This is holy week—as anyone who follows college basketball will confirm.
Today, the Butler Bulldogs a.k.a. "Dawgs" of tiny Butler University, in Indianapolis, take on mighty...well, not Duke. They're actually playing Michigan State. Duke is in the other half of the draw.
The friction with Duke arises because Butler—which is mainly famous, basketball-wise, for the fact that the movie "Hoosiers" was filmed in its historic Hinckle Fieldhouse, now an actual tourist attraction because of it—has never been to the Final Four before, whereas Duke, which is the New York Yankees of Men's college basketball, gets to go to the Final Four every other year on average, once every four years at an absolute minimum, according to NCAA bylaws.
So yesterday, the Sports Section of the Indianapolis Star ran a big picture of Duke coach Mike Krysherwesjkidgxjikyshrwski (pronounced "shhhh") with a mustache, a target on his forehead, and (allegedly) horns (I can't see the horns).
They were a bit into the press run when the grownups found out. Opinion was divided as to whether Coach K looked dashing or dastardly with the 'stache, but the target on the forehead was deemed to have been questionable—the United States, with its combination of low social cohesion and a heavily armed populace, is known to be a touch volatile, and anything that might be construed as inciting low-IQ individuals to actual violence tends to set sober adults a bit on edge.
Coach K called the picture "juvenile," but then, he's a poopy-head. The perpetrators were sent to their rooms. The newspaper apologized to Duke.
Anyway, the paper's editors decided to interrupt the press run and replace the drawn-on picture. The Star estimates that "only about 30,000" newspapers got out with the drawn-on picture state-wide—thus creating an instant collectible for Hoosier basketball fans.
(For those of you from foreign countries, a "Hoosier" is defined as anyone who was taught in grade school that James Whitcomb Riley was a major American poet, thinks high school basketball is objectively a more important sport than professional football or baseball, has known from birth what "brickyard" refers to, does not immediately think of a bird when encountering the word "Bird," and calls asphalt "SEE-ment.")
Go DAWGS.
Mike
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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
"Coach K called the picture "juvenile," but then, he's a poopy-head."
Best line by far, and I couldn't agree more.
Posted by: David Bostedo | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 02:00 PM
That's all very nice and interesting I'm sure to you folks over there in the USA ... but .... I really thought you were going to say something profound about mutilating photographs for the sake of art. Oh well and a Happy Easter (other holiday names are available).
Posted by: Steven House | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 02:17 PM
Krysherwesjkidgxjikyshrwski, reminds me of the girl who says she "knows how to spell 'banana,' but she doesn't know when to stop."
Of course I always confuse it with Mississippi and write down bannanna.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 02:53 PM
Don't remind me of Duke; I had a chance to go to Duke but instead went to URI (Playboy's #3 party school in the country at the time). Heck of a way to choose a school :). I had fun though.
Anyway, I stopped following the Blue Devils after Bobby Hurley graduated. I always had a thing for Cousy-like point guards. Before Hurley it was Ernie D. I also pretty much stopped following the Celtics when Larry Bird retired. What this has to do with your blog I don't know. Just sayin'. I feel better now.
Posted by: Player | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 04:23 PM
Player,
Have you seen the documentary about Bob Hurley, Bobby's father, called "The Street Stops Here"? I saw it the other night on PBS and thought it was just outstanding.
http://www.thestreetstopsheremovie.com/
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 04:54 PM
Every time I have moved to a different part of the country I get a little culture shock in what is covered during the sports segment of the nightly news.
When I moved to Boston it was the coverage of College hockey. Moving to Indiana it is both in-depth coverage of high school basketball (and not just during tournament time) and full coverage of auto racing - NASCAR, Indy, and F1 - with locally based color commentators.
Posted by: Andrew Kowalczyk | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 06:18 PM
Several photojournalists have been fired for less egregious photo manipulation than this. Where's the outrage?
Posted by: John Roberts | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 09:09 PM
My wife is a Hoosier. We are visiting the Indiana family this week and I was forced to watch the Butler - Michigan State game. MSU is an arch enemy of any true Hoosier. Geesh, those crazy Hoosiers cheered for Butler like they thought Bob Knight told them they had to. Whatever,it isn't like it is a real sport like football.
