My Two Cents: Saving The Best For Last in My Long, Rewarding Journalism Career

It's the sixth — and final — full year on the Sports Illustrated Indiana beat for me, and we've got a big year planned. It's starts with adding another great writer to our team, Todd Golden. Here's the plan for my ''Last Dance'' with Indiana basketball.

The three national championship banners from teams coached by Bob Knight at Indiana University in Bloomington. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — It's August the first, and today starts Year 6 with Sports Illustrated. It's been quite a ride.

It all started with an Indiana football media day back in 2019, and it was just me at the beginning. It was just Indiana football and men's basketball for a couple of years — Tom Allen and Archie Miller — and it was just me, gladly working seven days a week to make this Sports Illustrated Indiana site a reality.

The Indiana fan base — which knew me a little bit from my books — has been great to me, and the site grew quickly. My early goal was to do 100,000 pageviews a month.

Six years later, I have eight sites now, and an amazing staff of 14 writers, editors and marketing professionals. Now we do 100,000 pageviews about every six hours in our coverage of colleges, the NBA and MLB. I am blessed, to be sure. I've done it with eight IU Media School grads too, which I love. No other media outlet can claim the same thing.

I have loved working 360 days a year and traveling hundreds of thousands of miles to cover games. It's been a blast seeing some great Indiana games, especially after years as an editor and director, managing others from a desk. Being a writer again — like I was in my 20s and 30s, only better — has been a real thrill the past five years.

But Year 6 is here now, and it's time for a change. I'll be 66 years old in November and I don't need to be working 100 hours a week. It's time to slow down.

Not stop, but slow down.

So I've made the decision that this is my last full year of the daily grind. I am going to cover one more Indiana basketball season on a daily basis, then settle back to a reduced role as, you know, just the owner.

I can do this because I have a great team with me on our Indiana Hoosiers on SI site. Jack Ankony, one of the best young writers out there, is in his third year with me. He's doing great. My dear friend and former Indiana classmate Tim Nickens — a Pulitzer Prize winner during his great career, and the guy who was sitting next to me when Bob Knight threw a chair across the court — has been a great part-time editor and site director. Becky Rigel, my right-hand person, deftly handles all my social media, marketing, human resources and so much more.

Teamwork absolutely makes the dream work.

Because I'm not going to do any football and will be pretty limited on other sports — my focus is really going to be zeroing in on Indiana men's basketball and what should be a season full of huge stories, plus my NBA and MLB management duties — I need more help, too.

And I've got it.

I am beyond thrilled that Todd Golden is joining our team, effective today. Many of you IU fans already know Todd well. He's a Ball State grad and has worked for newspapers throughout Indiana for years. He's been with us on the Indiana beat for several years working for the CHNI chain that has papers all across the state. He's very capably filled the seat formerly used by the great Terry Hutchens, my dear friend from my Indianapolis Star days who wrote "Missing Banners'' with me seven years ago.

Todd is a brilliant writer with a lot of varying skills. He and Jack already get along great and the two of them are really looking forward to working together. They were crushing football stuff on Thursday already, and they'll both benefit a lot from what Tim and Becky can do for them as well.

And when basketball season rolls around, all three of us will be actively involved in writing about Mike Woodson's Hoosiers. They'll also cover the women's team with the same fervor we've shown the past three years. It's going to be a very fun winter in Bloomington.

And then that will be it — at least every day.

This is my "Last Dance.'' I can't wait until all the schedules get announced — yes, I'll spend some time in West Lafayette too — and plan it all out, this final journey across the Big Ten.

It will end with a Final Four in San Antonio. I love the Final Four, and have since my first one 40-pluis years ago. It seems like the perfect place to end my daily college basketball career.

I really hope I can take a team with me.

So thanks again, Hoosier Nation, for all you've done for me. I'm looking forward to sharing this ''Last Dance'' with you. It's going to be a fun year. So follow along, and please give Jack and Todd all the support you can for me.

The ask always remains the same — just read. It's all free. We don't have a paywall. We don't charge a subscription. We just write dozens of really entertaining stories a week. So please keep reading, and please keep sharing with your friends. Please be a part of our Facebook groups and follow me on Twitter. That all means a lot.

I'll see you real soon.