indiana, we're all for you!

as those that know me will say, i'm a die-hard indiana hoosiers fan. i grew up with the expectation that i would someday attend college in the rolling hills of southern indiana. from the indiana border circling my childhood room to the picture of the young boy dreaming of making the game-winning basket, i was destined to graduate from the bloomington university. so, it was without hesitation that i filled out only one college application to start my adult life at indiana university.

i quickly got involved with activities around campus. i was in the marching hundred, became a campus tour guide, attended philanthropic events, attended a few parties (*wink*), and became slightly obsessed with my university. but ever since birth, i was a fan of indiana basketball.

i grew up with "the general", bob knight, coaching the hoosiers in cream and crimson. i can still remember where i was for the 1987 national championship game. and when i was in college, i was present that fateful day when iu president myles brand initiated his "zero tolerance" against bob knight, and ultimately ended the knight era for indiana basketball. sure i knew his days were numbered, but the iu basketball program has suffered considerably since those days. yes, we might have made our way to the national championship in 2002 (under a team put together by bob knight) with our then coach mike davis, but the program was tainted. then, with a breath of fresh air (perhaps slightly smoggy air), we got kelvin sampson as our coach. a coach that had proven himself while at oklahoma as a winning coach, but with some skeletons in his recruiting closet. but we hoosier fans were optimistic.

oops, he did it again. sampson pulled our name through the mud as he once again broke ncaa recruiting rules. iu attempted to release themselves from some of the pain, and forced sampson to resign amidst the allegations in the national spotlight. we were left with our assistant coach as our interim head coach for the remainder of this season.

so we come to my favorite time of year - march madness. and while the overrated hoosiers (in my most humble opinion) dropped the ball in the last few regular season games and in the big ten tournament, we awaited our fate for the ncaa tournament (which we were a solid lock to be a part of). a #8. now, even though i feel that we had an easy schedule, we still are a talented team, worthy of something more than that. maybe a #6 seed at the very least. but, unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about it now.

so today, while reading my favorite iu basketball blog, i came across this clip. it shows dick vitale (and for all you hoosier dicky v. haters, he loves this iu team) explaining that bob knight belongs back at iu. and bob knight, in his newest position as a analyst for espn, just sits there rolling his eyes, speechless. take a look for yourself.



now, i must say that i'm not one of those hoosiers that feels that bob knight and iu basketball go together like peanut butter and jelly. i think that we will find a suitable, clean coach to recover this program, but it's nice to think that the bob knight era would have a happy ending in bloomington.

but, until then....
GO IU! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!