The Good Witch Takes His Act to Beantown

Legitimately cutting down nets

We've joked before that Brad Stevens is a "good witch," because of the magic he was able to sprinkle onto his Butler University basketball program for the past six seasons, which included back-to-back national runners-up in 2010 and 2011.

Stevens, as you know unless you've been in a drunken stupor the past few days (and if you have, good for you for celebrating our independence in true American fashion), took the head coaching job with the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. People were shocked, mainly because Stevens seemed to be a Butler lifer -- or at least he seemed committed to Butler for the foreseeable future. Stevens had been linked to jobs at UCLA, Illinois and other places over the past few years, but he and his family love Indianapolis and always felt more at home there than anywhere else. Add to that the fact that Stevens proved you can win at a smaller program like Butler (backed up not just by the two title game appearances, but the fact that he never won fewer than 22 games while compiling a .772 winning percentage and really, was within one rattled out heave from winning the 2010 national title over Duke) and it began to feel like that warm, fuzzy, feel-good story might continue.

Here was a guy who had nearly reached the mountaintop (and, really, in college basketball, the goal always seems to be reaching a Final Four -- national titles are, of course, the ultimate goal, but Final Fours are probably more frequently referred to when judging coaches) and who seemed to love where he was. Plus he was young, likable and seemed to say and do all the right things.

Then, jarringly, Stevens bolted for Boston. We've never made any secret of the fact that we like Stevens a lot. B-dowd's brother and sister-in-law graduated from Butler and I remember saying to them that I hoped Purdue could one day match the Final Four success of a big time program like Butler (the jokes write themselves sometimes!).

At the same time, he scared us a bit as Purdue fans. While we are unfailingly in support of Matt Painter and his approach, recruiting against Indiana and Notre Dame in the state of Indiana already meant the top players in the state were no easy feat to land. With Butler rising to levels of success IU hasn't seen in a long time (or ever, if you're considering back-to-back Finals appearances) and obviously far better than Purdue or ND basketball has seen, the idea that "mid-major" Butler could "steal" recruits away from the big boys took on serious life. After all, wouldn't you want to play for Brad Stevens? And what if you could play for that guy and be a national darling (like a Gonzaga but with actual substance and the ability to win big games)? And go to Final Fours? Well, hell, that sounds great.

So that was concerning enough. But again, liking the guy and what he was doing made it hard to be anything

but admiring of him and his own version of the "Butler Way." Butler had been sneaky successful for quite a while, under a number of coaches, but Stevens broke through to that proverbial next level.

As this all was happening, murmurs began in different parts of Indiana that maybe he was the guy who should be leading one of the more "marquee" national programs in the state. Painter is a likable guy and a very good coach, but did he have what it took to get to Final Fours? And what about Tom Crean? He can recruit like a mo-fo, but his in-game abilities as a coach have never been marveled at. Fans are restless. Naturally, people talked. What could Brad Stevens do with Purdue or IU's budget, facilities and name recognition?

For us, the more concerning thing was that IU would realize that pretty much anyone could recruit kids to IU -- what they needed (and still need) is a coach who can win tough games, instead of just the ones where his talent overwhelms opponents. Could that happen? We genuinely feared it. Because a Brad Stevens-coached Hoosiers team would be awful from a Purdue perspective in different ways. We'd still loathe them, of course, but they'd be a lot more difficult to hate with Stevens running things. And, of yeah, they'd surely be back in the Final Four on a likely regular basis, so that would be hard to stomach, too.

Now Stevens takes his act to Boston to coach the unlikable Celtics. People are already talking about him co-existing with Rajon Rondo. While I think Rondo is a jackass, I don't think it's fair to assume they can't coexist. Stevens is the type of guy who gets everybody on the same page and has a zen quality when it comes to keeping everyone calm and focused. Doesn't that sound like it might be a good quality to have for the NBA grind? As for Rondo, though, I think he'll be gone before the season starts, so Stevens will probably have a very mediocre team to build from the ground up. Maybe he'll mold them in his ideal shape. Or maybe he'll crash and burn like so many college coaches before him. If he does, what's the downside? He'll be markedly richer and he'll still be the hottest name in college coaching, even 3-5 years from now. In addition, he'll have been to the "promised land" of the NBA, which will undoubtedly help with coaching/recruiting college kids.

That's where my negative, Purdue-centric mind takes us. Three to five more years of Tom Crean's act in Bloomington might be just the right amount of time for a) NCAA infractions to come to light (not saying there are any, but if there are, they never stay in the dark forever) or b) IU to realize they'll be consistently talented and win games under Crean, but aren't likely to add to their musty collection of banners under him. What if that coincides with Brad Stevens becoming available again? Could the nightmare happen a few years down the road? That's the kind of thing that keeps a Purdue fan who has seen years of banana peels up at night.

