IndyHutch

  I still remember that day in Madison where Antwaan Randle El and Levron Williams put up more than 30 points against the Badgers in the first quarter. Not that it means anything but sometimes you cling to certain memories.

My understanding is that they are indeed free. They normally give them away at tailgate events and such. They usually have a tailgate event right before the season starts at Memorial Stadium and it seems to me you can get them there. I know I went to a basketball event in Evansville "An Evening with Tom Crean" about three weeks before the season began last year and they were giving away basketball schedule posters there.

  The one that gets me is some of these elite programs who go 8-4 and talk about what a terrible year they had, and if IU ever went 8-4 they'd throw a parade.   It's all a matter of perspective.

Just for the record, I have an email out there to the man who should know the answer.   But I haven't heard anything back yet.

  Not many coaches would take a 2-year extension. My guess is it would be a minimum of 4 years.

My expectation is a banner. But then I think that should always be the expectation.

  I understand the sentiment that it's hard for coaches to recruit with only a couple of years left on their contract but if that was indeed the scenario I would probably agree with you.   Now, if IU went 8-4, for example, and got into a better bowl game then I might think an extension after the 2015 season could be in order. What do you think?

So what happens if they go 6-6, sneak into some low level bowl played on Dec. 17 (or somewhere out of the limelight) and now his record is 20-40 through five years? Extension or no extension?

Meaning behind user name:  I live in Indy and my nickname is Hutch.   Approximate Age and Location:    Late 20's plus 30 years. I live on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Are you a born and raised IU fan?  No. I lived in Southern California until I was 28.   When you first knew you were an IU fan?  Moved to Indiana in 1986 and went back to school at IUPUI. At that time we could get student season tickets to IU basketball. So for five bucks a seat we went to most of the home games and that was the '87 national championship season. Pretty good introduction to IU basketball. What sports did you play in High School and College?   Basketball and Baseball in high school. Cross Country early on until I got smarter.   Besides IU, favorite sports teams?   Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Indianapolis Colts. Did you attend IU?   My degree is from the IU School of Journalism but I got it at IUPUI. What is your favorite IU Basketball Memory?   Had to be 2002 and being the lead writer from the Indianapolis Star covering the Hoosiers in Atlanta. We had eight reporters at the Final Four but I was running the show and handing out assignments. I even got to tell Bob Kravitz what to do (to a point). Who is your favorite basketball player of all time?    Magic Johnson but Ivan Renko would be a close second. What is your favorite IU Football memory?  Austin Starr's field goal to beat Purdue in 2007 in the Play 13 season for Hep. Who is your favorite IU Football player?   Antwaan Randle El. Anthony Thompson would be a close second. Best IU Sports game ever attended?   Probably IU beating Duke in the Sweet Sixteen in 2002. Beating Michigan to win the outright Big Ten title in Ann Arbor in 2013 is right up there, too. What brings you to this board?  A great opportunity and an invitation from Jason Eadie to try to help take this site to the next level. My experience in the end with Scout left a bad taste in my mouth but in many ways I feel as if I've experienced a rebirth here.

