Comparing greatness

The IU basketball tradition is proven and powerful. When recruits slip on the red and white (soon to cream and crimson, again) warmups, they throw themselves into the fans' eyes and the athletes are doomed to comparisons with their predecessors.\nThis year is no different. \nThe Hoosiers have opened the Big Ten season with four consecutive wins, landing them at the top of the conference standings. Sunday, IU cruised to an 11-point victory over then 13th ranked Iowa at a hostile Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That victory was more than a point below the 12.75 point margin of victory the team has recorded in those four wins.\nLike clockwork, the quick start has fans, journalists and struggling sports columnists reminiscing of a team of almost 10 years ago. The last time an IU team began the Big Ten season with four consecutive wins was the 1992-1993 season. \nIt might be unfair to compare this year's 10-5 squad with a team that finished the season 31-4 and took a No. 1 seed into the March classic (though they were defeated in the regional final), but I'll do it anyway.\nOh yeah, that 1993 team finished 17-1 in the conference, claiming a Big Ten title.\nLike this year's team, the 1993 Hoosiers fell to rival Kentucky and defeated Notre Dame prior to conference play. But the 1993 team defeated Butler.\nAdvantage: 1993\nThe 1993 team's average margin of victory in the first four conference games was a bloated 15.25 eclipsing this year's 12.75.\nAdvantage: Wash -- IU defeated Penn State 105-57 in 1993. The Nitany Lions went on to win seven games that year -- as many as the football team that same school year.\nThough basketball is certainly a team sport, analyzing the play of individuals can be a telling sign in the quality of the whole team. \nIn 35 games, some senior named Calbert Cheaney averaged 22.4 points per game in 1993. This year's leading scorer is less-flashy sophomore Jared Jeffries who averages 17.1 points through 15 games. Cheaney was named an All-American that year and was taken sixth in the NBA draft. Jeffries was named this week's Big Ten Player of the Week and could be drafted sixth as well if he stays all four years -- hint, hint.\nAdvantage: 1993. However Jeffries continues to improve as the season progresses.\nAlan Henderson averaged 8.1 rebounds in the 1993 season while Jeffries has averaged 7.1. But Jeffries' average of 1.9 steals per-game and junior Tom Coverdale's 4.6 assists per-game are each more than their 1993 counterparts, Greg Graham and Damon Bailey, respectively.\nAdvantage: 2002 \nIn 1993 Greg Graham shot 51.4 percent from three-point range over a 35 game span. That's absurd. In a breakout senior season Dane Fife has shot 32-63 for 50.8 percent.\nAdvantage: 1993. Let's be honest, Fife had trouble making 50 percent of his shots inside eight feet in his first three years. He'll wake up sometime.\nIn the end, the 1993 team is superior to this season's squad. Shocker. The fact is the team of nearly a decade ago was outstanding and arguably better than the Final Four team the previous year. Regardless, this year's team is on a roll that has not lately been experienced. \nWhat about the coaches? The 1993 team was coached by an experienced and flamboyant Bob Knight while this year's team boasts the young and innovative Mike Davis.\nAdvantage: Save your e-mails, I'm not touching that one.