VALVANO: IU football is a team we can all get behind

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November 9, 2007

By BOB VALVANO The News and Tribune Fri Nov 09, 2007, 12:20 AM EST

As most of you know, I did not grow up here, but am rooting very hard for the Hoosiers to get one more win.

By beating Ball State last Saturday, they are bowl eligible. But I fear there will be a lot of six-win teams left home. The tiebreaker could be how well the teams travel (bowl games, after all, are first and foremost about making money), and IU is not known as a great “travel” team when it comes to football.

Still, after visiting with the late Terry Hoeppner twice in the 12 months before he passed, and having had his successor, Bill Lynch, on our radio show last week, I can tell you it would take an awfully hard heart not to root these Hoosiers to a bowl game.

Coach Hoeppner challenged his players to “Play 13,” a reference to get to that bowl game that has eluded them since 1993, when they went to the Independence Bowl.

When I was coaching, I used to say, (and still believe) that the second hardest thing to do for a team is to win. The hardest thing is to win with a program that has been losing for some length of time. It is why coaches with teams that are on top are seemingly obsessed with staying there. They know it can prove to be even harder to get back there once you have fallen. Some of the mystique is gone, the doubt in opponents’ minds that they can beat you.

IU has provoked little doubt in its opponents, and not a whole lot of confidence in its supporters. So when Coach Hep issued that challenge, he was trying to rally his troops around an implied, if not stated, “Hey...WE have to get this done. We can’t rely on tradition, on reputation, on anything but ourselves.”

And it is for that reason that they were an easy team to support. Coach Hep instilled a positive energy, an attitude, a winning atmosphere that translates into success on the field but serves his players in the rest of their lives. We like coaches like that.

And then, just like that, he was gone. And Lynch, a good man, and a friend of Coach Hep’s is asked to step in and take the last steps to “Playing 13.”

That my friend, can by very daunting.

I asked him how he handled the emotional aspect. He assured me that the kids want more than anything to honor Terry Hoeppner by playing 13. It certainly adds urgency to do it with the bunch that Terry helped recruit and build. If it happens a few years from now, it will still be a big deal, of course, but for this team, right now it would be huge.

So huge, Coach Lynch told me, that they don’t conciously talk about it much. They don’t shy away when asked about it, as I did, and their affection for Coach Hep is obvious.

But Lynch is smart enough to know it is hard enough to win, the second hardest thing, but that the hardest is winning after years of losing. To remind the guys to “Win it for Hep” would be, indirectly, adding to the pressure of a team still trying to prove it can win, — rather than simply expecting to.

I admired Terry Hoeppner, and after the visit with the affable Bill Lynch, I liked him very much too. I hope they get that bowl bid.

Go on — play 13.

HOOP IT UP

For those of you who love the crazy antics of college basketball coaches, I have bad news for you. But for those who think enough is enough when it comes to bench decorum, you will be delighted.

A point of emphasis for officials this year is to keep the coaches in their coaching boxes. First time out, however innocently will be a warning. Second time, a technical foul. There does not have to be a warning, if the first time out was part of any unsportsmanlike conduct (berating officials, vulgar language, inciting the crowd, etc.)

In fact, that type of behavior can warrant a technical in the box as well. But I believe, after seeing a few exhibition games, that they are commited to this and will try not to let it slide as the year progresses.

I was pretty animated on the bench, but I still think it is a good rule. Working games at courtside, I have heard some very out-of-place things for a college athletic event, no matter how big the stakes. I always say if players will behave to the level you allow them to behave, meaning if you raise the bar, they quickly adapt and the game is better for it.

This is a chance for the coaches to do the same. Here is hoping they will.

Bob Valvano lives in Sellersburg and can be reached via e-mail at bobvshow@yahoo.com. He is a former college basketball coach and current radio show host on ESPN Radio.

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