2005 | Indiana University Sports

Steve Alford's won-lost record at Iowa in Big Ten play as the 2004 season began was 34-46 (.425). File this information away for the inevitable upcoming campaign to have Steve named the next Indiana University basketball coach. (January 1, 2005)

At the end of the 2005 season, Steve Alford’s Big Ten record was 41-55. His teams have finished 8th, 6th, 8th, 8th, 4th, and 7th and only once have been over .500 in league play (9-7 in 2004). NCAA appearances? One. (April 5, 2005)

Five years of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge are enough. Some of us can remember the 1980s and 90s when Big Ten fans could argue that the league was the best in the country. No more. The annual pre-season matchups with the ACC have proven a deep embarrassment for the Big Ten. The ACC has won a majority of the games every year. The ACC is 27-17 overall. Seven of nine ACC eams are over .500 in the Challenge--only four Big Ten teams are. Only two teams are undefeated in the five-year-old series--both are ACC teams (Duke and Wake Forest). Defending Big Ten champion Illinois is 1-4, ditto Wisconsin, the 2002 and 2003 league champion. Ugly. (January 2, 2005)

Confirmed 'Covenant House' Sighting!

Former IU assistant basketball coach Norm (Covenant House) Ellenberger, off-radar for several years, has been tracked down--and photographed and interviewed, too!--by the Chicago Tribune. He's living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and coaches a girls high school basketball team in Minoqua, Wisconsin, just across the border. Ellenberger left Indiana in August, 2000, to join the Chicago Bulls staff and left that job in April of 2002. He and his wife moved to the north woods country, and from the sound of the Tribune interview, he's not coming back to the bright lights. He lives in a cabin on Crooked Lake, next door to an 18,000-acre wilderness area, and also does volunteer work with the Wintersmeet, Michigan, girls team. Ellenberger, now 72, canoes, hikes, snowmobiles, chops wood, and told eager reporters he's sublimely happy with his life. Ellenberger served at IU under Bob Knight and, because of his wit, candor, and cheerful disposition, was a reporters' favorite. It's good to hear he's at peace and has found a home. (February 13, 2005)
Indiana blew its chance for an NCAA tourney bid with a pathetic first-round loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament March 11. IU Coach Mike Davis, who'd been pretty restrained in recent months, had a relapse in the post-game press conference. He went on nearly interminably about how his team still deserved an NCAA berth. Some prick reporter actually counted up the times Davis reminded the group that IU was the fourth-seeded team in the league tourney. It was not pretty: 26. Again, I repeat: Mike needs handlers to monitor every syllable he utters in public, until he grows up enough and gains sufficient skill in these settings to be taken off leash.

Shortly after 6 p.m., the phone rang in my bunker. The hiss of Vaderian ether, or deep space. “Whattya got for me?” I softly queried. This had to be short. At any second, I knew, the connection could be broken. “I got a call from one of my sources. Mike may be out,” the voice rasped. “Watch for a press conference Tuesday. I hear he’s gonna resign.” Hiss. My own light sword glowed faintly in response. I knew the caller was serious. Hiss. Click. The line went dead. (March 18, 2005)

Safe to say four years away from Indiana haven’t mellowed Coach. His Texas Tech Red Raiders made a surprise run to the Sweet Sixteen—“the first time he has mattered in 11 years,” wrote Louisville Courier-Journal columnist Rick Bozich--and back center stage was Knight. Over the weekend during a broadcast interview Knight was asked what he thought about the Indiana situation. There followed only a moment for us to hold our breaths and duck, and then Coach unloaded. He said, loudly and clearly, that he had intended to fire current Coach Mike Davis, then an IU assistant coach, after the 2000-2001 season . The hinted reason was incompetence. Knight added that his own difficulties at IU, which led to his firing in September, 2000, were not helped by having to work with an “athletic director who didn’t know his ass from third base.” Coach caught some flack for his volleys, but he may have been right on both counts. Still, it put a little stink on what should have been a happy occasion for Knight and Tech. (March 27, 2005)

By mid-month, IU officials took at look at the reality—an athletic department running a deficit, huge payments still owed to various former coaches and athletic directors, and a contract stretching three more years with Mike Davis that would cost the university several more million to break—and announced that basketball coach Mike Davis would retain his job. AD Rick Greenspan was at pains in his public comments to stress that the time for excuses and under-achieving was past and that expectations would be high for Davis and his lads next season. Rumors persisted that IU’s black president, Adam Herbert, may have cast the deciding vote to save Davis. Be that as it may, the decision left many IU fans in despair, believing that Davis is a poor coach who’ll be painful to endure for still more seasons. Davis has a strong recruiting class and talented returnees, so his critics will cut him not an ounce of slack. (April 24, 2005)

Jus’ Joshin’

Josh McRoberts of Carmel has notified the Indianapolis Star, sponsor of the Indiana-Kentucky high school basketball all-star game (and of the state’s Mr. Basketball selection), that he will not be accepting a spot on the Indiana All-Star team. The breaking story gave no hint as to a reason why, but McRoberts, his parents, and his high school coach were all mysteriously unavailable and unreachable for comment, according to the newspaper. McRoberts finished third—third, mind you—in Mr. Basketball balloting, an honor McRoberts, his parents, his coach, his many friends and supporters thought should have been his by acclamation (Luke Zeller of Washington and Dominic James of Richmond finished 1-2). The Star quickly reacted by canceling an exhibition game pitting the senior all-state stars against a team of juniors which had been scheduled June 21 in Carmel. At the end of Day One, it was difficult not to conclude that someone was pouting big time and that the adults had joined young Josh in a great big hissy fit. The furor brought Josh’s mom, Jennifer McRoberts, out of the underbrush in protest in the next day’s paper. She leapt into the fray to defend her son’s decision. Mom told the Star that Josh had injuries—“back injuries, leg injury, and all of that” which prevented him from playing and that the family “and the Duke (University) staff feels it is best for him to rest. It’s always been a dream of his to play at Duke and we don’t want to jeopardize that in any way. It’s a shame that people have to be so judgmental about this.” It is not the first time a player has bagged the all-star team. Brebeuf’s Alan Henderson (an Indiana University recruit) quit the 1991 squad before the team convened to practice (he lost Mr. Basketball to Glenn Robinson) and Bonzi Wells (Mr. B runnerup to Bryce Drew of Valparaiso) quit in 1994 after one exhibition game. A footnote for Indiana University fans to ponder in all this: None of 2005’s top three—McRoberts, Zeller, or James—ever apparently seriously considered attending IU. (April 22, 2005)

