Same Team, same game, same tradition?

Thirty years have passed since IU's perfect 32-0 season, with just three different coaches at the helm since. It's been almost 20 years since the Hoosiers' last national championship and four years since the team advanced beyond the second round of the NCAA Tournament.\nIn that flawless 1976 season under coach Bob Knight, the Hoosiers boasted two All-Americans in forward Scott May and center Kent Benson, along with starters and future NBA players Quinn Buckner, Tom Abernethy and Bobby Wilkerson.\nToday, Hoosier Nation still packs the stands of Assembly Hall for home games. The crimson and cream uniforms still have a blank spot on the back where a last name is commonly found on many teams' uniforms. And the squad is still without an official mascot.\nHowever, that's where all the similarities begin and end between the '76 and '06 Hoosiers. \nBut IU coach Kelvin Sampson and the Hoosiers aren't looking to achieve the "perfect" season. Instead, they're taking "baby steps," Sampson says.\nAt Hoosier Hysteria on Oct. 13, the first-year coach outlined exactly what he wants to do with the program.\n"The first thing we're gonna do, we're gonna graduate our players," Sampson said, as the members of his team stood in a row holding hands off to the side. \n"No. 2, we're gonna follow the rules and we're gonna do things right. And No. 3, we're gonna compete our butts off to make you proud of us every single night."\nSampson received a thunderous ovation from the crowd when he was introduced that night. When he finally found a break in the noise, Sampson responded, "I can't wait to hear what you guys sound like when we win a championship." \nIU Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan said he's excited to see where the program will go now that Sampson is running the show.\n"This basketball program is blazing trails as coach Sampson and his staff are recruiting some of the country's best student-athletes," Greenspan said at the Tip-Off Banquet on Nov. 8. "I look at the banners over here, as I do every day, and we're going to hang another one up there. While it is a great honor to recognize the many players who have blazed the trail, we're going to look to the future as well. We can make this a wonderful place to support our team but a difficult place to play for our opponents."\nBut the IU players and the coach himself acknowledge that the Hoosiers have a long way to go before they can talk about putting a new banner up in the rafters. Last season, under former coach Mike Davis, the Hoosiers reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, only to fall to Gonzaga University. The two seasons prior to that, the Hoosiers failed to even reach the NCAA Tournament and were forced to settle for the NIT.\nJunior forward D.J. White said he doesn't expect a championship this season. He and the Hoosiers are just ready to embrace a new period in IU basketball history.\n"I wouldn't say it's more special than any other year, but we're just excited going into the season," White said at Hoosier Hysteria on Oct. 13. "We feel we've got a lot of things to prove. A new coach, a new era, new faces around. We're just happy to be here."\nSenior guard Errek Suhr has seen firsthand the ups and downs of the program during the past few years and says he's ready to take on the new challenges that this season, and the new era of Hoosier basketball, have in store for him and his teammates.\n"It's just a new start," he said. "All history aside, we're just excited to play, excited to showcase what we've been working toward"