I've never heard of James Riley so I asked my wife who he is. She said, "He is a poet."
Posted by: Dara Johnson | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 09:22 PM
Mike:
It’s important that Duke (aka Dook) wins occasionally, otherwise it would be meaningless when UNC tromps them. As for this year, with UNC and UCLA out from the get-go, I’m not paying attention.
Posted by: Tom | Saturday, 03 April 2010 at 10:17 PM
What? Are we all 12 again?
Posted by: Malcolm | Sunday, 04 April 2010 at 02:08 AM
I haven't read the depicted article, but based on what I see I would guess that Krzyzewski called it juvenile because ... it is. I see nothing creative, humorous or witty about it. In the interest of full disclosure, I am both a Duke alum and a basketball fan, but I have a very thick skin when it comes to criticisms of the Duke program. I even enjoy them when they are amusing or thoughtful. Maybe the article is. The artwork isn't. The criticisms of Yankee baseball or Notre Dame football or Duke basketball at some level boil down to this: if you're successful at what you do and generate sufficient notoriety, you are going to have folks that love you for your success and those that resent that success. As a Duke fan, I won't be concerned until the criticism stops. At that point we will have become irrelevant. The Tarheels understand exactly what I'm talking about.
Posted by: John Abee | Sunday, 04 April 2010 at 02:52 AM
John,
I actually don't know anything about basketball and have nothing at all against the Duke team. The only reason I'm following it at all is that my dear cousin Linda went to Butler and lives almost literally a stone's throw from Hinckle Fieldhouse. She's very excited and reports that the whole Butler and Indianapolis communities are "on fire" with excitement about the Butler team.
I meant to watch the END of the game tonight but I overshot my mark: I turned it on just as the post-game interviews were ending. Oops!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Sunday, 04 April 2010 at 03:20 AM
America and Australia: two countries separated by a common, in this case, sport (they do play basketball here, though, and attract a few American players).
Loved the Holy Week reference, but I may burn in Hell for laughing at it.
I couldn't comment on the sociological matters in this story, but we have our local equivalent: Rugby League football, although the Soccer bunch are questioning the "football" part of that as Oz bids for a future soccer world cup hosting.
To be on track, I do admire the skills of many sports photographers, I couldn't do that.
Regards - Ross
Posted by: Ross Chambers | Sunday, 04 April 2010 at 04:03 AM
Yes Mike, I saw it, just great!
I never knew that St. Anthony's was such a hard-luck school, but it's been blessed with outstanding people making a difference like Mr Hurley, and the Sister soldiering on despite liver cancer. And is there any question why Bobby Hurley became such a heady, streetsmart ballplayer.
Posted by: Player | Sunday, 04 April 2010 at 08:01 AM
There are two suggested origins of the word "Hoosier". We natives of Indiana were taught it derived from a traveler passing through the Indiana wilderness and happening upon a cabin, shouting "Who's here?"
Others believe it's derived from a person entering a rough tavern in Indiana, just after a bar fight, who picks up an object from the floor and asks "Who's ear?"
Posted by: Steve Jaccobs | Sunday, 04 April 2010 at 10:13 AM
As an adopted Hoosier, (25+ years of my 44) have been lived in Indiana, the correct definition of a Hoosier is: ¨A person dribbling a basketball, around a race-track, hunting for mushrooms.¨ Maybe your wife could explain it to you.
Posted by: John | Sunday, 04 April 2010 at 11:10 AM
My friend in Milwaukee had this reply (after he saw this posted on my Facebook page):
"How could anyone, in this day and age, print a photo of someone with a target drawn on their head?
I think this is a direct result of the newspaper collapse. The only people left on the (copy) desk are 20-something idiots."
Posted by: Paul Crouse | Monday, 05 April 2010 at 02:39 AM
Paul,
My cousin in Indianapolis writes: "OMG - that was so embarrassing to most of us! Really stupid move!"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Monday, 05 April 2010 at 02:41 AM
condolences… just saw a NYTimes news flash Duke took the championship
Posted by: John Taylor | Monday, 05 April 2010 at 11:54 PM