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I feel sorry for the younger members of Andy's OTF

LeConte

LeConte

All-American
Mar 19, 2004
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you never got to experience the true dynasty that IU used to be in basketball. We truly were one of the top 5 programs in the nation -- we were Duke before they were Duke. Now -- we may be a top 5 program in tradition, but we haven't been a perennial power since the early-mid 90's. That's 20 years ago! Anyone born after '85 probably doesn't remember. Has IU EVER won the B1G tournament?

My earliest recollections of IU basketball were the '75 team and the heartbreaking loss to Kensucky in the tournament after May broke his arm.
We were a good to great team almost every year. Even down years had good memories -- like beating PUke in the NIT final when that tournament was still decent, or Jadlow throwing the inbounds off the Iowa kid's face. Reggie beating us in the NIT final sucked, but he was a special player.
Almost Every game was special, every game was big. There was no apathy.
Now? We've been a mediocre program for 20 years. What happened? Kansas and NC overcame coaching changes and are still perennially elite programs. We turned in to the UCLA of the east.

I don't want this to turn in to a coach-bashing thread because it's useless. But I do feel sad sometimes that more and more people don't realize how truly special IU basketball used to be. If things keep going this way, someday no one will remember. My kids are IU fans because I brought them up to be, but my son's best IU basketball memory is being in the Hall when we beat UK on Watford's shot. That was an awesome experience, but "back in the day", moments like that were the norm, not a once in 10 year event. Every Purdue game had that atmosphere. My kids look at me like I'm an idiot when I tell them that IU used to be like Duke and Kentucky. They see the banners, but don't know what happened in all of the years between the banners.

In the immortal words of T.I. -- I don't want no mediocre. Unfortunately IU basketball has been mediocre for most of 20 years. Sorry young OTF members.

Now back to beer and C-$ attention-whoring threads.
 
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same feelings. I've tried to indoctrinate my son to IU bball, but it's hard

being out of state. We took a trip back and spent alot of time on campus and got in to both Cook and Assembly Hall to shoot. Met Coach and Derek Elston, but not being nationally relevant keeps him from buying in. He's a big Duke fan and liked IU and I'd guess were his 2nd favorite team after our trip and that UK win on Watfords shot.

I don't think we're even the UCLA of the east: they have 3 F4 trips in the last 10 years. The thing I continue to believe is we still have the advantages of an elite program: tradition, fan support, great recruiting base, national visibility, facilities, $, etc... There's no reason, beyond our Admin, that we can't be elite and I just hope they see that and strive for it.
 
Agree completely.


My first IU memories are also of the 1975 season. My grandmother punched a UK fan over that game in the 1975 NCAA tournament. That is how intense it was.

Now it is joke...a pale reflection of past glory and 5 dusty banners.

But hey! Sweet Sixteen rings, y'all!!
 
One quibble.

IU hasn't EVER had a moment like the Wat shot before, but I think that illustrates your point even more. We've never had to come back from being as bad as we were as a team/program to getting to the point of beating a current/historical power (THE power at the time, sadly) with buzzer beating shot on a play completed by players who had been average at best to that point. So, that was a never before, historic moment and not ever the "norm". And thank goodness it hadn't been. It is sad that it was such a huge moment given where IU has been in the past....but like you said, we haven't been a perennial power since the early 90s.

You, me and everyone else doesn't want mediocre, but that's basically what we have been since '93 (other than the miracle run of 2002). Poor coaching hires for 15 years will tend to maintain that...

The good news: the history, the fan base, the league affiliation, the talent pool, the facilities, etc all indicate we can get back there....though so far the leadership has not been as favorable. It's going to take that home run hire. What's Boston's record again? ;-)
 
That's kind of how I feel about missing the birth of Rock n Roll

in the 50's. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the music of the 60's as well, but honestly between Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement, the killing of our president and leaders, I'm guessing the 60's wasn't really that great to live through? Or maybe I have it all wrong and it was the protesting and marching that makes this country the greatest?
 
Bravo. +1Billion, Etc.


