This team is going to kill me...

        Every year around this time I hear that phrase. Sometimes, usually around the Ides Of March, I utter it myself. It is often accompanied by pacing, swearing, and hand ringing. The team in question for me is the Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball team. My other allegiances, The New York Yankees, The Indianapolis Colts and The Indiana Pacers, do not have the same effect on me. Baseball moves me in a much calmer way, the length of the season being what it is. The NFL season is like sugar and I’m a four year old. I get insanely happy, or feel like someone kicked me in the nuts. But it’s over pretty quick, I know it’s just a game. I don’t even really acknowledge the NBA any more, so whatever.
        But the Hoosiers are like my kids. I take pride in the way they develop over the course of the season, bite my lip as I watch them repeat mistakes, and I want to protect them from themselves when I see them relying on bad habits.
        I was there as The General’s career began to lose it’s luster, and I began to see my kid’s behavior not as cute anymore, but that of a spoiled brat. It was always so easy to eat up the excuses.
“But he won three championships.”
“At least he graduates his players.”
“The guy runs a clean program.”
        And that was all great, but let me get this straight. We were excusing a man acting like a boorish louse, because he was doing what is expected of him? That’s like saying a drug dealer is a good guy because he “takes care of his kids”. Uh, yeah, that’s called a responsibility, not an achievement. I always thought it was no different than Knights track record.
        And then Knight was gone, and our kid was moving into puberty. They were awkward. They showed promise. They had ups and downs galore. I was always a Mike Davis fan and still am. Most of the time I found myself defending the unreasonable position he found himself in and downplaying his questionable in game coaching. Then came the day I found out about the fact that Mike Davis, an A list college recruiter, passed on actively recruiting Gregg Oden because he didn’t need another point guard. At this point, it became common knowledge that Oden, a once in a lifetime center, only wanted to go to a school that offered a scholarship to his high school teammate and best friend, Mike Conley Jr. This is a duo that went 1 & 2 in the Indiana Mr. Basketball voting, took the Ohio State Buckeyes to the NCAA Championship game, and both went top 5 in the NBA draft. At times at Ohio State when Oden was injured, Conley carried the team. I couldn’t believe Davis would pass up getting Oden, all because he wants to play with this guy! It was a huge mistake and I think it cost Mike his job.
        Now our kid is all growed up. The Hoosiers have left the nest and are striking out for fame and fortune. For better or worse. Going outside the Hoosier Nation, IU’s Athletic Director Rick Greenspan hired Oklahoma State coach Kelvin Sampson to guide the Hoosiers. Sure he had just been censured for making 577 phone calls in violation of NCAA rules.
“But the guy wins.”
“ And his teams play hard. ”
“And he recruits well.”
        Then the bombs dropped. Assistant coaches were fired, lies were told, phone calls were made. Again.
        So now I know how my Mom felt when I made mistakes out on my own. I’m sure she said
“This kid is going to be the death of me.”
I know how she feels.