The Hopes and Travails of Us Hoosier Men Basketball Fans - 2025

    Some people care about their careers and are ambitious and successful--they make gobs of money they set themselves up for good lifestyles, retirement, all that good stuff. They may pay little attention to sports teams or such frivolous matters as where and how leather balls bounce across shiny and painted wooden floors.

    There are many people who could give two licks (or many more or less) about how a professional or college (which are now largely paid and professional, very well remunerated in major universities like mine) fair in their seasons and championship goals. There are others of us who care: too much. The hopes of the team, the travails and losses, the blow outs that gut us, the close losses that eviscerate us, the non-calls that contribute to losses that cause to scream and yell while it happens, or does not happen, and another close loss piles up and up, at home and away. In Bloomington where we need more calls, in West Lafayette where we did not get it, in Ann Arbor or wherever that last awful and awfully close failure was. 

    But... BUT! Then we upset Michigan State in East Lansing! The highly picked and highly under-performing and too often losing Hoosiers showed that maybe, maybe they may be worth the hyperbole.

    We lost eight out of ten: two close wins, four close losses, plus a couple blow outs in the wrong direction, to Illinois and Wisconsin. The Illini at home at Assembly Hall, where the faithful yelled to "Fire Mike Woodson", and of course one of the longest losing streaks ever, to the Badgers. Not to mention teams like Northwestern in Evanston where the Hoosiers played okay for 36 minutes and then give up the ghost like puds.

    Man! Where was the team that got clutch wins at Penn State and Rutgers?

    We lose another close one to UCLA. Second half comebacks against the Bruins and Wolverines. And of course, the dreaded, daunting, taunting, Purdue Boilers. Their fans chanted "IU sucks, or some such nonsense, as they barely won on a referee's no call. So, they were making some sense.

    Our IU guys could suck! Suck the life and hopes out of me, the poor sucker who bought the pre-season college basketball magazine that touted the program as a top 15 team, with all the transfers coming in and the returning talent, two of whom are big, both inside and outside, and how the new guards plus on of the nation's best centers will shore up the middle.

    Oumar Ballo. Malik Reneaux. MacKenzie Mgbako. I might have spelled those right.

    But travails came, and came, and man! Not even one close out of those four last possession chances, usually after second half comebacks, usually at home, but two big Mackenzie misses or poor shot choices by Miles Price from Stanford, who in the Purdue game did not get the time out as the coach had wanted.

    Loss after loss! We were 15-11, 6-9 in the Big Ten, heading south.

    We finished the first half poorly, trailing 37-25. One of eleven from three point land.

    Then came THE second half. We killed them. We demolished Purdue. We put them down and out.

    OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

    We are saying that we got a chance!

    We do, Purdue! Hope to see you in the Big Ten tourney, wherever its played. Indy, Chicago, Minneapolis. I don't care.

    We got hopes, Boiler fans. We can outplay your Smiths and Loyers and all those dudes. If we really concentrate and play our game. We have Indiana boys, like you, who can play and play smart. Galloway and Leal are the real deal sometimes, the real McCoys of our Hoosier home.

       

    Maybe see you TWICE more in March? Bring it.

    Nittany Lions, then the West Coast, then Ohio State at home. Go IU.

    We can, IU fans!

    Yes, we can. Barry Obama.

    We can do this.