The news hit Indiana football fans like a splash of cold water to the face. Before Kevin Wilson had even stepped to the podium Thursday afternoon at Big Ten Football Media Day in Chicago, a press release from IU media relations turned out to be the bearer of bad news. Sophomore wide receiver J-Shun Harris, an impressive young talent expected to carry a major role in the IU offense this fall, has been ruled out for the season with an ACL injury. The former Fishers (Ind.) High School standout will redshirt the 2015 season and come back as a sophomore in 2016. So how big of a deal is it to lose a player of Harris’s caliber? Make no mistake, it’s a big deal. And not only because Harris was the leading returning receiver from a year ago, and not just because he had been penciled in as the starter as both IU’s kickoff and punt returner for the upcoming season. It’s much more than that. It’s basically the fact that when you’re an Indiana football team struggling to earn respectability, you already have a small margin of error. Bottom line: This is not the way you wanted to get the season underway even before practice has officially started. When you’re a college football team that has made one bowl appearance in more than 20 years, you want to have everything working in your favor as you head into the season. In a word, Indiana is a fragile program. It simply can’t afford to lose too many starters. Especially starters at skill positions. If you’re Ohio State or Wisconsin or Michigan State, and you lose a key player, it’s much easier to reload. That’s because the talent pool you’re choosing from is at an elite level. When you’re Indiana, and you lose a key player, you often times have to count on a young player to step in. Maybe it’s a redshirt freshman or quite possibly it’s a true freshman. That’s just the nature of the beast. For Indiana, replacing Harris means that one of the true freshmen wide receivers could very well be called upon to take a bigger role than perhaps they were expected to take as a freshman this season. Maybe it’s Leon Thornton or Nick Westbrook or Isaac James. All three of those players came to Indiana with impressive high school credentials but in a perfect world you would hope that Indiana gets to the point where it’s a program that can redshirt players like that and let them get properly acclimated to college football. I’m not trying to pretend that the loss of Harris is as significant as say losing Nate Sudfeld was a year ago six games into the season. That was a back breaker but it was also an experienced quarterback on a team that had very little experience behind him. At least in the case of Indiana at the wide receiver position, Kevin Johns has assembled a solid group of receivers. In most years in recent memory the wide receiver position has been one of IU’s strongest areas. That will need to be the case again this year. And one thing that will definitely help the Hoosiers is the fact that Sudfeld is at quarterback and with his precision passing game can take advantage of what the defense gives him. Sudfeld can make up for a lot of inexperience at that position by hitting open receivers. Still, you never want to lose a key offensive weapon before the season even begins. I found some of Wilson’s comments in his question and answer period at Big Ten Media Day Thursday interesting when he talked about how his IU team has been preparing for quite some time to play without Harris this season. It turns out the injury occurred in the first week of the summer and the team has kept it quiet internally to this point. I suppose that’s a plus. At least Sudfeld has had all summer to get on the same page with a lot of different guys who will be asked to contribute in the fall. Still, the reality here is that Indiana needs to find a way to have a healthy August and move into the 2015 season putting its best foot forward. Thursday’s news was not on a good first start. Moving forward IU football fans cannot afford too many similar splashes of cold water to the face. @IndySportsHutch

I know he played a long time in Israel.

A challenge. I like it.

Wilson's record is actually 14-34 in four seasons.

There's so many for different reasons. In my first 17 years covering IU I would have to say: 1. A.J. Moye (my all-time favorite IU quote) 2. Dane Fife (he turned flopping into a science. He once told me he was called for 100 plus fouls in his IU career but he said only actually committed five. That's vintage Fife.) 3. Michael Santa (when a manager gets in a game he has to be on the list, right?) 4. Ryan Tapak (He had a career night on the road at Notre Dame) 5. Marco Killingsworth (If he had gone pro after the Duke game in Assembly Hall his stock was never higher)

I came here because The Boss sent me a direct message on Twitter.

