A new fan base for a new team

I see you, seasoned IU basketball fan, clutching your Steve Alford jersey as the replay of the 1987 championship game plays on a loop while Martha the Mop Lady dances in your head.

The last few years have been pretty tough, considering the brand of Hoosier basketball with which you were raised.

No more preseason expectations of making a NCAA Championship run, no longer the crown jewel of the Big Ten, and IU finds itself playing second-fiddle in prime time national broadcast appearances.

But you know what? Throughout the roller coaster that has been the last four years of IU basketball, the fan base has done a tremendous job of coming to grips with reality and adjusting their expectations accordingly.

This year’s IU senior class will have seen the Hoosiers compile a record of — wait for it — 28-66 in the last three years with a conference mark of 8-46.

For students and non-students alike, that’s a pretty hefty pill to swallow, especially if you grew up surrounded by a culture of winning.

But even after the Kelvin Sampson megaton bomb wiped out every piece of the program except Kyle Taber, fans continued to cram into Assembly Hall, albeit not to the same magnitude they once had. Instead of having a “Final Four or Bust” mentality, the Hoosier faithful learned to set their sights on a possible NIT berth, a postseason possibility that could turn into reality this season.

A buzz surrounding Bloomington still perks up near the time of Hoosier Hysteria even though Ralph Lauren shirts outnumber IU shirts on campus.

Excitement surrounding next year’s recruiting class has reached a fever pitch as optimism for the future has, at times, taken precedent versus the present.

But with the growing anticipation of Cody Zeller this year and one of the best
recruiting classes in the country next season, expectations will deservedly grow.

While three straight 20-loss seasons didn’t sit right with most, it was an obstacle they were willing to hurdle if a return to the glory years would greet them on the other side.
IU Coach Tom Crean’s clock differs.

Some tolerate what has been the worst winning percentage for any IU coach who has been at the helm for more than a season. Others hope Athletics Director Fred Glass has Butler’s Brad Stevens on speed dial.

Well, for those antsy fans who have grown tired of settling for the Big Ten’s basement year-after-year, it is justifiable to start creeping those expectations up.

It’s not going to bring you back to the nostalgia of Bailey, Killingsworth, Alford, Isiah Thomas and Bob Knight for a long time — but this year is a start.

Throughout Crean’s tenure, there has been a generational gap between former and current students, who cannot relate to the stories of IU lore instilled in them by those who lived them at Assembly Hall.

When today’s students graduate and look back at IU basketball during their time on campus, they may see it as the period in which the foundation of a revival took place or as the building blocks of a legacy far less ideal.

Either way, they will be set apart as the group that yelled their lungs out in Assembly Hall for teams the likes of which this program has never seen.