Herald-Times articles Feb. 18-20, 2006
Hoosiers still headed in the wrong direction
by Stan Sutton
Herald-Times Column
February 20, 2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The needle in Indiana's compass continues to point south today.
There was no magic reversal in the Hoosiers' fortunes Sunday.
Indiana's 70-58 loss to Illinois left more questions than answers about what has happened since IU beat the then-No. 7 Fighting Illini Jan. 17 in Bloomington, 62-60.
A month ago Indiana had a 10-3 record, was in the thin air of the national rankings and was looking at a decent seeding in the NCAA Tournament. A month later, the Hoosiers have lost five straight and seven of their last eight. They have four regular-season games remaining and need to win at least two of those to take a winning record into the Big Ten Tournament March 9-12.
"They've lost their swagger," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said of the Hoosiers.
They've also lost their shooting touch, making only 38 percent of their shots over the past seven games. Sunday they missed 18 of 22 3-point attempts and the 3-pointer has become an act of desperation. IU shot 34 of them Wednesday at Penn State, 22 last weekend against Iowa and 3 of 16 before that at Wisconsin.
In December the outside shots were less contested, such as the 16-of-29 shooting IU had against Florida A&M or the 16 of 26 it had at Western Illinois.
In December the game plan was to go inside to Marco Killingsworth (and for a while D.J. White), then work it outside if nothing opened up inside. Now many of the 3-pointers are pointed more toward beating the shot clock. Others seem to reflect poor judgment.
"There were five or six shots we definitely shouldn't have taken," coach Mike Davis said.
In a perfect world, the Hoosiers would have come to Champaign and reacted to Davis' mid-week resignation by thumping the now No. 14 Illini.
Instead, the latest in a series of poor starts doomed them in the first half and even when their play improved in the second half the winner never was in doubt.
Weber has been supportive of Davis, adding of the Hoosiers, "They really do some good things. I'd love for them to finish strong and get in the NCAA."
That suddenly has become a problem and it may be the one reason the IU players don't want to throw in the towel. Indiana plays host to Penn State Wednesday and Michigan State Sunday, then closes the regular season at Purdue and Michigan.
IU already has lost to Penn State and Michigan State, but let's say it splits the final four games and loses in the Big Ten Tournament opener. That would leave the Hoosiers 15-13 overall with a 7-9 season record in the conference. That wouldn't serve them well on Selection Sunday, plus one important factor in being selected is a fast finish.
Illinois guard Dee Brown, who made only 4 of 21 shots in the two games against Indiana, believes the Illini's improvement since the first IU game was mostly of their own doing.
"They're no different," he said of the Hoosiers. "We played better today. We came out with a better mentality and played with more intensity."
"This is probably the hardest we've played in a while," Illini forward Brian Randle said.
Indiana's defense remained shaky, a recent shortcoming. The Illini shot 53 percent in the first half and 50 percent for the game, falling off a little when the Hoosiers tried a zone. A 22-4 run put Indiana in a big hole.
Asked if IU might play more zone, Davis said, "Gonna have to. Our man-to-man isn't very good."
"Whatever you call it we need to do it to the fullest extent," IU guard Earl Calloway said.
"We were definitely out there fighting," IU senior Lewis Monroe insisted, and Davis concurred. "We still have a shot at making it in the tournament."
Monroe said if the Hoosiers are unable to make the NCAA Tournament he would be receptive to accepting a bid to the National Invitation Tournament.
"I just want to keep playing as long as I can," he said.
More of the same for IU; Shooting woes story at Illinois as Indiana dealt fifth-straight loss
By Doug Wilson
February 20, 2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Hoosiers didn't get blown out Sunday, but they didn't get anything turned around either.
In the first game after coach Mike Davis announced he'll step down at the end of the season, Indiana waded into one of the country's most difficult places to play against No. 14 Illinois. With a sea of rowdy orange-clad fans rising at every Illinois score, the Illini sprinted to a 17-point lead 12 minutes into the game.
