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Sampson working hard to restore Hoosier nation |
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Written by Zak Keefer
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Friday, 03 November 2006 |
(Bloomington, IN) Kelvin Sampson blew his whistle again. The players, already exhausted from forty minutes worth of conditioning drills, knew that wasn’t a good sound. They knew one of them had screwed up, by not setting a pick right, not coming off a screen fast enough, something.
“A.J. I know you can cut harder than that!” Sampson yelled at Junior Guard A.J. Ratliff. “You’re telling me that’s as fast as you can go? No way!”
Ratliff looked bemused at his new coach, out of breath, searching for the right answer. There wasn’t one. He knows he could have gone harder.
“Put 66 seconds on the clock,” Sampson told a team manager without hesitation. Ratliff, head down, began his punishment by sprinting from one baseline to the other, and back, for more than a minute.
Such is a typical early season practice for the Indiana Hoosier basketball team. Sampson, who was brought in from Oklahoma in March to replace Mike Davis, has been working effortlessly to restore one of college basketball’s powerhouses to what it once was.
Sampson has made significant progress in regaining Hoosier Nation’s faith in its basketball program, all before the team has stepped foot on the court for a regular season game. Among his accomplishments, he has been able to re-recruit standout Hoosier forward D.J. White and convince him to stay, land several Junior College transfers, and most impressive: snatch Indianapolis prep star Eric Gordon from Illinois. Gordon, the #2 ranked player in the nation by Rivals.com, announced Oct. 13 he would attend IU instead.
To understand the Hoosier fan’s need for a coach like Sampson, one must appreciate the Hoosier tradition. Bloomington is a town where fans expect to see a disciplined, well-conditioned team that plays hard on defense and takes advantage of other team’s mistakes. In other words, a Bob Knight team.
To say the least, the last few years have been hard on the Hoosier faithful. During the Davis era, Hoosier fans watched out-of-shape, disinterested teams never live up to Indiana expectations. In 2004 and 2005, the Hoosiers failed to make the 65-team NCAA field. To miss two NCAA tournaments consecutively is an inexcusable feat for one of college basketball’s most storied programs. A change needed to be made.
So Sampson was brought in, given the most lucrative contract of any Indiana coach ever, and told to rebuild the program. Put some meat on the players, get them in shape, teach them X’s and O’s, win conference championships, and eventually, a National Championship.
He’s working hard to get them ready. The players are up at 5:30 a.m. three days a week for rigorous weight lifting and conditioning drills. White, the 2005 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, added 18 pounds of muscle in the off-season. Center Ben Allen put on 27 pounds and Guard Joey Shaw added 25.
In a team scrimmage open to the public, the team played with more intensity than fans have seen in the past few seasons. Players were diving for loose balls, coming hard off screens, and cheering each other on throughout. The fact that the back of the players’ shorts read ‘INTENSITY’ in big block letters was fitting; there wasn’t a single down moment in the forty minutes of action.
With the Big Ten as weak as it is this year, a conference championship for the Hoosiers is not out of the question. Beyond Wisconsin and Ohio State, most teams are young an inexperienced. And with prized #1 recruit Greg Oden off the court until January because of a broken thumb, it will be hard for the Buckeyes to live up to their lofty expectations early on.
Indiana wills start two seniors in the backcourt, Earl Calloway and Roderick Wilmount, along with either Ratliff or Junior College-transfer Lance Stemler. Up front, White will be paired with either the 6-11” Allen or JUCO transfer Mike White.
The optimism and anticipation Hoosier fans are using to feeling this time of year is back. Sampson invited the fans out to an open practice on Nov. 2 to see the team’s progress and witness the no-nonsense mentality he’s bringing to this program.
It wasn’t just Ratliff who felt Sampson’s wrath during the practice. White, called out for not setting a strong enough screen, also got an earful.
“D.J. you need to set that screen harder,” he told his star forward. “Boom, set your feet and boom. Hit him! Get your guy open!”
The Sampson era at Indiana begins Nov. 13 vs. Lafayette, but the first real test will be Nov. 30 when the Hoosiers travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a nationally-televised match up against Duke. The team will also face several other important road games this season, including Kentucky Dec. 9 and Connecticut on Jan. 20.
With Sampson at the helm, the players will be ready. They’ve been working hard all summer and fall looking forward to the season to show their improvement. Come Nov. 13, an off-season of anticipation will come to an end and a new era of Indiana basketball will commence. For Hoosier Nation, that can’t come soon enough. |
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Random Hoops
“I always tried to make clear that basketball isnot the ultimate. It is of small importance incomparison to the total life we live. There isonly one kind of life that truly wins, and that isthe one that places faith in the hands of theSavior. Until that is done, we are on an aimless course that runs in circles and goes nowhere. John Wooden
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