by Kent Sterling
Jeremy Hollowell is no longer a part of the Hoosiers. I get that one, but any subsequent transfers will be hard to understand.
Rumors waft through media workrooms this time of year, and I heard one the other day that did not please me. It’s not Tom Crean’s job to please anyone in the media. He answers to his players and athletic director Fred Glass, but the fallout for another transfer will be far less tolerant than was the case a week ago when five players left.
The cases for the transfers who bid adieu to Cook and Assembly Halls last week making that decision on their own are reasonable.
Noah Vonleh is headed to the NBA as Indiana loses its first one-and-done player. Leaving for millions and the potential tens of millions coming a year sooner after year four in the league is entirely understandable.
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Austin Etherington wants to play with his brother or at Butler. He always seemed like a guy with a Butler skill set/size. Played well at Indiana, but family is important to Etherington and his brother is at Indiana State. Dad played for Butler.
Jeremy Hollowell never seemed a fit at Indiana. Always seemed to be quite near misery on the floor and bench. If Crean instigated transfer, it’s likely that it was a favor. Hopefully, Hollowell finds the opportunity he was seeking when he committed to Indiana, and has the discipline to achieve it. His suspension early in the season was a portend of things to come.
Jonny Marlin left his scholarship at IPFW for a walk-on role at Indiana. He has two years of eligibility left, and Indiana has a lot of guards. If Marlin is transferring because he wants to play, that is understandable, and after his sophomore season is the right time.
Joe Fagan says he is leaving because he’s pre-med and needs to concentrate on academics. Okay. When walk-ons playing for the love of the game like Marlin and Fagan leave, I start to worry that there is something wrong with a program. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I’m willing to accept the most obvious answer for all five players leaving the program, including Fagan’s focus on what will be his career.
But if rumors are true, and a sixth player leaves because he is pushed, that is going to be a different issue entirely.
While scholarships are only required to be single year grants, barring a screwy incident or series of incidents that makes obvious a student’s inability or lack of desire to continue to function as a student or player, the coach and school are honor bound to maintain the scholarship. If it becomes obvious that he will be unable to meaningfully contribute to the team, that’s too bad for the coach.
Either the coach made a mistake in recruiting a player who cannot find his way into the rotation, the player was unable to develop, or there were intervening injuries. Either way, the player should be allowed to continue as a student on scholarship. Indiana under Crean has never – to my knowledge – run a kid before he received his degree without ample reason, and that’s the way the Indiana culture should continue to operate.
My skepticism about this rumor from a normally reliable source is Indiana’s track record, and the questionable need for a seventh scholarship in the upcoming freshman class. Three spots are filled by James Blackmon Jr, Max Hoetzel, and Robert Johnson. Crean is pursuing Josh Cunningham and Yante Maten. Temple’s Anthony Lee committed to Ohio State as a grad transfer, so where Crean might go with two additional scholarships – even if he gets Cunningham and Maten is anyone’s guess.
It should not be at the expense of a current student-athlete in good standing.
Indiana has to stand for something, and treating its students like human beings instead of easily replaced widgets should be at the top of the list.
Eric Gordon was one and done, Kent.
Technically true, but virtually every player on scholarship either left or was booted during that offseason. Eric likely would have left regardless, but the self-immolation of the Hoosiers program due to Sampson and Senderoff being arrogant buffoons should definitely be considered when evaluating his leaving.
Well, “technically” or not, Eric Gordon was a one and done, and that part of your article is false and misleading.
I do not think Crean is plotting a conspiracy, Vonleh is going to the Pros to make Millions (no surprize there). Hollowell was a poor fit, most fans cringed when he played. Walk ons are not on scholarship, the ones leaving would not have seen many minutes. Ethington, will be a loss I think he would have work well in the rotation. Crean needs to stop subsituting players every 5 minutes and learn how to make adjustments the last 5 minutes of the game.
Here’s the thing about walk-ons – they play only because they love the game and contributing to the success of the program. When they leave, it can be a sign that the culture that led to their decision to take part has withered. While the on-court effect of walk-ons walking out is seen correctly as a minor issue, the underlying message can be an indictment of the direction of the program. Not saying that is the case, but don’t discount the message walk-ons leaving can represent.
Quote : “Noah Vonleh is headed to the NBA as Indiana loses its first one-and-done player. Leaving for millions and the potential tens of millions coming a year sooner after year four in the league is entirely understandable.”
After all the poo you’ve thrown at Kentucky and you have the nad’s to write this ? It appears your talking out the other side of your orifice ?
You know I’ve always respected Indiana Basketball, even when the chair throwing General was there. And I think Tom Crean is a decent guy and really good coach but your hypocritical balderdash of one and done’s is starting to smell pretty rotten.
The horse apple blossoms must be blooming early in Indiana.
This is what Kent does, ArnoP. When Kentucky kids leave for the NBA, he casts them as evil mercenaries with no interest in education. When Indiana kids leave for the NBA, it is “understandable.”
Where is the commentary on Indiana’s “plantation” exploitation of Vonleh? No where to be found…
Maten is going to Michigan State so we dont have to worry about him. The one comment is right that crean is a decent guy but he is no good coach. I would not be surprised in fact I almost expect another transfer. Things are not good folks.
We’ll see on Maten. No commitment yet.
