Bleeding Orange and White

So, we were at the Illini-Ohio St. basketball game. Our offense looked really good at times, but awful at times against the 2-3 zone, which Ohio St. ran, exclusively. We actually had a high number of assists, as we made a concerted effort to get the ball into the high post. We scored in a variety of ways, basically all of the way I described in my basketball overview posting. Randle finally played well, and Chester actually had a reasonable game on offense, going for 7 points, hitting a 3, and getting a drives in the halfcourt offense, and nailing a couple FT's. Both guys did a nice job getting the ball into the high post, whether it's with a pass or with the penetration. The players that absolutely killed us on both ends of the floor was Trent. Trent couldn't get open on offense, turned the ball over, and shot awfully. Additionally, he was a huge liability on defense, as our rotations couldn't get off of their men to help and recover. We had other issues, including Calvin's inability to handle the rock, and being sloppy with the ball, but the biggest problem in that game was Trent's inability to defend and hit shots on offense.

Now, Jamar Butler went off on us, particularly in the second half. Why did this happen? Partially, Chester's D wasn't shut-down, but to get there, Ohio St. switched tactics in the middle of the 2nd half, by going with high screens. Chester gets screened, we decided to have him try to fight through, and Butler gets open 3's or layups. So, we have to change things up. Instead of having Chester fight through, we start doubling with Pruitt in the 2nd half. At this point the game was still in question, but as soon as we change tactics, we got killed by two wide-open 3's by Matt Terwilliger. Big, goofy, unskilled Matt Terwilliger. So what happened? Butler comes in from the wing to get the high screen from Terwilliger. Pruitt doubles. No one else rotates. It probably should have been Randle off of the next rotation, and on the first shot, you saw Randle hesitate, since he saw that the next rotation (Trent) wasn't moving. So, instead of coming off of Hunter, who would've been open under the hoop, Randle stays, and Terwilliger nails a 3. We manage to get a couple nice buckets to keep it at 9, but two possessions later, they run the exact same set, and again, Randle has to stay low with Hunter because the rotation isn't there. Goofy Terwilliger nails another 3, effectively ending the game.

I don't delve into race much, other than to point out how dumb race is as an issue. But I actually had something sort of irk me quite a bit a the end of the game. Really, the notion is more of ignorance and implied racism, rather than overt racism. With a few seconds left to go, Bruce subs out Chester, and somehow, we have about half of the arena start booing him as he walks off the court. Of course, this is a winter break game, so we've got a bunch of the yokels in here. The profile is basically a bunch of white, jump shooters who worship the Hoosiers ideal, think that trash talk and dirty play is restricted to black folks, and believe that John Stockton and Larry Bird got to be as good as they were by being saints. Our home court decides to boo our hardest working player, our best defender, our best rebounder, and a guy who just had a decent game out there.

We don't boo Trent after a sorry ass game. That's because he can light up bad teams like Weber St., and play the role of the Great White Hope. We believe that Kyle Hudson would make a great slot receiver in the right system and how he has great hands, despite watching him drop pass after pass. We're in the heartland, where we love "scrappy" players. And by "scrappy" I mean, undersized, relatively unathletic, typically one-dimensional, and most importantly white looking. It drives me nuts. I think that a big part of it is that people overvalue the things that they are able to do. So, if you were a good jump shooter back in the day, who couldn't handle the rock and didn't play a lick of defense, then you empathize with Trent. I don't believe that it's overt racism, but I think that it's no coincidence that our fans have decided to start riding the blackest, corn-rowed, tattooed, toughest, scrappiest player out there. If Chester were a white kid with a crew cut, he'd be a regional celebrity, and maybe even get national attention like Lucas Johnson did if the Illini made a run. Instead, he gets booed at home.

It's crap like this that makes me wonder if the anti-Chief folks had a more accurate perception of the reality in this area than I thought.

-Chairman