To those who have followed the link from my old blog, The Hoosier Report, thanks. To those who have ended up here through SB Nation or other means, welcome. I suppose it makes sense that I would end up here eventually. I started The Hoosier Report on a whim, just over two years ago, after reading a post on Stampede Blue, the SB Nation blog covering the Indianapolis Colts, lamenting the absence of an IU or Purdue blog on the network. I quickly settled into my content Blogger existence, but I certainly was honored to receive an invitation a few weeks ago. So:
What will I cover, and how? The main focus of this blog, just like The Hoosier Report, will be football and men's basketball. I have no experience with either sport beyond the intramural level, so I'm no x's and o's genius, but I try to focus on statistics, broader questions of strategy, history, the news, and the like. I'm not a recruitnik, but I'll certainly keep you up to date on commitments and signings. In basketball, particularly, I enjoy playing with tempo free statistics. Of course, significant events in all other sports will be discussed here, and I intend to make more of an effort to cover IU's second-tier sports such as baseball, women's basketball, and soccer. The Big Ten Network makes it much easier to see these teams, and so I'll try to remain up to date on major developments there. But the main focus will be the two revenue sports.
Why "The Crimson Quarry"? I struggled with the name, but ultimately, it fits. As all IU students and alumni and most Indiana residents know, in contrast to the cornfield-dominated northern half of the state, the portion of southern Indiana where IU lies is hilly limestone country. Indiana limestone from Bloomington and surrounding areas has been used in construction everywhere from the IU campus to the Pentagon and Empire State Building. Also, as dramatized in Breaking Away, the abandoned limestone quarries near the IU campus have become swimming holes and gathering places for students and locals (or "cutters," short for stonecutters, in IU-speak) alike. Hopefully, students, alumni, and fans with no official connection to the university all will enjoy reading this blog and contributing here.
Again, welcome to those of you who aren't carryovers from the old place. For those of you who are, please sign up for an ID. You can join any SB Nation blog with the same ID. Also, please chime in. While I haven't mastered all of the tools yet, I have the ability to bump worthwhile comments to the front page. This isn't exactly the golden age of IU athletics, but hopefully I'll still be here when the basketball and football programs are having more success than in 2008-09.