible, terrible shooters. Davis's pro offense is the worst possible answer for such a team. It produces lots of low percentage, crappy shots and almost limitless dribbling and wandering around to no purpose. Generally poor shots taken by poor shooters, the near-total absence of any effective frontcourt players, and a team basketball IQ and "court sense" that meets the legal definition of mental retardation are handicaps this team will never overcome. This is the worst IU team in decades. (February 22, 2004) The Indianapolis Star's lead sports columnist, Bob Kravitz , was another of his edgy Rub Their Faces In It moods--the headline said "IU's Davis Is Staying So Just Get Used To It"--February 27 when he wrote assuring IU basketball fans that beleaguered coach Mike Davis has no intention of leaving and IU couldn't possibly have any intentions of firing him, chiefly because the university would have to pay Mike monster cash if it did, and it's already paying too many former coaches and athletic directors no longer employed, such as Bob Knight, Mike McNeely, and Cam Cameron. The irony is that Kravitz himself is one of the people chiefly responsible for IU's present multi-year obligation to Davis. Back in the spring of 2002, when Davis's team made a surprising run to the NCAA finals, Kravitz wrote a series of columns lobbying hysterically and whipping up public pressure for the university to tear up Davis's one-year-old contract and give him a new one. IU buckled and did, committing to Davis for six more years and over $5 million dollars. That's the contract it's saddled with today, thanks largely to Kravitz's campaign. (February 27, 2004) Then Why Don't Suhr, Johnson, Roberts and Those Guys Start? "I want to go, if I have to take Errek Suhr and Mark Johnson and Mike Roberts and those guys. Hey, they win (against the starters) every day in practice." --Mike Davis , IU basketball coach, quoted in the Indianapolis Star March 7 when asked how he felt about two of his starters (A.J. Moye and Bracey Wright) being quoted saying they did not want to receive or accept a bid to play in the NIT tournament. (March 7, 2004) One Confused Puppy. . . "Sometimes I think my game is better suited to the NBA. I really do." --Bracey Wright, member of the Indiana University basketball team, often reported to be seriously believing he is ready to play in the NBA, quoted in the Indianapolis Star . (March 7, 2004) Clueless In Bloomington Indiana University officials are backing basketball coach Mike Davis 100 percent following the close of IU's worst season in decades. The Star's beat writer, Terry Hutchens, quoted IU president Adam Herbert saying the basketball program has "been very competitive" over the last three years, and adding, "If you look at John Wooden or a number of other great coaches across America, you'll see that they've had down years, too." Herbert said he and new athletic director Terry Clapacs are "strongly committed" to bringing football and basketball "back to the levels that all of us expect (italics mine). And that's going to happen." The problem is the "level of expectations" Herbert cites. The president's apparent satisfaction that the basketball program has been "very competitive" is a telling clue. It suggests Herbert has no clue about the level of effort, commitment, and performance needed to achieve athletic excellence. You don't hear people at Duke or Kentucky or North Carolina or Kansas crowing about how excited they are to be competitive. Being "competitive" is far from good enough, if one aspires to the highest level of excellence. If Herbert and Clapacs are willing to settle for competitiveness, they ought to find other jobs, because they're settling for second-tier mediocrity. (March 8, 2004) What Is It About 39.7 Percent That We Don't Understand? The current Indiana University basketball team shot .397 overall, the worst in 36 years since the 1968-69 Hoosiers shot .391. Team shooting statistics are not recorded in the school's basketball media guide for years prior to 1952-53. In those 52 years, only eight Indiana teams have shot below .400. The 2004 team was led in scoring by Bracey Wright , whose season shooting percentage was .374. Not a single team scoring leader in the last 52 years has shot below .400 except for Wright. IU's five guards (Wright, Strickland, Tapak, Perry, and Wilmont) shot .346 combined. It seems a stretch for anyone to defend this team's terrible shooting by saying the boys are just not concentrating enough, or have lost their focus, velocity, or location. Time to spit out the truth: this team is as bad at