Analysis: Who would be on your Indiana University basketball equivalent of Mount Rushmore?

I love to have fun with summer blog topics. When they involve Indiana University basketball it just makes it that much better because you know that IU basketball fans are dying for something to talk about.

I used this one years ago while I was at the Indianapolis Star and I got a zillion responses. OK, maybe not a zillion but I think it was more than 100 replies which for me was well over the Mendoza Line.

The topic: If you were to build a Mount Rushmore for Indiana University basketball, what four faces would be on the side of that mountain?

I think the first thing you would have to decide is whether you were talking all of Indiana basketball or just the players? Because if coaches were a part of the equation there would clearly be one and possibly two IU basketball coaches on Mount Hoosier.

Because I think there are arguments on both sides of that debate, I’m going to cop out. Let’s come up with two lists. One will be without any qualifiers and the other will be a players only final four.

If you could select any four individuals to be on the Indiana basketball equivalent of Mount Rushmore, I would think the four would be Bob Knight, Branch McCracken, Calbert Cheaney and (drum roll please) … Don Schlundt.

I can already see some of you rolling your eyes. “Don Who?”. If you haven’t read my latest Indiana basketball book, Hoosiers Through and Through, I would suggest you do so and see why I ranked Schlundt as the greatest player in Indiana basketball history from the state of Indiana.

Schlundt was a three-time All-American who had a career average of 23.3 points per game and ranks as the third leading scorer in IU history. He played on the 1953 national championship team. He was an absolute stud. He may not have gotten all the notoriety he deserved later because he died at an early age but anyone who is an Indiana basketball historian would put Schlundt at the very least in the conversation for that mountain.

In my opinion, the first three are no-brainers. Bob Knight was 618-220 in 29 seasons at IU and won 11 Big Ten titles and three national championships. In those 29 years, Knight led IU to the NCAA Tournament 24 times. In 21 of those seasons, IU won at least 20 games in a year. You couldn’t have a legitimate Mount Rushmore of IU basketball and not have Knight’s face on the side of the mountain.

And the reality is Knight and McCracken are probably 1A and 1B. McCracken led IU to its first two national championships and earned national coach of the year in both of those seasons. His teams averaged 18.5 wins per year and he recorded the first four 20-win seasons in IU history. He was at IU 24 seasons and led the Hoosiers to a 364-174 record.

All Cheaney did was average 19.8 points per game in his four-year career and finish his career as the all-time leading scorer in both Indiana and Big Ten history. He scored 2,613 points, one of five IU players in history to eclipse the 2,000 point scoring mark. The only knock on Cheaney that could take him out of the argument for being on that mountain is the fact he never played on a national championship team. He was on two teams that many believed could have hung a banner but one lost to Duke in the Final Four and the other saw its chances of a title evaporate when Alan Henderson suffered a knee injury late in the Big Ten season.

So I would go with those three and Schlundt.

Now there are several other former IU players that could be considered for that fourth and final spot. I’ll take a look at a few of them when I make up my all-player Mount Rushmore equivalent for IU basketball.

If I were to take a stab at an all-player mountain my list would look like this: Cheaney, Schlundt, Scott May and either Isiah Thomas or Steve Alford. I’m sure you could make a case for players like George McGinnis, Kent Benson or even Damon Bailey just because of his legendary status in Indiana basketball lore.

The reason I think May would have to be on the list is that he was the college basketball player of the year on the last unbeaten national champion. And there are few IU basketball fans around who don’t think the Hoosiers would have won it in ’75, too, if May hadn’t gotten injured.

That final spot, though, is a tough one. Many people believe Thomas was the best player who ever played at IU. He’s got a national championship ring and is a big reason the Hoosiers were able to put up their fourth national championship banner in 1981.

And then there’s Alford. He is Indiana’s second all-time leading scorer and led the Hoosiers to the 1987 national championship. And the truth is if the 3-point line had been in play for all four of Alford’s seasons he would have likely ended up as IU’s all-time leading scorer. Instead, he only had it for one season, the 1986-87 year when it was used on an experimental basis. Alford was 107-for-202 that season from beyond the arc, 53 percent.

Still, if I had to choose I would probably go with Cheaney, Schlundt, May and Thomas on my all players equivalent of Mount Rushmore.

So those are my picks. I’m sure many of you will have a completely different list. And with something like this there are no wrong answers, just a lot of good water cooler talk as fans debate the best of the best in IU history.

So with that in mind, bring it on.

@IndySportsHutch