TERRE HAUTE — When you’re a sportswriter, especially one whose job is based around collegiate and high school seasons, your life is not unlike the way it was when you were in school yourself. You don’t live on a January-to-December treadmill, you time your life around that August-to-June school-year cycle when sports are being played.
With that in mind, I can’t write about year-end awards on Dec. 31. Are you kidding me? That’s the beginning of the Missouri Valley Conference basketball schedule and the Pizza Hut Classic, the year isn’t even half-over yet!
So here’s my year-in-review … timed on the Golden calendar. My year ends in June.
n Golden’s Athlete of the Year — I wasn’t there when Kylie Hutson won the NCAA indoor pole vault championship at Texas A&M;, nor was I in Fayetteville, Ark., when she won the NCAA outdoor title.
However, I was there at Marks Field when she won the Pacesetter Invitational title on May 2. And apart from her vault, which was a season-best to that point, the thing that struck me was the joy she had for her craft. The Terre Haute native was thrilled to the marrow that she put on a good show for her home crowd. Her smile was a mile-wide.
Is that a reason to make her Athlete of the Year? Probably not, but when someone like Hutson goes about her excellence with enthusiasm that suggests she’s enjoying the ride and not laboring in it, it makes it an easier choice. Of course, two NCAA titles don’t hurt either.
n Golden’s Coach of the Year — There’s plenty of worthy candidates, and ISU baseball coach Lindsay Meggs was the MVC Coach of the Year after the Sycamores unexpectedly finished second in the Valley, but West Vigo baseball coach Steve DeGroote stood above the rest.
A 28-2 record in any sport is spectacular, but especially baseball, which has perhaps the most variables of any sport when it comes to who wins and who loses.
n Game and performance of the year — Without a doubt, that would have to be ISU’s 75-73 come-from-behind men’s basketball victory at Illinois State on Feb. 8 when Jay Tunnell drained eight 3-pointers to help rally the Sycamores, who were down 11 with less than four minutes left in the game. Harry Marshall drained the buzzer-beater in overtime.
The victory turned around a Sycamore season that was pretty dreadful (4-19) to that point and gave the program momentum it has carried into the offseason.
n Most agonizing game — How excruciating was ISU’s 27-24 overtime football loss to Missouri State on Nov. 22, 2008? A fan prematurely ran on the field as Missouri State’s final play of regulation unfolded, believing the Sycamores had snapped the longest losing streak in the nation. Instead, the Bears completed a last-ditch 19-yard touchdown pass to force overtime and Missouri State pretty easily handled the shocked Sycamores in overtime.
Considering that ISU’s losing streak was extended to 26 and was taken into another season, no loss I’ve ever covered carried so much agonizing weight.
n Strangest game — When I drove to Plainfield to cover Terre Haute North’s girls basketball team in the Plainfield Sectional on Feb. 13, I wasn’t expecting to write about a player revolt. Three Patriots did not dress in a 70-43 loss to Plainfield and North had only six players dressed for the game. After it was over, Plainfield police kept media and parents away from the North locker room, as there was a longer-than-usual postmortem. An odd way to end a season.
n Strangest situation — Bianca Jarrett’s rise and fall on the ISU women’s basketball team was bizarre, unfortunate and sad for those who appreciated watching her play.
One week she’s one of the most productive Sycamores and instant fan favorite for her relentless style and extreme quickness. She was named MVC Newcomer of the Week on Feb. 23. Who knew it would be her last accomplishment in a Sycamore uniform?
She was at first suspended prior to the Feb. 27 game, then dismissed from the team shortly after with a few games to spare in ISU’s season.
There have been whispers put out there as to what happened. They don’t rise past the level of she-said, she-said type of stuff and none are worth repeating here.
What’s clear is that Jarrett was a polarizing figure. It’s apparent too that Jarrett should have been more diplomatic with her teammates and coaches.
It’s also a fact that Jarrett is one of the few African-American women’s basketball players to play at ISU in recent years. Why does that matter? She didn’t have any peers in a leadership position in the locker room to guide her with the issues that ultimately led to her exit from the team, presuming she would have sought the help.
Ultimately, only Jarrett, the coaching staff, and the players will ever really know the truth of her abrupt exit.
I I I
In other news …
n Baseball stadium construction hasn’t started yet — Ground was ceremonially broken on the new Sycamore Field in May. It was hoped that construction would begin in June.
However, there is no evidence of any activity at 1st and Locust Streets. The only evidence that a new stadium is intended for the site is a Coming Soon sign and two other signs touting the construction company.
“Since our previous conversation [in May] nothing has changed. We are still working through the contractual terms, and these processes do take a little time to do to ensure they are done well,” said Crume said in an e-mail.
Stay tuned.
n Ciolli at Great Falls — At the time I wrote the article for Wednesday’s paper about Nick Ciolli being signed by the White Sox, I did not have the information that he had indeed been assigned to one of the White Sox’ farm teams.
I have since been informed that Ciolli had been assigned to Great Falls, a Rookie League team in the Pioneer League. For whatever reason, the White Sox did not announce the players that they had assigned to that club as of Tuesday.
Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com.
