Back home again in Indiana
Posted: Friday October 23, 1998 04:16 PM
Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim checks in with the third
in a series of glances around the college basketball
scene.
Bloomington,
Ind.
TEAM: Indiana
Hoosiers
VENUE:
Assembly Hall
(17,357)
`97-98 record:
20-12 (Lost to UConn in
NCAA East second
round)
PREDICTED `98-99
STARTERS: G
Dane
Fife, F
William
Gladness, G
A.J.
Guyton, F
Luke
Recker, F
Larry
Richardson
Hola from Bloomington. In the interest of full disclosure,
I'll come clean and announce with unabashed pride that I
was once a "cutter" (a.k.a. "townie")
who spent his first 18 years in this quintessential college
town. Still, any childhood antipathy I
had for Indiana students--say, for the times they threw eggs
at my car or wouldn't let me into their parties--is long
since out of my system. Regardless, every time I return
home, I can't help but notice how little IU has changed
since it was depicted in
the 1979 classic flick
Breaking
Away. The campus is a swirling mix of cutters and students,
jocks and fratheads, fratheads and GDI's (goddamn
individuals), in-staters and rich kids from Chicago
suburbs. But somehow every student loves old IU and is
happy to have spent his or her six years
of college
there.
MOOD: Depending on whom you ask, the campus, nestled in the
folds of the Bible Belt an hour south of Indianapolis, is
either a hotbed of activism or the final resting place for
apathy. There's plenty going on here.
James
Carville and
Bill
Gates are among a number of prominent guest speakers who have
already visited campus this semester; an ugly racial
incident last year involving a fraternity house still
hasn't entirely faded from memory; and there are the usual
smattering of overwrought
protests for/against affirmative action, abortion rights,
Chilean grape growers, cable in the dorms, etc. But, as
junior
Pamela
Grunt put it, "Unless it has to do with sports, people
don't seem to care that much."
Whatever.
DUDE: Though he's only 5'10", the big man on campus these
days is unquestionably the Hoosiers' starting quarterback,
Antwaan Randle
El . A redshirt freshman who runs the option with skill and
poise, Randle El has singlehandedly brought some excitement
to what has been a moribund program. Heading into this
weekend's game at Michigan, the team was only 3-3, but with
such a young
quarterback at the controls, there is already plenty of talk of Big
Ten title contention next year. What's more, after the
football season Randle El will trade his cleats for
high-tops and play backup point guard for the basketball
team.
FOOD: Bloomington bears the imprimatur of an official college
town now that there is a behemoth Borders/Starbucks store,
a microbrewery, and a burrito shack all within spitting
distance of campus. The best victuals in town, though,
remain the old standbys: a
gyros platter at the Trojan Horse, the meatloaf and home
fries at the Uptown Cafe, anything greasy at Ladyman's,
Garcia's deep dish pizza, and the chicken fingers at Yogi's
Sports
Bar.
HOOPS:
The real nourishment in these here parts, however, is IU
basketball. Just consider that more students filed into
Assembly Hall at midnight on October 17 to watch the team's
first practice of the season than attended Gates' lecture
there the day before.
The skinny on this year's team is that it won't be
contributing a sixth NCAA banner to the Hall's rafters, but
will be exciting to watch nonetheless. The Hoosiers'
backcourt is as good as any in the
country.
Junior A.J.
Guyton is a legit pro player who can handle the ball, create his
own shot and knock down the jumper; while sophomore
swingman
Luke
Recker is a more athletic incarnation of former Hoosier
Damon
Bailey . Recker held his own at
Michael
Jordan 's camp this summer and is even making noise about turning
pro after this season.
Dane
Fife , the younger, more talented brother of former Michigan
guard
Dugan , is the best freshman in a decent recruiting
class.
Indiana's problem, however, is that it plays in the Big
Ten, not the 6'5"-and-under league. The loss of
forward
Andrae
Patterson to graduation didn't exactly induce tears, least of all
from the Man in the Red Sweater. But after
Jason
Collier , a habitué in coach
Bob
Knight 's world famous doghouse, transferred to Georgia Tech last
winter, the Hoosiers were left with no upperclassmen taller
than 6'8". The front-line-by-committee of Recker,
junior
Larry
Richardson , senior
Will
Gladness and freshman
Kirk
Haston ought to be good enough to get the Hoosiers into the
tournament for the 14th straight season and maybe even put
them in the running for the title in the diluted Big Ten.
But the Chicken Littles who are getting antsy for a return
to the Final Four will
have to wait another year. The good news is that by season's
end, the Little 500 "bike race" (read: weekend of
obscene debauchery) is only a few weeks
away.
See you at the
quarries.
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