Big Men Define the Era, Represent the Time

    For those of us who love and follow basketball, a big man can help (greatly) make a team what it wants to be: strong, fast, dominant, victorious. There are many cases where this not work out, but we remember fondly, as the fans of such winning teams, when it does. When the tallest or biggest man on the court is the pivot and the center of success, when the team with that player is remembered and 

    Bill Garrett, a pioneering Black center for the Indiana Hoosiers, did not win the championship himself in 1953, but perhaps he helped set the stage for the Hoosiers later, not long after he left, to win their second NCAA championship. IU broke the racial separation segregation barrier in 1948, not long after Jackie Robinson came into the majors in baseball.

    But by 1976, it was certainly large man Kent Benson who was part of the championship (and undefeated) formula. In 1981, it was Landon Turner. In 1987, Dean Garrett. 

    There is a big man hope this coming season in 2024-25. Oumar Ballo. He reminds me of Shaquille O'Neal, physically. Could it happen? Kel'el Ware wasn't enough last year, although it had to do more with the smaller players around him that held IU back. The pivot was one of the strong points of the Hoosier squad.

    Before him we had four years of pretty dominant Trayvon Jackson-Davis, although arguably he was more a power forward, a four, not a five. 

    In the NBA today there are some great centers. Wembayama is projected to be an all-time great. Joel Embiid is amazing and competitive. There are a few others. Rookie centers like Victor of France are rather few and far between. The ones who won Rookie of the Year. David Robinson, Shaq, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul Jabbar in 1970.

    Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain in their era. George Mikan, they say, was the first to really establish the presence of the big man.

    Could IU have the big man and the rest of what it takes, like UConn the last two years? Klingan has left, thankfully.

    We can still hope for the once and ever big man.

    Oumar, we pray for you, and the smaller guys around you.