From the Press Box
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Another busy year comes to an end
- From the Press Box
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU baseball has pluses, minuses for tourney bid
Last Thursday, when Indiana State’s baseball jumped around in a celebratory dogpile after clinching the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship at Bob Warn Field, no one thought that a little over a week later, the dreaded NCAA Tournament bubble would fly over Terre Haute. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Subtle switch has fostered MVC baseball parity
When Indiana State was crowned as the regular season baseball champion of the Missouri Valley Conference last Thursday, it marked the fifth different regular season champion the league has had since 2005.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU has done enough to be in NCAAs
When you get older, you’re supposed to get wiser. I don’t know if I qualify, but I’m trying.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: TH’s Murans back in the Derby … this time with favorite
When Terre Haute native Paul Murans experienced his first Triple Crown horse racing run as part-owner of Mucho Macho Man in 2011, the experience was — to borrow a phrase from one-time Marquette coach Al McGuire — seashells and balloons.
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TODD GOLDEN: IHSAA debate interrupts more pressing issues
State Senator Mike Delph has sowed a 15-year-old wind and put the emotional class basketball debate back on the public’s mind.
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TODD GOLDEN: ISU eyes prize one game at a time
Most baseball fans know that the baseball season — even a college baseball season — is a marathon, not a sprint.
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TODD GOLDEN: Grass is green enough for Indiana State in Missouri Valley
Take a look around the Missouri Valley Conference landscape and it would be easy to assume that a significant portion of the league membership is searching for perceived greener pastures.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamores are Odum’s team now
Soooo … who wants to talk about the 2012 Indiana State men’s basketball season?
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU will face uphill climb in MVC in 2013
The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals are always scintillating. No more so than Saturday when Illinois State upset 15th-ranked Wichita State 65-64 and when No. 25 Creighton took care of business with a 99-71 victory over Evansville.
Arch Madness indeed. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Effort, heart, concentration are fleeting for ISU
Every time Indiana State’s men’s basketball wins a game, you think to yourself, OK, now is when these Sycamores live up to their potential.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Peyton’s place belongs to Eli
The good people of Indianapolis justifiably puffed out their chests throughout Super Bowl week as the city received deserved rave reviews for the job it did as hosts of Super Bowl XLVI.
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TODD GOLDEN: Teammates, colleagues express their loyalty to Weatherford
Sometimes you worry whether someone is stopping to smell the roses when they smell rosiest.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Does melted ice reveal Belichick's heart of gold?
If you’re into Youtube — and who isn’t these days? — there’s a vintage television profile of then-Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick posted on the popular site.
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TODD GOLDEN: Indiana State men caught between expectation, reality
The Missouri Valley Conference is hush-hush on how it puts together its matchups for the annual conference schedule.
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TODD GOLDEN: Accentuating the positive with ISU's Odum
There’s something to be said for being your own worst critic, especially when it comes to sports.
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TODD GOLDEN: Loss hurts, but national exposure is ... priceless
Trying to advance the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity is probably an effort wasted on a losing team less than 10 minutes removed from a disappointing defeat where victory had been oh so close to fruition.
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TODD GOLDEN: The great playoff race is on for Indiana State football
The great race is on.
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TODD GOLDEN: Fans owe ISU seniors 10,000
I have covered Indiana State football since the 2004 season.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Indiana State has used up its playoff mulligan
It’s been a glass half-full kind of season for the Indiana State football team, so it was easy — and exciting — to get caught up in looking ahead to scenarios that placed ISU in the FCS playoffs, even if ISU didn’t win out.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Not a coulda, shoulda for Sycamores
Indiana State's football team is getting tired of being graded on the curve of its own past futility.
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TODD GOLDEN: Supernatural Shakir was a sight to behold
I’ve often heard it said when a player has a big statistical day that he’s racking up “video game numbers.”
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TODD GOLDEN: Sycamore defense absorbs lesson
A win is a win, they say. And for Indiana State, none of the Sycamores are going to take back or put an asterisk next to their 48-34 victory over Butler on Saturday.
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TODD GOLDEN: And now on to the normal part of the schedule
The Steve Miller Band would’ve appreciated Indiana State’s trip to Penn State.
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TODD GOLDEN: Sabermetrics has changed love of baseball
I turned 40 this summer. No problem.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: No debate about quality of Vigo baseball
It’s standard practice for losing high school coaches — especially coaches who led teams on a deep postseason run — to heap praise on their seniors one last time. It’s even more so when one of those seniors was the rock of a given team for a four-year period.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Season dies down, but ISU’s plate not empty
With coaching changes having mostly sorted themselves out and with recruiting having just entered its quiet period today, college basketball has settled into its more relaxed offseason mode.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Winning spring more important than winning the spring game
Indiana State football coach Trent Miles has been involved in collegiate coaching since 1987. He knows better than anyone that there’s no one-size-fits-all way to approach the annual spring football game.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Friday wait was worth it for Indiana State
Many have seen the famous Salvador Dali painting, “Persistence of Memory.” The most memorable images in the surreal painting are unquestionably the pocket watches that are drooped over a ledge, a tree branch, etc.
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Many Sycamores, past and present, to remember
The minute it became apparent Indiana State had punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 60-56 victory over Missouri State on Sunday, I reflected on all of the moments in the previous seven years of covering the Sycamores that led to this.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamore AD Ron Prettyman explains Cal Poly interest
Editor’s note: Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman interviewed and participated in a public open forum for the same position at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo last week.
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