Addition By Subtraction

But the IU basketball news hasn’t all been bad. The team’s leading scorer, Bracey Wright, announced shortly after season’s end that he was going to turn professional. He teased us for about a month by not signing with an agent, which meant that he could have changed his mind and come back for another season. But then word leaked north from his Texas home that he had hired an agent, and that ended the suspense. He’s gone. His three years at IU will always puzzle. Hugely hyped as a recruit, Wright spent a most peculiar three years in Bloomington. He scored over 1,000 points, led the team in scoring two years and the Big Ten in one, but fans never seemed to warm to him. Wright’s field goal percentage was mediocre by any standard (in the .420s), and his stand-offish, detached personality won him few supporters. There were odd hints here and there that his teammates were less than ardent admirers. And so off Bracey goes, thinking he’s ready for the pros. And IU’s basketball team will be better without him. (April 25, 2005)

IU basketball, 2004-2005--just the numbers, please: IU ranked seventh in team scoring (63.8 points), fifth in scoring defense (63.6), seventh in scoring margin (+0.2 points), fourth in free throw percentage (.714), ninth in field goal percentage (.425), fourth in field goal defense (.420), seventh in three-point field goal percentage (.337), fourth in three-point defense (.331), tenth in offensive rebounding (31.0 per game), ninth in defensive rebounding 33.7), third in blocked shots (4.45), eleventh in assists (11.69), seventh in steals (6.59), fifth in turnover margin (+1.21), seventh in assist/turnover ratio (0.91) (April 25, 2005)

Marco Killingsworth, the Auburn transfer who has been reported over the past year to be either 6-8, 6-9, or 6-10, is described in this morning’s Indianapolis Star as standing 6-7 and weighing 267 pounds. He is expected to be a starter next season for Indiana University’s basketball team. I repeat: there is no greater need in this great nation than federal legislation mandating certification of height and weight for athletes at all levels—kindergarten and up. (April 25, 2005)

Astonishing. Marco Killingsworth grew two inches but lost 17 pounds in 24 hours. In a story in the April 26 Indianapolis Star (this one about IU’s latest recruit, junior college guard Earl Calloway), Killingsworth was described as a “6-9, 250-pound forward.” (Repeat mantra about crying need for federal legislation). (April 26, 2005)

Keepin’ Up With Fundy

Lawrence Funderburke, one-time IU dream recruit, has signed to play for the rest of the season with the resurgent Chicago Bulls. Fundy’s NBA career has consisted of six seasons with Sacramento, 6.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. How many remember Fundy’s last game in an IU uniform, in late December of his freshman year—26 points and double-figure rebounds and he was gone the next week. He ended up at Ohio State and played decently, but short of the promise most felt he had. Ah, memory lane. (April 27, 2005)

Tough Day For Gojko's Gang

The Gang of 46—that rollicking band of Knight Loyalists who sued Indiana University claiming the dastardly Myles Brand violated Indiana’s Open Door laws when holding trustee meetings in his home in 2000 during the run-up to Brand’s firing of Coach—suffered still another setback May 9 when Judge Cecile Blau (a special judge from Clark County appointed to hear the case) ruled against the Loyalists. Brand, the judge said, did not violate the law. This was the famous case where Brand split the trustees into several smaller groups and met with them separately (so they would not meet the law’s legal definition of a “meeting”) to discuss the Unpleasantness. Judge Blau in ruling uttered these words dreaded by lefties everywhere: “The court must apply statutes as written and may not substitute language which is not there.” But fear not—the Loyalist group, led by Hebron attorney Gojko Kasich, has vowed to appeal, and to appeal again and again and again and again, over and over and over and endlessly over until justice is achieved. Good! (May 10, 2005)

Shrinkin’ And Bailin’

IU basketball recruiting took a peculiar turn in May when Deonta Vaughn, its all-state guard recruit from Arlington High School in Indianapolis, announced that he had withdrawn from school shortly before his scheduled graduation and has now enrolled in a prep school in Cincinnati. The move is designed to preserve four years of college eligibility for the lad. His senior year grades at Arlington, so the story went, were so bad that rather than graduate and have the grades finalized, he opted for prep school where he may re-take courses in the hope of raising his grade average (and thus lowering the SAT minimum score he must attain, since the GPA and the test scores are linked). Vaughn’s decision means he also forfeits his spot on the all-state team. The Star’s story said Vaughn was a 5-11 guard. In previous articles he stretched as high as 6-1. (May 19, 2005)
Bracey Wright hit 7 of 22 shots during three scrimmage games last week at the NBA’s pre-draft tryout camp at Moody Bible Institute in suburban Chicago. “Everybody knows I can score,” he was quoted saying, “I’m just trying to do all the small things.” He succeeded at one of them: field goal percentage (.318, well below his IU career mark in the low 40s). Wright was also measured at 6-1 and 1/4 inches without shoes, below his IU listing at 6-3. He’s also worked out privately for six teams, including the Pacers. The draft is June 28. Bracey says he’s confident. (June 12, 2005) (Post-script: Wright was drafted midway through the second round by the Minnesota Timberwolves)

Vlahogeorge Retires

Word leaked out of Bloomington this week that another once-highly-touted quarterback has left Indiana University’s football program. Mike Vlahogeorge, whose high school career 10,757 passing yards at Lafayette Jeff ranks third in state history, and who threw 44 touchdown passes his senior year, never played a down at Indiana. The carefully-worded press release said only that he will “discontinue his collegiate athletic career.” Observers said Vlahogeorge was “rather slow afoot.” Bedraggled and depressed IU football fans quickly remembered another much-heralded recruit—Earl Haniford of Martinsville High School—who fell woefully short of his hype. Haniford did make the team for several years in the 1990s, but never started a game, and dropped out of football. (June 21, 2005)

