Column: Big Ten, Creek and disrespect

Creek’s injury — blessing in disguise?

First, you have to feel for IU sophomore guard Maurice Creek.

The snake-bitten player that came to IU with so much potential — and showed it in the first half of his freshman season — has been riddled with injuries ever since.

The most recent, a stress fracture in his right patella suffered late in Saturday’s game against Michigan, sidelines him for the season. Creek will undergo surgery on Thursday to repair his fractured patella.

It’s easy to second-guess Creek’s playing time this year. In hindsight, he probably should’ve been redshirted this year since he’s been noticeably slowed from last season’s broken left patella. But it was impossible to foresee that when the season began.

As bad as this is for Creek, time off could ultimately help him and the Hoosiers in the long run.

For Creek, it will give him extra time to fully recover from this and last season’s injury. Many already thought Creek wouldn’t be fully healthy until next season. Now, he can focus all his efforts on returning next season without struggling through this season.

For IU, Creek’s role had been limited this season, as he had been moved off the starting lineup. His 8.3 points per game was half of what he averaged last season.
Creek did bring an amount of leadership to the team, but his injury will allow freshmen Will Sheehey and Victor Oladipo — two players on the rise — to play more significant roles. 

Student section embarrassment

Many IU students were completely out of line, classless and unbecoming of a reputable student section during the Saturday contest at home against Michigan.

They chanted obscenities throughout the game directed at Michigan junior guard Zack Novak, a Chesterton, Ind., native.

I don’t care who he is, what uniform he wears, what he does on the court, or where he comes from; an obscene chant directed to anyone is stupid.

Even if he “deserved” the chant for any reason — an apparent cheap shot — a chant like that keeps IU’s student section from being top notch.

Students, that chant is really not that funny, and it’s obviously not very original.
I get it. They’re college students. Presumably many left Assembly Hall for a night of more college fun. What’s the harm in collectively using language that many use individually in public all the time?

Should I expect any more from college students?

Of course the answer is no. But if IU wants to have a first-class student section, then these embarrassing chants need to get cleaned up. Trust me, the best, most original student chants are rarely obscene.

You can be passionate about IU and as intimidating as possible to the opposing teams. That’s what makes college basketball college basketball.

But the obscenities are just embarrassing.

Second best team in the Big Ten?

With such vaunted preseason prognostications, discussing who would be the best team in the Big Ten appeared to be a season-long debate.

Midway through January, this much is clear: Ohio State is the best for now. Second best? Not clear at all.

Purdue had an opportunity to secure its first big win of the year last week but lost to Minnesota and West Virginia. Likewise, Illinois dropped two straight games as well. At least the Boilers play four ranked teams in five games, so we’ll learn more about them soon. Michigan State hasn’t looked dominant with a loss to Penn State and two overtime wins against Wisconsin and Northwestern.

That leaves us with Wisconsin, a team with its two Big Ten losses to top-25 teams and those by a combined 11 points. I’ll take for now, with hesitation, Wisconsin at
No. 2.