"We missed some layups that we probably should have made," Davis said. "We missed some wide-open shots."
Illinois looked to be headed for a romp, but had to settle for a 70-58 victory. The Illini were in control of the game from the start, raising their record to 22-4 and 8-4 in conference play.
Davis didn't like the game's outcome, but was proud of his team's effort under the circumstances.
"With all the things that have gone on, I thought today was pretty good," Davis said. "For us to come play at Illinois on the road after last week, I thought it was pretty good.
"No one really thought that we had a chance to win. We would have had to play a perfect game to win.
"I thought we had opportunities that we didn't take advantage of in the first 10 minutes of the game when we missed layups and then we'd get offensive rebounds and get them knocked away from us. I think we're in good shape with our guys to pick it back up."
oIt was IU's fifth straight loss and its seventh defeat in eight games. The Hoosiers (13-10, 5-7) remain in seventh place in the Big Ten.
Illinois (22-4, 8-4) pulled into a three-way tie with Ohio State and Wisconsin for second place. Iowa is in first place by a half game at 9-4.
"I think we keep taking steps toward being really good," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.
Weber said with IU not shooting nearly as well from the outside as they did early in the season, it's easier to defend Marco Killingsworth inside.
"There's no doubt they're a different team than you saw in December," Weber said.
The win raised Illinois' record at home to 92-4 over the past six and a half seasons.
Illinois forward James Augustine was the game's leading scorer and rebounder with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Augustine said the Illini were very good defensively and played better on offense than they have recently.
"We played great as a team," Augustine said.
Killingsworth led IU with 15 points and six rebounds.
Illinois outshot IU from the field 50 percent to 35.7 percent, and outrebounded the Hoosiers 37-22.
Guard Earl Calloway said it's been a challenging week for IU's players, but the team is determined to stay focused and finish the season strongly.
"It helps us develop as young men," Calloway said of getting ready to play after Davis' announcement. "We all knew the situation before we came here to school. It happens, so, hey, we've got to get ready, move on."
IU likely needs to win the rest of its four Big Ten games to put itself in position for an NCAA Tournament bid, but Calloway said the Hoosiers aren't thinking about a return trip to the NIT.
"If it happens, it happens," he said. "But our main goal is to finish up strong in the Big Ten and go to the (NCAA) tournament."
Calloway said IU's players are expecting the support of home fans for IU's final two home games against Penn State (13-11, 5-8) Wednesday and Michigan State (19-7, 7-5) Sunday.
"This is the time we need support," he said. "We don't need any negativity at home, but support from the fans. We need them to back us up. We need them."
INDIANA 58
Min AFG FT OR-R A TO PF Pts
Killingsworth F 27 5- 11 5- 7 4- 6 1 3 4 15
Vaden F 36 4- 13 0- 0 0- 4 3 2 3 9
Strickland G 30 2- 5 3- 4 1- 1 1 3 1 8
Monroe G 19 1- 2 0- 0 0- 0 1 0 2 2
Calloway G 30 2- 8 4- 4 1- 3 3 4 5 9
Wilmont 22 4- 8 2- 2 1- 2 0 0 1 10
Suhr 2 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 0 0 0
Ratliff 17 1- 4 0- 0 1- 1 0 0 0 3
Allen 13 1- 5 0- 0 1- 3 0 1 4 2
Kline 4 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 0 0 0
Team 1- 5 1
Totals 200 20- 56 14- 17 10- 25 9 14 20 58
ILLINOIS 70
Min AFG FT OR-R A TO PF Pts
Augustine F 32 7- 11 4- 4 2- 10 1 1 5 18
Randle F 36 5- 9 2- 2 3- 5 3 5 1 12
Pruitt C 15 3- 3 2- 2 2- 2 0 1 3 8
Brown G 36 3- 12 3- 4 0- 5 4 3 4 10
McBride G 34 2- 8 2- 2 0- 3 2 3 2 8