Could be just a prank, but a front-page story in this morning’s Star says local high school superstar Greg Oden has decided he’s going to attend Ohio State University (presumably for only a year till he meets the newly-passed NBA rule that players entering the pro draft must be “one year removed from high school” graduation). Oden is a consensus choice as the nation’s top high school basketball player for the 2005-2006 season. If the story is true--Oden himself was not available for comment and the Star based its story “on a person close to Oden who confirmed” the lad’s intentions--it is a serious setback for IU Coach Mike Davis’s job security. IU fans who are already hyper-ventilating should face the truth: under Davis, IU’s program hardly qualifies as top-rank nationally, and it could be argued it’s not even among the top three or four most desirable programs in the Big Ten (behind Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, and possibly Wisconsin). Time for a sedative, certainly. (June 24, 2005)

Greg's Sending Code In Here, Somewhere

Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. (a teammate of Oden’s at suburban Lawrence North High School) confirmed in a press conference June 28 that they both were choosing Ohio State. Oden was quoted saying he didn’t feel very comfortable with IU’s “style of play” and apparently never seriously considered Indiana. This reference to IU’s “style” was interpreted by many as code for: a bunch of guys running around pointlessly and not knowing how to play sound, fundamental basketball. Local radio talk shows were swamped with disappointed IU fans, many of whom seem to agree Coach Mike Davis will not survive the coming year. Probably best to wait and see how it plays out. (June 29, 2005)

So It's Not Just Our Imagination. . .

The annual Sports Academy Director’s Cup ratings are out for 2004-2005 and Purdue and Indiana are last and next-last in the Big Ten. The Cup ratings evaluate university athletic programs in all sports. Indiana ranked 36th nationally, but 10th of 11 teams in its league. Purdue ranked last in the Big Ten and 46th nationally. This pretty much squares with the general impression IU fans share—that the university’s athletic programs have deteriorated dramatically since the early 1990s and remain mediocre to this day. (July 6, 2005).

Oh, Jeeez, Now They're Makin' Fun Of Us, Too. . .

An Indianapolis Star reporter brought IU fans their worst—well, one of them, anyway—nightmare, but something they know in their gut—IU’s basketball program and athletic department are a laughingstock around the country. Jeff Rabjohns, covering the Reebok basketball camp in Teaneck, New Jersey, was a guest on a local radio sports talk show in the five o’clock hour Thursday. Asked what he was hearing in the rumor mill at the camp, Rabjohns answered that outsiders are shaking their heads at the Mike Davis situation in Bloomington. “IU’s administration, from President Myles Brand on to the present, its last few athletic directors, are looked upon as morons, idiots. The way they’ve handled the Davis thing in particular is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen in sports,” the reporter said. Rabjohns and the show’s host, who calls himself “JMV,” agreed that Davis’s job uncertainty is certain to have a negative significant impact on the school’s recruiting. Rabjohns was emphatic in saying these were not necessarily his own opinions, just what he heard “every time you tell someone you’re from Indiana.” (July 7, 2005)
Thad Fitzpatrick has resigned his assistant basketball coaching position at Indiana University to accept an assistant principal’s job in Alabama. Fitzpatrick was hired several years ago by head coach Mike Davis. Fitzpatrick then happened to be the high school coach of current IU star, D. J. White. White is to begin his sophomore year at Indiana this fall. (August 4, 2005)
Coach has signed up with ESPN to host a reality show featuring 16 students who’ll try out for a single walk-on spot with the basketball team at Texas Tech. Taping begins in September and the show will air in February. Curious that Coach, who’s spent his adult lifetime ridiculing journalists, whistles a different tune when the old checkbook comes out. I know, I know, he’ll donate the money to the university, or a charity. (August 5, 2005)
Attendance for IU’s home football opener against Nichols State: 27,600.

Shhhhh. . .Can't Say 'Whiskey' Out Loud Now. . .

Indiana and Kentucky for years played college football for possession of the series trophy, The Bourbon Barrel, named after Kentucky’s famous whiskey industry. But the trophy has been banned as politically incorrect. I may be years late learning this, but I just did. I’d like to have the names of the people responsible for this cowardly act. (September 14, 2005)
One number means more than any other from Saturday’s Indiana football win (38-14) over Kentucky. . .attendance of 40,240.

No Man Enters The Kingdom Of Heaven Except By Coach. . .

Texas Tech University announced October 1 that Pat Knight, son of Coach, has signed a contract to replace his father, Coach, as the school’s head basketball coach. The precise date this will happen has not been determined, but Coach Himself is under contract to TTU through the end of May, 2009. By then, one theory goes, He should have accumulated enough victories to rank first among all college basketball coaches in the history of college basketball and the known universe. And with then no more to motivate Him than sheer cussedness, the end of His own contract would be a perfect time to hand the reins to His Oldest Begotten Son. Of course, Coach will coach at TTU as long as He wishes, and will let us know of His plans and decisions when He is ready for us to know. Pat is presently an assistant at Texas Tech. Athletic director Gerald Myers, a close friend of Coach, said that recruiting and continuity were the big factors in this move. Coach Himself told the local Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that His greatest wish was to “see what we’ve done placed in the hands of the most competent person, and that’s Pat.” Had it not been for the villainous Myles Brand, this is the scenario which would have played out at Indiana University. God, or the god of your choice, bless you, Myles, for sparing us from Pat. (October 1, 2005)

Not Really Double Dipping

On the east wall of IU’s Memorial Stadium at opposite ends of the field hang two banners celebrating the football team’s bowl game appearances. The north end banner lists four games, the last of which is “Peach Bowl 1988.” At the other end of the field the second banner begins with “Liberty Bowl 1988.” A mystery at first glance, but explained thusly. The 1988 Peach Bowl was played to conclude the Fall, 1987 season, but the game was pushed over into the new calendar year (January 2 of 1988); The December 28,1988 Liberty Bowl concluded IU's 1988 season. (October 8, 2005)

