One of our favorite pasttimes around here when we had nothing better to do was to string up our Terry Hutchens pinata and take a few whacks at him. The great part about Hutchens was that it didn't matter which column or blog post you read of his -- they were all chock full of IU homerism, poor grammar and syntax, strange references, complaints about how tiring it was to be a sportswriter, etc. You always had something to mock. And everyone knows we're jerkfaces who like to mock.

Well, things took a turn recently. Hutch was removed from being the IU beat writer at the Indy Star and was reportedly going to move to cover basketball recruiting. This, sadly, would have required Hutch to at least pretend to have an ounce of journalistic impartiality, so he did what any self-respecting Hoosier-lover would do -- he bolted. He's now landed at Fox's Scout network, specifically at HoosierNation.com.

(Some people are under the impression that Hutchens was let go from the Star. I'm not clear on this, and there doesn't seem to be a definitive report out there -- what is known is that he was removed from the IU beat, reportedly as part of a "shake up" and assigned to cover basketball recruiting. This didn't seem like a fit to many of us and so it makes sense to think Terry would have then walked away rather than doing something outside his comfort zone. That said, this is still mostly conjecture on our part. Educated conjecture. Hutchens has not offered any more details on his twitter feed -- just his announcement of going to Scout. Before that, it was the usual IU cheerleading.)

Terry can now "cover" the Hoosiers and Tom Crean in his customary, fawning way. And his fans are thrilled:

dbwheat says: Great news. I've always liked Hutch. Especially compared to that other so-called sports writer for the Indy Star. 

Yeah, those "so called writers." Anyone who doesn't shill for IU, well, I just don't think they can be trusted! Yeeehaw!

bronkonagurski says: The IndyStar has turned to crap for a while now.  He might be better off this way.

Indeed. Get the decent men out of there while we still can! Let's get them to a bastion of journalism.... a scout message board.

And JCBasketball opines: Hutch will do this place a lot of good.

I agree. As long as he learns that a "blog" the entire thing and a "post" is what he writes each day. 

Other rumored changes included the Star getting a Purdue beat writer, which Purdue fans responded to with derision. The Indy Star? A Purdue beat writer? I think most Purdue fans figured even if this happened, it would all be a ruse, where the "beat writer" would pretend to cover Purdue just up until Purdue fans began trusting him and then -- BAM -- he'd tear off his polo shirt to reveal an IU jersey and candystriped pants.

Well, the Star must have decided, "Meh, we haven't paid attention to Purdue in decades so why start now?" Because according to Kent Sterling (whose name should really be that of a porn star or a superhero -- or a superhero porn star?), no such Purdue beat writer will be assigned. *sad trombone*

You'll note in Sterling's column that no ND beat writer will be assigned, either, but I would think that's less concerning to ND fans since they already have their own network, as well as legions of lazy columnists around the country to carry their water. 

Why are the guys at a Purdue blog writing about an IU guy? Well, because we have a special love for Terry, and he knows it. Also, because what else are we going to write about right now?

In truth, I'd like to say that while we may rip on entities (like ESPN or the BTN) and individuals (such as Terry), we don't truly wish bad things upon anyone. Terry has a family to support, like so many of us, so we wish him well in terms of having gainful employment. (See, Terry! We can be nice!) That said, when you write publicly for a living, you're open to criticism, which we're more than happy to offer.

Here's to more column-filling goodness from Hutch.