Aloha. Man, that's a useful word (but not the most useful word). Hello and goodbye, all rolled up into one nice, little word. I can't stop thinking about "aloha" lately.
I know it's been a while since I last posted, so let's recap: IU comes into the game highly disfavored, keeps in it for a hot minute, and then promptly folds it up under the weight of its crushing talent deficiency.
Sounds familiar, right? Yeah, no shit it's familiar by now, but I'm not talking about Minnesota. Let's rewind 15 months ago to the date: IU v. ND in Maui. Nov. 24, 2008, the date when the depths of Crean's rebuilding project became inescapably apparent. Fucktastically undersized, athletically outmatched, and as thin on experience as they come, we got pounded on the boards, coughed the ball up like a TB patient, and shot the ball like an amputee in an arm sling.
Fast forward to the present and it's like aloha (hello) Maui all over again. Sure, we've lost Maurice & Matt to injury and our freshmen have hit the wall at about the exact same time last year's boys did, but today's Hoosiers aren't in a whole lot better shape than they were that day on the island (okay, we're not as dependent on walk-on talent this year and Daniel Moore doesn't use the basketball to take out his anger on his foot anymore, point: you).
Nevertheless, I still can't get past that sunken feeling that comes with actualizing just how far we have to go. With each passing defeat, I'm forced to confront the reality of our basketball ineptitude... and it sucks.
So, as we say aloha (goodbye) to this chapter in Crean's IU basketball resurrection, I'm anxious as ever to get off the island of fuct teams and back into Big 10 contention. And with 5 games left on this season's slate, it seems that all eyes are already cast on next year's roster and the names that might yet fill it or be missing from it. Not exactly the position you want to be in as March rolls around.
Past that, there's not much else to say that hasn't already been said a thousand times this year. The numbers don't lie, we're not good (and Corazza has graphs to prove it at ITH).
Aside from how awful we are right now (like I said, we are to basketball what Gene Keady's comb-over is to sexuality), I couldn't help but notice a few things on the newly christened Cook Hall. So, what's up with all the limestone barricades in the front lawn? Are we expecting Purdue Pete to try to barrel into the fucking thing with his little choo-choo? And when is somebody going to erect a statue of Bob Knight on 17th St.? Seriously, of all the coaches who are inexorably intertwined to their program and immortalized in sculpture, it's time for Bobby to be set in bronze outside Assembly Hall.
So, yeah, good talk and aloha.
No comments:
Post a Comment