shooting as any team most living IU fans have ever seen or imagined. (March 21, 2004) We could have a new record--less than two weeks--at Indiana University for shortest-lived basketball recruit . Julius Ashby, a 6-9 junior college player at Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College, announced two weeks ago he was committing to IU. A week or so later he changed his mind and decided to attend the University of Colorado. (April 1, 2004) Trivia encountered in today's Chicago Tribune: The NBA record for career games without a playoff appearance belongs to former Indiana University star Tom Van Arsdale : 929 games. (April 19, 2004) It took barely nanonseconds for Coach's name to surface after Ohio State fired its basketball coach this month. Knowing what we do of Coach, it's difficult to imagine Him not being interested in this job. He's lying low in the weeds for now, leaving it to His friends and supporters to put out feelers, lay the groundwork. The Buckeye job would get Him right back in IU's face , offer a renewed opportunity for up-close-and-personal vengeance. He'd bring an instant national spotlight to Columbus, and restore the program to title-challenging status within a season or two. The chance for revenge may be the trump card, though. Anyone over in Columbus who protests the idea will simply be trampled by the big parade of acolytes and Kool-Aiders, high-steppin', tall hats swaying, batons pumpin'. Oh, sure, school officials will have to huff and puff about the university's dignity and standards. But once that's done, they should hire Coach. (June 15, 2004) Ohio State University surprised many of us by not hiring Coach. Sources close to the bowels of the Buckeye program indicate that a bandwagon launched by cells of Coach's "people" found plenty of support among the University's fan base, but was cut off at the pass by a surprisingly authoritative university president, Karen Holbrook, who quietly ruled out hiring Knight. Not long after, it was announced the Buckeyes' new coach was Xavier's Thad Matta. Coach told eager reporters that "A friend of mine from Columbus called me to tell me the (Ohio State) athletic director has decided not to discuss the position with me." And thus Coach's boomlet was buried by a courageous woman who decided to stand for something, and perhaps a conspirator or two, as well. (June 28, 2004) There'll Never Be A Better Offer. . . Indiana University has revealed, with suitable indignation, that a Big Ten rival offered IU a pile of cash to "sell" one of its 2004 home games and move it to the rival's larger stadium. IU self-reported that it never for a moment considered the offer. "We would never do it," said once-again acting athletic director Terry Clapacs, adding that "in the long run it would hurt your program." Coach Gerry DiNardo revealed the offer to eager reporters. Neither DiNardo nor Clapacs would reveal the name of the offending school. Apparently it is still more important for IU to be a loyal lodge brother than to name names. In this it is far from alone in the world. Meantime, Clapacs, who still seems to be given athletic department projects to meddle in, has announced he plans to propose to the trustees this fall a $65 million upgrade to IU's athletic facilities. This would include a $35 million in improvements to Memorial Stadium to make it more fan-friendly and enticing. This will solve nothing, since the problem is the football program, not the stadium. If Ohio State or Michigan played in IU's Memorial Stadium, it would be jammed every Saturday. The terrible truth is that selling home games is the only asset with market value the football program has at present. Why not sell them all and get the program out of debt? (August 6, 2004) Dang! Bad news for Indiana's basketball team. Seven-foot recruit Robert Rothbart from California has announced he's going to play professional ball. This is the second player (NBA-bound Josh Smith is the other) in the Class of 2004-5 who's turned pro instead of enrolling at IU. Rothbart made it the ultimate insult by signing to play in France. (August 19, 2004) The utterly preposterous Bob Knight still can't let go. He's filed another suit against Indiana University, His former employer. This one claims IU should have to pay His legal fees and other costs incurred while defending Himself from a lawsuit filed by His former assistant coach, Ron Felling . Knight settled the case in 2002 and paid Felling $25,000. Coach is also suing His then insurance company, contending they, too, should have paid for all this. (August 27, 2004) Light A Candle For Rick