Welcome to Indiana Basketball.

If you know the movie Hoosiers, you know that line. Welcome to Indiana Basketball.

Yesterday I texted those words along with this picture…

to a cousin in Mississippi.  He was impressed with the attendance.

Each time I watch the movie Hoosiers and hear that line spoken by Gene Hackman playing the character of Hickory Huskers head basketball coach Norman Dale, I see a different gym in my mind.

I was fortunate enough to shoot a few hoops as a youngster in this gym which was located in Brownstown, Indiana.  The locker room in the Hickory Gym is a dead ringer for the one we dressed in for pee-wee football here. I am fortunate, again I say it, to have been there.

Fast forward about 47 years.  

Yesterday, as I walked into the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, the first person I saw there was an old friend named Jon Robison.  I had the pleasure of meeting his wife and his son.  Jon too shot hoops in the ‘old gym’.  He shot many more than I did there. I saw Jon play for Brownstown Central many years ago.

Inside the Indianapolis arena, the current Brownstown Central Braves High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team was nearing their turn on the floor to play against the Wapahani Raiders for the Indiana Class 2A Championship.

I had my popcorn ready.

At the behest of my dear friend Adam Disque, I joined him and his family to watch the action.  Action that proved to be history in the making.  Brownstown Central defeated Wapahani 55-36.

The tale of this game for me was that Brownstown played the first half clean as a whistle.  Wapahani did not go to the charity stripe one single time in the first half.  That is rare at any level of basketball.  This is a true sign of a well-disciplined BC team.

Part two of the tale is that, and excuse my language, in the first half Wapahani couldn’t hit a cow in the ass with a bass fiddle.  With 2:13 left in the 2nd quarter, Wapahani’s shooting percentage was 21.1% to Brownstown Central’s 55.6%.  We need not look at much more.  The halftime score was 31-14 in favor of the BC Braves.

This was the first time I had seen this BC team in action this season.  I don’t get around to basketball games like I do football games.  Seeing this team in action, and I wanted to all year, was worth it.  One thing I jotted down in my notebook at halftime was about a pass that I saw BC senior Jack Benter throw across the court to a teammate in the opposite corner that turned into a three pointer, my apologies to the shooter.  That was the best pass I have seen at a high school game since I was announcing courtside at Medora when a kid named Brody Boyd came to town playing for Dugger.  Boyd threw a bounce pass in front of me that was so quick, fast, and accurate that I still smile when I think about it.  So impressed, that whenever I step foot into a high school gym to watch a game, I think about that pass each time I do so.

Wapahani came out in the second half like a team that wished it could start the game over again.  The Raiders outscored the Braves 14-7 in the third quarter.  At the end of 3 quarters, Wapahani was shooting 35% and the Braves fell to 42%.  That was that.

And that pass I was spoke of earlier?  Well, sorry Brody.  In the 4th quarter, Jack Benter was seemingly trapped on the block and had nowhere to go.  I was waiting for a Meatball Cockerham double-pump under bridge technique.  No need.  Benter spotted his teammate, sophomore Micah Sheffer, in the FAR corner from Benter’s precarious position.  Jack Benter proceeded to engage in a behind the back pass that took one solid bounce before it landed perfectly into the hands of Sheffer. Like the sophomore quarterback he is with good sense, Sheffer threw in a three pointer that put the icing on the cake of a pass and shot that will be talked about in and around Indiana High School Basketball long after my granddaughter is talking about me in the past tense.  The play was that good and I was there to see it.

Benter finished with 25 points.  Chace Coomer threw in 13.  Micah Sheffer scored 10, and Parker Hehman, who averaged 11.6 a game on the season, played the role of teammate extraordinary by tossing out 8 of the team’s 13 assists.  I am not going to list all the players here.  Don’t think I don’t appreciate you.  I haven’t officially been a Brownstown Central Brave since before the Miracle on Ice.  But for 1 hour and 24 minutes, surrounded by old friends and guys I was in a huddle with once upon a time myself, I was a Brave again for the first time in a very long time.  In truth, that feeling wore off by the time I was in my car riding away while the team was on the floor getting medals and a nice trophy.  I didn’t stick around for ceremony.  I was fortunate to receive what I did; I ran before something could ruin it.

