I haven’t been to an IPFW men’s basketball game in years.
And that is sad.
These games, at my college, were once a staple of life, as a
fan or as a writer. I saw them all, I witnessed some crazy moments at the
Memorial Coliseum, in the cozy confines of the Gates
Center Oakland , Purdue and
Notre Dame.
And as we sit today, IPFW is atop of the Summit League.
That, in itself, is somewhat shocking when you have see all of what I have
seen.
The struggles, where a win would be great, let alone a sniff
at a sub-winning record.
The coaching swaps, when a mid-season replacement yields
happiness but a following off-season swap leaves those in the know skeptical.
The exiles, whose careers at the school ended prematurely,
be it at the hands of the old coach, their own doing or one of those
aforementioned coaching swaps.
The injuries, which cut down big pieces of the puzzle. As
great as it would be to add Justin Jordan to this year’s team, imagine the transition
phase with a healthy David Simon. Even more, imagine if he hadn’t been hurt in
2004 and ended up being the first IPFW player to go in the NBA Draft. Sadly,
the letters A, C and L stop us from seeing any of those realities.
 |
| A healthy David Simon could have gone to the NBA. And even more, helped IPFW to be better way faster. |
Yet here they sit. One year after just missing out on the 12th
winning season in school history, they are kings of their own domain. Humble,
fierce, coming into a 2013-2014 season after graduating arguably the best
player to ever wear a Mastodon basketball jersey; they lead the Summit League
in mid-January.
A school that has just 11 winning seasons, had only won
20-plus games four times and has never hauled in more that 18 wins since
becoming a Division 1 program, is currently sitting at 14 wins and sure took
shots at Dayton and Illinois, schools who escaped the Mastodons by the skin of
their teeth.
And that is magnificent.
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