Rick Greenspan is the new athletic director at Indiana University, the school's fourth since Clarabelle Doninger resigned in 2000. Greenspan has been the AD at Army the past six years. He has 20+ years of experience at such places as Illinois State, Miami (FL), and California-Berkeley. I would expect him to be a man of discipline, fortitude, courage, integrity, loyalty, and faith. His experience in fund-raising and dealing with a chronically losing program are appropriate for IU, the only athletic department in the Big Ten currently losing money . Of course he arrives bearing the burden of the ultimate sin: he is an o-u-t-s-i-d-e-r. Few things are more dangerous to the crowd of provincials schmoozing and clucking on the Varsity Club veranda. Prayer seems in order. (September 3, 2004) On September 8 Indiana University announced it had recruited a 6-10 basketball player (Lucas Steijn) from The Netherlands and three days later (Sept. 10) the Bloomington cops nailed him for underage drinking. This is not a confidence-builder. (September 11, 2004) It took only nine days on the job for Rick Greenspan , Indiana University's new athletic director, to zero in on the cause of poor attendance at football games: not enough television exposure . "I tend to believe," Greenspan told beat reporter Terry Hutchens of the Indianapolis Star, " that television exposure, even at home, increases the interest in your program." I tend to believe Greenspan has it exactly reversed, at least on IU football: the less TV exposure the better, until IU stops placing such a grotesquely inept product before the moaning masses in the TV audience. IU football is uniquely horrific--even worse than the normal, non-televised horrific--when it appears on television. The reality, which seems to escape many in the Indiana family, is that television producers find no economic justification in airing crappy, ridiculous products, and IU football is the worst product in Big Ten football history. Until television becomes a public charity or until the University can pay for the coverage, there will be no reason for it to punish viewing audiences with regular broadcasts of Indiana football as it has been played on approximately 70 out of every 100 Saturdays since the late 19th century. (September 24, 2004) Less than 24 hours after Greenspan's theory was in print, 24,471 fans showed up at IU's Memorial Stadium (52,000 capacity) to see Indiana throw away a 20-7 halftime lead and lose to Michigan State, 30-20. Apparently most people were home pounding their remotes, looking for the game on television. (September 25, 2004) Time to repeat an eternal truth for Rick Greenspan: Put a consistently competitive program (by objective standards, not those of IU apologists) on the field, and attendance will improve. (September 26, 2004) Shuckin' And Spinnin' Over IU Radio IU has canceled broadcast programs featuring Mike Davis (basketball) and Gerry DiNardo (football). This rather startling news was buried in the more eye-catching story about football attendance, but it was never made clear if the cancellation involved both radio and television programs or only one of the two. IU's version is that the shows are "no longer profitable" and that "times have changed" and "it's not 1978 anymore." The IU Varsity Club's Mark Deal offered the peculiar rationale that, "In the old days when the games weren't on TV, the coaches' shows were the only ways you could see the highlights, but now the majority of games are on TV and even if not, you get the highlights on ESPN or wherever." One of the Varsity Club's activities is selling sponsorships for these coaches' shows. So in one story you had AD Rick Greenspan complaining that IU football got poor television coverage and Deal saying that fans now can get whatever information they need from television, and the University announcing the cancellation of shows which gave the basketball and football coaches significant air (radio or television) time. Reporter Terry Hutchens went on in this story to report that Purdue had only lined up two or three TV stations for the Joe Tiller Show (football) and quoted a Purdue athletic department official saying that Purdue "typically had to pay stations to carry the program in recent years." Hutchens' irritatingly incomplete account did not reveal if IU had been paying stations to carry its shows. A reader can be forgiven for wondering if the Star didn't leave out an important element or two and allow Deal to speak in coded spin on others. (September 26, 2004) Former IU assistant coach Ron Felling has settled his lawsuit against the