Frazier 15 0- 1 1- 2 1- 5 1 1 1 1
Carter 25 3- 4 3- 6 2- 3 0 2 1 9
Arnold 7 2- 2 0- 0 0- 2 0 1 2 4
Team 0- 2 1
Totals 200 25- 50 17- 22 10- 37 11 18 19 70
SCORE BY HALVES 3FG AFG FT
Indiana (13-10, 5-7) 25 33- 58 .182 .357 .824 Illinois (22-4, 8-4) 38 32- 70 .176 .500 .773
3PFG: Indiana 4-22 (Ratliff 1-2, Calloway 1-3, Strickland 1-4, Vaden 1-9, Monroe 0-1, Wilmont 0-1, Allen 0-2), Illinois 3-17 (McBride 2-7, Brown 1-6, Augustine 0-1, Frazier 0-1, Randle 0-2). Blocks: Indiana 0, Illinois 2 (Augustine 2). Steals: Indiana 8 (Strickland 3, Calloway 3, Vaden, Wilmont), Illinois 6 (Augustine 2, Randle 2, McBride, Carter). Officials: Jim Burr, Tom O'Neill, Tim Higgins. A: 16,618.
Poetry, dance and dreams for Arts Week
by Nicole Kauffman
February 19, 2006
BLOOMINGTON -- A jazz great. A world premiere opera. Hip-hop poets.
A kids' imagined village, called Crestmontville. Antique quilts. Art from 19th-century Bloomington.
Dancing.
Experience all that and more during ArtsWeek -- 10 days, actually -- a time to marvel at the many cultural offerings this small city supports.
The week started in the late '80s as a way to highlight all that was happening over one weekend; now, it's stretched to a 10-day event in the winter. And it's a time of year that gives arts organizations a reason to hold special events.
This year marks a new beginning of sorts for the arts extravaganza. It's truly the town-gown collaboration organizers have always wanted it to be. Everyone you can think of is aboard, either contributing to the creation of art or providing a location to show it off -- from the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center to the John Waldron Arts Center to IU Opera Theater to the Wells library.
"The planning group now is half-campus, half-community," said coordinator Mike Wilkerson.
ArtsWeek begins Wednesday with the Bloomington Area Arts Leadership Awards, followed by performances that begin Thursday. The 2006 theme is "Our Town," chosen because of the world-premiere opera of the same name opening at Indiana University on Friday.
Wilkerson says that this year, and in future years, the ArtsWeek theme will directly correspond with the New Frontiers initiative, an IU program for research and creative activity in the arts and humanities. (For many years, ArtsWeek was paid for by the Dean of Faculties office, but now it's mostly funded by New Frontiers.)
Other new developments include the ArtsWeek committee giving small grants for special presentations, and marketing that reaches Indianapolis to attract more visitors for events.
While the new opera itself surely will receive the most attention -- media from all over the country is expected for the premiere weekend -- it's just one of many events patrons can enjoy. And there's truly something for everyone.
Events surrounding the opera include a talk by Tappan Wilder -- a nephew of Thornton Wilder, the original "Our Town" playwright. Tappan Wilder will be here to see the premiere and to introduce a documentary called "Our Town." It's about a poor school creating its first-ever theater production with the original "Our Town" play, and it will be screened at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 in the Simon Center.
Music, poetry and more
Every night in The Lodge -- a salon space above the Subway shop on Walnut Street in Bloomington -- visitors can stop by and enjoy free entertainment, with different genres being highlighted nightly. One night, feminist performers take the stage; on another, the hip-hop poetry group Black Curtain Theater will perform.
A jazz and dance concert with music by Monika Herzig; a poetry reading by J.D. McClatchy; a concert with jazz great Larry Coryell; and several more -- all being compiled for www.artsweek.indiana.edu -- round out the performances.
