Tonight was the IU mens basketball game that we were all excited to watch. IU was matched against Northwestern in Evanston. A win would pretty much give the Hoosiers a lock into the NCAA tournament in March. A loss would definitely hurt as the next two weeks IU was pitted against top ranked Big Ten teams. None of us were really worried about the game. Northwestern was having a down year and IU was playing well even with their recent loss to Illinois. All of that changed, however, when we turned on the television tonight. Scrolling underneath the announcers in the studio was the statement - "IU suspends five players for tonight's Northwestern game due to violation of team policies." Included in those five players were two starters and almost 50% of our scoring. Needless to say, we were extremely worried after that.
IU only had six available players for tonight and the references to the movie Hoosiers started immediately. Just like in the movie, Coach Woodson had a hard decision to make and he stuck by his decision. At first it looked as though we would be able to weather the storm as we were leading at halftime. Fatigue took over and a scoring drought ensued in the second half. The eligible players fought as hard as they could, playing almost every minute of the game, but in the end it wasn't enough. We lost 51-59.
The entire time I was watching the game, I kept thinking about Cal. He had called last night to let me know that Plante Moran was taking all of the IU alumni at their firm to the game tonight. He was really looking forward to it. He texted me last night to say that he still had a lot of fun, but "wow, did IU stink." He was frustrated that the five players were suspended for smoking weed in their hotel room the night before. It was legal in Illinois and he didn't think that they should have been punished. He felt that this would end our chances of making it to the NCAA tournament.
I agreed with Cal on the tournament but not the suspension. I felt that Woodson really had no choice. It didn't matter that marijuana was legal in Illinois. The boys broke the rules and they knew that. They put themselves above the team and that was the disappointing part. The five forced the rest of their team to deal with the consequences of their behavior. I totally supported the decision of IU's new head coach even though it was hard to watch. In the end Cal said that he agreed with my thoughts. He texted back, "I think I’m just mad I had to watch Anthony Leal play 35 minutes!" I could totally agree with that one.
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