The Hoosier fans in the Heinisch family have become completely disillusioned with the men's basketball program as of late. It all started four years ago when IU decided to part ways with head coach, Tom Crean. It wasn't completely unexpected as according to key alumni they had had a lackluster year and had "underperformed" in the NCAA tournament previously. Doug, Cal and I were extremely disappointed as we were huge Crean fans. He had brought the Hoosiers out of the Big Ten basement with an enthusiasm that hadn't been seen in years.
Unfortunately, the plan to replace Crean was worse than we even dreamed. The last four years of watching Archie Miller coach have been excruciating. At first I tried to be patient. I believed that once the team adjusted to his style of play they would improve. That never happened. He recruited the top players in Indiana just as promised but did nothing with them. Instead of bringing a stellar defense to the program, his teams instead became known for their lack of offense including long draughts of scoreless minutes. This past week was the perfect example of his leadership. After a big win against a top ranked Iowa team on the road, the Hoosiers lost to a low level Rutgers team at home today. Thankfully, none of us expected much. We had grown accustomed to losing.
Fortunately, after the basketball game we were able to watch the Buccaneers play the Packers later in the day. Seeing Tom Brady defeat Aaron Rodgers in the NFC championship was exactly what we needed to erase the pain of another Hoosier loss. Once football was over I thought a lot about the differences in the two teams. The most notable was that Tampa Bay built their offense around a player that knew how to win. They didn't try to force him to change to meet their needs. Brady believed in his team and coaches and they believed in him. That was something that hadn't happened at IU during the Archie Miller era. I no longer have faith that it ever will.
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