Let me close with saying congratulations to Coach Dave Benter and the rest of his coaching staff, two of whom I worked with at Medora many years ago.  Marty Young and Michael Leitzman are both good guys.  And congratulations to assistant coach Kevin Gwin for being recognized, during the game at that, with a plaque acknowledging Kevin as the IHSAA Champion Educator for Brownstown Central.  Another victory!

Congratulations BCHS.  I enjoyed it.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

I have a soft spot for old English rock and rollers.  When I saw that Steve Hackett, one of the greatest guitar players ever to reach for a pick, was going to be playing at The Brown County Music Center in Nashville, Indiana there was certainly a tug to head that direction this past Thursday evening.  The tug won.

I remember something Justin Hayward said in 1992, “There’s nothing more disgusting I think sometimes in the English countryside than that old sort of English rock and roller sitting there in his stately home, you know, plinking his guitar and wondering what to do next.”

Cue Steve Hackett.  Hackett had a desire on this tour to play places he and his group had not been to.  The man who can fill up The Royal Albert Hall was bringing the goods in earnest at a Brown County Music Center that I doubt had 400 in attendance.  Still, there was a power on that stage led by a guitar hero in his 70s that doesn’t come around very often.  The man, whose finger picking on the neck inspired Eddie Van Halen, has more dexterity in his fingers than anyone I have ever seen.  A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer from his time (1971-1977) as the lead guitarist and composer in the group Genesis during a time when this band was making music that was ahead of its time and music that will stand the test of time long after I’m here to tell you about it.  Hackett and his boys on stage were the real thing.

My newspapers these days are on my new laptop. I am using my new computer to write this post.  My dear wife, Carrie, got tired of me looking at my online newspapers on my phone or my Chromebook.  This new HP has a much larger screen.

The daily Louisville Courier-Journal is no longer delivered to our address.  This has been a terrible adjustment for me.  I read The Tribune from Seymour.  It only publishes properly two days a week now.  Your old Uncle Dan can remember The Seymour Daily Tribune back in the day.  I can keep up with my native Jackson County and folks I still know well there.

These days I am reading the Indianapolis Star online daily.  This is paper is better than the Courier and in its last days on my kitchen table, The Courier was not giving us any Southern Indiana news.  This was both disconcerting and offensive.

I finish things off with The New York Times.  If there is something there to catch my eye, I read it closely.  If not, I pass it by.  I enjoy the music, theatre, and arts a great deal.

I miss the tangible experience of holding a paper and folding it up.  When I go out of town, I relish handling some of the papers I truly enjoy.

I found this picture recently.  It was a halftime chat my Dad was giving his team at Brownstown Central in 1978.  Looks like they were on the wrong side of the scoreboard at halftime.  You don’t see photos like this in school yearbooks anymore.

The latest North Harrison High School Hodgepodcast featured senior Zachary Miller.  I had a blast listening to The Miller’s Tale.  I am looking forward to watching this young man pitch for the NH Baseball Team.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

What’s it going to be?  Warm or cold?  Ugh.  Such is March.  

It must be March.  I am paying close attention to college basketball and was delighted to watch North Carolina State upset UNC in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game.  5 games won in 5 days for the 10th seeded (in that tournament) Wolfpack.  How big a deal is this?  NC State last won this tourney in 1987.  Having UNC and Duke within Levi Garrett spitting distance from each other along Tobacco Road and NC State 25 miles down the road makes this unlike anything in college sports I can point at.  Well done NC State.

So much went on this past week.

Eric Carmen, the great singer-songwriter, passed away.  Whether as the lead man in The Raspberries or singing All By Myself, Boats Against the Current, Never Gonna Fall in Love Again, Hungry Eyes, or Make Me Lose Control, Carmen was one cool cat.  From Cleveland, Eric Carmen will be missed.  He is one I wanted to hear in person that I did not get to.  That makes me sad.

When I looked at the calendar on March 11 I did a double take.  No, I thought.  It can’t be.  Yes.  It has.

30 years since The Moody Blues played in Evansville.  These pictures were taken because I had a PHOTO PASS.  I wish our camera had been a little better.  We can call it a true sign of the times.

Thirty years later, Justin Hayward was playing a show in the old country this week.

Justin is on tour in the UK.  He comes back to the United States for a tour in July.  I doubt I will make that one.

