Gordon In Progress

It's a mythology in Indiana.  Bird and a rundown hoop at dawn, endless freethrows.  Bobby Knight's disruptive passion and an undefeated season.  "Hoosier" bears a weight, resonates with a storied history of victory and loss on the court and off.  And the story of Indiana Basketball continues, with Eric Gordon writing himself into the next chapter.

In the four years I spent in Bloomington ('02-'06) the basketball was secondary.  I just missed the Mike Davis NCAA Finals squad that caused that memorable eruption of drunken euphoria and pole-climbing on Kirkwood.  The subsequent downward spiral of Men's basketball left me not disappointed, but ambivalent.  I saw some games, got pumped in 2006, but focused on the Colts and the X on my calendar marking Little 5 weekend.

That's all changed now.  Eric Gordon is in Bloomington, Indiana wearing the cream and crimson.  Maybe it's just a year, but with his presence, as well as some strong help inside from a veteran D.J. White, Gordon's again put the ranking next to the name.  

Indiana University has a tenuous grasp on Eric Gordon.  Even if he were to make some sort of commitment, it wouldn't be a sure thing; the luxury of the young all-star.  But while he's there it seems to be all Gordon, all day.  He's not Lebron, not yet, not carrying a team with zero help.  D.J., Jamarcus Ellis, Mike White, even a young Jordan Crawford, they're all sharing the love in a top 10 ranking.  But Gordon is the star.  The 6'4", 215 babyface from Indianapolis is establishing himself as a premiere guard not just in the Big Ten, or even the NCAA, but the history of Indiana Basketball.  He moves the ball, puts points on the board, gets his teammates into the mix, and defends like a madman.  He is absolute, unabridged talent.  

It begs the question, what if he did stay?  He probably won't, Money vs. Myth and all that.  But what if they had the opportunity to build a team around this kid for four years?  Maybe slim another 30 or 40 off of Deandre Thomas and keep inside, get Jamarcus and Crawford to stick around, really build a little mini-Franchise around him.  It could really be something to see.  But alas, the idea of a four-year starter, a player with serious NBA-ready talent who sticks around, well, it's just not gonna happen.  It's old school.  Antique College ball.  

Which means we have to settle for one year at a time.  Keep our hopes and dreams contained to this season and what it might mean.  Sure, it's a young team, but clearly they're not lacking for talent.  They make mistakes and they're play is nothing if not inconsistent.  But they're ranked.  High.  They're working hard, and this is one of those seasons where literally anything could happen.

When Eric Gordon leaves it'll be a sad day down in Southern Indiana.  But it won't be the end of Indiana Basketball.  We'll watch Gordon, wherever he ends up playing.  And we'll watch IU, whatever happens next.  But for this season, while he's there, let's get pumped about what it means: A young all-star, top ten prospect, kid still learning how to be the best player he can be, and a team at his heels looking for a former greatness.     

     

We're Back? Yes. You're back? Face it, you never left.

So those of us here at Defend The Rock took a short (6 month long), unannounced break, but all of you kept clamoring for more. We got emails, we got comments on months old posts. Well, due to overwhelming pressure, we're back!

In our time off we missed the entire football season, but really, did we miss anything? It's not like IU made it to their first bowl game in ages, oh wait, damn! Or like an incredible incoming freshmen basketball class has been brought into IU, double damn!

A little later on we'll have a retrospective on the Football season and get into full swing covering Basketball, but first we have something important to do:

Disclose who won the Adam Ahlfeld Team Player Award for the Insight Bowl Appearing Indiana Hoosiers!

With a team that had so much heart, so much talent, so much athleticism, and whatever the hell Ben Chapel supposedly brings (Seriously, we made the trip to the Northwestern game and what does he do to honor our appearance? Comes in and gives up what amounted to a game losing interception on his first play), it was tough to choose.

Without further ado, your Indiana Hoosier Football Playing Adam Ahlfeld Team Player Award recipient:


Josiah Sears

The big man racked up 4 rushing and 2 receiving TDs, 270 Total Yards, and Veteran Leadership (we assume).

Also we must highlight Austin Starr. For the first time in ages Indiana had a kicker, and that foot of his certainly made the difference between us having a winning season and ending up in the gutter of the Big Ten. In honor of his achievements we are bestowing on him the Brett Finkelmeier "I'm going to grow up to be Adam Ahlfeld someday" Award.