IU basketball fans were cruelly reminded again of what might have been when Jason Collier, a widely-heralded 1996 basketball recruit, died of a heart attack at age 28. Collier was recruited by then Indiana Coach Bob Knight, who called him “a savior” for the program, according to the Indianapolis Star. A year-and-a-half later, Collier transferred to Georgia Tech, telling reporters that coming to IU was “the biggest mistake” he’d ever made. He went on to play five years in the NBA, most recently for the Atlanta Hawks. The seven-foot tall Collier’s December, 1997, departure was acrimonious, with Collier saying, “You never know how bad it is (playing for Knight) until it happens to you. I could not put up with his coaching tactics any more. It’s not any one thing I can pinpoint; it’s all of it—the screaming, the yelling, all of it.” The Star reported that Collier was the 32nd player to transfer during Knight’s reign. (October 20, 2005)

The latest Indiana basketball recruit for the fall of 2006 class is Armon Bassett, a former Terre Haute South player now attending Hargrave Military Academy at Chatham, Virginia. Bassett was an Indiana High School All-Star last year and committed to attend Missouri after finishing one year of prep school. The Indianapolis Star reports the lad has changed his mind and will show up in Bloomington next fall. He is a 6-1 point guard who averaged 22 points and 6.1 assists per game in high school and is currently ranked No. 103 among this year’s U.S. high school players. IU’s class of 2006 also includes point guard Deonta Vaughn, who is in prep school in Cincinnati. (October 22, 2005)

Better Keeling Than Cugat

And within a week of Bassett's commitment, Indiana got another--this time from 6-6 shooting guard Xavier Keeling, of Huntsville, Albama. Keeling reportedly had offers from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Nebraska. Keeling, Bassett, and Deonta Vaughn (who is now rumored to be having second thoughts) of Indianapolis comprise IU's three 2006 recruits to date, with two scholarships remaining to fill. (October 26, 2005)

Terry Cole, the fullback on Indiana’s 1967 Big Ten champion football team, died November 11 of cancer at age 60. Cole starred at Mitchell, Indiana, High School and then at IU. He ran for a touchdown and gained over 100 yards rushing in IU’s Big Ten title-clinching 1967 victory over Purdue, and later played with the Baltimore Colts and the Miami Dolphins. His last season was with the unbeaten 1973 Dolphins. He played in three Super Bowls before retiring back in Indiana for a business career. (November 11, 2005)

Somehow, More Fannies In The Seats

IU’s 2005 football attendance increased by 39.3% to a season average of 39,536 for six home games. That’s the highest since 1992 when IU averaged 44,074. Last year’s average was 28,377 for five games. The 2005 team, alas, was another stinker, though close observers believe they saw improvement in a 4-7 record this year compared to 3-8 last season, which got Gerry DiNardo fired. Hard to argue this team is better, though, in any way except wins and losses, which may count the most. For the present, though, attendance is the most important number for an athletic department operating in the red. The increase this year put an additional $2.3 million in the athletic department’s bank account—over 95,000 more tickets sold at an average price of $25. New Coach Terry Hoeppner, who tirelessly promoted the program, deserves most of the credit. (November 20, 2005)

A correspondent reports that Gerry DiNardo’s record of 8-27 overall (.229) and 3-21 in Big Ten games (.125) is the worst, percentage-wise, in the entire 119-year history of Indiana University football for those coaching more than one season. Bob Hicks, who coached one season, is the only one worse: his 1957 team was 0-6 in league play (.000) and 1-8 overall (.111). Indiana’s first intercollegiate football game was—fittingly—a loss (8-6), in 1887 against Franklin College. (November 24, 2005)

Courtney Roby, an outstanding wide receiver for several years at IU (he starred on Gerry DiNardo’s last team in 2004), has made the roster of the Tennessee Titans NFL team and caught a touchdown pass in a recent game against the Raiders. (November 25, 2005)

Bracey Wright, who played three seasons of basketball at IU and was drafted last summer in the second round by the Minnesota Timberwolves, is playing in the NBA’s Developmental League with the Florida Flame, and being paid an annual salary of $400,000 to do so. (November 25, 2005)

Former (1990-94) IU basketball star Damon Bailey has taken the head basketball coaching job at Bedford (Indiana) North Lawrence High school, where Bailey himself gained national fame as a prep player. He still holds the all-time state high school career scoring record (3,134 points).

Wonder-child Eric Gordon of Indianapolis North Central High School, a 6-2 guard with a 26-point scoring average, has chosen the University of Illinois for his college basketball career. Gordon is a junior and ranked as high as the fifth-best in his class nationwide this year. He becomes another in a recent and lengthening line of top recruits spurning Indiana schools and going out-of-state to play college ball. Hoosier Nation will squawk, but it’s best to see who IU recruits and how they play in college before concluding the world has ended again. IU joined in the chase for Gordon but nowhere did I ever see in print any indication that Gordon ever seriously considered IU. And before we blame current coach Mike Davis for this, we should recall that large numbers of recruits never considered IU seriously when it meant having to play for Bob Knight. (November 28, 2005)

I’m still waiting for Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, fresh off a stunning turn-around 10-1 season and a Big Ten football title, to give credit where it’s due: to former IU coach Gerry DiNardo, whose team failed to score in four downs from the one-yard line in the waning moments of its 2004 home game against Penn State, thus giving the Nittany Lions a gift victory it never should have had. A loss that day at IU probably would have forced out Paterno, whose team had a terrible season. Ironically, a win that day might have saved poor DiNardo’s job. He was fired a few weeks later. Fate can be so fickle. (December 1, 2005)

This morning’s Star notes that top-ranked USC bombed in-state rival UCLA yesterday, 66-19, and has now won 34 straight football games against UCLA. This adds some perspective for IU fans, who’ve suffered generations of degradation and pain at the hands of rival Purdue. It’s comforting we’re not the only ones in the universe in this situation, though there’s nothing in the universe quite like being an IU football fan. (December 4, 2005)

“Great coach, honest man, jackass”—Five words chosen by retiring Chicago Tribune sportswriter Bill Jauss to describe Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight. Jauss listed Knight and former DePaul coach Ray Meyer as the two greatest coaches he ever encountered. (December 30, 2005)

