Why do some players perform best when the pressure is greatest and the competition the toughest while others succumb to the moment and go quietly into the night?
A few words from an accomplished veteran or coach can give the young player enough confidence to carry him or her through the thickets of the early stages of a career, no matter what level.
Changes are coming, but it’s a fluid environment with churning waters and probably always will be.
Every coach craves leadership from players—someone who leads by both word and deed and supports the coach’s standards for on-court performance and off-court behavior.
He will have worked 84 games by the time his broadcasting season ends, which is about 35 more than the industry norm for elite announcers.
When attaching a name to something is done as an honor, it makes people happy.
It’s safe to assume it’s a stratosphere or two beyond what the local stars of yesteryear received for their humble endorsements.
Bell’s greatest recognition came from winning a gold medal as a long jumper in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
There are some lessons to be taken from the best calls local decision-makers have made. And from the worst, too.
Stars can dim, of course. Sometimes they even fall. But given good health, these appear likely to maintain their shine wherever they go.
Last year at this time, nobody dreamed IU would have such a luxury, so Purdue fans deserve to be optimistic about Odom.
At this point, Cignetti is amassing a nation of believers.
Knight, who was introduced as Marian University’s coach in May, will coach the Knights for the first time on Friday in an exhibition game against Indiana University in Bloomington.
Now, finally, they are poised to escape rebuilding purgatory and embark on an era of consistent excellence such as the franchise enjoyed from 1994-2000, when it reached the conference finals five times in a seven-year span.
Bennedict Mathurin learned that the hard way last May when he had to sit and watch his Pacers teammates break through to the Eastern Conference finals before being swept by Boston.
Today’s Big (not) Ten runs wide and shallow. Eighteen teams, as far as 2,800 miles apart.
Purdue and Notre Dame will meet on a football field for the 126th time on Sept. 14, and while every sporting event presents the possibility of a life-changing experience, it’s unlikely anything as momentous as what happened 47 years ago will occur.
It goes without saying then that Bloomington has been a graveyard for the coaches who have dared try to dig the program out of its endless rut.
Nix got his medal by running the first leg of the 4×400-meter relay in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
It’s exhausting, being a revolutionary. And Clark, with no hint of being rebellious, is just that.
