Listen to my mom

It's a new year. A new beginning. \nEvery year I hear the same mantra from my mom: "Please be good." Wise words from a wise woman. \nAnd in my fourth and final year at IU, that's all I ask of our Hoosier athletics teams this year.\nPlease be good. \nA new year is upon us, and the possibilities are endless. Can the IU football team win more than two games? Will the IU soccer team be able to repeat as national champions sans coaching legend Jerry Yeagley? And will the basketball team recover from last season's collapse that saw them fail to make the NCAA tournament? \nThe Hoosier football team hasn't had a winning season since 1994. The closest they've come was my freshman year, during which I was introduced to the option and Antwaan Randle El. They won five games that year, and if we had a kicker anywhere as good as Kathy Ireland in "Necessary Roughness," we might have actually gone to a bowl game and, who knows, Cam Cameron might still be pacing the sidelines in his stylish sweater vests. \nWe return an alarming number of starters, and I'll let you decide if that's a good thing or not from a team that mustered just two wins, one against a high school team disguised as Indiana State and the other versus a pathetic Illinois team (and we needed a last second dive in the end zone just to achieve that.)\nBut believe it or not, the team will be better than last year's version, though their record might not reflect it. Coach Gerry DiNardo finally has his full allotment of 85 scholarship players, but 75 percent of those players were on last year's team, so I don't know how good of a thing that is. \nAll I ask: please be good.\nThe soccer team started last year terribly, winning just once in the team's first five games, but somehow under the guidance of Yeagley, it was able to turn its season around and remarkably win the program's sixth national title. Now under new coach Mike Freitag, the Hoosiers return the majority of last year's squad and earn the preseason No. 1 ranking. I don't worry about the soccer team -- they'll be good. But coming off a national title is a lofty challenge, and the shadow Yeagley casts over the program may engulf Freitag. Let's hope not.\nPlease stay good.\nThe 2003-04 IU basketball team failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first since 1985, snapping an impressive streak of 18 consecutive appearances in the Big Dance. \n1985? Anyone remember 1985? "Fletch" and "Back to the Future" hit the big screen; Madonna was still a virgin (only in song of course); and the Chicago Bears were actually good.\nWe no longer have to deal with George Lurch and his hook shot that either swished in or drilled a cheerleader in the face. Bracey Wright may have some offensive help this year with talented incoming freshmen, and maybe this year Marshall Strickland will bloom into the stud we all know he can be. \nWe had an exceptional recruiting class, until prep star Josh Smith opted to sit on an NBA bench for three years and replacement signee 7-foot-1 Robert Rothbart decided he'd like to cruise the European landscape for a few years. But who can blame him? I mean, we live in Indiana! Not exactly Rome, Paris, London or Basarabeasca (don't pretend you don't know about this hustle and bustle town nestled in Moldova right smack between Romania and Ukraine).\nSo again, I beg you, you'd better be good.\nIf not, I won't donate a dime to this school that has milked me (mom and dad) dry.