	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 Steve Alford's won-lost record at Iowa in Big Ten play as the 2004 season began was 34-46 (.425). File this information away for the inevitable upcoming campaign to have Steve named the next Indiana University basketball coach. (January 1, 2005) At the end of the 2005 season, Steve Alford’s Big Ten record was 41-55. His teams have finished 8th, 6th, 8th, 8th, 4th, and 7th and only once have been over .500 in league play (9-7 in 2004). NCAA appearances? One. (April 5, 2005) Five years of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge are enough. Some of us can remember the 1980s and 90s when Big Ten fans could argue that the league was the best in the country. No more. The annual pre-season matchups with the ACC have proven a deep embarrassment for the Big Ten. The ACC has won a majority of the games every year. The ACC is 27-17 overall. Seven of nine ACC eams are over .500 in the Challenge--only four Big Ten teams are. Only two teams are undefeated in the five-year-old series--both are ACC teams (Duke and Wake Forest). Defending Big Ten champion Illinois is 1-4, ditto Wisconsin, the 2002 and 2003 league champion. Ugly. (January 2, 2005) Confirmed 'Covenant House' Sighting! Former IU assistant basketball coach Norm (Covenant House) Ellenberger, off-radar for several years, has been tracked down--and photographed and interviewed, too!--by the Chicago Tribune. He's living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and coaches a girls high school basketball team in Minoqua, Wisconsin, just across the border. Ellenberger left Indiana in August, 2000, to join the Chicago Bulls staff and left that job in April of 2002. He and his wife moved to the north woods country, and from the sound of the Tribune interview, he's not coming back to the bright lights. He lives in a cabin on Crooked Lake, next door to an 18,000-acre wilderness area, and also does volunteer work with the Wintersmeet, Michigan, girls team. Ellenberger, now 72, canoes, hikes, snowmobiles, chops wood, and told eager reporters he's sublimely happy with his life. Ellenberger served at IU under Bob Knight and, because of his wit, candor, and cheerful disposition, was a reporters' favorite. It's good to hear he's at peace and has found a home. (February 13, 2005) Indiana blew its chance for an NCAA tourney bid with a pathetic first-round loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament March 11. IU Coach Mike Davis, who'd been pretty restrained in recent months, had a relapse in the post-game press conference. He went on nearly interminably about how his team still deserved an NCAA berth. Some prick reporter actually counted up the times Davis reminded the group that IU was the fourth-seeded team in the league tourney. It was not pretty: 26. Again, I repeat: Mike needs handlers to monitor every syllable he utters in public, until he grows up enough and gains sufficient skill in these settings to be taken off leash. Shortly after 6 p.m., the phone rang in my bunker. The hiss of Vaderian ether, or deep space. “Whattya got for me?” I softly queried. This had to be short. At any second, I knew, the connection could be broken. “I got a call from one of my sources. Mike may be out,” the voice rasped. “Watch for a press conference Tuesday. I hear he’s gonna resign.” Hiss. My own light sword glowed faintly in response. I knew the caller was serious. Hiss. Click. The line went dead. (March 18, 2005) Safe to say four years away from Indiana haven’t mellowed Coach. His Texas Tech Red Raiders made a surprise run to the Sweet Sixteen—“the first time he has mattered in 11 years,” wrote Louisville Courier-Journal columnist Rick Bozich--and back center stage was Knight. Over the weekend during a broadcast interview Knight was asked what he thought about the Indiana situation. There followed only a moment for us to hold our breaths and duck, and then Coach unloaded. He said, loudly and clearly, that he had intended to fire current Coach Mike Davis, then an IU assistant coach, after the 2000-2001 season . The hinted reason was incompetence. Knight added that his own difficulties at IU, which led to his firing in September, 2000, were not helped by having to work with an “athletic director who didn’t know his ass from third base.” Coach caught some flack for his volleys, but he may have been right on both counts. Still, it put a little stink on what should have been a happy occasion for Knight and Tech. (March 27, 2005) By mid-month, IU officials took at look at the reality—an athletic department running a deficit, huge payments still owed to various former coaches and athletic directors, and a contract stretching three more years with Mike Davis that would cost the university several more million to break—and announced that basketball coach Mike Davis would retain his job. AD Rick Greenspan was at pains in his public comments to stress that the time for excuses and under-achieving was past and that expectations would be high for Davis and his lads next season. Rumors persisted that IU’s black president, Adam Herbert, may have cast the deciding vote to save Davis. Be that as it may, the decision left many IU fans in despair, believing that Davis is a poor coach who’ll be painful to endure for still more seasons. Davis has a strong recruiting class and talented returnees, so his critics will cut him not an ounce of slack. (April 24, 2005) Jus’ Joshin’ Josh McRoberts of Carmel has notified the Indianapolis Star, sponsor of the Indiana-Kentucky high school basketball all-star game (and of the state’s Mr. Basketball selection), that he will not be accepting a spot on the Indiana All-Star team. The breaking story gave no hint as to a reason why, but McRoberts, his parents, and his high school coach were all mysteriously unavailable and unreachable for comment, according to the newspaper. McRoberts finished third—third, mind you—in Mr. Basketball balloting, an honor McRoberts, his parents, his coach, his many friends and supporters thought should have been his by acclamation (Luke Zeller of Washington and Dominic James of Richmond finished 1-2). The Star quickly reacted by canceling an exhibition game pitting the senior all-state stars against a team of juniors which had been scheduled June 21 in Carmel. At the end of Day One, it was difficult not to conclude that someone was pouting big time and that the adults had joined young Josh in a great big hissy fit. The furor brought Josh’s mom, Jennifer McRoberts, out of the underbrush in protest in the next day’s paper. She leapt into the fray to defend her son’s decision. Mom told the Star that Josh had injuries—“back injuries, leg injury, and all of that” which prevented him from playing and that the family “and the Duke (University) staff feels it is best for him to rest. It’s always been a dream of his to play at Duke and we don’t want to jeopardize that in any way. It’s a shame that people have to be so judgmental about this.” It is not the first time a