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Mark Cuban reportedly offers IU $10 million to fire Davis

By Ross Leslie, THG Sports

The latest rumor concerning embattled Indiana University basketball coach Mike Davis includes a certain Benefactor who would like the school’s athletic department to oust Davis and find someone who can return the program to the success it enjoyed during its glory days under Bobby Knight.

Word on the street is that Dallas Mavericks owner and star of ABC’s The Benefactor Mark Cuban (a 1981 IU grad) has offered the Indiana Board of Trustees $10 million if the school would fire Davis. Since Cuban has no personal qualms with Davis other than his horrible coaching, he has also agreed to give Davis an office job with the Mavericks as part of the package.

(full story)

Indiana is in a football state of mind

By Devon Durant, FlipSideSports.net

Over the last couple of years, much has been made of the declining interest of basketball within the borders of Indiana. After all, this is the state that brought the world Larry Legend, Oscar, the "Pyramid of Success," Jimmy Chitwood, Chuck Marlowe, Chuck Taylor, Don Fischer, "The General," Digger, Hoosiers, Reggie, Rick Mount, Rich Mount, and Linc Darner.

However, over the last decade, the IHSAA has gone to multi-class basketball, Bob Knight was fired, Isiah was hired, Gene Keady starting working union hours, approximately 17 Bulter coaches left for other programs, Mike Davis started running an offense called "The Rhombus," and Ron Artest dug a well in his basement and started collecting moths. The "Basketball State" is in a sad state indeed.

What people fail to mention is the transformation that this state has made toward becoming a bonafied big-boy football madhouse.

(full story)

How to explain the IU basketball disaster to your parents

Courtesy of our friends at FlipSideSports.net

The almost unfathomable decline of Indiana’s basketball program is confusing enough to us Gen-X’ers. But trying to explain this to our aging Baby-Boomer parents—who inevitably turn to us for answers whenever ankle-length shorts or headbands are involved—can be especially difficult. Our IU-loving parents are accustomed to Big Ten titles, National Championships, and never, ever losing to Northwestern. That is really the only world they know. However, that world
is now gone, and they will naturally have questions about what they've seen
on TV or heard at work. So what do you do?

(full story)

Some New Year’s sports resolutions for the Hoosier State

By Jed Wilcox, THG Sports

The New Year will be upon us before we know it, so the sports staff at HoosierGazette.com sat down and made a list of resolutions for teams around the state:

(full story)

MTV presents Pimp My Team: IU edition

By Xzibit

This is Xzibit comin' at you from Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana, and this MTV's "Pimp My Team."

When we first saw the Hoosier basketball program, they was about as fresh as week-old bread. Yeah, they was a winnin' team and all, filled with history and a proud tradition...but they had no gangsta in their game, no pimp in their play. They was all about basketball and winning national championships and all that other cornbread s---. But we all know that national championships and Big Ten titles don't mean a thing if you ain't got that bling! Right?!? Right.

So Indiana University...we done PIMPED YO' TEAM!

With the help of my boyz from "West Coast Customs," we gutted your 1952-ish program and just started over with the freshest styles and most bumpin' systems. For example...

(full story)

Purple Aces: Put your sleeves back on and the problems will go away

Three UE basketball players booted from team for stealing

By Dick Rogers, THG Sports

December 5, 2004

University of Evansville head basketball coach Steve Merfield dismissed three players from the team last week for stealing from fellow students’ dorm rooms during the school’s Thanksgiving break.

The few dozen folks who still consider themselves University of Evansville basketball fans should have seen this coming.

When Jim Crews left and took the job at Army, the new guy (Merfield) came in with a bunch of new-fangled ideas about recruiting athletic players so the university could have a more exciting, fan-friendly brand of basketball.

(full story)

21-15 just not Gittin’-R-Dun

Coach Tyrone kicked to the curb as Irish look to regain former glory

By Biff Stevens, THG Sports

December 1, 2004

In the no-brainer of the week news, Notre Dame decided Wednesday to 86 unpopular football coach Tyrone Willingham. If anyone didn’t see this coming, you just chose to ignore the facts.