Suffering from March Madness

In the meantime, we honestly wish Stevens well and, from a more narrow-minded and "now" thinking Purdue perspective, we're happy Matt Painter doesn't have to contend with Stevens either on the recruiting trail or on the court in the Crossroads Classic. For now, Butler's loss is the rest of the state of Indiana's gain, from that point of view. He's the rare guy who could make us pull for the Boston Celtics (at least a little).

In the end, I would suspect that it had nothing to do with not being unhappy at Butler. I think Stevens loved it there and wanted to coach at no other college or university. For those being cynical, I don't think it was an act on his part -- he believed in the Butler Way and his own way of doing things. However, sometimes in life new challenges become available to you that require getting out of your comfort zone. There's no shame in not taking on those new challenges -- especially if you're really happy with what you're doing -- but there's also a lot of people who would lose sleep wondering "what might have been," or wondering if they could have met those new challenges. The NBA is likely that for Brad Stevens -- a new challenge for an ambitious guy who is only where he is because of his gumption and confidence to take the leap and reach for new heights. How else to describe a guy who was working at Eli Lilly when offered the chance at a volunteer position at Butler, yet took the volunteer position and quit his paying job? This guy goes for it, which is just one more reason to admire him.

Happy trails, Coach Stevens. Continue to do what makes you happy.

Indiana, You Big Banana, Oh Indiana, To Hell With You*

Sometimes it's easy to remember what you don't like about an opponent. Other times it's harder. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, BS is here to help. In a new feature (and you know how well we stick to new features), we'll help you figger out why you should hate Purdue's next opponent, mainly using third grade playground insults and other such high-brow stuff you've come to love BS for. 


Up today: The Indiana Hoosiers.

Really? I need to do this for the IU game? You need reasons to hate them? No, of course you do not. And while most of these pregamers are meant mostly in jest, this one....well....yeah.

How about the fact that the past is not relevant when you're talking about Kelvin Sampson's violations, firing, and effective gutting of the program; Bob Knight's ignominious shit-canning, choking of players, assaulting of students and faculty; or Tom Crean's abominable record at Indiana? Yes the past is relevant when IU knuckle-draggers want to rub their 1940 national title banner in your face? I don't know, either, but that's how they roll.

IU not only hasn't beaten Purdue in four years, they haven't really been competitive. And that sucks, because this used to be an incredible rivalry and right now a whole generation of Purdue students know nothing of IU other than as a doormat. Granted, that appears to be changing, but it has allowed the rivalry to simmer somewhat from what it once was.

Sometimes teams have representatives of their program who are easy to hate; other times they are less easy to hate. Charlie Weis was a great example. He was so arrogant, so pompous...so it was actually beyond easy to loathe him -- it was fun! The same is building with Tom Crean. The phony enthusiasm, the overrated resume, the goofy-ass faces he makes.... they are all things that make me so glad our coach is not like that.

There's so much more to add... this post could be quite lengthy. So I'll leave it to you. Share away.

7 PM tomorrow, BTN.  

*This headline is the corny opening line of the alternate fight song for IU. When I was a freshman, a fifth year senior I was friends with explained that back in the day, there were alternate versions of each team's fight song that opponents would learn and sing at games. Because they were likely borne of a simpler era like the 1960s, the insults were things like "you big banana." My, how times have changed. I guess dildo doesn't rhyme, though.

A Rebuilding Comparison

In 2005, Matty inherited a Purdue basketball program that was in pretty bad shape. Coming off of a 7-win season, Painter looked to rebuild. His two best players were both forced to redshirt the first season due to injury. His resulting roster was comprised of walk-ons, a football player, transfers, some guys who wouldn't be playing anywhere else in the league and a couple guys that belonged in the BT. In his first season, Purdue went 9-19.

Over the second and third seasons, Matty lost 6 players to transfer. Attrition forced fan favorite, Bobby "Buckets" Riddell, the 5'9" Lafayette native and walk-on, to not only play significant minutes, but start for part of Painter's second season.

Painter, of course made a splash with the Baby Boilers class that included JJ, Hummel, Smooge and another guy that gave Purdue a top-10 recruiting class nationally. This class and Matty's plan helped restore Purdue to the top-three of the league by year three of Painter's tenure in W.Lafayette.

Tom Crean inherited a team decimated by academic and disciplinary problems in Spring/'08 following Kelvin Sampson's resignation. Like Painter, Crean was forced to using walk-ons and transfers his first season. Along with a few carry-overs, his first class was a good recruiting effort in an abridged time- no super stars on paper, but some solid players. That class included Dumes, Jones, Roth, Story & Pritchard.

The next season ('09), Crean brought in a monster class that included three 4-star recruits, 2 high 3-star recruits and a couple of project players. This class was rated top-5 in the nation.