University for $35,000. He got a $25,000 settlement from Coach. Felling sued both in connection with his firing by Knight in a confrontation between the Coach and Felling in 1999. Sixty grand. I think he let 'em off way too easy. Neither case went to trial. (September 28, 2004) October closed with a run of beautiful fall days and a crowd of 22,282 showed up for Indiana University's homecoming football game on the 30th against Minnesota. Every single one of them was caught off guard by a surprising 30-21 IU victory. It was the smallest turnout in 40 years at Memorial Stadium and the fourth smallest in stadium history. Sad situation, but fans are voting with their wallets and feet. Crap's not selling well in Bloomington. (October 30, 2004) Apologists keep fishing around for excuses for Indiana's terrible football crowds. One hilarious speculation in the local paper was that the occasional 11 a.m. game times are just too early for students. They could get out of bed for whores and free beer--why not an 11 a.m. football game? Time to get serious. Attendance for Indiana's final home game of 2004 against Penn State, was 24,092. IU averaged 28,377 in five home games, the lowest in 42 years since 1962's figure of 24,717. Sooner or later, this will get IU's concentrated attention. Obviously not yet. (November 14, 2004) A brief announcement in the local paper involved the answer to a minor IU basketball trivia question: what player scored the final field goal in Indiana's 86-68 NCAA championship game victory over Michigan in April, 1976? It was Mark Haymore, then a 6-8 sophomore reserve, with a follow-up tomahawk slam dunk on a teammate's missed shot in the final seconds. Haymore transferred to Massachusetts after that season. He died in Amherst, Mass. at age 48, apparently of heart trouble. (November 30, 2004) Athletic director Rick Greenspan surprised most of us by firing Indiana University football coach Gerry DiNardo less than two weeks after a season-ending 63-24 loss at Purdue. DiNardo still has two years left on a contract and IU thus adds another half million or so of payouts to fired coaches and athletic directors (Bob Knight, Cam Cameron, Michael McNeely and DiNardo) in a budget already several million in the red. DiNardo's record was 8-27--plenty crappy but not out of line in a program that's lost two of every three games it's played since taking up the sport in the late 19th century. (December 2, 2004) You can make a plausible argument that DiNardo and his team were about half a dozen plays from an additional three additional victories, a 6-5 season, and a ride for Gerry around the Coliseum on a satin pillow. But, alas, at IU, those game-turning plays almost never go in our favor. DiNardo got a $616,564 buyout for being fired at LSU. He'll get half a million or so from IU. That's over a *million dollars for not* working. Of course if he'd have worked for MCI, Enron, or many other places the parachute would have been in the hundreds of millions. It's rugged out there. Dick Vitale and his ESPN sidekick mantra'd on and on last night during the IU-North Carolina basketball game: "They've got to get Bracey more shots. They've got to get Bracey more shots." The reference was to Indiana guard Bracey Wright. Dick must not have had access to last year's statistics. Bracey shot .379 from the field last year (.347 from three-point range). Why would you want a terrible shooter to take even more shots? Why not somebody who shoots better? Even a 40-percenter would qualify. And it should not be Bracey's sidekick, Marshall Strickland*. He shot .361 last season. The Star* this morning reported that IU shot 33% last night. Bracey's 6-for-18 and Strickland's 4-14 added up to .313. (December 2, 2004) May's Account of IU Recruiting Contradicted By Star Reporter Coincident with its coverage of Indiana's big game with North Carolina, the Indianapolis Star ran an account of Carolina star Sean May's comments at a media press conference which left many of us baffled. May, the son of former IU all-American Scott May, grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, graduated from high school there, and was a nationally-touted recruit. He told eager reporters a day before the game that IU didn't recruit him very hard when he was a prep star, and left the clear implication that IU Coach Mike Davis was surprisingly indifferent in his wooing of May. Davis himself was quoted soon after these startling remarks, saying that he really had recruited May hard. May and Davis were observed embracing at mid-court the night of the IU-North Carolina game, but no account of what they said to each other has yet surfaced. Later, at the Star's website, in a "Question & Answer" section run by the paper's IU reporter, Terry Hutchens, a reader asked if there was any truth to May's allegations. Hutchens' reply was stunning . "I couldn't believe what I was hearing," answered Hutchens, in reference to May's statements. "If IU didn't recruit May as hard as other schools it was because very early in the process Sean May went to Mike Davis and told him in no uncertain terms that he planned to play at IU. . . .