A few folks told me I was overreacting when I wrote some time ago about the changing face of college football.  When I listened to Nick Saban talking about the same thing this week I just shook my head in agreement.  All I can say is, at this point, something has to get better.  Look for us to suffer through an awkward season with no PAC-12 and conferences going through growing pains.  A few conferences and many players will be going to the bank watching their budgets swell.  What else could this be about?

I must say the North Harrison High School Hodgepodcast has been a great thing so far.  The students and faculty member I have sat down and jawed with so far have had a good time.  I really believed in the concept.  I thought it would work.  Through five episodes, we have not had to STOP! and start over again.  Every syllable has been from the heart.  We’ve talked about music, track season, academics, science teaching, archery, future plans, and more.  In upcoming episodes we will be discussing baseball and the upcoming school play.

HOW ABOUT THAT MID-SOUTHERN CONFERENCE!

I know.  This is an old photo.  I have not been to the Brownstown Central High School gym since they installed the new floor.  Given it was designed by a guy who stood up in my wedding, I should be ashamed.  I am.

I am not ashamed to report that the Class 2A BCHS Braves and the class 3A Scottsburg Warriors, both members of the Mid-Southern Conference will be playing the State Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on March 30th.  The high schools have to wait for the NCAA Tourney stop to clear out before it is their turn.

Last week I was a bit critical of the plight of listening to the Braves games on radio.  Can’t really blame myself.  Rare is the time I can make it through an entire broadcast.  Gladly, I can report that, for whatever reason, the announcers were much improved this weekend.  I don’t know if they were inspired by the “burp” one of them turned loose before tip-off (the burper did say “Excuse me.” and that was encouraging) or the fact that there was just a little more consistency about the recognition of the players.  All I can say is keep up the good work.  I was able to hang with both games this weekend.

Tomorrow will be a good day for me.  I have been looking forward to my 56th birthday.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Editorial Note:  Written while listening to the Brownstown Central Braves play Sullivan for the Regional Championship.  Listening is painful.  One Brave announcer finds it cute to call out Jack Benter by his first name…at all times…whilst referencing the other BC players by their last name.  Thankfully, JACK is a senior.  Listening to this is always painful. Know that I called football, basketball, and baseball on radio at the high school level for many years. I feel I can state this.  Still, I follow the Braves when my North Harrison Cougars are not playing.

I am either that old or that much of a traditionalist.  

Not unlike so many of us, I have a “news feed” on my cell phone that is dictated by that which I am interested in.  Ballet does not show up.  Water Polo does not show up.  My news feed has a great deal of items related to music and a great many devoted to sports.  Football is the primary sport I am “informed” of.

News Feeds, for me, are becoming more and more unworthy with each passing day.

I get stuff like this:

3 Musicians That Dislike the Eagles…who cares?  I don’t like The Eagles.  Sure, I have a copy of Hotel California. But why should I give a rat’s bladder about 3 musicians who don’t like The Eagles.  I know their windbags.  Personally I don’t think The Eagles pushed themselves creatively.  Still, I don’t care what any other musician thinks about them similarly to how I don’t care what a music critic thinks.

Alabama had 2 coaches in mind to replace Nick Saban… I certainly doubt that.  There had to be at least six candidates on the short list.  The hierarchy of the Tide Athletic Admin and Boosters would never let themselves appear to be a bunch that had to keep looking.

Rece Davis names Big Ten Team that will ‘Never” be Michigan or Ohio State... Does it get any dumber than this?  Probably.  But man, this is asinine.  How do I get this off my phone?  I liken it to stepping in a pile of dog crap and noticing that something stinks after I take my shoes off.

Paul Finebaum Bluntly Names College Football Teams That Don’t Belong in CFP (College Football Playoff)…  The 2024 season starts in earnest the first week in September.  Why?  People really care about this?  Look, I think the world of Paul Finebaum.  His daily show on the SEC Network is a throwback.  Regular callers.  Great guests.  Paul lets folks have their say.  Face it.  My news feed stinks.  Am I that boring and predictable?

Rece Davis Names Most Underrated Fight Song in College Football… Shoot me. We really care about this in March?  You say someone does?  God help them.

