As I peek at this Rutgers/Indiana tilt I can't help but pose this here.
Back in 1990, and maybe a little later, IU was talked about in the same breath as Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, Dook and UCLA*. A blueblood program, with nary a doubt.
Fast-forward to today, and I wonder if IU, (* and UCLA), can ever regain that status. They have run through coaches left and right. They have fans that have expectations to be like they once were. Will they ever be like that? Has it been too long?
I mean, the kids looking for those blue blood offers today don't have any memory of IU being elite. None. 30 years. So?
What always gets me is that Keady had a winning record against Knight. Painter has a winning record vs IU during his tenure. Beyond Knight, their tournament resume is no better than ours except for 2002, which was Mike Davis doing it with Knight's players.
Yet IU still consistently out-recruits Purdue, despite doing equal or less with the talent they get. And as you say, their recruits weren't alive for the 1988 title and they've now reached a point where no recruits will have been able to remember being alive during the 2002 Final Four.
Their history for the last 20 years has been shuffling coach after coach chasing old glory, and yet they still are seen as the automatic favorite for basically any recruit in the state.
Frustrating as a Purdue fan.
- -2 Indiana. The Hoosiers have an upset home loss to Nebraska and an upset road loss to Rutgers. I'm not sure how we should treat that because my sense is that Nebraska was a much better team a couple of weeks ago when they won in Bloomington. Also, Rutgers is one of the +2 teams (see below) so it is possible that they should move up . . .
I don't know that I'd move them down just yet, because the team has plenty of talent. They're not losing because of a lack of talent. This team has the players to turn this around.
But I think Hoosier fans should be a little concerned that the players have largely tossed in the towel on this season.
Anyways, I watch IU, because OSU and Gene Smith caught a lot of flak for not getting Archie Miller. It's not as if there is a wide berth between the two teams this season, and both teams are recruiting well. But Indiana might take a bit longer to get there - if Langford goes pro they lose their two top scorers and the rest of the team has looked a little lost at times. So I hope they don't make a rash decision if they have another average season next year. That's the fool's gold of basketball recruiting - getting a guy who will leave after one season doesn't help the program long term, and an average program needs long term help.
Delusional IU fans are already starting the Fire Archie train. Not sure they'll wait until next year for their rash decision lol...
But honestly, there's no explanation for this. This is not some ground-up rebuild like Brohm had with Purdue football. IU has a roster full of 5* and high 4* players. The pieces have to be there. Archie just can't seem to put them together.
The only thought is that to some extent Archie hasn't gotten "his" guys, and perhaps the style of ball he wants to play is hard to accomplish with Crean's guys. But if he's as good a coach as everyone said he was when he was hired, he should be able to work through that.
I do find this funny. Apparently this morning his Wikipedia page was edited to say "Though he was very successful at Dayton, Miller is regarded as one of the worst basketball coaches in Indiana's storied history." (And no, I didn't edit it lol.)