I'll play if you need another player

Here we go again. I may have a different address for the third time in a four-year span, but I’d like to think I’ll still be able to provide you with the high level of Indiana athletics coverage that I have in the past as I begin my new venture today with BtownBanners. Frankly, I'm just happy that we're official. I was following the message board thread this week that said a big announcement was coming on Friday and I have to admit the comment inquiring about if the announcement was going to be held at Ruth's Chris brought a smile to my face. To quote Larry the Cable Guy, I don't care who you are ... That's funny. But it's official and it's time to hit the ground running. Jason Eadie made me a business partner with the idea that I could bring solid content to this site. As this is my 18th season covering Indiana football and basketball I’m confident that I’m right man for the job. My first 15 seasons covering IU were with the Indianapolis Star. The last two years I worked alongside Justin Albers as the site publisher covering IU for the Scout.com site, AllHoosiers.com. In those 17 years, I covered the final two seasons with coach Knight, all six with Mike Davis, the two seasons that became known as the Kelvin Sampson mess and now the last seven with Tom Crean. Five times I have been named Indiana’s Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. I’ve written five books and I have two more that will be out this fall, both on IU basketball. Of those seven books, six have been on IU subjects, two on football and four on basketball. I also did the updated version of the Indiana University Basketball Encyclopedia that was originally written by Jason Hiner in 2004. That collective body of work has left me confident in one particular claim: I know Indiana football and basketball. I think what I bring is perspective. I’ve been on the beat longer than anyone is this market and I have a ton of sources. I used to see that bumper sticker with the rather shallow slogan, “He who dies with the most toys wins.’’ As a journalist, I’ve always believed you could tweak that to read “He who dies with the most sources wins.’’ And my point is I've got lots of IU sources. My hope is to be a voice that you’ll want to read on a regular basis. Sure, we’ll give you the nuts and bolts game coverage that everyone else has but I plan to take on more of a columnist role in this position where I give my takes and opinions on the situation at hand. If the story is that Indiana is about to enter a contract where it will play a certain school in an annual rivalry for example, my story will be more focused on why it is or isn’t a good idea. If Indiana signs a hotshot recruit, I’ll do my best to put that pickup in the proper perspective. The point is that I plan to have a take and sometimes you’re going to agree with me and sometimes you’re going to think I’m way off base. But that’s the kind of give and take relationship that writers have with their readers and it’s a relationship that I’ve enjoyed in my previous stops and I’m sure that will be the same here. I do have one request though and when I’ve said this in the past I’ve had colleagues tell me I was crazy to throw this out there. But feedback is crucial and engagement on your part is equally crucial for a site like this to be successful. I know you guys have a strong message board community and I hope that only gets stronger in the years to come. But I also hope that the content we can provide will give you more things that you want to talk about, or debate or agree or disagree with me on. That’s the formula that can take a site like this one to the next level. One other thing. If any of you had sights set on contributing content this year just know that's still a possibility. I'll be assembling a group of contributors that I hope to count on regularly on the site. I'm going to want some people for football and at least one for soccer. Obviously I'll want people to contribute for basketball as well as baseball. If you have another sport that you'd like to contribute for IU athletics let me know that, too. I'll be in charge of content which means I'll edit everything before it goes up on the site. That just guarantees that we have a level of professionalism in what we do. But I'm hoping to get several of you on board on the contribution end. If college kids want to use it as an internship that can work, too. I’m looking forward to the challenge of being a voice for BtownBanners and to provide the level of coverage that I’ve hopefully provided over the past two decades. I look forward to getting to know many of you better. Here we go again. @IndySportsHutch Join BtownBanners today for FREE!

