Ground-Breaking IU Initiatives, Zeller and Treloar

Fred Glass is a cutting-edge guy. The Indiana athletic director has these ideas, boy does he have ideas, and fires them at a machine-gun pace. Blink and you might miss something. What you won’t miss is the giant “The Spirit Of Indiana, 24 Sports One Team” display on the back of the new mega-million-dollar scoreboard.

It’s Glass’s way of promoting his newest concept that the athletic department is one unit comprised of 24 sports, that it is a place of NCAA compliance, fiscal responsibility, fund raising, gender equity, academics, coaching, facility development and a whole bunch more.

Basically it boils down to doing the right thing in the right way.

Glass also has initiated something called the Athletics Excellence Academy. It’s a student development program that would let athletes to take courses designed to develop them for a productive future.

For instance, a freshman would take classes such as Intentional Advising, Emerging Leaders and Class Experience. A sophomore could take Intentional Advising, Aspiring Leaders and Class Experience. Everybody gets a performance assessment.

In the end, the academy is designed to maximize a student’s physical and mental abilities. Glass calls these initiatives “ground breaking.” He wants them to become a model other athletic departments have to follow.

Glass took the IU job to restore the glory days that include 24 national championships and 139 individual NCAA titles. This is one step in that process.


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So if you were Cody Zeller and Roy Williams, Tom Crean and Brad Stevens stopped by your Washington, Ind., house, how would you react?

With caution, it seems.

Zeller’s basketball recruiting saga continued this past week with the arrival of those three coaches. Next up are his official visits to those schools.

Zeller isn’t tipping his hand. He’ll make all the visits and then decide in time for the November signing period.

He’s one of those must-get catches Hoosier fans hold their breath over. He’s a top-20 player who moved into North Carolina’s radar range after some impressive summer travel-ball performances.

Back in the summer, Zeller seemed an IU long-shot, especially when North Carolina started recruiting him. But Crean kept pushing and Zeller, part of the Class of 2011, made the Hoosiers one of his three finalists.

So now they have a chance and if they get him, an in-state bonanza could follow. Then you’d see a huge Cream ‘n Crimson reaction.


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Remember John Treloar? He was the OTHER Indiana assistant basketball coach when Bob Knight was fired in 2000.

Well he’s back in coaching business -– sort of. He’s the Phoenix Suns’ new director of player personnel. He previously spent the past two years as the head coach of the NBA D-League’s Erie BayHawks.

Treloar helped coach IU to the 2002 NCAA title game. He also was an assistant coach at LSU and helped the Tigers to the 2006 Final Four. And in an earlier time, he coached Mike Davis when Davis played in the CBA. Yes, that's the same Mike Davis who took over the Hoosiers after Knight's departure.