player has bagged the all-star team. Brebeuf’s Alan Henderson (an Indiana University recruit) quit the 1991 squad before the team convened to practice (he lost Mr. Basketball to Glenn Robinson) and Bonzi Wells (Mr. B runnerup to Bryce Drew of Valparaiso) quit in 1994 after one exhibition game. A footnote for Indiana University fans to ponder in all this: None of 2005’s top three—McRoberts, Zeller, or James—ever apparently seriously considered attending IU. (April 22, 2005) Addition By Subtraction But the IU basketball news hasn’t all been bad. The team’s leading scorer, Bracey Wright, announced shortly after season’s end that he was going to turn professional. He teased us for about a month by not signing with an agent, which meant that he could have changed his mind and come back for another season. But then word leaked north from his Texas home that he had hired an agent, and that ended the suspense. He’s gone. His three years at IU will always puzzle. Hugely hyped as a recruit, Wright spent a most peculiar three years in Bloomington. He scored over 1,000 points, led the team in scoring two years and the Big Ten in one, but fans never seemed to warm to him. Wright’s field goal percentage was mediocre by any standard (in the .420s), and his stand-offish, detached personality won him few supporters. There were odd hints here and there that his teammates were less than ardent admirers. And so off Bracey goes, thinking he’s ready for the pros. And IU’s basketball team will be better without him. (April 25, 2005) IU basketball, 2004-2005--just the numbers, please: IU ranked seventh in team scoring (63.8 points), fifth in scoring defense (63.6), seventh in scoring margin (+0.2 points), fourth in free throw percentage (.714), ninth in field goal percentage (.425), fourth in field goal defense (.420), seventh in three-point field goal percentage (.337), fourth in three-point defense (.331), tenth in offensive rebounding (31.0 per game), ninth in defensive rebounding 33.7), third in blocked shots (4.45), eleventh in assists (11.69), seventh in steals (6.59), fifth in turnover margin (+1.21), seventh in assist/turnover ratio (0.91) (April 25, 2005) Marco Killingsworth, the Auburn transfer who has been reported over the past year to be either 6-8, 6-9, or 6-10, is described in this morning’s Indianapolis Star as standing 6-7 and weighing 267 pounds. He is expected to be a starter next season for Indiana University’s basketball team. I repeat: there is no greater need in this great nation than federal legislation mandating certification of height and weight for athletes at all levels—kindergarten and up. (April 25, 2005) Astonishing. Marco Killingsworth grew two inches but lost 17 pounds in 24 hours. In a story in the April 26 Indianapolis Star (this one about IU’s latest recruit, junior college guard Earl Calloway), Killingsworth was described as a “6-9, 250-pound forward.” (Repeat mantra about crying need for federal legislation). (April 26, 2005) Keepin’ Up With Fundy Lawrence Funderburke, one-time IU dream recruit, has signed to play for the rest of the season with the resurgent Chicago Bulls. Fundy’s NBA career has consisted of six seasons with Sacramento, 6.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. How many remember Fundy’s last game in an IU uniform, in late December of his freshman year—26 points and double-figure rebounds and he was gone the next week. He ended up at Ohio State and played decently, but short of the promise most felt he had. Ah, memory lane. (April 27, 2005) Tough Day For Gojko's Gang The Gang of 46—that rollicking band of Knight Loyalists who sued Indiana University claiming the dastardly Myles Brand violated Indiana’s Open Door laws when holding trustee meetings in his home in 2000 during the run-up to Brand’s firing of Coach—suffered still another setback May 9 when Judge Cecile Blau (a special judge from Clark County appointed to hear the case) ruled against the Loyalists. Brand, the judge said, did not violate the law. This was the famous case where Brand split the trustees into several smaller groups and met with them separately (so they would not meet the law’s legal definition of a “meeting”) to discuss the Unpleasantness. Judge Blau in ruling uttered these words dreaded by lefties everywhere: “The court must apply statutes as written and may not substitute language which is not there.” But fear not—the Loyalist group, led by Hebron attorney Gojko Kasich, has vowed to appeal, and to appeal again and again and again and again, over and over and over and endlessly over until justice is achieved. Good! (May 10, 2005) Shrinkin’ And Bailin’ IU basketball recruiting took a peculiar turn in May when Deonta Vaughn, its all-state guard recruit from Arlington High School in Indianapolis, announced that he had withdrawn from school shortly before his scheduled graduation and has now enrolled in a prep school in Cincinnati. The move is designed to preserve four years of college eligibility for the lad. His senior year grades at Arlington, so the story went, were so bad that rather than graduate and have the grades finalized, he opted for prep school where he may re-take courses in the hope of raising his grade average (and thus lowering the SAT minimum score he must attain, since the GPA and the test scores are linked). Vaughn’s decision means he also forfeits his spot on the all-state team. The Star’s story said Vaughn was a 5-11 guard. In previous articles he stretched as high as 6-1. (May 19, 2005) Bracey Wright hit 7 of 22 shots during three scrimmage games last week at the NBA’s pre-draft tryout camp at Moody Bible Institute in suburban Chicago. “Everybody knows I can score,” he was quoted saying, “I’m just trying to do all the small things.” He succeeded at one of them: field goal percentage (.318, well below his IU career mark in the low 40s). Wright was also measured at 6-1 and 1/4 inches without shoes, below his IU listing at 6-3. He’s also worked out privately for six teams, including the Pacers. The draft is June 28. Bracey says he’s confident. (June 12, 2005) (Post-script: Wright was drafted midway through the second round by the Minnesota Timberwolves) Vlahogeorge Retires Word leaked out of Bloomington this week that another once-highly-touted quarterback has left Indiana University’s football program. Mike Vlahogeorge, whose high school career 10,757 passing yards at Lafayette Jeff ranks third in state history, and who threw 44 touchdown passes his senior year, never played a down at Indiana. The carefully-worded press release said only that he will “discontinue his collegiate athletic career.” Observers said Vlahogeorge was “rather slow afoot.” Bedraggled and depressed IU football fans quickly remembered another much-heralded recruit—Earl Haniford of Martinsville High School—who fell woefully short of his hype. Haniford did make the team for several years in the 1990s, but never started a game, and dropped out of football. (June 21, 2005) Could be just a prank, but a front-page