Ok, I’ll play.
Like you, I’ll try to speak with authority on the IU fan base.
Caveat: any thoughts I have may be biased from being active on Peegs com, and the IIBF prior to that. It’s easy to try to draw some generalizations about a wide swath of people by listening to a few people who have nothing better to do than post all day.
A brief history of the IU fan base post RMK
MD era:
The fan base splits. A group of die hard IU fans are disappointed with the manner in which the Knight era ends, and the New regime assumes power. Some fans migrate away. MD vows to change “everything about IU basketball “. A hot Ncaa run after IU upsets Duke buys MD time. Then comes “Orlando”, the “basement” incident, and the “head hitting” incidents. Clearly he was in over his head. He left the IU fan base divided. Interest was dwindling.
KS: IU tries to be Oklahoma. Fans are pissed. Knocked off the high horse of being the rare college team that did things “the right way”, more TVs are tuned away from Hoosier hoops, as IU fans (wisely?) begin to prioritize more important things like family, chores, exercise, hobbies over watching a game that used to define their existence.
Crean: he said some good things at first. Talked of rebuilding the IU basketball family, made initial olive branch efforts towards former players. The fans were patient.
But, expectations had been so crushed. Many younger fans had never seen a great IU team. Next thing you know we are putting watfords face on popcorn boxes fir hitting a game winner in a game that didn’t matter. Fans sell We’re back tee shirts”. IU (ironically) loses to the “Orange” Men. The seeds of Crean hatred are planted. Some people dig in with their support of the coach.
Miller- seemed like the opposite of Crean. Fans seemed genuinely pleased with the hire. I thought he could end the roller coaster and make us a poor man’s Wisconsin under Bo (ncaa ever year, compete for B- 10). He didn’t come close.
Bottom line: all the coaches above (blame the IU admin) helped drive away IU fans. Interest waned. Expectations plummeted. Sure, here on Peegs you had some people that would dig in and defend each of the above coaches against criticism, taking anything said that was critical as a personal attack on all things IU. Each time, they would eventually join the critics as the blood appeared in the water.
Present/ future:
Will this lead to a reconciliation of the IU fan base? I sure hope so. This is probably the last chance IU has at restoring the fan base and getting interest up. I commend the admin for at least trying to do something very different.