LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Delray Brooks was one of the most disappointing recruits of the three-decade Bob Knight era at Indiana University.
Brooks arrived at IU in 1984 as the USA Today high school player of the year, a must-have recruit that Knight invited to try out for the U.S. Olympic team.
Brooks departed less than 1 1/2 seasons later, taking his crooked jump shot to Providence College, where he played next to Billy Donovan on a team that Rick Pitino coached to the Final Four.
It turns out there was another guy from the Michigan City Rogers High School Class of 1984 destined to have a larger impact on Indiana basketball: Scott Dolson, the Hoosiers’ new athletic director.
Dolson, the grandson of a CPA, was bound for Indiana University from elementary school. But Brooks is the guy who encouraged Dolson to serve as a student manager for the basketball program.
Dolson was there during the Steve Alford era, enduring embarrassing moments like the 1986 NCAA Tournament loss to Cleveland State as well as the moment Indiana has failed to repeat — winning the national title (1987 in New Orleans over Syracuse).
“I want to be the athletic director that has the responsibility of getting the basketball program back to where we want it to be,” Dolson said.
Dolson won the competition to ascend from his current position as the top assistant to Fred Glass, whose 11-year run will end July 1.
This has not been a week when reasonable people have obsessed about basketball recruiting, football training facilities and the formidable growth of Teri Moren’s women’s basketball program at IU.
But, in time, those days should return. Dolson, the former director of IU’s varsity club, has as much institutional knowledge and passion for his alma mater as anybody.
He has the necessary credentials: the ability to raise money, people skills, work ethic and a vision for the changing athletic world. Now it will be a matter of Dolson proving he can make difficult decisions and lead.
During an introductory conference call Thursday morning, Dolson said he had a plan. Part of that plan was to build on Glass’s focus on five principles:
- Follow NCAA rules
- Personal development of athletes
- Academic development
- Athletic development
- Integrating athletics into the university of community.
Winning is obviously the unspoken sixth principle.
The final analysis on the Glass era has not been written, but the working draft has shown solid growth by the football program, an unprecedented move into the Top 20 by women’s basketball, sustained national prominence by the men’s soccer team, Top-25 status by both swimming teams and a baseball program at the top of the Big Ten. Steve Aird’s volleyball program should be the next team to become nationally relevant.
But...
The success of Archie Miller’s men’s basketball program will determine the final word on what Glass achieved as well as the opening word on Dolson’s tenure.
Dolson and Miller are tight. Dolson teamed with Glass during the process when IU replaced Tom Crean with Miller, sitting in on the opening interview in San Francisco.
Indiana would have made the NCAA Tournament this season. The Hoosiers won 20 games, defeating Florida State, Michigan State, Ohio State and Iowa. They had their moments. Chances are Miller will have three consecutive Indiana Mr. Basketballs on his roster next season. Even Knight did not do that.
But those are not the kind of moments Indiana fans expect from their basketball program. They expect Big Ten championships. They expect a program that stops serving as a punching bag in the Big Ten Tournament.
They expect a trip to the NCAA Tournament every season, a trip to the Final Four considerably more than once since 1992 and a resolute commitment to hang a sixth national championship banner.
Dolson knows that. Understands that. Wants that.
“I feel like I've grown up in the men's basketball program, completely understand the expectations, the high expectations that we all should have,” Dolson said. “It's not only important for the athletic department, the university, the state; It's important for Hoosier Nation. I want the same thing that everybody wants. That's critical.”
Like Dolson, Miller is a grinder, a planner.
“To me I've been impressed with Archie with that because he doesn't get too high, he doesn't get too low,” Dolson said. “He really sticks to his plan. I think if you want to really be a consistent program, have consistent success, you need to have a consistent vision and work that plan. I'm really, really confident in that. That's the thing that impressed me about Archie.
“The other thing about Archie, working so closely with him, a lot of people may not know this because you just couldn't because you're not behind the scenes, but Archie is a really good CEO of the program.
“Archie obviously is a basketball person, has grown up in basketball. I've always been impressed since he got here with how he operates the entire program. I think that's critical, as well. He has a good feel in all aspects.”
Dolson said that he has been a fan of IU basketball since he was a child. He said that he remembered the day that he cried in 1975, because a broken arm suffered by Scott May stopped Knight’s unbeaten team one game short of the Final Four. He was 8 years old.
Indiana won the title the next season, and Dolson said that he dreamed of becoming the next Quinn Buckner and May, two of the star players from that team.
He settled for becoming the star basketball manager and now the athletic director.
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