It will be fun to see how arts organizations have interpreted the "Our Town" theme. The John Waldron Arts Center, for example, is spotlighting work from staff at the downtown store Pygmalion's Art Supplies, in an exhibit at the Rosemary P. Miller Gallery. Collaborative artist Joe LaMantia has set up shop at Stone Belt, where people with mental and physical challenges have helped artists create pieces for display on Kirkwood Avenue. The Wylie House Museum exhibit, "Art in 19th-century Bloomington," will show antique quilts.
"Crestmontville: A Community Art Project" is in the Thomas T. Solley atrium at the IU Art Museum. Youth Art Month contest winners featuring work by children in area schools is also on display at the IU Art Museum. And, at Lennie's, winners of an art contest for Monroe County high school students have their work on exhibit. The Bloomington Playwrights Project also is unveiling "B'town Plays" at various locations around Bloomington.
Such a cornucopia of the arts is a sure sign ArtsWeek is getting more organized as it grows older, and that it's making a real name for itself in the community and really taking hold.
After all, "Nobody's getting paid for this," Wilkerson said. "And there's no shortage of people that want to participate."
Friends remember Karl Schuessler's music and humor; A tribute concert is set Monday for clarinetist, IU sociology professor
By Nicole Kauffman
February 19, 2006
BLOOMINGTON -- For years to come, students who walk through the doors of the Karl F. Schuessler Institute for Social Research may wonder just who he was. But those who knew and loved Schuessler, who died Dec. 26 at Bloomington Hospital, are determined to keep his memory alive.
When Robert Robinson arrived as a new faculty member in the sociology department at Indiana University in 1979, Schuessler was already a legendary figure at the school.
"He was the elder statesman of the department," Robinson said.
Schuessler was a great influence on IU's sociology program, considered one of the best in the country: "He set the tone for faculty," said Robinson, now department chairman.
In 1947, Schuessler was one of the first students to receive a doctorate from the department, after a four-year stint in the service during World War II interrupted his graduate studies.
When he served as chairman of the department from 1961 to 1969, he was known for his high standards, including his methodological rigor, and his dedication to statistical social research. He established the Institute for Social Research, which was renamed the Karl F. Schuessler Institute for Social Research in 2003.
Schuessler loved to tell stories about the department's early days, which he recounted with a great sense of humor, Robinson said. Fond memories of being a student abounded: On weekend nights, he and the other graduate students got together to gossip about faculty and sing "sociology fight songs."
"He had a warm, witty, wonderful, kind of droll sense of humor," Robinson said.
Schuessler spent 38 years on the faculty, and he received the title Distinguished Professor in 1976.
But, there's another part of Bloomington that was equally near and dear to his heart - the thriving jazz scene.
He played clarinet with the Cafe Jazz Society, a group that often performed at sociology department events. He also played with the IU Faculty Five and the Jordan River Irregulars, among others. He was fascinated by people's relationship to music, Robinson said; his doctoral thesis was a study of the effects of socioeconomic background on musical tastes.
"He later penned his own theme song to the department," Robinson said, laughing. It was to the tune of "My Country 'Tis of Thee."
When interviewing prospective hires for faculty positions, Schuessler liked to ask what their instruments were.
"It was like he was trying to compose an orchestra," Robinson said, like he was creating a mix of sociological subfields that could double as a musical ensemble.
A memorial service is 10 a.m. to noon Monday in the Musical Arts Center lobby. It will include performances of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32, third movement, a vocal selection and music by the Cafe Jazz Society.
On Thursday at Bear's Place, Jazz Fables will present the B'town Bearcats in another tribute to Schuessler. Classics by Hoagy Carmichael, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and more will be featured.
Schuessler tributes
WHAT: A memorial service for Karl Schuessler, with performances of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32, third movement; a vocal selection; and music by the Cafe Jazz Society.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon Monday
WHERE: IU's Musical Arts Center, South Jordan Avenue
HOW MUCH: Free
INFO: (812) 855-7433
MORE: At 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Jazz Fables at Bear's Place, 1316 E. Third St., Bloomington, will present the B'town Bearcats in a tribute to Schuessler. Classics by Hoagy Carmichael, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and more will be featured. Cover is $6.
