I remember being at the RCA Dome for to see Collier, Guyton and Lewis take on UCONN in their first game. There was a lot of excitement around that team.
I know people can play the 'what if' game around any number of players, teams and games, but I really think if they were able to keep that team together with Recker from the following year, they would have given Michigan State a good run for their money in 2000.
Nope. That was a team of a bunch of weak-minded kids who didn’t have the toughness or intelligence to truly contend. A lot of the rot in this program that we haven’t gotten rid of to this very day can be traced right back to them to be honest…
@jj_mcclure I'd love to hear how you're tying any more recent problems to players from 25+ years ago. Did the swoon due to the oversight and management of the bball and athletic programs start back then? That I could agree with. But it doesn't have anything to do with those players, in my opinion.
The rot traces directly to Myles Brand. I still cannot believe he has a building named after him given the harm he did to the university.
@kkott There was a sea change with the kids in that class. They started caring less about the name in the front of the jersey and were self-centered, entitled, and ultimately uncoachable. I’m not going to be nasty and single anyone out, but some are more culpable than others.
@kkott There was a sea change with the kids in that class. They started caring less about the name in the front of the jersey and were self-centered, entitled, and ultimately uncoachable. I’m not going to be nasty and single anyone out, but some are more culpable than others.
I think that's an overgeneralization at best. I will say that there are people who were a part of that program then and with the benefit of hindsight, they're glad they stayed but totally understood why some of those guys left.
Even if there was a rash of selfish players that came in and out of the program in the late 1990s, I don't see how that has kept the program down nearly 30 years on. Especially in a world where NIL and the transfer portal exists, LAST YEAR's players could have little to nothing to do with the culture and success of this year's team.
@jj_mcclure Yeah, I get that, and was disappointed in the results from the teams of several of those players. I'm just defensive of anyone who plays for IU and you said rot in the program up to today could be traced back to them, and I think that's wrong. It can be traced back to the coaches and administrators who recruited and kept those players or that fostered the environment that kept them.
@kkott
Figures that you would finger the coaching when that’s only thing that kept our heads above water. Gonna have to take a step back now. I feel all the old resentments and rage bubbling to the surface and that can’t be good for my health.