Steeped in basketball legend, and a source of either admiration or hate in the sporting world, the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team is one of the most storied college athletic teams in the nation. Final four parking in Indianapolis , and the usual tailgating, won't involve many Hoosier fans this time around. Nevertheless, it is a legendary program.
The men's basketball team has won five national championships, twenty Big 10 Conference championships, two national players of the year awards, and has placed fifty-two players into the NBA. Their five national championships make it the third all-time leader behind only UCLA and Kentucky, with eleven and seven titles, respectively. The Hoosiers play at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana, where more than 6 million fans have them compete.
Known nationally for its head coaches, Indiana's long run with success started in the 1920's when head coach Everett Dean took over the team. Dean guided the Hoosiers to 3 Big 10 titles in thirteen years and fashioned the Hoosiers into a well respected team.
The first national title for IU came with the next head coach, Branch McCracken, for whom the court at Assembly Hall is now named. Coach McCracken headed the team from 1938 to 1965 with three seasons off during World War II and won two national championships with the Hoosiers in the 1939-1940 and 1952-1953 seasons. McCracken won 364 games with IU during his career and would become the mark against all other coaches would be measured. His records remained intact until the hiring of Coach Bobby Knight.
Coach Knight started his historic career with the Hoosiers in 1971. The acknowledged master of the 'motion offense' won three national championships with the Hoosiers including the meteoric 1975-76 season where the team went 32-0, the last NCAA men's basketball team not to lose a single game in a season. Under Coach Knight the Hoosiers won 661 games and eleven Big 10 Conference titles. Dismissed by the University's administration in 2000, the team has yet to regain its strong national identity although it appeared in the 2001-2002 national championship game where it lost to the University of Maryland Terrapins.
The men's basketball team competes with other well known basketball programs in the Hoosier State; Butler and Purdue University each have tremendously successful and well respected programs. Other programs such as Notre Dame, Indiana State, Evansville, Valparaiso, and Ball State each compete to win the hearts and minds of the state's fans. As IU and Purdue compete in the same conference, they face each other once a year at a neutral site in Indianapolis at Conseco Fieldhouse, where the NBA's Indiana Pacers play their home games.
As successful as they are, the men's basketball team is, on campus, overshadowed by the men's soccer team who have seven national championships and the men's swimming and diving team with their six national championships.
However, when it comes to college basketball the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team is the ticket to a lively discussion. When conversations, friendly and heated alike, both within the state of Indiana and across the world, gravitate to basketball discourse steers towards the Hoosiers as its players, coaches, and records are amongst the best in the history of men's college basketball.
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