With that strong class as a lynch pin of his rebuilding plan in Bloomington, Crean is now in his third season in Bloomington...But the media is still telling us that the talent disparity with the rest of the BT is too much too overcome for IU to possibly compete. We told you following the game in Mackey that we weren't buying into that story...and here is a bit of evidence to back up what we've been saying...you make up your own mind.

Eric Gordon Piles On His Alma Mater

As though IU hoops hadn't been battered enough, Eric Gordon decided it was the perfect time to tell the world about the rampant drug use on the team during its 2007-2008 season, which saw Coach Sanctions bounced and the program seriously damaged.

Gordon said Sampson "tried to stop it," but the coach "was just so focused on basketball and winning and everything."

Yes, indeed. Very focused, he was.

What's nice about this for the Indiana athletic department and their fans is that they have the forever built-in excuse for any and all things that went wrong last year -- it's all Kelvin Sampson's fault. It won't be long before the poor viewing angles at Ass Hall are being blamed on Kelvin Sampson's shortcomings as an engineer.

Still, this isn't something to take lightly. I realize all the players are gone from last year, but a culture is a culture and let's just hope for the well-being of the young guys playing ball there that Coach Crean is aware of all this and is taking steps to not allow it an inch back in the door.

I'm sure Terry Hutchens will have very measured, reasonable thoughts about all of this.

Is There A Game Tonight?

DJ White rests up for the Purdue-Indiana showdown.

Well, someone said there's a game tonight. Apparently, two schools in a basketball-mad state are meeting this evening in their only matchup of the year. In addition, the coach of one squad may be coaching his last game at that school because of repeated rules violations plus being a general liar when asked about it by his superiors and the governing body of his chosen profession.

The visitors start three freshmen, have won 11 in a row, are 4-0 against top ten teams and are 12-1 in Big Ten play. Each team is numbers 14 and 15 in the two polls -- one is ahead of the other in each. And in the Big Ten itself, they're only separated by a game and a half, although the winner of this game is effectively up by an automatic game the rest of the way because if the two were to end the season with the same conference record, the winner of this game would get the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The home team with the cheating coach is playing its third straight game against the top teams in the Big Ten. Fortuitously for them, each of those three has been at home. Seems perfectly fair to Kelvin Sampson.

Okay, why am I writing this like a Walt Whitman poem? The teams are Purdue and Indiana, two old-time rivals who haven't both been good at the same time in many a moon. Gene Keady and Bob Knight prowled these sidelines for years, and for the twenty years they overlapped in the conference their schools took 11 conference titles. (Incidentally, have you ever noticed that angry, demonstrative coaches "prowl" the sidelines; oddball, eccentric coachs "roam" the sidelines; and structured, controlled, military types "patrol" the sidelines?)

Purdue and IU are back at the top of the Big Ten. And tonight is their only scheduled matchup of the season. I'm sure we'll have more to share in terms of our pregame thoughts later on today. Or maybe we won't. We're not sure we want to acknowledge how badly we here at BS want to see a win tonight. Sure, we're greedy. But Matt Painter and this group of froshes have made us this way.

Boiler Up!

Weekend Sports Notes

Tiger Woods is a Good Golfer
I told you guys this a few weeks back, but maybe this will help you understand just how great Tiger Woods is at the gentleman's game:

The PGA, like many individual athlete sports leagues has rankings that roll over from year-to-year...And Woods wins a lot of tournaments (he's entered two and won two in '08). So, it's not a surprise that he's got a commanding lead on the rest of the golf world. But, the point gap between Tiger and Mickleson (#2) is the same as the gap between Mickleson and #1000in the PGA standings. Seriously.

It's estimated that Woods could take three years off from the game and would still be in the lead.

Mrs. Tiger Woods dominates the other PGA wives off the course as her husband does on the course

Good News...Finally.
My fellow BS writers don't really care at all for racing, let alone open wheel racing. I thoroughly enjoy the IRL and believe Indy is still the best race and racing venue in the world. For years, I've been pleading and begging for Champ Car to stop the charade and fold itself into IRL. Well it looks like it might happen in '08. If you're not a NASCAR guy, you know this can't happen soon-enough. Here's to the possiblity of the IRL returning to the national consciousness as it was before the split.

Super Mario

The State of Basketball in the State of Basketball
For the first time in a long time, when the AP poll comes out Monday morning four college basketball teams from the state of Indiana will be in the top-20.

Butler has been very good all year, IU has been standing around and watching Eric Jordan beat a whole bunch of teams all year, Notre Dame is suddenly a Big East contender, and a youthful Purdue team has grown up a season early.

It kind of reminds me of the days when Phelps, Knight and Keady were prowling the sidelines.