story in this morning’s Star says local high school superstar Greg Oden has decided he’s going to attend Ohio State University (presumably for only a year till he meets the newly-passed NBA rule that players entering the pro draft must be “one year removed from high school” graduation). Oden is a consensus choice as the nation’s top high school basketball player for the 2005-2006 season. If the story is true--Oden himself was not available for comment and the Star based its story “on a person close to Oden who confirmed” the lad’s intentions--it is a serious setback for IU Coach Mike Davis’s job security. IU fans who are already hyper-ventilating should face the truth: under Davis, IU’s program hardly qualifies as top-rank nationally, and it could be argued it’s not even among the top three or four most desirable programs in the Big Ten (behind Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, and possibly Wisconsin). Time for a sedative, certainly. (June 24, 2005) Greg's Sending Code In Here, Somewhere Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. (a teammate of Oden’s at suburban Lawrence North High School) confirmed in a press conference June 28 that they both were choosing Ohio State. Oden was quoted saying he didn’t feel very comfortable with IU’s “style of play” and apparently never seriously considered Indiana. This reference to IU’s “style” was interpreted by many as code for: a bunch of guys running around pointlessly and not knowing how to play sound, fundamental basketball. Local radio talk shows were swamped with disappointed IU fans, many of whom seem to agree Coach Mike Davis will not survive the coming year. Probably best to wait and see how it plays out. (June 29, 2005) So It's Not Just Our Imagination. . . The annual Sports Academy Director’s Cup ratings are out for 2004-2005 and Purdue and Indiana are last and next-last in the Big Ten. The Cup ratings evaluate university athletic programs in all sports. Indiana ranked 36th nationally, but 10th of 11 teams in its league. Purdue ranked last in the Big Ten and 46th nationally. This pretty much squares with the general impression IU fans share—that the university’s athletic programs have deteriorated dramatically since the early 1990s and remain mediocre to this day. (July 6, 2005). Oh, Jeeez, Now They're Makin' Fun Of Us, Too. . . An Indianapolis Star reporter brought IU fans their worst—well, one of them, anyway—nightmare, but something they know in their gut—IU’s basketball program and athletic department are a laughingstock around the country. Jeff Rabjohns, covering the Reebok basketball camp in Teaneck, New Jersey, was a guest on a local radio sports talk show in the five o’clock hour Thursday. Asked what he was hearing in the rumor mill at the camp, Rabjohns answered that outsiders are shaking their heads at the Mike Davis situation in Bloomington. “IU’s administration, from President Myles Brand on to the present, its last few athletic directors, are looked upon as morons, idiots. The way they’ve handled the Davis thing in particular is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen in sports,” the reporter said. Rabjohns and the show’s host, who calls himself “JMV,” agreed that Davis’s job uncertainty is certain to have a negative significant impact on the school’s recruiting. Rabjohns was emphatic in saying these were not necessarily his own opinions, just what he heard “every time you tell someone you’re from Indiana.” (July 7, 2005) Thad Fitzpatrick has resigned his assistant basketball coaching position at Indiana University to accept an assistant principal’s job in Alabama. Fitzpatrick was hired several years ago by head coach Mike Davis. Fitzpatrick then happened to be the high school coach of current IU star, D. J. White. White is to begin his sophomore year at Indiana this fall. (August 4, 2005) Coach has signed up with ESPN to host a reality show featuring 16 students who’ll try out for a single walk-on spot with the basketball team at Texas Tech. Taping begins in September and the show will air in February. Curious that Coach, who’s spent his adult lifetime ridiculing journalists, whistles a different tune when the old checkbook comes out. I know, I know, he’ll donate the money to the university, or a charity. (August 5, 2005) Attendance for IU’s home football opener against Nichols State: 27,600. Shhhhh. . .Can't Say 'Whiskey' Out Loud Now. . . Indiana and Kentucky for years played college football for possession of the series trophy, The Bourbon Barrel, named after Kentucky’s famous whiskey industry. But the trophy has been banned as politically incorrect. I may be years late learning this, but I just did. I’d like to have the names of the people responsible for this cowardly act. (September 14, 2005) One number means more than any other from Saturday’s Indiana football win (38-14) over Kentucky. . .attendance of 40,240. No Man Enters The Kingdom Of Heaven Except By Coach. . . Texas Tech University announced October 1 that Pat Knight, son of Coach, has signed a contract to replace his father, Coach, as the school’s head basketball coach. The precise date this will happen has not been determined, but Coach Himself is under contract to TTU through the end of May, 2009. By then, one theory goes, He should have accumulated enough victories to rank first among all college basketball coaches in the history of college basketball and the known universe. And with then no more to motivate Him than sheer cussedness, the end of His own contract would be a perfect time to hand the reins to His Oldest Begotten Son. Of course, Coach will coach at TTU as long as He wishes, and will let us know of His plans and decisions when He is ready for us to know. Pat is presently an assistant at Texas Tech. Athletic director Gerald Myers, a close friend of Coach, said that recruiting and continuity were the big factors in this move. Coach Himself told the local Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that His greatest wish was to “see what we’ve done placed in the hands of the most competent person, and that’s Pat.” Had it not been for the villainous Myles Brand, this is the scenario which would have played out at Indiana University. God, or the god of your choice, bless you, Myles, for sparing us from Pat. (October 1, 2005) Not Really Double Dipping On the east wall of IU’s Memorial Stadium at opposite ends of the field hang two banners celebrating the football team’s bowl game appearances. The north end banner lists four games, the last of which is “Peach Bowl 1988.” At the other end of the field the second banner begins with “Liberty Bowl 1988.” A mystery at first glance, but explained thusly. The 1988 Peach Bowl was played to conclude the Fall, 1987 season, but the game was pushed over into the new calendar year (January 2 of 1988); The December 28,1988 Liberty Bowl concluded IU's 1988 season. (October 8, 2005) IU basketball fans were cruelly reminded again of what might have been when Jason Collier, a widely-heralded 1996 