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Randy Boyd is a native Hoosier and has
traveled the country to see IU play over the years. His new suspense
thriller,
The Devil Inside,
debuts later this month. Mario Cervantes is an athletic stud, a former
superstar athlete in high school now in his 30s. He’s still gorgeous,
masculine and adorable. But is he caught up in a bizarre and twisted
world that could become the gay community’s worst nightmare? Is he a
dream lover or date from hell? You have 72 hours to figure it out …
go! The Right Kind of Hoosier Hysteria
Hoosiers win! Hoosiers win! Hoosiers win! Yes, we at Ballin’ watched the NCAA men’s hoop finals from Atlanta, and, no, we weren’t smoking anything Leno band leader Kevin Eubanks would be interested in obtaining. And still we maintain: the school in Bloomington came out victorious. The state of Indiana won. Kids firing the rock all over the Hoosier state won. The parents with hoop dreams for their offspring won. Indiana won. How? By completely, finally and resolutely waking up from the decades-long Knightmare to realize that yes, Virginia (and Duke and UCLA and Purdue), there is basketball after The General. Not even the most ardent Knight-lovers can remain in denial: Indiana University basketball will live on, prosper, falter, win, lose, win some more, make heroic runs in the tournament, provide excitement and distraction for the fans, scare the crap outta Big 10 opponents and still be something the guys go on and on about down at Mo’s Barber Shop, where, if you bring the twins in at the same time, you can get two bowl haircuts for the price of one. Indiana won on Monday night because we of the state that makes a religion of the sport of basketball now have all the affirmation we need to realize that it wasn’t ever about Bobby. It was about The Game. And the boys. And the team. And the Hoosiers. And we’ve still got those things, but what we don’t have is a coach who abuses kids, spits in your face, throws vases at your noggin, chokes teenagers, bullies refs and conference personnel, causes international incidents and on and on and on to the break of dawn. We didn’t need him. We just needed the boys(!), the team, the Hoosiers and The Game. And now, with this year’s Miracle Three-point Bombers That (Almost) Could, the state can fully move on, leave history behind and enjoy basketball once again without wondering when the next shoe is gonna drop (or be used to hit a ref upside the head). Yep, we done won in Indiana. Thanks to Dane Fife and company for insisting that assistant Mike Davis be given the title Head Chair Thrower. Thanks to university president Myles Brand for sticking to his guns and actually hiring the Reverend Davis, despite the not-so-subtle outcries by the racists and red-sweater-loyalists in the state. And finally, thanks to the Reverend Davis himself for not being the kind of guy that hurls chairs across a crowded court for all the world to see. Or the kind of guy that says women should lie back and enjoy rape. Or the kind of guy that will wipe his ass in front of a kid to make a point. And for all the claims by the pundits that the ghost of Knight will always be around, lurking over whomever is coaching or playing or administrating or rooting for ole IU, consider this: are current college coaches haunted by the ghosts of Phog Allen, Ralph Miller or Jud Heathcoat? Do college students beam with a flash of recognition when they storm arenas and courts named after the likes of Newell, Rupp or McGuire Who are those guys, you ask. Exactly. Hoosiers win! More Randy, more sports: Under the Bleachers at straightacting.com. Randy's Outsports archive Feb. 19, 2002 |
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