As the Hutch Turns

One of our favorite pasttimes around here when we had nothing better to do was to string up our Terry Hutchens pinata and take a few whacks at him. The great part about Hutchens was that it didn't matter which column or blog post you read of his -- they were all chock full of IU homerism, poor grammar and syntax, strange references, complaints about how tiring it was to be a sportswriter, etc. You always had something to mock. And everyone knows we're jerkfaces who like to mock.

Well, things took a turn recently. Hutch was removed from being the IU beat writer at the Indy Star and was reportedly going to move to cover basketball recruiting. This, sadly, would have required Hutch to at least pretend to have an ounce of journalistic impartiality, so he did what any self-respecting Hoosier-lover would do -- he bolted. He's now landed at Fox's Scout network, specifically at HoosierNation.com.

(Some people are under the impression that Hutchens was let go from the Star. I'm not clear on this, and there doesn't seem to be a definitive report out there -- what is known is that he was removed from the IU beat, reportedly as part of a "shake up" and assigned to cover basketball recruiting. This didn't seem like a fit to many of us and so it makes sense to think Terry would have then walked away rather than doing something outside his comfort zone. That said, this is still mostly conjecture on our part. Educated conjecture. Hutchens has not offered any more details on his twitter feed -- just his announcement of going to Scout. Before that, it was the usual IU cheerleading.)

Terry can now "cover" the Hoosiers and Tom Crean in his customary, fawning way. And his fans are thrilled:

dbwheat says: Great news. I've always liked Hutch. Especially compared to that other so-called sports writer for the Indy Star. 

Yeah, those "so called writers." Anyone who doesn't shill for IU, well, I just don't think they can be trusted! Yeeehaw!

bronkonagurski says: The IndyStar has turned to crap for a while now.  He might be better off this way.

Indeed. Get the decent men out of there while we still can! Let's get them to a bastion of journalism.... a scout message board.

And JCBasketball opines: Hutch will do this place a lot of good.

I agree. As long as he learns that a "blog" the entire thing and a "post" is what he writes each day. 

Other rumored changes included the Star getting a Purdue beat writer, which Purdue fans responded to with derision. The Indy Star? A Purdue beat writer? I think most Purdue fans figured even if this happened, it would all be a ruse, where the "beat writer" would pretend to cover Purdue just up until Purdue fans began trusting him and then -- BAM -- he'd tear off his polo shirt to reveal an IU jersey and candystriped pants.

Well, the Star must have decided, "Meh, we haven't paid attention to Purdue in decades so why start now?" Because according to Kent Sterling (whose name should really be that of a porn star or a superhero -- or a superhero porn star?), no such Purdue beat writer will be assigned. *sad trombone*

You'll note in Sterling's column that no ND beat writer will be assigned, either, but I would think that's less concerning to ND fans since they already have their own network, as well as legions of lazy columnists around the country to carry their water. 

Why are the guys at a Purdue blog writing about an IU guy? Well, because we have a special love for Terry, and he knows it. Also, because what else are we going to write about right now?

In truth, I'd like to say that while we may rip on entities (like ESPN or the BTN) and individuals (such as Terry), we don't truly wish bad things upon anyone. Terry has a family to support, like so many of us, so we wish him well in terms of having gainful employment. (See, Terry! We can be nice!) That said, when you write publicly for a living, you're open to criticism, which we're more than happy to offer.

Here's to more column-filling goodness from Hutch. 

Six Good Minutes: 83-55 Ouch!

Michael Conroy/AP Photo

I consider myself an optimistic person when it comes to Purdue sports, I think we all do. We all want the best for our alma mater and in doing so, we develop a gold and black view of the world, that being said this sucks.

Getting spanked by a combined 65 points by your arch rival hurts, especially when it's your senior year, but what sucks even more is when you feel like your team has given up.  

I was reading a story on the Journal and Courier website by Jeff Washburn today and this stuck out, and sticks out even more now:

Gene Keady’s typical February message was delivered in varying forms of, “It’s not who you play, but when you play them.” Keady’s theory was that by mid-February, those who aspired to make noise in the postseason or play for the Big Ten Conference championship were peaking. Teams looking at a sub-.500 record were beginning to go through the motions, hoping the end was near.

For this team the season is drawing to an end and it's a disappointing one.  Maybe the 2007 class gave us too much to hope for this year.  Maybe their run and their development into special program players spoiled us beyond belief, but Robbie Hummel, E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson are gone, so is their talent, and so is there leadership.  Through players like Hummel, Moore, Johnson, Grant, Green and Kramer, Purdue developed an edge, a certain toughness, that isn't on this team.

In my opinion there is some type of divide with this team currently, egos are getting in the way and that edge isn't there.  Numerous times today IU got a turnover and no one hustled back on defense.  I would say one guy played truly hard the entire time he was in there, Sandi.  Sandi doesn't have half the talent of AJ Hammons, but if you look at the effort he gives, he's a better player right now.

The guys of BS have talked amongst ourselves about players leaving, and I have come to the conclusion that if they don't buy into Painter's system, let them go.  There is no point in being here if you aren't willing to work hard. There needs to be a culture change at Purdue within this program, bringing back one of the greatest Boilermakers to ever step foot on Keady Court to the bench would help.  Cardinal wouldn't take laziness.

The game today was a story of six minutes and the other 34.  IU was the better team today, no one doubted that, but for six minutes, the Boilers played with emotion.  Wrecking havoc on defense, scoring the basketball and just playing good ball, but that was just six minutes. The Boilermakers took a 19 point lead down to ten, then halftime killed the momentum.  The better team won today, there is no doubt, but the lack of effort kills me and is painful to watch.