In all actuality, the man was lucky to be back this season. There were serious rumblings last year after a 5-7 season; alumni were calling for his head then. Even worse than that is this year: Notre Dame has to settle for the Insight Bowl. Maybe IU, Illinois, or Kentucky would be happy being selected for this bottom feeder bowl, but not the Irish. They play in Orange and Sugar Bowls, even Cotton Bowls, not one of the Johnny-come-lately bowls.

(full story)

State of Indiana ensured another winter of discontent: IU and Purdue both short on talent, again

By Biff Stevens, THG Sports

Last year was one of the longest winters for Hoosiers around the state in recorded history. No, it wasn’t so much the weather that made it unbearable, but rather the poor play of its two marquee Division I basketball programs. I’m referring to the storied programs of Purdue and Indiana University. These two teams, in the past, have collectively enabled Hoosiers to take pride in their state, reasons which normally are in short supply. These two bastions of basketball power combined to have one of the sorriest basketball seasons this state has ever seen.

Indiana struggled to its first losing season since 1970; Purdue had a winning record but was shut out of the NCAA tournament. This year promised to yield far different results for several important reasons. Indiana had high hopes on the heels of one of the best recruiting classes in the country. Purdue had the extra motivation of being Gene Keady’s 25^th and last season in West Lafayette.

(full story)

IHSAA admits mistake, is reinstating one-class basketball tournament

By Ross Leslie, THG Sports

There probably isn’t a single person who lives in this state who has not seen the 1986 movie Hoosiers. Many argue that it is the best sports film of all time; it is based on the 1954 Milan Indians, a tiny rural school that beat a heavily favored Muncie Central team for the state championship.

Hoosiers captured the true essence of high school basketball in Indiana, where to many the sport is a religion and where only one team was crowned champion each year in a game that would sell out the state’s largest venue—the RCA Dome.

(full story)

Some good has come from Pacers/Pistons melee

By Howie Baker, THG Sports

November 21, 2004

Unless you have been living in a cave the past couple of days, you have seen the footage from the fight that broke out with 45 seconds left in the Indiana Pacers/Detroit Pistons game Friday night; the scuffle between Ben Wallace and Ron Artest followed by fans getting into the action by throwing cups, popcorn, chairs, and even punches at Pacers players trying to protect themselves.

Despite all of the negative publicity for the NBA and both teams involved, indefinite suspensions, and the numerous lawsuits that will tie up courtrooms for years to come, some good has come from the melee.

(full story)

Southern Indiana Luge Club itching for winter’s first good freeze

By Andrew Warner, THG Sports

While most of us dread the cold and rainy weather that swallows up Southern Indiana each winter, 20-year-old Bristow resident Clay Gibbs and a few of his friends can’t wait for the freezing temperatures and ice that grinds small towns like his to a halt.

This is the time when Gibbs can participate in his favorite seasonal sport: luge.

Gibbs became interested in the sport while watching the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City on TV. After seeing brave souls from cold countries the world over rocketing down an icy track on the tiny sleds, Gibbs, a self-described extreme sport fanatic told himself, “I have got to try that!”

(full story)

‘The Walk’ ruined by poor Sycamore football

By Biff Stevens, THG Sports

For one day out of the year, the sleepy town of Terre Haute transforms itself into an ‘actual’ college town. This occurs usually the first weekend in November for Indiana State University’s annual homecoming festivities.

Though the town hosts three colleges (ISU, Rose-Hulman, and St. Mary’s of the Woods), someone would not confuse the Haute with nearby Bloomington, Champaign, or West Lafayette. Known as a ‘suitcase college,’ most students head home to their respective hometowns on the weekend. Sycamore football generates virtually no buzz on the campus of 10,000. That was until the creation of one of the most unique college football traditions in the country.

(full story)

#7 Ball State averts being knocked out of ESPN’s Bottom 10 with an OT loss at Northern Illinois

by Howie Baker, THG Sports

October 31, 2004

Ball State’s football team suffered a 38-31 overtime loss to Northern Illinois at home Saturday, their eighth loss in nine tries.

