Column: IU fans should feel for this Boiler

“Right now you are down and out and feeling really crappy/And when I see how sad you are/It sort of makes me ... happy!”

So goes the song “Schadenfreude” from the musical “Avenue Q”.

Sports rivalries often bring out the best of our schadenfreude attitudes — that German term about taking pleasure in other people’s misfortunes.

It takes about 10 seconds into Purdue-IU banter for Hoosier fans to make that bad joke about good seats in Mackey Arena because banners don’t get in the way.

In my one ill-timed trip to Mackey — the evening after the Purdue football team whaled on the Hoosiers 62-10 in 2008 — Purdue fans thoroughly enjoyed chanting “IU sucks” many times throughout the basketball game against a no-name opponent.

That’s what makes rivalries fun.

But this week is an exception. For IU fans, schadenfreude needs to be put to rest.

Purdue star senior forward Robbie Hummel tore his ACL this weekend, reinjuring the same knee that sidelined him for the end of the 2009-2010 season. He will miss all of the 2010-2011 campaign.

Needless to say, this is devastating for the Boilermakers. The team was quickly becoming a preseason favorite to win the Big Ten and the National Championship. A fearsome senior trio of Hummel, E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson was destined for greatness.

And then, in the second drill of the first practice of basketball season, Hummel’s right knee ended those expectations.

When I heard the news during IU’s Homecoming football game, it made me sick.
Hummel is nothing less than a class act on and off the court, the definition of a hard-nosed player and leader.

It might seem darkly ironic for IU fans to think that after all of IU’s basketball woes — conveniently coinciding with plenty of success in West Lafayette — that they take an ounce of pleasure in Purdue’s misfortune.

Forget about it. Follow Tom Crean’s example.

“The Crean family is praying for (Hummel) and I hope you will be too,” Crean wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “I am going to write him a letter telling him how much I think of him and I hope you think about doing the same.”

Really, what’s the fun in seeing this misery? There’s something shallow in playing against a team that’s already down.

I’m sure Purdue’s wins in the past two years against the Hoosier program haven’t been as enjoyable as past rivalry games.

The IU-Purdue battle in Assembly Hall in February was thrilling because it was an outclassed Hoosier squad taking the then-No. 8 Boilers — at full strength — to the limit. The place was rocking, and the rivalry seemed alive.

This year, there will be something missing from the rivalry. In fact, there will be something missing from the entire Big Ten conference. And from college basketball.

And that’s too bad.

I’m not asking you to like Purdue. Vitriolic hate is OK. Heated rivalries make basketball fun.

But sympathize with Hummel. Say a prayer for him.

He deserves it, even from Hoosier Nation.

E-mail: nmhart@indiana.edu