It's done. After one of the more painful and frustrating Fridays in recent memory, the correct decision was made, and now no one has any idea what will happen.
But aside from all this tom foolery, here some things I'll remember and miss about Kelvin Sampson as a Hoosier.
I had to spend Tuesday in Iowa, which means I had to watch DJ White and company take out "conference leader" Purdue in a Holiday Inn bar.
For those of you who don't know, Iowa is far.
This is what I had to look at for 7 hours.
Believe that. And you know what, the middle of Illinois is about the same. I felt like we were driving on a treadmill that had been strategically placed in the middle of an anonymous cornfield.
However, my current happiness exists on two levels, which inevitably made the trip a success.
1) We were privileged enough to drive on a road called "Coonhunters Drive." No lie. And,
2) Inside the luxurious Holiday Inn bar, I was able to watch my Hoosiers pound the hated Boilers while sitting next to some idiot wearing awful colors, and chanting "Boiler Up" for no apparent reason.
Remember at the beginning of this season when people were getting excited about a possible Final Four run? Remember when we looked awful for most of the Big Ten season? Remember when DJ White went down and we thought the entire universe was against us? Remember when Bobby Boucher showed up at halftime and the Mud Dogs won the Bourbon Bowl?
Hoosiers win the Big Ten. And the Big Ten tournament. Watch and see.
FONTANA, Calif. - A hunger for carnitas nearly led to some carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint. The 35-year-old victim had just bought about $20 in tacos from a street-corner stand and was bicycling home when the suspect confronted him and said "Give me your tacos."
The suspect grabbed the bag of food, punched the victim in the face and began to flee.
When the victim demanded his tacos back, the suspect pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the man and threatened to kill him before running away.
In case you missed it, our beloved Hoosiers looked unstoppable last night in a humiliation of then #9 in the country (and apparently unreasonably over-rated) Michigan State. Hardly anyone gave us much of a chance, including myself, given the week that Kelvin Sampson (who will be referred to as 'Chief') has so generously given us, and the fact that we started the game down 15-4.
In response to such inspiring play, Chief became overwhelmed and joined with a couple players in an embrace that could only remind me of this.
In all seriousness, the entire scene at Assembly Hall seemed a bit surreal. After a week of accusations against a cheating program, and a 25 foot game winning bank shot from a Polar Bear, the mighty Hoosiers played like, and celebrated like, they were in the National Championship. Mrs. Chief was next to tears. The students were chanting Kelvin Sampson again (the probably didn't really think that through). Eric Gordon was back. Jordan Crawford showed signs of maturity, finally.
The next morning we wake up to realize that come Friday, the coach that brought hope back to IU basketball, brought us Eric Gordon, turned DJ White into the best power forward in the country (Tyler who?), will be either suspended or fired. Performances like last night make it really hard to continue to push to fire our Chief. Personally, I felt bad for the guy. But make no mistake he will, and needs to, be let go.
Regardless, at least for a little while, the focus was away from Chief and his phone bill and back to basketball. And now we look to Tuesday when the apparently mighty Boilermakers come to town. The team has confidence back. The fans have faith back. And assuming we'll have DJ White back, I don't see any way Purdue leaves hostile B Town with a win. Even if DJ can't go, we know we can play with the best in the Big Ten.
So I'm a bit upset. Since I've stopped updating my old blog a lot of crap has been going on that I should have commenting and raving about, and I've thus missed countless opportunities. Such as:
