by Kent Sterling
Indiana still has time to get the ship righted to make the 2013-2014 season a success.
This could be a very long season for Hoosier basketball fans who have had enough long seasons over the past decade to last a lifetime, and the background din about Tom Crean as the leader of the program is beginning to grow a little louder.
Indiana is 1-4 against teams they shouldn’t be expected to rout – the latest loss coming in overtime at Illinois Tuesday. It doesn’t get any easier with a tilt against Michigan State tomorrow, a return game in East Lansing January 21, and a home game against Wisconsin January 14. Sandwiched in between are games against Penn State and Northwestern.
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Fans who expect winning at IU are prematurely projecting a 2-4 start (at best) in the Big Ten, and they are not happy.
This is not the time to jump to conclusions, and call the season over. Indiana is very young, and while the pieces have yet to mesh, they still might. There is certainly talent with Yogi Ferrell, Noah Vonleh, and Troy Williams, but the pieces haven’t come together yet to function as a unit.
Indiana’s 1981 championship team didn’t come together during the non-conference schedule either. The roster filled with sophomores were 7-5 as they begins Big Ten play.
Am I suggesting that Yogi Ferrell is Isiah Thomas, Will Sheehey is Ray Tolbert, and Tom Crean is Bob Knight? Not a chance, but the Hoosiers deserve a full run this season to be judged.
There is plenty of time to call out Crean for recruiting kids who seem to be disparate parts of different machines, but January 3rd is way too early to leap on the anti-Crean bandwagon that seems to be prematurely accepting boarders.
One item on the to-do list for Crean and the Hoosiers is to establish a signature style of play that is recruited to and nurtured as recruits become freshmen, and freshman become sophomores, and on and on. The predictable elements of Indiana Basketball are currently that length is prized, running is encouraged, and turnovers are tolerated.
Missed shots seem to be part of the cost of doing business, as they should be, but when a three-point shooter is hitting less than one quarter (9-37) of those shots while making 56% (47-84) of his twos as Will Sheehey is, he should stop firing from deep. Confidence is wonderful, but shooting from a position destined to fail 75% of the time seems like either arrogance or stupidity. Sheehey is not stupid.
While the Indiana program does a great job quickly building bodies that can withstand the stress of a Big Ten season, that’s only part of the equation. What doesn’t appear to happen is a similar building of the players basketball IQ. It’s almost impossible to accurately assess basketball smarts by simply watching games, but as I watch and re-watch the games, players like Jeremy Hollowell and Sheehey appear to be making the same mistakes they made last year.
During the game at Illinois, ESPN analyst Dan Dakich said that it’s time to shelve all the congratulations for rebuilding the Indiana program. Yes, Crean did a magnificent job of selling the school, program, facilities, and his vision, but “Let’s go!” As with all leaders, Crean and his staff should be judged based upon the most recent results. Uncovering Victor Oladipo was wonderful, and successfully recruiting Cody Zeller was a game-changer, but the report card for Tom Crean and the Indiana program will read “2013-2014”.
Like my grade in Señora Garcia’s S200 class during my fifth semester at Indiana, there is plenty of time to straighten this thing out, find a way to 9-9 in the Big Ten, and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. I waited until the 36 hours prior to the final to learn Spanish, and incredibly earned a 135 out of 150 to snag an A (my successes in the classroom were infrequent enough that I recall all successes with great specificity). The Hoosiers won’t be able to wait quite that long to make this season a success.
Tomorrow brings a big quiz against Tom Izzo and Sparty.
I keep waiting on all of this potential to turn the corner. Every game I get more scared it isn’t going to happen anytime soon. We were right in the Illinois game and I was sure Gordons shot was going in to win in regulation, but not to be. The scary part is how many more games can Yogi shoot lights out like that??? Very scary!!
This is one of those screwy seasons that can either feature progress or completely unravel. The players don’t appear to be willing to come together as a unit. Will they learn to love one another and set aside selfish desires, or will they fragment further? Time will tell.
Kent – thanks for always being the voice of reason.
I have my doubts about Crean being able to take the team to the next level, but I will defer my judgment until next season’s results reveal the truth about his coaching prowess. With the addition of JB Jr, all the pieces should come together. If not, then IU needs to entertain the idea that someone else may be better suited for the team going forward. With the squandering of the opportunity of having two top-four draft picks as he did last year, Crean will have much to prove with the the talent and seasoning this team will have next year. Any success he has this year will just be gravy. However, failure this year will put additional pressure on him for next year.
Agree on everything. Next year is the year when Crean can and should be judged – not this year.
Sorry I don’t agree about not judging Crean this year. I am judging on whether they are improving, I don’t see it. They continue to be a very poor team fundamentally just as they have been since Crean arrived. The same mistakes over and over. It’s time to face reality he is a MAC coach at best!!
I appreciate your perspective, but given the good things going on in the program Crean has earned a little leeway. The players stay out of trouble, make meaningful progress toward their degrees, he recruits well, and the players develop NBA ready bodies. Do they look lost on offense? Yep. Do they turn the ball over too much? Yep. Are they occasionally in the wrong position defensively? Yep. Those are all correctable issues for a very young team, and they deserve some time to get it right. Just like the Colts fans who were ready to fire Pagano at halftime Saturday, IU fans need to take a deep breath and judge this team after the entire season is played. You might as well because Crean isn’t going anywhere.
Mark my words, Iowa and Minnesota have passed Indiana in terms of success in the Bug 10. I don’t just mean for this year, I mean for as long as the respective coaches stay in place. I can honestly say that IU basketball is borderline unwatchable. They have too much talent to be this bad. I only watch with friends now so we can laugh at how poorly coached they are. Use your DVR to run back over poor play that occurs, most notably the fact that for as long as Crean has been there nobody ever blocks out in the defensive boards. They rebound by sheer athleticism, which thank God they have lots of. Has there ever been a team so inept at feeding the post? We could have Lou Alicendor in his prime and he would be rendered useless by his own team!!! I honestly could go on and on. All of this basic stuff has gone on since he came to Bloomington. It’s not going to change because it is obvious that either he doesn’t get it, or perhaps he gets it he just is a bad teacher. I do appreciate your blog it saves me money on therapy!!!
It’s time to face facts, Crean is simply a poor coach, in fact he is a fraud. He is not the answer, I just hope IU does not waste too many years before we try and find the right guy. Had Zellar not gone to IU this would have likely been Crean’s last year. It’s time to move on!!!