I ask about Assembly Hall because there are two venues in the Big Ten (pre recent expansion) that I consider unique, distinctive, irreplaceable treasures: Assembly Hall and Williams Arena. As with Royals Stadium, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop and chatter to begin that Assembly Hall is over a half century old now and maybe needs to be replaced by something that's like every other venue everywhere else. Maybe that'll never happen, and that would be good, but IU hasn't been as successful in recent years, and I know how things work and how blaming the building is an easy, lazy answer.
When it comes to arenas or offensive or defensive schemes or anything in competitive sports, you have two basic choices:
1. Do what everyone else is doing and try to be better at it than everyone else.
2. Do your own unique thing, innovate new ways of doing things, zig while the other guy is zagging, all in the pursuit of a competitive edge.
I generally favor the second approach. I'm an innovative person by nature. In short, I think a renovated Williams Arena can be an advantage to the program if sold the right way. When that place is full and loud, there's nothing like it anywhere. That's a competitive advantage waiting to be exploited or re-exploited, as the case may be.