Beginning today, there's a new voice emanating from Btownbanners. After 17 years covering Indiana for either the Indianapolis Star or Scout's AllHoosiers.com, Terry Hutchens hopes to take the content side of Btownbanners to the next level. Here is his introductory column.Here we go again. I may have a different address for the third time in a four-year span, but I’d like to think I’ll still be able to provide you with the high level of Indiana athletics coverage that I have in the past as I begin my new venture today with BtownBanners. Frankly, I'm just happy that we're official. I was following the message board thread this week that said a big announcement was coming on Friday and I have to admit the comment inquiring about if the announcement was going to be held at Ruth's Chris brought a smile to my face. To quote Larry the Cable Guy, I don't care who you are ... That's funny. But it's official and it's time to hit the ground running. Jason Eadie made me a business partner with the idea that I could bring solid content to this site. As this is my 18th season covering Indiana football and basketball I’m confident that I’m right man for the job. My first 15 seasons covering IU were with the Indianapolis Star. The last two years I worked alongside Justin Albers as the site publisher covering IU for the Scout.com site, AllHoosiers.com. In those 17 years, I covered the final two seasons with coach Knight, all six with Mike Davis, the two seasons that became known as the Kelvin Sampson mess and now the last seven with Tom Crean. Five times I have been named Indiana’s Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. I’ve written five books and I have two more that will be out this fall, both on IU basketball. Of those seven books, six have been on IU subjects, two on football and four on basketball. I also did the updated version of the Indiana University Basketball Encyclopedia that was originally written by Jason Hiner in 2004. That collective body of work has left me confident in one particular claim: I know Indiana football and basketball. I think what I bring is perspective. I’ve been on the beat longer than anyone is this market and I have a ton of sources. I used to see that bumper sticker with the rather shallow slogan, “He who dies with the most toys wins.’’ As a journalist, I’ve always believed you could tweak that to read “He who dies with the most sources wins.’’ And my point is I've got lots of IU sources. My hope is to be a voice that you’ll want to read on a regular basis. Sure, we’ll give you the nuts and bolts game coverage that everyone else has but I plan to take on more of a columnist role in this position where I give my takes and opinions on the situation at hand. If the story is that Indiana is about to enter a contract where it will play a certain school in an annual rivalry for example, my story will be more focused on why it is or isn’t a good idea. If Indiana signs a hotshot recruit, I’ll do my best to put that pickup in the proper perspective. The point is that I plan to have a take and sometimes you’re going to agree with me and sometimes you’re going to think I’m way off base. But that’s the kind of give and take relationship that writers have with their readers and it’s a relationship that I’ve enjoyed in my previous stops and I’m sure that will be the same here. I do have one request though and when I’ve said this in the past I’ve had colleagues tell me I was crazy to throw this out there. But feedback is crucial and engagement on your part is equally crucial for a site like this to be successful. I know you guys have a strong message board community and I hope that only gets stronger in the years to come. But I also hope that the content we can provide will give you more things that you want to talk about, or debate or agree or disagree with me on. That’s the formula that can take a site like this one to the next level. One other thing. If any of you had sights set on contributing content this year just know that's still a possibility. I'll be assembling a group of contributors that I hope to count on regularly on the site. I'm going to want some people for football and at least one for soccer. Obviously I'll want people to contribute for basketball as well as baseball. If you have another sport that you'd like to contribute for IU athletics let me know that, too. I'll be in charge of content which means I'll edit everything before it goes up on the site. That just guarantees that we have a level of professionalism in what we do. But I'm hoping to get several of you on board on the contribution end. If college kids want to use it as an internship that can work, too. I’m looking forward to the challenge of being a voice for BtownBanners and to provide the level of coverage that I’ve hopefully provided over the past two decades. I look forward to getting to know many of you better. Here we go again. @IndySportsHutch Join BtownBanners today for FREE! [url=https://btownbanners.com/page/index.html/_/basketball/analysis/here-we-go-again-r155]Click here to view the article[/url]

I'll find out for you.

I would doubt it as well.

  The problem always comes back to your comment right there. "You have to think we have a good chance at winning our first four games.'' How many times have IU fans said that and how many times has it actually happened in recent memory. In the last 20 years it has happened twice -- 2007 and 2010. Bill Lynch was the coach both years.   If you're correct, however, then I think Indiana finds a way this season to hit the magic number of six.

  I'm just not sure about the level of the next coach. If a change is needed that you can pretty much assume that Indiana had another losing season. That still puts you in a situation where you're looking for a coach to inherit a program considered among the worst in the Big Ten. I still remember a recent IU football coaching search where the Notre Dame job was open at the same time. Someone ran a list of all the candidates for the Notre Dame job and it was about 20 names long. Then they did a list of the IU candidates and it was another 20 names. And there wasn't one name on the list that was on both. That tells me a lot.

  I think a belly flop would be much worse than five wins. I was thinking one or two. I know that's probably not what people want to hear but I think that's closer to reality.

If anyone wants to be an article contributor, intern, stringer, you name it (it's working for nothing no matter what the title), I'd like to hear from you.   Send me an email at Terry_Hutchens@yahoo.com.   or   A direct message on Twitter   or   A message through this site   or   Come up to me after 11 o'clock mass on Sunday   .....I don't care how you get a hold of me, but I would like to hear from a few people so that we can appropriately hit the ground running as football camp begins.   I look forward to hearing from you.   Terry

  Surprisingly, some actually say I do play well with others.   I'm happy to share if we can just all get along.