Always at the side of the dreamer
Guest column
February 19, 2006
This guest column was written by A.B. Assensoh and Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh of Indiana University. Each worked, on different occasions and locations, for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University and the King Center at Atlanta.
Before Dr. King's death propelled her to the forefront of the modern civil rights movement, Coretta Scott King was a concerned wife and mother of two young children: Yolanda (Yoki), born in 1955; and Martin III (Marty) born in 1957 (that was before Dexter was born in 1961 and Bernice Albertine in 1963). Even in her demanding role as a mother of two young children and the wife of the most important and beleaguered leader in the modern U.S. civil rights movement, she played a pivotal role in trying to protect Dr. King's life.
For example, in 1959, she placed a call to that year's Democratic presidential candidate, then-Sen. John F. Kennedy. In her usually calm and very eloquent voice, Mrs. King ended her call: "I certainly appreciate your concern, and I would appreciate anything that you can do to help…" At the time, her husband, had been sentenced to four months' imprisonment with hard labor at the Reidville State Prison on a trumped-up charge, including traffic violation. The Georgian prison was notorious for the lynching of some of its prisoners. Therefore, Mrs. King elicited the help of Kennedy to get her husband released.
Mrs. King's call helped to forge a King-Kennedy relationship that helped in winning the black vote for Kennedy's presidential bid, in which he beat Vice President Richard Nixon. It is, therefore, no surprise that she and her children protected and projected his legacy in death. Indeed, since Dr. King's assassination, Mrs. King has stood in as his "shadowy" replacement. She went on to establish the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change on Auburn Avenue, not too far from the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her father-in-law and late husband and other King family members preached.
The young Martin and Coretta met when the future husband was in theology school at Boston University and she was, also, in a music school at the New England Conservatory. With a beautiful voice, she was studying voice or concert singing. Apart from her first degree from Antioch College in Ohio, and her education from the Conservatory, Mrs. King's received over 50 honorary doctoral degrees, mostly because of her active status as the "first lady" and "queen" of the movement that her late husband led.
Mrs. King traveled tirelessly, speaking before civic, political and church groups, sometimes as a commencement speaker. In all, she donated earned funds to either the Southern Christian Leadership Center (SCLC) that her husband helped in founding or to the King Center. When she wrote a popular syndicated column, she used it to advance the cause of her husband's passion of non-violence and, again, the monetary proceeds from the newspaper publishers went to endow civil rights causes, including the King Center.
Mrs. King was with her husband in Ghana in March 1957, when that country received its independence on March 6 from the British (after which Dr. King preached "Birth of a new nation" sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church); in 1958, she traveled to Mexico with Dr. King at the invitation of the government; she was in India in 1959 with Dr. King, where they visited the site where the great Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. When Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, in December 1964, she was there with him. She was neither a bystander nor a silent spectator when her husband spoke out against the Vietnam War; she accompanied him and sang "We shall overcome" with him as well as with other protesters.
While Dr. King was the dreamer, Mrs. King was his visionary muse. She will be sorely missed, and may her noble soul rest in peace!
IU student blogs her way to political forefront; Web site draws thousands of visitors from around the world; one cartoon grabbed media attention
by Sarah Morin
February 18, 2006
IU sophomore Hoda Marafie started a blog a year ago so she'd have a place for her political cartoons.
She didn't expect them to catch so much attention hundreds of miles away in her home country of Kuwait.
One of her favorite drawings -- a woman with a zipper for a mouth -- was used to support Kuwaiti women in their fight for voting rights. Marafie's mother put copies of the "Kuwaiti woman" cartoon on posters, along with her daughter's blog address, and handed them out at a pro-voting rally in March.
In the end, women won the fight, and now they outnumber men in voter registrations, Marafie said.
"I was really upset that I wasn't there for the rally," Marafie said this week.
