To say Pat Graham enjoyed last year's Indiana basketball reunion at the West

Baden Springs Hotel near French Lick would be an understatement.

"Unbelievable," said Graham. "I would say that one thing that was done up at

French Lick, it had been such.......the Mike Davis years, I think we all look

back and shake our head. Then the Kelvin Sampson years were a complete

embarrassment. I think all of us going back there and speaking for myself and a

few others--I didn't know what to expect and I bet they had three times (as

many) as they thought they were going to have. That was probably the best thing

since I left IU 15 years ago. Everybody came back, it was wives and managers,

everyone was included, secretaries, there were people that had meant a lot to

the program. I thought Coach (Tom) Crean, you are doing something right here.

You more than the last two guys we have had here get it. You understand

tradition."

The former player believed the timing could not have been better.

"With the Coach (Bob) Knight thing it was like a civil war, people being

pulled this way and 'I don't agree with this' and 'I hate you' and it just

turned into a circus. What they did up there and Mr. (Bill) Cook allowed us to

do up there, that was the first big step in getting us going in the right

direction."

Speaking of his former coach, Graham offered his own thoughts on the recent

news that Coach Knight will be inducted into the Indiana University Hall of Fame

and whether we may see the coach at the induction ceremony set for November 6th.

"If he does it or he doesn't do it, my life doesn't change tomorrow," said

Graham. "It is an understatement to say he deserves it. Come on, he is Indiana

basketball and he made Indiana basketball what it is today. Obviously there was

an eight year period where it got pulled apart pretty good, so him being

inducted is just an obvious thing that was going to happen. What happens from

here on out? I don't know. He deserves it and it is a wonderful thing from the

fans. I hope he does it for the fans but if he doesn't do it....me personally,

there is nothing I can do about it. If he wants to do it, great, if he doesn't

want to do it, tomorrow is no different than yesterday."

A former Mr. Basketball from Floyd Central High near New Albany, Pat Graham

has stayed in southern Indiana since his Hoosier playing days ended with the

1993-94 season. But he has gone a bit west to the city of Evansville.

"We moved down here after college and have been here ever since, about 14

years," said Graham. "We got married about a year or two after we got to

Evansville and we have an eight year old little boy and a six year old little

boy. So we are full hopping now with the oldest one playing football, the

younger one playing baseball. About a year and a half ago we started with the

baseball to football to basketball, switching sports and racquets and all that

stuff."

He talked about what brought him to his current home.

"The reason I went to Evansville was to work for Pfizer Pharmaceutical

Company out of college," said Graham. "Actually Steve Risley was the one that

helped that happen. I did that for about two years and then switched to go work

for a company called Progressive Health Rehabilitation. I still do the

marketing, sales thing but instead of dealing with drugs I am dealing with

physical therapy and occupational rehab."

He doesn't believe any other former Hoosier players are in the area.

"I don't think so," said Graham. "For a few years Charlie Miller was down

here. His wife worked at Briston-Myers here in Evansville. Calbert (Cheaney) is

still out in Washington D.C. and gets back here a little bit here and there, so

I see him occasionally. Most of the guys I stay in touch with go live in

Indianapolis. I don't know if that makes me smart or dumb, but I have stayed

down in southern Indiana."

Unlike a lot of former players, Graham did not ever play professional ball,

even for a year or two before joining the non-sports working world. A recurring

broken foot injury that caused him to redshirt one season and miss parts of

other years played into that decision.

"There were a few basketball opportunities," said Graham. "Todd Leary went

overseas, obviously Damon (Bailey) went to the Pacers in the second round. At

the end of my career like everyone I could say I had been doing this since I was

seven or eight years old. It was hard. It wasn't like I had first round money in

the NBA, but it is hard when you say it is over. The easy thing to do is to jump

into coaching and there was a thought of that. I just knew those last three

years of playing with the foot problems, it had become work instead of fun.

Getting shot up, the pain, the icings, it just got to the point where I knew it

wasn't meant to be."

Graham averaged 8.6 points per game over his career as a Hoosier. As a fifth

year senior he averaged 11.8 points and shot 51.6% from the field, including an

impressive 56.9% from beyond the three point line. The final four of his five

years at Indiana saw the Hoosiers advance to the Sweet 16. He was a part of two

Big Ten championship teams (1990-91, 1992-93) but his favorite memories did not

involve team accomplishments.

"You just never forget your teammates," said Graham. "It is not that you are

best friends with all of your teammates, but it is those practices, those film

sessions, it's training table, that brotherhood or togetherness."

Graham maintains strong ties to former Indiana friends and says he drove up

for six or seven home games at Assembly Hall last season.

"When Bailey, Eric Montross, Chris Lawson, when we were all playing AAU

together as freshman, sophomores, juniors in high school and one time talking

about where we were going to college and different things about college, a guy

told us 99% of your friends will be friends that you meet from college on. Not

high school. We were all in high school and had our best friends and didn't

think that would ever change. But now I can't tell you one person I keep in

touch with from high school and can probably tell you 50 people I keep in touch

with from college. And that is just not former players or managers, it is just

people that you met at school."

He finally likes the direction the Hoosier basketball program is taking.

"Just because I played at IU doesn't make me smarter, trust me," said Graham.

"For the two years of Kelvin Sampson basketball that I had to watch, I mean I

had to watch it, I was forced to watch it. To me that wasn't Indiana basketball.

What I watched last year and I probably sound like the oldtimer, but what I

watched last year, to me that was basketball. That was improvement, that was

kids playing hard, that was unselfishly playing. I appreciated it."

In his mind the name on the front of the jersey meant something last season.

"Last year those kids were playing for Indiana," added Graham. "Trust me, the

Kelvin Sampson kids, those kids were not playing for Indiana. There was a few of

them, but not all. From Evansville to Bloomington is two and a half hours. If

you have two and a half hours up, two and a half hours back and a two hour

basketball game, I'm seven or eight hours into this thing and when I got back

home after the Kelvin Sampson years I felt like I had been screwed out of eight

hours of my life. But last year I didn't mind making that drive at all."

It sounds like he will make the long drive several times for the upcoming

2009-10 campaign.

"I like forward (to this year)," said Graham. "Obviously you have to get

talent in there but you are going in the right direction. It is going to take

some time. Everbody is naive if they think 'we are going to do this, this year.'

I don't think you can put a timetable on it because he had a huge hole to jump

out of and he (Tom Crean) is still not out of that hole yet."