Tom Morris needs your prayers and support.
The Indiana assistant strength and conditioning coach was
seriously injured in a mountain biking accident. He suffered a spinal cord
injury that required surgery. He will need extensive rehabilitation.
According to the Bloomington Herald Times, Morris was
riding alone at Bloomington’s Wapehani Mountain Bike Park on Thursday when he
crashed. He was lying on the ground for about three hours, unable to feel
anything below his chest. Another biker found him and contacted police.
Morris was flowed to Indianapolis Methodist Hospital.
According to posts on various social media, the surgery went well. His spirits
are good, enough that he was able to joke around. He has no feeling in or use
of his legs. He faces a long, expensive road to recovery.
Morris, an avid fitness enthusiast who thrives at biking
and running, has worked with soccer, women’s basketball, tennis, track and
field, and diving at Indiana.
For those wishing to send get-well wishes and cards and other support, the
address is Assembly Hall, c/o Tom Morris, 1001 E. 17th Street,
Bloomington, IN.
******
Nobody works harder these days than Jeff Rabjohns of
Peegs.com. He’s everywhere that anything related to IU basketball happens.
For instance, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, visited his
former coach, Tom Crean, at IU on Friday. That came on the Heat’s off day during
their series with the Indiana Pacers.
Wade had one of the worst games of his professional life
on Thursday –- the Heat got crunched by the underdog Pacers to fall behind 2-1
in the best-of-seven series -- and needed a break. So he spent some time with
the coach who helped develop him into the superstar he is today.
Wade talked about that on Saturday during media
availability heading into Sunday’s Game 4 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Sure
enough, there was Rabjohns.
Wade told Rabjohns he considers Crean a “father-figure.”
Given the fact Wade is 30 years old, a cynic could suggest this means that
Crean is getting old.
We, of course, are not cynics.
IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: Birth records indicate that we
are older than Crean. We can say, with absolute sincerity and honesty, that
those records have been altered by a conspiracy that reaches to the highest
levels of government.
Anyway, Wade said Crean will keep driving the Hoosiers,
that all the talk of being a preseason No. 1 won’t be a distraction because
Crean won’t let that happen. Wade saw that first hand while watching a workout.
“They’re hungry,” Wade told Rabjohns.
Wade said if he was a high school senior today, he’d play
for Crean. He said Crean was the perfect coach for him during his time at Marquette.
"He was very tough on us, but the work ethic he
instilled in me and my teammates, the way he made us believe beyond our belief,
the way he pushed us, it was a family atmosphere, which is why we're all so
close today," Wade told Rabjohns.
"Everything we went through, we went through together. He was right there in the fight with us. If I wanted to go to the gym and 12 o'clock at night, I could call him and he'd drive down from his house and meet me at the gym. He was just that kind of guy. I'd play for him all over again."
"Everything we went through, we went through together. He was right there in the fight with us. If I wanted to go to the gym and 12 o'clock at night, I could call him and he'd drive down from his house and meet me at the gym. He was just that kind of guy. I'd play for him all over again."
Remember, this is an eight-time NBA All-Star and the 2006
NBA finals MVP. He led Marquette to the 2003 Final Four -– beating Kentucky
behind his 29-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist performance -- before becoming the
No. 5 pick in the 2003 NBA draft.
What Wade says makes an impact -– almost as big as the
impact Crean left on him.
*****
By now you know that Jonny Marlin has given up a basketball
scholarship at IPFW to transfer and walk on at Indiana. He has three years of
eligibility left, plus a redshirt year. That means possibly four more years at
college. If he never earns a scholarship, which is highly likely, that means
his decision will cost about $60,000.
It also means his playing time will go from a starter’s
minutes (he averaged 4.3 points and a team-leading 3.5 assists while starting
28 of 30 games for IPFW this past season as a freshman) to nearly zero. He
likely will spend most of his Hoosier experience as a practice player.
But that’s not the point.
A chance to live a dream (let’s just say that the former
Center Grove standout didn’t grow up wishing he was an IPFW Mastodon), plus a desire
for a greater religious opportunity (he wants to join IU’s Campus Crusade for
Christ organization) is what drives him.
Financially it might not make sense, but life isn’t
always about money.
For Marlin, that’s certainly true.
*****
One of the best coaching jobs you’ll see at Indiana comes
from Tracy Smith and the IU baseball team.
The Hoosiers’ strong finish –- they swept Ohio State in a
three-game series this weekend, which means they’ve won six straight and 12 of
their last 15 -- has propelled them to the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Big Ten
tourney. They are 30-26, 16-8 in the Big Ten, and have a chance, by winning the
tourney, to make the NCAA Tournament.
That’s a huge turnaround given the youthful Hoosiers
bumbled away a ton of possible victories early in the season. They committed
way too many errors, and then often pitched poorly and hit anemically.
No more.
Saturday’s 4-2 win over Ohio State officially ends the
Sembower Field era. IU is set to move into a new stadium for next season.
Construction on the new facility has begun.
So how old is Sembower Field? IU records indicate it was
built in the early 1950s. Rumors of archeological evidence that Sembower Field
was actually built before the Egyptian pyramids, and might have been
constructed by exiled members of the lost continent of Atlantis are probably
false.
Probably.
No matter what, the new stadium will push the Hoosiers
firmly into the 21st Century.
Yes, that’s a very good thing.
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