Myopia 101

I was afraid of this. I can no longer hide the fact that I'm terrified about the direction of Indiana Basketball. When I was a kid, I thought Indiana fans were the smartest fans in the world. They knew what good basketball looked like; they had reasonable expectations; they knew what a good shot was and was not; and they knew what kind of player Indiana needed to be successful. They also knew the coach was doing everything he could to get the most out of the players and had instilled an expectation of winning by simply out-executing the opponent.

Now? Indiana fans largely defend every move a coach makes, whether he's earned it or not and they only hope he knows what he's doing. They cheer dunks when down by 20 more than a defensive stop or big rebound when up by 1. They seem to think any kid who says "yes" to Indiana is automatically a really good player whether he has the resume and credentials or not. Any shot that can hit the rim is okay. Turnovers are now "part of the game" and readily accepted, even if repeated. Many think this way because they simply don't know any better, and that just dawned on me.

I was a fan of Indiana Basketball starting sometime in 1974. Well, that's not entirely true because my dad brought me home from the hospital after I was born and put me in front of an IU game, so I guess I'm a lifelong fan. But I grew up with Bob Knight and the 1976 team was my first real indoctrination to a game I could understand. Some education! Back then, Assembly Hall had a "feel." It had a life of its own, and you could smell it. You knew exactly what you were going to get, and so did every team that walked in there. To fans of those teams, it's STILL a big deal to beat Indiana at Assembly Hall. But this is not my father's Indiana. The students at Indiana now by and large know nothing of Indiana Basketball before Mike Davis, which is sobering to say the least. They wouldn't know Calbert Cheaney from Glen Grunwald or Steve Alford from Wayne Radford. To them, Indiana has no lofty expectations and no recent history.

This week, I witnessed first hand how little many IU fans really know about good basketball. That kid I wrote about last week? Guy-Marc Michel? He signed with Indiana on Friday. He has exactly 3 years of basketball experience, which equates to success in the Big 10 about as well as my singing solo in Carnegie Hall. See, I started tinkering with karakoe about 3 years ago. But in the past 24 hours, and I swear to God this is true, I've seen him compared to Tim Duncan. Another IU recruit, Victor Oladipo has been compared to Vince Carter. Oladipo is a 3* recruit from Maryland who has obvious deficiencies in his game and hasn't ever played a leadership role; but he can jump.

Indiana fans have a way of inflating expectations and creating players from their hopes and guesses. They seem to think that if they hope hard enough and just talk about it, that a kid with limited skills will don the INDIANA jersey and become a super-hero. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see the program I love so dearly struggle like it is, but the fact is, the program's floundering. I said last month that you can't judge Tom Crean yet, and I'll stick with it. But man would it be nice to land a player instead of someone with "upside" or "potential." It would be nice to sign an American kid who has grown up playing basketball instead of a kid from Martinique who just took up the game 3 years ago because he was "too big for soccer." Really?! This is how far Indiana has fallen!? I feel like I've just taken a haymaker to the chin.

Guy-Marc Michel played junior college basketball at North Idaho Community College. Basketball there ranks somewhere behind football, snow skiing, and rodeo. He averaged 7 points and about 7 rebounds a game, playing against kids 6" smaller than he is. A talented 7' kid would do that by accident in the first 10 minutes of a game. Michel posesses nothing which will translate to success at the Big 10 level, and his inexperience will be easily exposed and abused. The Big 10's just too good, and he's never seen that kind of competition. After all, northern Idaho isn't exactly known as a basketball hotbed; nor is it known for good coaching. I've said as much on an IU chat board and been called "not a true fan," "negative," and a bevvy of other things including a "head case." So be it. I'll take the bullet. Guy-Marc Michel is not going to be a productive player at Indiana. He has no experience, no instinct, and no skills that translate to Big 10 basketball. I think the best thing to do is steer the mypoic IU fans to the title of Charles Barkley's book above : "I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It."