Austin Starr

Baseball Bits

Here's a quick catchup on all the IU Baseball news of the last month:

Defend The Rock favorite Evan Crawford has been named to the Ping!Baseball Freshmen Team. (Second Team, Second Base). Congratulations Evan!

IU Baseball adds Jeff Caldwell (1b, FL), to the roster for the fall of 2007. Stats for this past season: .400AVG/.495OBP/.716SLG/6HR/102B/35RBI (95 AB).

IU Players Drafted: Jon Fixler (Astros, 19th Round). The Hoosiers lost a couple signees in Brock Huntzinger (Red Sox, 3rd Round) and Kyle Leindecker (Indians, 25th Round)

More than a dozen Hoosiers are playing summer ball. IUHoosiers will have a continuing series covering their progress. The latest brings good news on Josh Pegley, more stellar play from Evan Crawford, and fine pitching from Joe Vicini and Eric Arnett.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

Lost in the tragic death of Coach Hep was the fact that on the very same day IU got to work on new projects to enhance facilities on campus.

Quick run down:

1. Memorial Stadium North End Zone Project: Additional offices and strength and conditioning facility. And oh yeah "The Hall of Champions". One day Defend The Rock's boy Evan Crawford will be in there.

2. Basketball Development Center: Alternative practice site, strength and conditioning facility, offices and meeting rooms.

3. New stadiums for the baseball and softball teams north of Mellencamp Pavilion. This is a biggie as any former or current IU baseball fan knows the stadium is barely above little league standards.

Full article w/ quotes from IU officials, coaches, and players here.

Overall it seems like at the very least IU's players will be that much more conditioned and strong once all these upgrades are complete...

Assembly Hall To Be....Disassembled

Well, they've gone and done it, the Board of Trustees has agreed to replace Assembly Hall. My favorite parts of this story are right at the beginning, namely "at some point in the future" and "IU currently lacks the funding to construct it."

I've always been a bit cynical when it comes to Universities, especially public ones, financing massive new sports complexes that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. I'd rather see that $ going to the academic/research fields but at this point universities make so much money off of their athletics programs that in some ways you have to fund athletics to be able to fund everything else.

Assembly Hall definitely isn't the best arena in the collegiate world, and boy oh boy are there some terrible seats/viewing angles, but it doesn't need to be replaced ASAP. So I guess I can go along with this agreement that the trustees have come come to: Yeah, replace Assembly Hall, but don't make it the #1 priority at IU.

A Goodbye To A Great Man

I arrived at Indiana University as an out of state student 5+ years ago, who knew really only about the basketball program and the Little 500 race. Of all the sports at IU, I quickly learned that football was beaten, broken down, and in disarray. I still went to games early on, but it was more of an offbeat thing to do with friends than anything serious, because really, why even bother rooting for a team certain to lose every game?

Upon Coach Hep's arrival I was still in that mindset, and his early moves to bring in more student involvement and bolster the program made me skeptical. I vividly recall mocking so many of his ideas. The Walk? Stupid. "Coach Hep Wants You!" Played out. "Defend The Rock" + A Giant Rock - Absurd. But something happened, it was the first game of his career at IU. There were more people in the stands, more enthusiasm, I saw students everywhere wearing those shirts. The change was palpable right from the get go, and I quickly got swept up in it.

Watching him on the field interacting with players was fantastic, reading interviews and listening to post-game press conferences was illuminating. This was a man dedicated to not only providing a winning football team for Indiana fans, but creating an atmosphere to rival that of bigger football schools like Ohio St. and Michigan.

I hope that with Coach Hep's unfortunate passing the goals he set for Indiana Football - both the team and its fans - are seen through. Coach Hep provided us with so much in such a short time, the least we can do, as fans, players, administrators, and so on, is to make sure that his quest to reinvent Indiana Football is completed.

Goodbye Coach Hep - We'll Never Forget You!

Hep Hep

I don't care how cliched or silly any of this sounds...

I had so much fun sharing IU football with a few of my friends... going all the way back to my freshman year before most of my friends got to IU... goin with Deborah... and so on... walking with Patrick to the games... running out of gas on the way... watching on tv with Andy... dreaming of driving to a bowl game...

but anyway... the thing is... IU always sucked... they haven't been good since I became a fan.... but the last 2 years were sooo much better just because of the positive attitude and hope that one man refused to let go of... I guess I kind of feel like that feeling will continue on without him... or that its owed to him... that I... and others should carry it on... with IU football... and more importantly with other aspects in life...