Bob Chesney pulls a Curt Cignetti at UCLA basketball game

It was Dec. 1, 2023, when Curt Cignetti announced himself to the world. The day after he landed the Indiana job, the new Head Hoosier appeared at an IU basketball game to introduce himself to his new fan base at famed Assembly Hall, most of whom had assuredly never heard of him.

Introduce himself, he did.

"I've never taken a backseat to anybody (and) I don't plan on starting now," Cignetti said. "Purdue sucks, but so (do) Michigan and Ohio State. Go IU!"

I don't need to remind anyone of the gravity of that statement, but allow me to do so anyway. Michigan would win the national championship the following month. Ohio State, the following season. And then, of course, Indiana. (Purdue is still, well, Purdue.) 

This was all part of Cignetti's plan, of course. "I detected an atmosphere of, 'You can't get it done here,'" he told 60 Minutes recently (an incredible statement unto itself.) "As soon as I walked in the building. Facilities that had been neglected, the stadium banners that looked old, the offices that looked like they were from 1980. And then just the general attitude of the people I met, the lack of excitement."

Needless to say, Indiana does not win a national championship if Cignetti does not force everyone around him to imagine Indiana winning a national championship.

The legacy of that title it showed anyone can (theoretically) win one, which gives license to everyone talking about winning a championship.

"I've been here about a month now and I look around here, there's nothing average that I see about UCLA," new UCLA head coach Bob Chesney told Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. "I did not come here to be average. I want you to support this thing. Understand what we're building: we're about to win a Big Ten championship."

Chesney, who we described as 85 percent Cignetti back in October, continued speaking after that, whereas Cignetti would've dropped the mic after promising a Big Ten title. 

UCLA finished 3-6 in Big Ten play in 2025, 12th place in the 18-team conference. The Bruins were about as far away from a conference championship as, well, Los Angeles is to Indianapolis. But the idea that UCLA could win a Big Ten title in 2027 sounds no less ridiculous than Indiana (1-8 that year) winning a Big Ten and national championship at all, let alone within two years, did back on Dec. 1, 2023.