BRAVES LEAD AT THE HALF…29-18…if I heard correctly.  Listening is not easy.  Oh, by the way, I just answered the station’s halftime trivia question and won a pizza.  Small consolation prize for the listen.

The College Football Announcing Road always leads me back to Keith Jackson.  I know.  I know.  He’s gone.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t try to do it like Keith did.

My favorite Keith Jackson quotes:

“Amplify, clarify, and let the viewer draw his or her own conclusion.”...How refreshing.  Don’t be the story.  Tell the story.

If I’ve helped people enjoy the telecast, that’s fine.  That’s my purpose.”…The man knew his purpose.

“The one thing you can’t ever forget-the playing field is the property of the players and coaches.  It’s not to be used by some fat-butted announcer trying to make a name for himself.”….Keith would never have a chance in today’s climate of blow-hard announcers.  I love the man.

Keith was a soothsayer…

“When the money gets bigger and the stakes get higher, the sea gets wider, and the sharks in the water grow sharper teeth.”…  College football personified long before there was a thing called NIL in play.  Keith Jackson died a long time ago.  The man was ahead of his time.

How messed up is my news feed?

I get all the crap I have mentioned here on my phone (not the Keith Jackson stuff).  What did I not get on my phone?

Today as I was on the elliptical downstairs, I decided to go through some YouTube to find something to pass the time.  I found a story that broke my heart.

It’s March 9th and only today did I find out that the great Chris Mortensen, Mort, a credible NFL JOURNALIST,  A REAL ONE, died on March 3rd.  How great was Mort?  Peyton Manning knew he could TRUST Mort.  When Peyton Manning left the Indianapolis Colts, he told Mort.  And he asked Mort to sit on the story until the next day.  Mort was a man of his word.  Mort was a man of dignity.  Mort was a man of truth.

Why did I not know this?  I don’t watch ESPN’s Sportscenter.  Can’t stand the announcers.  I don’t read a daily paper.  One is no longer delivered to my address.  Another The Day the Music Died story.  How can my credible news feed leave out the death of Mort?

Get me out of here.  I don’t watch pre-game shows.  And now looks like I need to find a way to change my news feed on my phone.

Keith Jackson, I am glad you did not live long enough to see this.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Written whilst listening to original vinyl from 1974.  50 years?  Don’t tell me that.

I recently acquired the autobiography written by Barbara Streisand.  I have read only a few chapters.  I had to look for what she had to say about Pat Conroy, the author of  the novel The Prince of Tides which Barbara made a movie out of and did a great job of.  Her accounts of Pat Conroy were favorable bordering on exceptional.  I met Pat Conroy once.  And for me, that time was exceptional.  When I told him I was an English teacher, he was mine.  I am so glad his novel was given the treatment it deserved.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem I was quite enamored with in college.          The Tide Rises,the Tide Falls by Longfellow made an impression on me.  A song I wrote many years ago alludes to this poem slightly.

I use this as a reference for the title of this post.

Yesterday while I put myself through a vigorous workout on the elliptical, I watched, for the first time in my life, A Star is Born (1976) starring Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.  This movie has been a part of my life since I was 8.  Why?  The song Evergreen, the love theme of the movie, has played out in my head for more than 47 years.  I love the song.  And guess what?  I enjoyed the movie.

Watching this movie, I came to the conclusion that, in my mind, Barbara Streisand is the greatest American entertainer in history.

Watching A Star is Born, I was asked to believe that Streisand’s character was a nobody waiting to be discovered.  This from the actress that wooed us in Funny Girl, cracked us up in What’s Up Doc?, and already made us cry with a song and acting performance in the movie The Way We Were with Robert Redford.

I believed every minute of A Star is Born. She was that good.

Watching her sing Evergreen in the movie after my personal movie had been established was tough.  My mind already had a video for this tune and they did not mesh.

Bob Seger was never big on making videos.  Think about it.  How many Seger tunes have you SEEN?  You haven’t.  Seger once said the video that is most important is the one we conjure in our own mind.  I paraphrase here.

I still think Barbara Streisand’s performance was monumental in A Star is Born.  I am glad I finally got around to watching this film.  It was important.

I end this listening to Justin Hayward and the Moody Blues singing Nights in White Satin.  This song is timeless.  So is the work of Barbara Streisand.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson