YOU!

YES, YOU, DEAR READER!

We here at crimson quarry dot com heard that you like ‘crootin news. We also hear that you enjoy hot boards, lists, things of that nature.

So much so that there now exists a watchdog twitter account for a collective and the message board known a- *a blowdart flies in from an unseen source and pierces my arm, I instantly fall unconscious*

...

Okay so we don’t know much, if any, more than you do regarding these matters. We’re a bunch of fairly average dudes. We’re also not letting recruiting updates take over our every waking moment. There’s work to do, walks to go on, degrees to receive and beers to drink.

But we know you.

It’s the offseason, you’re absolutely starved for any content. Some of you went so nuts in your restless impatience that Xavier Johnson felt the need to put out a statement (tweet) telling you to chill.

So we here at CQ have decided to whip up a new post to sate your relentless, all-consuming appetite for hoosier content.

Here’s what we think Indiana University and the City of Bloomington should be looking to add to their SOMETHING one way or another in the near future. Some of it is serious! Most isn’t.

We’ll be updating this too. It is a hot board after all and you can’t expect us to have all of our good ideas ready to share all at once.

Who cares, let’s boogie.

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BLOOMINGTON WAFFLE HOUSE

Okay I know the Waffle House Index (not explaining, Google it) is a real thing because I had to comb through a sea of unfortunate photo captions to find a regular old Waffle House image.

Though it’s Waffle House so maybe that just comes with the territory.

Look I’m well aware that the chain is much more of a thing in The South but this is Southern Indiana, we’re about as close as it gets without “S-E-C” chants, grits or great hatred for Nick Saban.

A Waffle House would be right at home in Bloomington and I doubt it’s the first time I’ve made this point on the site. Why not, I would love something to replace the decaying husk of the old Denny’s and get some cheap eggs and, well, waffles.

We got a Raising Cane’s, we can manage a Waffle House.

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A WING FOR THE MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM

Lily Smith/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK

mmmm, wings.

Anyway if you know anything about Indiana men’s basketball since roughly 2017-18 you’ll know that a lack of true, good wings has been a massive issue. It’s been a bit better as of late under Mike Woodson but we need more to play the modern game.

Granted there’s not a ton to go around in the Big Ten, which had all of one player on The Athletic’s 20 best wings list from last season.

That guy was Kris Murray. I do not need to tell you what that kind of player means to a team because that should’ve been uhhhhh evident! The “guys to watch” on that list included a few other guys from the league. But those guys didn’t make the tournament or lost to a 16-seed.

Kris Murray stands out because of his ability to score from all over the court, but the good news is that wings can come in all shapes, sizes, and skillsets. On the list linked above, there are guards coming in at 6-4, forwards at 6-8, and any number of combinations of shooting, defense, and driving.

If Indiana can land a wing or guard who can do two of those three things on the court, things should work out okay. It may be tempting to prioritize shooting cause of Indiana’s recent struggles from 3-point range, but remember, Indiana just got back a 38% 3-point shooter in Xavier Johnson.

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DMC DeLorean Time Machine set to October 24, 2020

Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for ReedPop

Look, the football team is a mess. But once, not so long ago, that was not the case.

With an infinite supply of plutonium and a DeLorean Time Machine, we will be able to continue reliving the greatest Indiana football season that didn’t end in a Rose Bowl, starting with Michael Penix’s reach to beat Penn State in overtime.

Don’t worry, I’ve seen the rest of Back to the Future, and know there could be adverse consequences for interfering with the space-time continuum. I have to ask though, could the last two seasons have gone worse?

In an altered present, in which Indiana didn’t go winless in the Big Ten in 2021, I may still be a little bit alive inside. We may not have seen the Hoosiers lose a bucket game 44-7 or a 54-7 nationally televised humiliation at Ohio State.

That doesn’t sound so bad to me.

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Amtrak

Photo by: Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

One of my favorite parts of Bloomington is how isolated it is, at least an hour’s drive to the nearest big city - far enough to be a standalone town that isn’t considered a suburb of anything. It’s just Bloomington, and it’s pretty perfect.

That said, as somebody from Chicago, I would have appreciated the opportunity to get to and from Bloomington via train. And why stop at Chicago? Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati, and really most cities around the midwest send thousands to Bloomington every fall.

To be transparent, this idea is inspired by my own experience visiting Marquette via train from Chicago, which allowed my girlfriend and I to drink on the train to and from Milwaukee. For a quick weekend trip to see a basketball game, this is my platonic ideal.

Not to mention that most of the major roads going into Bloomington have been under construction for some period in the last ten years, since I first started making my annual trips down. Returning to school from winter break on I-65 in early January is never fun - I usually saw three or four carloads of students pulled to the shoulders during the snowstorms we inevitably hit on our way back to campus.

All of this unnecessary, unsafe time on the road could be avoided with a simple, high speed rail connecting Bloomington to the rest of the Midwest. East Coast Hoosiers know the power of Amtrak, and it’s time for us Midwesterners to catch up.

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