TERRE HAUTE —
If the annual Indiana-Kentucky basketball game was not significant, would the coaches of the two universities be talking like this?
“We were willing to play [the next two series games] in the state of Indiana, and they said no to that. That means they don’t want to play us,” Kentucky coach John Calipari told ESPN.com.
“The bottom line is that [Kentucky] didn’t want to play home-and-home,” said Indiana coach Tom Crean, “and we did.”
A series deserving of cancellation usually involves no nyah-nyah-na-nyah-nyah. Attendance drops, the intensity of play cools, and everybody just shrugs and says, “Let’s call the whole thing off.”
That’s not the case here. Instead, with healthy doses of indignation and finger-pointing, officials at both schools have announced that their rivalry — which had been renewed every season since 1969 — must end because UK and IU can’t agree on where to play. Kentucky wants neutral sites, such as Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Indiana wants the games played on-campus, rotating between Assembly Hall in Bloomington and Rupp Arena in Lexington.
You may be thinking, “Hey, it’s a basketball game, for cryin’ out loud. How hard is it for two border-state colleges to pull that off, especially after having done so successfully for the past 42 years?” We wonder the same thing.
Egos play a role in the impasse. Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats are fresh off a national championship. In an open letter to fans, “the Big Blue Nation,” Calipari explains that UK has elevated to a plateau heretofore unseen in college basketball. “Nontraditional,” he calls the Wildcats program, the new “gold standard. Everyone has to accept that.” Everyone, perhaps, except Galileo, who proved the universe does not revolve around Earth or, by extension, Lexington.
In his letter, Calipari lamented that no other program shoulders the burden of having to replace five or six players every year, as those teenage phenoms trade their gold status at UK for NBA platinum after just one or two seasons in a Wildcat uniform. (Even Bill Clinton would have a hard time saying, “John, I feel your pain.”) Kentucky can no longer afford to lock in a nonconference opponent (such as IU or North Carolina) for a long-term contract into perpetuity, Calipari said. After all, what if the Wildcats win another NCAA title, and then eight players leave as first-round NBA draft picks? In the event of such an atrocity, Calipari couldn’t, in good conscience, subject the following season’s new UK collection of McDonald’s All-Americans to a road game in Assembly Hall.
On the flip side, Indiana has dug in its heels by insisting the series continue in the campus arenas. Twenty of the 43 meetings between IU and Kentucky since 1969 have been played at neutral sites, such as the old RCA Dome in Indy and Freedom Hall in Louisville. Huge crowds turned out, and the two schools split the proceeds, so refusing to continue that routine seems lame on Indiana’s part.
IU claims it wants the Wildcats-Hoosiers games played on the campuses, so the students can easily attend such a highly anticipated game. Indeed, the Indiana students savored that opportunity last season. The resurgent Hoosiers handed Kentucky its only regular-season defeat with a game-ending shot, and the IU students immediately swarmed the court. Indiana fans also heckled Calipari more colorfully than any other UK road opponent, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Emboldened by his NCAA title, Calipari may have decided, “I don’t need this.”
Whatever the root, this feud needs to play out on the basketball court. To Calipari, Crean and their bosses we say, find a way to play that game.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: When it’s IU vs. UK, there’s got to be a way
Let’s continue the feud on the basketball court
- Editorials
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EDITORIAL: Insisting on ISTEP quality lawmakers’ primary duty
Now that everyone, on both sides of the aisle, seems backslappingly happy to agree that this spring’s ISTEP school testing debacle was unacceptable, that at least some of the results lack credibility and that the issue carries high-stakes significance, what next?
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RONN MOTT: Not hurried a bit by 21st century tech
Unlike so many of you, I do not get up in the morning and run to turn on my computer. In fact, if you need to reach me in a hurry, I would say that 19th century invention of Alexander Bell’s would be the best way. If you do email me or use some other electronic convenience, better give it a couple of days because I am not in that big of a hurry.
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EDITORIAL: And now we wait for justice
It is a word we would rather never have on our front page — homicide. That we had to use it twice on Wednesday’s front page is sad, but unavoidable.
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EDITORIAL: Remembering Sister Jeanne
Terre Haute is mourning the loss this week of an accomplished and beloved community activist and leader whose life’s work is an inspiration to all who strive to serve.
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EDITORIAL: Embrace the value of traffic planning
Never underestimate the value of a good plan to deal with a crisis, large or small, even if the final analysis of the management of a specific crisis is, “It could have been worse.”
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EDITORIAL: It’s time to assess ISTEP
Later this month, the company behind this spring’s abysmal online administration of ISTEP testing for 27,000 Hoosier schoolchildren is being called to the principal’s office.
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EDITORIAL: Fix fraud, don’t punish needy
Waste and fraud in government programs should be rooted out vigilantly. Legislation should fix a problem with a fitting solution, not punish the needy.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: An anniversary to honor
The anniversary we observe today is one that will forever live in the soul of America.
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EDITORIAL: Highway 40 — where are you?
Area residents have been trying to come to grips with the Indiana Department of Transportation’s decision to change the official route of U.S. 40 through Terre Haute and Vigo County.
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EDITORIAL: Indiana’s workforce problems require broad-based solutions
The issue of Indiana’s “skills gap” arose during a community jobs fair Thursday at Hulman Center, hosted by 8th District Rep. Larry Bucshon.
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EDITORIAL: Happy trails for Hoosiers
Indiana has an abundance of natural treasures that should never be considered hidden treasures.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
While not much has been spoken or written recently about the Indiana 641 corridor through southern Vigo County, rest assured development continues and the approximately six-mile project linking U.S. 41 near Ivy Tech to Indiana 46 and Interstate 70 remains — mostly — on course.
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EDITORIAL: Terre Haute Tomorrow seeks to reignite community momentum
Long-range planning that brings together diverse local interests in an effort to collaborate on community improvements often launches with a flourish but then settles onto a shelf to gather dust. That was remarkably NOT the result when the group known as Terre Haute Tomorrow emerged on the scene about 10 years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Women in uniform must be treated with respect, dignity
As the nation pauses this Memorial Day weekend to remember those who have served their country, it is appropriate to reflect on the contributions of women in military uniform of the U.S. armed services. They are many, and their impact is great.
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The celebration season
Spring has been a bit elusive at times in 2013, which is its nature.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: MVC tourney an event worth having
It’s been a long time since the Missouri Valley Conference chose Indiana State University to host its post-season baseball tournament, but Terre Haute had never been more prepared for an event such as this.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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