Forget all the blather about Indiana’s football rebuilding project. You don’t rebuild when you’ve lost as much as the Hoosiers have since the Bill Mallory glory days. You win. That’s it. Get the talent in place, maximize it and win the bleeping games.
New coach Kevin Wilson has taken that win-now philosophy and buried it deep into the players’ psyche. Now, it would help if that philosophy also included a bunch of studs, and we’ll see if all this running and training developed some of that.
In the meantime, here is what senior receiver Damarlo Belcher had to say about this season’s prospects.
“Everything we do is talk about winning –- when we’re running, when we’re in the weight room. It’s about finishing and working hard. If we do that, we have high expectations. No limitations.”
Eventually limitations will surface. That’s true for every team, from preseason No. 1 Oklahoma (Wilson’s former employer) to Indiana State. The Hoosiers must learn to manage those limitations. That process will begin with preseason camp starting Monday. Freshmen and transfers are reporting today, with veterans coming in on Sunday.
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Okay, so the Garrett Green saga continues. Will this 6-11 guy from LSU move on to Indiana? Or will he pick San Diego State, Long Beach State or Wichita State?
And, really, is this THAT big a deal. It’s not like Green is the second coming of Shaq or Wilt. He’s basically a career reserve. Yes, it would be nice if Green became a Hoosier to take up some of the inside burden from heralded freshman Cody Zeller, but it’s not a deal breaker.
A bigger key is if Tom Pritchard can finally, FINALLY, fulfill the promise he showed as a freshman and in spurts ever since. If he can stop fouling and play to his strengths, if he could have a Landon Turner eureka moment and maximize his potential, the Hoosiers will be fine.
If not, well, IU still has enough talent and experience to have a winning record and make some kind of postseason tourney.
Having Green would just make that a little easier to do.
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It’s early August, which means football is the topic of choice unless you can’t get enough basketball news. In that case consider R.J. Curington, a 6-5 shooting guard from Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy. The Class of 2013 standout took an unofficial visit to IU on Friday, and it went well.
Does that mean Curington will soon commit to the Hoosiers? No. Does this mean coach Tom Crean WANTS Curington to commit to his program? Not necessarily. Curington is a good player, but he isn’t ranked in Rivals.com’s top 100 for the class. He’s not a big-time get in the way Zeller was.
It does mean that when we say Crean NEVER stops recruiting, we aren’t kidding.
I think we're far more likely to see a "Landon Turner eureka moment" from Elston than from Pritchard. I'd be happy to see it from either guy!
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