(May) was in Assembly Hall most every day when he went to Bloomington North (high school), and he gave the Hoosiers every reason to believe that he was going to IU. . .Someone in their program told me once that May even asked Davis not to recruit another big man because he (May) was definitely coming." Central to this whole story is that May and his father went to Lubbock, Texas, to spend a weekend with the father's former Coach , Bob Knight, now the coach at Texas Tech University, and that only a day or so after returning to Bloomington from this visit, young May surprised many by announcing he was choosing North Carolina. Speculation has been widespread among Indiana followers that Knight, who had been fired in September, 2000, by Indiana, convinced young May not to go there. The principals--young May, his father, and Coach--deny Knight even attempted to influence the lad's decision. The burning questions emerging from Hutchens' strong assertions about May's assurances to Davis that IU was his choice are these: why did Hutchens allow young May's press conference assertions that IU was essentially lackadasical in its recruiting efforts to go unchallenged by never reporting them in the newspaper (note: the "Q & A" material appears only on the website, not in the newspaper itself), in light of Hutchens' personal knowledge that the facts strongly suggested May's version was a gross distortion of what actually happened? This precise question has been submitted to Hutchens' "Question & Answer" forum and it has not been answered. I am aware of no charitable explanation why a reporter would deny his readers such unquestionably pertinent information. (December 15, 2004) Dan Patrick interviewed Coach as a lead-in to ESPN's big game between Ohio State and Texas Tech (coached, of course, by Coach) this week. Patrick mentioned the Recent Unpleasantness Involving The Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons Fans, then asked Coach to comment on the apparent decline in good behavior in America's world of sports. Coach's reply was that standards of behavior have declined. Neither Coach nor Dan Patrick betrayed even a hint of recognition or amusement at the absurdity of Coach lamenting the bad behavior of others. (December 17, 2004) Three or four players (among them Bracey Wright and Patrick Ewing) trotted on the floor wearing white head-bands and wrist-bands for Indiana University's basketball season-opening game against Eastern Illinois. This was apparently Coach Mike Davis's latest concession to players' freedom to design their own uniforms. But some adult in a position of authority must have tugged Davis aside and spoken to him about it, because the adornments disappeared for the second game and have not been seen since. Davis still lets the lads express their inner yearnings by free-lancing in subtler ways, though--we see at least three different socks-lengths (anklets cut off so little to no sock is visible, regular ankle-length, and the traditional over-the calf version) plus a variety of T-shirts and undershirts worn beneath the IU jersey itself. (December 20, 2004) Light Another Candle Indiana filled its football coaching vacancy with Terry Hoeppner , who is coming off a quite successful run at Miami of Ohio, a Mid-American Conference school. Hoeppner will be paid $600,000 annually ($250,000 in salary, $50,000 in deferred compensation, and $300,000 for public appearances, radio and television shows, and other marketing efforts). This ranks Hoeppner and Indiana last among the Big 10's eleven schools. The next-lowest paid football coach is Northwestern's Randy Walker, at $950,000. Then come Joe Tiller (Purdue) and Ron Zook (Illinois) each at $1 million; Lloyd Carr (Michigan) at $1.052 million; Penn State's Joe Paterno at $1.3 million; Barry Alvarez of Wisconsin at $1.35 million; Ohio State's Jim Tressell, at $1.4 million; and Kirk Ferentz (Iowa), John L. Smith (Michigan State), and Glen Mason (Minnesota), all at $1.5 million. (December 22, 2004) Back to top
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