basketball recruit, died of a heart attack at age 28. Collier was recruited by then Indiana Coach Bob Knight, who called him “a savior” for the program, according to the Indianapolis Star. A year-and-a-half later, Collier transferred to Georgia Tech, telling reporters that coming to IU was “the biggest mistake” he’d ever made. He went on to play five years in the NBA, most recently for the Atlanta Hawks. The seven-foot tall Collier’s December, 1997, departure was acrimonious, with Collier saying, “You never know how bad it is (playing for Knight) until it happens to you. I could not put up with his coaching tactics any more. It’s not any one thing I can pinpoint; it’s all of it—the screaming, the yelling, all of it.” The Star reported that Collier was the 32nd player to transfer during Knight’s reign. (October 20, 2005) The latest Indiana basketball recruit for the fall of 2006 class is Armon Bassett, a former Terre Haute South player now attending Hargrave Military Academy at Chatham, Virginia. Bassett was an Indiana High School All-Star last year and committed to attend Missouri after finishing one year of prep school. The Indianapolis Star reports the lad has changed his mind and will show up in Bloomington next fall. He is a 6-1 point guard who averaged 22 points and 6.1 assists per game in high school and is currently ranked No. 103 among this year’s U.S. high school players. IU’s class of 2006 also includes point guard Deonta Vaughn, who is in prep school in Cincinnati. (October 22, 2005) Better Keeling Than Cugat And within a week of Bassett's commitment, Indiana got another--this time from 6-6 shooting guard Xavier Keeling, of Huntsville, Albama. Keeling reportedly had offers from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Nebraska. Keeling, Bassett, and Deonta Vaughn (who is now rumored to be having second thoughts) of Indianapolis comprise IU's three 2006 recruits to date, with two scholarships remaining to fill. (October 26, 2005) Terry Cole, the fullback on Indiana’s 1967 Big Ten champion football team, died November 11 of cancer at age 60. Cole starred at Mitchell, Indiana, High School and then at IU. He ran for a touchdown and gained over 100 yards rushing in IU’s Big Ten title-clinching 1967 victory over Purdue, and later played with the Baltimore Colts and the Miami Dolphins. His last season was with the unbeaten 1973 Dolphins. He played in three Super Bowls before retiring back in Indiana for a business career. (November 11, 2005) Somehow, More Fannies In The Seats IU’s 2005 football attendance increased by 39.3% to a season average of 39,536 for six home games. That’s the highest since 1992 when IU averaged 44,074. Last year’s average was 28,377 for five games. The 2005 team, alas, was another stinker, though close observers believe they saw improvement in a 4-7 record this year compared to 3-8 last season, which got Gerry DiNardo fired. Hard to argue this team is better, though, in any way except wins and losses, which may count the most. For the present, though, attendance is the most important number for an athletic department operating in the red. The increase this year put an additional $2.3 million in the athletic department’s bank account—over 95,000 more tickets sold at an average price of $25. New Coach Terry Hoeppner, who tirelessly promoted the program, deserves most of the credit. (November 20, 2005) A correspondent reports that Gerry DiNardo’s record of 8-27 overall (.229) and 3-21 in Big Ten games (.125) is the worst, percentage-wise, in the entire 119-year history of Indiana University football for those coaching more than one season. Bob Hicks, who coached one season, is the only one worse: his 1957 team was 0-6 in league play (.000) and 1-8 overall (.111). Indiana’s first intercollegiate football game was—fittingly—a loss (8-6), in 1887 against Franklin College. (November 24, 2005) Courtney Roby, an outstanding wide receiver for several years at IU (he starred on Gerry DiNardo’s last team in 2004), has made the roster of the Tennessee Titans NFL team and caught a touchdown pass in a recent game against the Raiders. (November 25, 2005) Bracey Wright, who played three seasons of basketball at IU and was drafted last summer in the second round by the Minnesota Timberwolves, is playing in the NBA’s Developmental League with the Florida Flame, and being paid an annual salary of $400,000 to do so. (November 25, 2005) Former (1990-94) IU basketball star Damon Bailey has taken the head basketball coaching job at Bedford (Indiana) North Lawrence High school, where Bailey himself gained national fame as a prep player. He still holds the all-time state high school career scoring record (3,134 points). Wonder-child Eric Gordon of Indianapolis North Central High School, a 6-2 guard with a 26-point scoring average, has chosen the University of Illinois for his college basketball career. Gordon is a junior and ranked as high as the fifth-best in his class nationwide this year. He becomes another in a recent and lengthening line of top recruits spurning Indiana schools and going out-of-state to play college ball. Hoosier Nation will squawk, but it’s best to see who IU recruits and how they play in college before concluding the world has ended again. IU joined in the chase for Gordon but nowhere did I ever see in print any indication that Gordon ever seriously considered IU. And before we blame current coach Mike Davis for this, we should recall that large numbers of recruits never considered IU seriously when it meant having to play for Bob Knight. (November 28, 2005) I’m still waiting for Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, fresh off a stunning turn-around 10-1 season and a Big Ten football title, to give credit where it’s due: to former IU coach Gerry DiNardo, whose team failed to score in four downs from the one-yard line in the waning moments of its 2004 home game against Penn State, thus giving the Nittany Lions a gift victory it never should have had. A loss that day at IU probably would have forced out Paterno, whose team had a terrible season. Ironically, a win that day might have saved poor DiNardo’s job. He was fired a few weeks later. Fate can be so fickle. (December 1, 2005) This morning’s Star notes that top-ranked USC bombed in-state rival UCLA yesterday, 66-19, and has now won 34 straight football games against UCLA. This adds some perspective for IU fans, who’ve suffered generations of degradation and pain at the hands of rival Purdue. It’s comforting we’re not the only ones in the universe in this situation, though there’s nothing in the universe quite like being an IU football fan. (December 4, 2005) “Great coach, honest man, jackass”—Five words chosen by retiring Chicago Tribune sportswriter Bill Jauss to describe Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight. Jauss listed Knight and former DePaul coach Ray Meyer as the two greatest coaches he ever encountered. (December 30, 2005) Back to top
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