Maybe it's the coaching.  I believe in Painter, I think he is a great coach who knows what he is doing, but I think he is lost with these guys.  They just aren't buying it.  On the pre-game interview done by the CLIZ, Painter said he just wanted effort, that wasn't there the entire game, which is disappointing.

Maybe it's time to forget about basketball season and just move one to the next, but as Boilermakers we just can't do that.  This team is growing and is building into what could be something special.

If you came here for a recap, this is all that you're going to get, because honestly, there wasn't much to be excited about.  Here is the game in one sentence: IU had their way with the Boilermakers.

To close out, one of my twitter followers, mentioned this team was like and old beat up car, it keeps quitting.  As sad is it is to hear, it's the truth.

With no passion and no guts it seems, this team is done.  All we can hope for now is a strong finish and the development of players.  As much as I would love to say Dakich is wrong, he's right, Purdue needs to focus this offseason on getting better and put in the effort, or this could be a team that is a let down and Matty could be out the door.

Am I saying give up on this team and give up on coach?  No, Boilers never quit, Boilers never falter.  Ever Grateful Ever True, CHOO CHOO.

Quick Story just for today...

Back in the early 2000s, I played basketball in a church league in Noblesville.  My team was comprised of old friends and people that I had gone to church with for a few years.  Some were IU grads, some Purdue, Butler and a few guys that played D3 basketball.

We were an OK team; middle of the pack in this church league.  Most of the good teams had one or two players that could score at will...we had a lot of inconsistent guys, but we were grinders.

One game, we played one of the better teams in the league- they were very tall for the league and very skilled. I didn't know anyone on the team, except for one guy who had played for IU just three years before playing in this church league.

Match-ups were a problem for us in this game; I'm 5'4" and was guarding guys taller than six feet for most of the contest. A few of our better players, both in the 6'4" range had the unenviable task of having to guard an ex-Big 10 PF from IU.  They did a good job and we hung around most of the game- keeping the score respectable.

But toward the end, it got uglier; their size and skill wore us down.  On a fast break, their big man was one-on-one against our guy who played for a very small school.  They were up by around 12-14 points...and the ex-Bobby Knight recruit thought it was time to show us up; so he dunked on the guy guarding him and yelled at him after.

Big tough guy.

A years before, he was getting his ass kicked by Brad Miller at Mackey...but I believe he thought that night was his time to shine, I guess.

I wasn't as impressed with that 6'10" guy dunking as he was...and his histrionics made an impression.  Even the IU grads who I played with thought he acted like a jerk, and one got into his face a bit a moment later.
________________________________

Fast forward to 2013- a friend told me about people taking rec league ball too seriously, and I thought of this story...so I told it, but used this guy's name.

As I was finishing the story, I looked to the right and he was right next to me...good times.

Crossroads Classic: Tales of Eight Fans

These stories are good for some reasons, bad for others...They are funny for some reasons, sad for others. I'll let you deduce the way you think about them.

What I can tell you is they're all true...and they're a quick read.

Trustworthy?

Scenario 1:
Two IU fans headed to downtown Indy, from outside the state, to see their Hoosiers lose to play Butler, but didn't have any tickets.  They sought out some good seats from scalpers as there were scalped tickets available.

They found two tickets down low for $400 each, and took the crook fine gentleman up on his offer.

They were surprised when they got to the ticket scanner and found out that they had bought counterfeit tickets and were denied entry.

They drowned their sorrows, both from the loss of the game and the loss of $800, in red wine and steaks at Shula's Steakhouse in the Westin.

Scenario 2:
Two IU fans headed to downtown Indy, from Carmel, to see their Hoosiers lose to play Butler, but didn't have any tickets.  They sought out some scalped tickets as there were a ton of vendors out and around Bankers Life Arena.  The cheapest tickets they found were $150 each.

They decided to watch the game a few blocks away in the comfort of Harry & Izzy's while eating delicious steaks, shrimp cocktail and on draught beer.

They didn't need to go through the hassle of leaving the arena to reverse their jackets or take off their Hoosier sweatshirts to reveal their UND t-shirts beneath.

Two down low

Scenario 3:
Two Purdue alums met in downtown Indy.  One coming from just outside of Indy via car, the other from the Southwest via plane.

They enjoyed a meal at Harry & Izzy's before the game while watching crappy bowl games and the first half of the IU loss to Butler.

They headed a few blocks East to the arena, didn't have to fight the crowd (as there were 12 minutes left in the first game of the double-header), used their tickets that had been purchased through Purdue...and enjoyed watching IU lose to Butler before being disappointed in the double-digit loss by their Boilers to Mike Brey's maroon mock turtleneck.

Scenario 4:
Two Purdue fans, one an alum (Dad), a second a current student (son), went to downtown Indy to take in the Crossroads Classic.  Like a few of the fans above, they found scalped tickets were simply too expensive to swallow as bandwagon IU fans die hard IU fans had driven the price through the roof.

Instead of calling it a day and heading to a nearby bar or restaurant, they broke the law used good ole-fashioned American ingenuity.  They hid in the crowd...got past the security...got past the ticket-takers...and enjoyed both games in the double header from the lower arena while paying $0 for their seats.

With their savings, they drank countless $45 beers from vendors within the arena...and probably ended up behind on the deal.


I'll let you guess which pair of fans included yours truly.