IU basketball is what got me through those long Indiana winters when I was in grade school and junior high in the 70's. Watching the games with Chuck and Laz (or Hilliard Gates before that) was the highlight of every single week. The old Farm Bureau ad where the guy (or maybe it was a lady?) came to the front door and called the kids inside because "the Hoosiers are on!" was spot on.

And they were good. The expectation was that they would win, or at least have a very good chance to win, every game. None of this "Let's hope to win three of four" or "Our goal is to split these next two road games" bullchit that you hear so much these days. That crap makes me sick.

I saw my dad cry two times. Once was when his dad passed away in 1980. The other was after IU lost that tournament game to UK in 1975 when May had the broken arm. IU hoops mattered then. Gawd I miss that.
 
I miss the feeling that we could win every game

not because we were more talented, but because we were always smarter. We weren't Duke, we never had that amount of talent. Don't get me wrong we had talent, but not like them. I miss all the high IQ players. We don't have many of them anymore.

But we as fans always felt we had the smarter team. That's what made us special. We were more like Butler under Stevens, with better talent. Or like Duke, but with less talent and more IQ. Our coach gave us that feeling.

I don't remember a game in the RMK era, regardless of how bad we were at times, that I didn't feel we had a chance in. We could be again, with the right leadership. *sigh* ..

I became a fan in 81, so I saw two championships.. My favorite team is the 83 team. That was a damn smart basketball team.









This post was edited on 1/30 10:39 AM by Guy_Fawkes
 
The year you were born...........


...was Alford's frosh season. We beat a UNC team in the NCAA tournament that had 4 1st round picks starting. At the time, it was the biggest upset arguably in NCAA history.

We lost the next game to UVA, but I will never forget listening to Fischer call that game. It made the 2002 Duke upset look like small potatoes.
 
Same here (regarding becoming a fan in '81). And then actually experiencing

a NC while attending IU ('87 championship was my freshman year)....just such an amazing event and moment in my life (sports-related). *sigh*...I miss those feelings regarding IU bball.
 
Agreed.

Thats the kind of buzzer beater we need to get back to having/making. Hell, just start with getting to a Final Four. It's been way too long.
 
Crazy that it took nearly 28 years for me to experience a #1 ranked team.

I understand Cheaney's teams were ranked #1, but I was too young to understand/care.

28 freaking years....for a 'blueblood program'.
 
That 87 semi vs UNLV is my favorite game

they had studs at every position. They were faster, better jumpers, far more athletic

All the national media were picking UNLV. They were talking trash before and during the game.

I remember RMK trading trash talk with Mark Wade..

Along with Alford and Smart and Garrett ..We had guys like Eyl, and Hillman..

When we came out and started running with them. Alford taking 3's on the break

and RMK not benching him for it.. everyone was like "WTF?" ... "We're running with the Rebels"..

and we bee itch slapped them..





This post was edited on 1/30 11:56 AM by Guy_Fawkes
 
It really has hit a new low.....

.....my first IU memory was the 87 title game....then the Cheaney years....great childhood memories. And you're right....I felt like we could win any game. Now....not one game feels like a sure win anymore. Guy mentions the high IQ players....hit the nail on the head. The college game has taken a bit hit overall with the lack of intelligent players....just filled with athletes who can jump but no real basketball skill set. Its really painful to watch....low scoring....lack of pure jump shooters. It's tarnished the game. Everyone is obsessed with making the ESPN top 10.

The next hire needs to be a homerun....if not, my complacency will overcome my passion. It's becoming dangerously close.
 
Agree....Knight's brilliance was center stage....

....I rewatch it every now and then on youtube. I remember Joe Hillman saying in that Big Ten Elite episode on that team that everyone was going crazy afterwards and Joe says to Alford "we still have another game"...and Alford says "who cares, I can't believe we won this one!!".....or something to that effect.

Great stuff.
 
I agree -- that game and the NC game

were two of the best coaching jobs I've seen. But even that game doesn't happen without Calloway miraculously saving us a few games earlier in the tournament.
 
Even in these dark times we've recruited like a Top 10 program

that's one thing that makes these results maddening.

Top 10 recruiting + Top 10 pay = mediocrity.
 
I remember telling my roommate that I was glad we were playing UNLV......

instead of Iowa. For some reason Iowa worried me more at the time. Maybe it was familiarity.