Game summary from the Ball State football website:

(full story)

Rookie head coach describes nightmarish season in his online football diary

By Carl Little, THG Sports

October 24, 2004

Rusty Cecil has been involved in football for 34 years as a player and coach, but 2004 was the first time he lead a team onto the field as a head coach.

After 20 years as head coach of the mighty Floyd Central Highlanders, Ron Weigleb hung up his whistle last winter, opening the door for Cecil to take over the reigns of one of the most respected programs in southern Indiana. Cecil had been an assistant under Weigleb for the last 20 years. (full story)

“Big Willie” has eluded Mount Vernon fishermen for over 15 years

by Lisa Hatfield, THG Sports

On a breezy Saturday in late-September, 1989, Stan Spencer and his son Bill went down to their camp on the Ohio River five miles west of Mount Vernon to do what they did every Saturday afternoon: drink a few beers and fish off of their pontoon boat.

The only difference between this Saturday and all of the others they had previously spent on the mighty Ohio was a sight so awesome it would define the angler’s lives for the next 15 years and counting.

This was the day they first encountered the largest catfish they had ever seen, a giant bluecat they have nicknamed “Big Willie” after Stan’s favorite singer, Willie Nelson. (full story)

Vincennes Lincoln tops the list of Indiana’s best high school nicknames

By John Beeler, THG Sports

The top 15 Indiana high school nicknames based on a recent HoosierGazette.com poll:

(full story)

Floyds Knobs man has used electric football game to accurately predict seven of the last eight Super Bowl winners

By Jed Wilcox, THG Sports

Friends used to make fun of Floyds Knobs resident K.C. Duke’s obsession with electric football, an outdated game that reached its peak in popularity in the 1980s where players run, pass, and kick their plastic teams down a vibrating metal football field with hopes of outscoring their opponent.

Little did they know that Duke’s passion would turn into a gold mine, earning him hundreds of thousands of dollars last year.

The 38-year-old Duke, a drawing teacher at Borden High School, has played electric football since the late 70’s. He got his first board with two sets of players for Christmas one year as a middle schooler, and instantly fell in love with the game’s hard-hitting action. (full story)

Unlike IU, Sycamores put a Kentucky school in its place; destroy Murray 28-21

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – School offensive records seemed poised to be broken for both Indiana State (2-1) and Murray State (1-2) during a high-octane offensive first half which saw each team pile up 21 points before the intermission. Both defenses took control in the second half as a Sycamores’ special teams score late in the third quarter proved to the be the only scoring in the second half, and the difference in the game as ISU won for the third time in a row versus MSU, 28-21.

With the score tied at 21, the ISU defense held the Racers to fourth-and-four from their own 18-yard line with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Murray’s James Gaither was called on to punt, but junior LaDrelle Bryant blocked the punt into the waiting arms of freshman Markus Naves in the end zone to give the Sycamores a 28-21 advantage. (full story)

Rich and looking for a tax write-off? Buy the Indiana Firebirds

By Ross Leslie, THG Sports

September 12, 2004

The Arena Football League’s (AFL) Indiana Firebirds are up for sale. Owner Dave Lageschulte has shut down the team after running it into the ground after only two years.

The franchise had celebrated 13 years of financial success under other owners in Albany, New York and Indianapolis.

Lageschulte is looking to sell the Firebirds to the highest bidder in hopes of cutting some of his losses. He estimates the team has lost several million dollars under his ownership. (full story)

IU crushes Central Michigan 41-10; only 11 more wins needed to become national champions

Defense delivers in a dream debut

Unknown freshman Porter picks off 2 passes, scores TD

By Terry Hutchens, IndyStar.com

September 5, 2004

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's best-kept secret is out of the bag. Tracy Porter is no longer an unknown.

Despite not appearing on IU's depth chart, the true freshman from Port Allen, La., started Saturday night at right cornerback and was a difference maker.

