On a day of thanks, sometimes you need the proper inspiration to understand the good you have to be thankful for.
I knew I wanted to write a Thanksgiving column about how the Indiana football team has given Hoosiers fans something unprecedented to be thankful for. You’d think it would be like shooting fish in a barrel given that the Hoosiers are 10-1, but today I struggled with what approach to take.
I wrote two different aborted versions of a column, but neither stuck. I had to set it aside for a bit.
Meanwhile, with a busy week of big events for Indiana athletics, we’ve divided the labor this week at Hoosiers On SI between basketball and football. Jack Ankony is in The Bahamas covering basketball at Battle 4 Atlantis and is doing a great job per usual.
I have football duties during Old Oaken Bucket game week with the Hoosiers on the precipice of the College Football Playoff. Just because I’m all-football, all-the-time this week doesn’t mean I’m not keeping tabs on basketball. So at 2:30 p.m., it was a good time to set the column aside, as I turned on No. 14 Indiana’s Battle 4 Atlantis consolation semifinal against No. 3 Gonzaga.
Sometimes inspiration finds you in the strangest, most bittersweet ways.
Surely, I thought, Indiana’s basketball team wouldn’t play as poorly as it did in its 89-73 opening loss to Louisville on Wednesday.
By the score, the Gonzaga game wasn’t as bad. The Bulldogs only bested the Hoosiers by 16 points in an 89-73 Gonzaga victory. Hey! That’s a 12-point improvement from Wednesday! On Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for gallows humor.
By deed, of course, Indiana’s trip to the islands has been nothing short of a disaster. Indiana’s tepid scheduling put all of the onus for resume-building into this three-game burst.
In a strange twist, Indiana sort of got what it wanted as Gonzaga also managed to lose its Battle 4 Atlantis opener. However, merely playing good teams isn’t enough. A supposedly improved Indiana had to win, too. Of course, the Hoosiers came up well short.
It’s the contrasts of the world that sometimes can provide clarity. As I watched basketball struggle, it put into sharper relief the remarkable football season the Hoosiers have had.
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