I got tickets through a lottery to the regional games in Cincinnati. We were way the heck up in the rafters but those were terrific games as well, particularly the LSU game where Joe Hillman had probably the most important 45 second appearance in the history of IU hoops.
 
Complacency took over for me years ago.

Used to be I would never miss an IU game -- everything was scheduled around games. Now, I don't care if I miss unless it's Purdue or a big rival. Admittedly, some of that is due to family, kids, and having an actual life. But even now that I have more time, I still don't care 10% as much as I used to.
 
Do you remember where you were when you watched that game?

I was at the Holiday Inn (I think it was a Holiday Inn) on 37 on the north side of Bloomington in a HUUUUUUGE ballroom with a couple hundred other IU fans watching the game. It was, um, intense.

Your description of what happened in that game ("Alford is shooting 3's on the BREAK and RMK isn't ripping his head off - WTF?????") is 110% accurate.
 
Dakich was hacked..

that should have been a foul. I can't believe that 84 team was one bad call from a final four. That was supposed to be a rebuild year.
 
I'm just about there.....

....if he's still here after next year then I know for sure the admin could give a chit......then I'll be done.
 
That's what happens when guys with HUUUUUUGE egos ......

think they're smarter than the average bear and mess with something that is really and truly "special." Now everyone wants to call everything "special." It's not. But IU basketball in that era was "special." You knew it when you saw it.
 
LSU

I remember Knight with the net around his neck on TV claiming he'd orchestrated the that air ball and Calloway putback.

28 years ago.
 
I was in a bowling alley of all places.

it had a video arcade we hung out at. I met all my friends there, and we took over a few tables in front of one of the two TV's.

There were probably 20 of us. Had to keep buying food to keep them from kicking us out and were yelled at multiple times for getting too loud. By the time the second half rolled around NO ONE was bowling. So there were like 50 people in front of that TV.. all screaming and yelling.

those words are verbatim from a friend of mine. I remember the faces, when he said it. We all had shocked smiles. Man, those were good times. Great times in fact.





This post was edited on 1/30 11:08 AM by Guy_Fawkes
 
I am not sure.


The great IU teams of the 70's, 80's and 90's were smart, high IQ BB players. But the best players today leave after 1 year. Your 4 year players are average at best (typically). That is why Butler caught lightning those 2 years, Upperclassmen that were talented enough to get where they did, but experienced enough to play smart. That is not a recipe for long term, repeatable success.

Your UK's, Kansas, Duke's etc are filled with 1 and dones. How many freshman play smart? Not many. The formula of IU's success in the 70's-90's is gone.
 
That was IU's "freak offense".

Dale Brown was an idiot.

I was at the game and remember Knight walking off the court afterwards twirling the net in the air above his head.
This post was edited on 1/30 11:12 AM by 1987Grad
 
I watched the NC game...

...in my apartment with my best buddy at the time, who was a Purdue grad. He was the kind of guy who always claimed to root for the Big Ten in the tourney and claimed he was pulling for IU, but when Smart's shot dropped you could see the pain in his eyes.

Ha ha.
 
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I watched the NC game at a hotel in Toledo OH


All by my self, not an interuption in the world. Perfect
 
Before the game against UNC, some old lady

and I mean old - told us (my friends and I) that Dakich would play deny on Jordan and everyone else would overplay the passing lanes and we would beat them. We ignored her cuz like, what does some old lady know.. Then that's exactly what we did.

those were the days ...
 
I was at the game...

but the Superdome was an absolute horrible place to hold a basketball game. I was only about 10 rows up from the floor, but the floor was at least 50 yards away from our seats. Still, was a great atmosphere, and French Quarter was awesome. I bought Smart a beer at a "Takee-Outee" after the NC game.
 
Haha. I watched many games at the bowling alley...

I used to be in a junior bowling league and we met on Saturdays.

The game I remember most was v Maryland in the 81 tournament. We got behind 8-0 but after that it was all IU.

I watched the UNLV game at my friends house. The same friend I still watch games with today.
 
I'm there.


I have missed more games the last two seasons than I have from probably the early 80s combined. Even when in the military, my family would tape the games and mail them to me.
 
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