While she couldn't make the trip to attend, her cartoon sure got noticed. Photos of it reproduced on posters ran in the local Kuwaiti newspaper and on the BBC.
Now, nearly a year later, she has thousands of visitors to her blog, which features political cartoons, movie reviews and a personal list of "101 Things About Me" ("No. 1: My grudges last forever").
Marafie, who is studying journalism, updates her blog every few days. Her latest entry weighs in on the controversy over the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
It reads:
"Our religion is all about peace and we are always defending ourselves from being stereotyped as violent 'rag heads' (yes, that is just one of the names). And then there we go screwing ourselves all over again. And for what? Stupid cartoons that were mostly read in Denmark and that no one took notice of for five months. But thanks to the fabulous publicity the Middle East has caused, everyone all over the world knows of it now."
After graduating from Indiana University, Marafie wants to return to Kuwait to write and draw for a liberal media outlet.
Most of the 3,000 unique visitors to her blog are from Kuwait. Marafie has about 1,000 returning visitors each week. She enjoys the back-and-forth communication with them. Blogs allow people to comment after each post.
Marafie thinks blogging is a form of journalism, though it's not considered as such by some of her professors.
"Maybe (because) it's a new thing," she said.
But without it, she wouldn't be able to share her cartoons so quickly and easily with people on the other side of the world.
Clothing with a message is gold for four IU grads; Coexist logo shows up on celebrities, TV shows
By Marcela Creps
February 20, 2006
It was a year ago that four Indiana University graduates launched their clothing line, Coexist, a wish expressed as a word spelled with symbols that include an Islamic crescent, the Star of David and a Christian cross.
Coexist was founded by Kyle Boyd, Mike Irving, Joe Sadler and Chris Tierney, who met as IU students. Launched last February, the T-shirts have been seen on celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Ashton Kutcher.
Irving, who serves as the company's publicist, said appearances at the right trade shows helped get them in front of the right buyers.
"It really helped us gain the exposure that we needed," Irving said.
Slowly the public and the media started to embrace the line, and it helped when U2 and Bono incorporated the name into their world tour.
"Bono does these great things worldwide," Irving said. "He's this ambassador of peace and here he is embracing our logo for their world tour."
Irving said he was watching the recent Grammy awards show when the company's logo was used as a backdrop during U2's performance.
"We were watching it," he said. "We were very caught off guard. We did not know."
Irving added that the company recently was invited to participate in the gift bags offered at the Golden Globes.
"That was a great opportunity for us again," Irving said. "A lot of people were wearing our shirts at the Sundance Film Festival."
The clothing was also featured recently on designer Isaac Mizrahi's talk show.
"He really loved the pieces," Irving said. "That was really encouraging."
With all this exposure, Irving said the company has grown.
"We're continuing to build our reputation in the market, not only because of our message but because of the design, the quality construction, the story that each piece tells," Irving said. "The momentum has been tremendous for us."
Irving said the company's spring line will be shipped in mid-March. So far, the designers are happy with where the brand has gone.
"Our vision, when we started this, was to create a lifestyle brand," Irving said.
Irving explained that the company started with premium T-shirts moving to long-sleeve T-shirts, sweatshirts and now, hoodies.
There are plans for pants, skirts, jackets and maybe jeans as well as jewelry and home furnishings.
"The key is to not have the tree grow too fast," Irving said. "We want to go slow and do it right."
The line is designed by Sadler and Tierney based on a design created by Piotr Mlodozeneic, a Polish artist.
"Joe and Chris adopted the logo and decided to expose it through fashion and design," Irving said.
Irving said he was public relations manager for designer Donna Karan when he was approached about joining the Coexist team.
"I embraced the logo and understood it," Irving said. "I thought it had a huge potential."
The clothing line is available in about 110 stores in the United States and various stores in Canada and Japan. Irving said fans of the line can understand its message.
"There's a defined concept," he said. "It's a very sophisticated and modern approach to peace and unity."