He had two interceptions, including a 96-yard return for a touchdown early in the third quarter, to help the Hoosiers to a 41-10 victory over Central Michigan before 36,041 at Memorial Stadium. (full story)

First Olympics experience has Mishawaka table tennis player hungry for more

By Maribel Villalva, Gannett News Service

ATHENS — Five years ago, Mark Hazinski decided he wanted to dedicate his life to one thing: table tennis.

Only 14 at the time, Hazinski chose home schooling over traditional high school so he could dedicate more time to the sport.

Monday, just minutes after he and doubles partner Ilija Lupulesku lost to Chinese Taipei in men's doubles, Hazinski wiped the sweat from his forehead and declared his unconditional love for the sport that took him to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. (full story)

High school English teacher loses job as school’s P.A. announcer for plugging novel during football game

By Jake Bumeier, THG Sports

August 22, 2004

When legendary announcer Tim Baize decided to hang up his microphone to pursue other interests, officials at F. J. Reitz High School didn’t have to go far to find a replacement. English teacher and novelist Mike Whicker volunteered to fill the post. (full story)

The Sporting News: Indiana a sorry place for sports fans

By Lance Barker, THG Sports

Seven of nine Indiana cities that made The Sporting News magazine’s annual rankings of Best Sports Cities that past two years have dropped considerably in 2004.

The Sporting News uses several factors for its yearly ranking of 368 cities, including the number of college and pro sports teams or events in a city, regular-season records, playoff berths, bowl appearances, tournament bids, and championships. Fan fervor, quality of sports facilities, and ticket availability and prices also play a role in how a city is ranked. (full story)

Hoosier Gazette-sponsored car fails to qualify for Brickyard 400

By Ryan Helming, THG Sports

August 8, 2004

It is back to the drawing board for the Kasinger Racing/HoosierGazette.com team.

In their first year on NASCAR’s Nextel Cup circuit, the New Whiteland, Indiana based team has failed to qualify for any of the 20 races held so far. (full story)

Sullivan High School senior working to be first female offensive line starter in Indiana history

By Jessica Winters, THG Sports

August 1, 2004

When football practice officially begins in Indiana tomorrow, Tonya Ludlow wants to be treated like one anyone else on the team.

A senior member of the National Honor Society and editor of the school newspaper, Ludlow wants to prove a point: women can compete with men on any field of endeavor. (full story)

Pacers trade O’Neal to Pistons for McDyess, James, two first round picks

By Howie Baker, THG Sports

July 25, 2004

Today the NBA has approved a trade that will send forward/center Jermaine O’Neal to the Detroit Pistons and forward Antonio McDyess, guard Mike James, and the Pistons 2005 and 2006 first round picks to the Indiana Pacers. (full story)

The College Football News previews the states I-A football programs

To find out the scoop on how the Hoosier State’s major college football programs will fare this season, we went to the experts at CollegeFootballNews.com (CFN) for insight. This is what CFN had to say about our four I-A football programs in 2004: (full story)

Kernan switches gears, will help Colts finance new stadium

By Howie Baker, THG Sports

Despite the state’s severe budget crisis, Indiana governor Joe Kernan announced this week that if he wins the November election against Republican Mitch Daniels, he will push legislation that would raise Hoosiers’ taxes in order to keep the Colts in Indianapolis.

The Colts are one of the NFL’s least profitable teams, and the RCA Dome is to blame, says team owner Jim Irsay. “The stadium is an embarrassment.” (full story)

Fourth of July pop-bottle rocket dodgeball game ends in tragedy

University of Evansville to reinstate football in 2007

Indianapolis is finalist to host 2016 Olympic Summer Games

Paul Hornung is right; Notre Dame should lower their academic standards for athletes

The Indianapolis 500 needs a redneck makeover to compete with NASCAR

Sports, profanity go together like peanut butter and jelly

Vinny the Greek picks the Pacers over the Spurs in seven to win it all

It’s time for Semi-Pro football; let the carnage begin!

Ball State tops THG’s list of Indiana sports schools

When is comes to the NFL Draft, IU is the real ‘Mr. Irrelevant’

Basketball coaching legend retired, coached rival private high school into IHSAA probation

The real reason Gene Keady turned down USF