Contrary to popular belief, no time machine exists that will take us back to 1992. All you old IU fans want to talk about is how great we once were. “Do you ever wish you could go back in time to ’92, if Alan Henderson wouldn’t have got hurt we would have won the championship.” That’s all you guys ever talk about. Bobby Knight is not going to walk out of the locker room with Calbert Cheaney and Damon Bailey. I do remember watching
Cheaney play, and as a matter of fact,
he just won a game the other day on
ESPN Classic. Sad as it may be, my
only memories of the Bobby Knight era
are watching him speak in Dunn
Meadow after being fired by Myles
Brand (the Anti-Christ), and painfully
watching the Andre Patterson/Harris
Muyezniavich led teams lose in the first
or second round of the tournament for
eight years in a row. Do the names
Colorado, Missouri, and Boston College
ring a bell? Those teams were real
powerhouses.
Our point is just that your selective memories don’t allow you to remember that every year was not 1992 for Indiana basketball. But from 1994-2001, IU was never at any point a national title contender. So what is the real difference now? Who really cares if we are a perennial 7-10 seed, one-and-done team in the NCAA tourney? At least now we have a young team full of potential that plays their heart out every night. Now you’re probably thinking, “My IU teams never lost to UNC Charlotte at home…that’s a disgrace.” True, but in the late 80’s,
UNC-Charlotte was an NAIA school, not the team that is currently winning Conference USA. There is much more parody in college basketball today and Jay Bilas and the rest of the ESPN commentators reiterate my thoughts (we might also add that since that game, IU looks primed to go 8-0 at home during Big Ten play).
So why is it that you OLD IU fans insist on bashing us youngsters for trying to show some spirit for this young team? Is it our blind optimism that things will be better next year? Is it the fact that we show class and cheer Gene Keady in his season of retirement? Or is it the fact that instead of blaming the older generation for hiring idiots like Myles Brand and Mike McNeely, the younger generation is trying to pick up the pieces and support the rebuilding of the athletics programs at IU. Who are the true IU fans? The ones who abandon ship at the first years of adversity, or the hopelessly optimistic IU youngsters who know a top 10 team is only a year away? Is it really that much harder to support the IU players now, than when we were sporting 30-1 records in the late 80’s.
That being said, we are by no means a blind Mike Davis supporting generation. Although, Mike Davis is not the one who killed IU’s tradition. That feat was accomplished by then IU president the day he fired Bobby Knight and shattered IU’s fan base. All coach Davis has done is everything he can to reenergize a dying IU program. All the same he deserves to be scrutinized in the same way every other big time Division I coach does until either A) IU is perennially in the top 15 in the country; or B) he is replaced. There is no middle ground at IU, nor should there ever be. We do believe Davis has laid the foundation to become a national powerhouse once again.
Why is the younger generation still able to support Davis and IU basketball you ask? A big part of it is the fact that the best run in the NCAA tournament an IU team has made in the last 17 years, which is close to the entire lifespan of young IU fans, was in 2002. We beat Duke, which is something that you cannot say. Do any of you Uncle Rico’s remember running out of Uncle Fester’s Bar screaming the IU fight song down Kirkwood Ave. after the Hoosiers upset Oklahoma and Duke on their way to the NCAA finals? No, you don’t because 1) you don’t know what Uncle Fester’s is (formally BW3’s); and 2) no IU teams went to the finals while you were in school. We know, we know...it was Bobby Knight’s players. True, but Davis recruited most of them and it was his wide open offense that they were running. Tom Coverdale, Kyle Hornsby, and Dane Fife have all publicly stated that the Final Four run would not have taken place had Knight still been the coach. No Bobby Knight team would have ever taken that many three pointers in any game. So call it luck, call it whatever you want. The fact is that team and those players played with as much heart, grit, and intensity as any IU team ever has, and they played that way for Mike Davis. Yes, they were hot, but they were also hitting wide open shots. Name me another team that won a Championship that wasn’t hot? That stretch was still one of the most exciting times in our young college lives. Excuse us for allowing a young coach a little time to rebuild a program that your generation left in ruins. Indiana University absolutely should not have been Davis’s first head coaching job. But, he’s here and all you Uncle Rico’s need to realize it’s not 1992 and either show some support for a classy group of youngsters in White, Vaden, and Ratliff or move to Lubbick and start sporting Duke attire as well. This is the core group that just might bring back some glory to IU basketball.
With all due respect to the older IU generation,
The Young IU Generation
P.S. If you read this and have no idea who uncle Rico is please find the nearest person under the age of 25 and they will tell you. Thanks.
P.P.S. This letter was written before IU sent Michigan State crying home back to Lansing. |