Master Kent-What is a better example of “plantation exploitation” that trying to hold back a young, black man from earning a significant living? The “understandable” comment might be the biggest joke I’ve ever read. What a phony.
What about Zeller? If you’re going to try and make this ridiculous argument, shouldn’t the standard be you either leave with a degree or without a degree? What’s the difference if you stay one year or two? Or is it just different because he’s white so it’s “different?”
As far as cheating, it’s funny that Tom Crean gets a pass when he cheated in the recruitment of Gary Harris’s. Let me guess – that was just an honest mistake right? I’m sure that’s how it would’ve been classified if Cal was caught cheating, which by the way, he never has been.
Remember the ESPN the Magazine front-page article on John Cala Calipari and his shady recruiting tactics? Me neither – it was Tom Creen. I guess we’ll give him a pass on that as well correct?
If you are striving to be a “writer,” at least pretend to not have a bias. You’re not even near factually correct and your articles are nothing but emotional drivel and are desperate grasps at things you hope are true. Find something better to do with your time. Writing clearly isn’t your calling.
Davis, haven’t you learned that on Kentsterling.com we ignore our own dirty laundry, and choose to tear down others. Glass houses or not, we’re trolling for clicks baby!
Yes, Crean showed up at Hamilton Southeastern High School one day into the dead period, if I remember correctly. Indiana self-reported, and Harris went to Michigan State. Not sure what you would have liked Indiana to do – report itself to the NCAA twice? Cast Crean into the Jordan River for a soul cleansing?
I must admit to having no recollection of the ESPN-the Magazine to which you refer.
Your first paragraph’s meaning eludes me. Not sure I have ever used the term “plantation exploitation,” or that I have ever advocated restricting anyone from earning a living. To the contrary, I want colleges to pay players to their value, allow players to monetize their images, and go to the NBA Draft whenever they feel ready.
I’ve been very consistent about those issues, so perhaps you have me confused with someone else.
If I have a bias, it’s toward the players whose talents are exploited for the profit of coaches, administrators, and media.
Read this and educate yourself. Maybe you can start posting some honest writing. Amazing how IU fans can never re call this article me, but we all know damn well if it was about Cal, you and both of your loyal readers would be able to recite every word.
http://m.espn.go.com/general/story?storyId=6587668&src=desktop
It’s ironic that you don’t want to hold players back from making money, yet you bash Cal every chance you get as if he wrote the rule. Hypocritical much?
IU fans need to stop being dishonest. You and other programs recruit the same players under the same rules that Kentucky does – you just don’t get them very often. When you do and they leave early it’s justified by you because of some outside circumstance as being “acceptable” or other nonsense like you outlined in the Gordon situation.
How can you write this stuff and not laugh at yourself? Do you know how utterly absurd you sound?
So your logic is what? Because Indiana engaged in some shadiness that has since been corrected, Kentucky’s sad exploitation of soon-to-be NBA rookies should be ignored?
Not sure how Calipari’s loving hug of the one-and-done rule and my ideal that players are exploited there is ironic. Sad, sure. Amoral at best, yes. But ironic? Not sure about the hypocrisy charge either. I don’t feel like a hypocrite. Maybe I’m an ironic hypocrite.
“Ironic Hypocrisy” would be a great name for a new Axel Rose album.
If Indiana had recruited and sent 11 one-year players to the NBA from 2010-2013, I would be screaming at Indiana and Tom Crean.
Not sure the difference between “utterly absurd” and “absurd.” Are there degrees to absurdity? Maybe it’s like the success of “The World According to Jim” is absurd, and the long gone popularity of Chevy Chase is utterly absurd.
It’s funny you don’t see degrees of absurdity (you would be a “10” by the way), but you seem to assign varying degrees of exploitation. IU has had two OADs but UK has had 11, so that means you aren’t exploiting your players because there have only been a couple. Is that really your argument?
And yes, you are a complete hypocrite. Indiana is fresh off probation, Tom C has cheated multiple times since (see link above), you exploit future NBA players, and you no longer value education and are simply a basketball factory (although you never win anythj g significant-all the things you say you loathe about Kentucky. Yep, that makes you a hypocrite.
A bunch of damn cheaters. The only reason you don’t have a national reputation of being a cheater is because you’re completely irrelevant and you are discussed as frequently as Hofstra on the national level. You are the third most successful program in Central Indiana over the past decade. Legend on your own mind.
Enjoy the games this weekend.
The definition of absurd is – “wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate,” so by sticking “utterly” in there, you are claiming me to be “utterly wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate.” Hope that clears up the issue of the needlessness of including “utterly” as a modifier.
I have no inkling why Indiana cheating in 2007-2008 or self-reporting for the Adams Family confusion prior to me launch this website makes me hypocritical. Citing all others who have cheated each time I use John Calipari as an example of the inequities of college athletic and those who profit most from it would be, in your vernacular, utterly unnecessary.
All players are exploited to an extent. Calipari is the only coach who systemically preys upon one-and-dones to feather his nest and buy his smoothie store.
Kent,
Aside from Hollowell, Etherington, and the walk-ons, have you heard any other potential transfer rumors involving players currently on Indiana’s roster? (Williams, Robinson, etc.)
Yes, I have heard a rumor about a specific player being asked for his scholarship. I am choosing to discount its validity until it happens because I don’t believe Indiana University would ever stoop so low as to ask for the scholarship of a student in good academic standing, unless there was a very good reason. (Needing the scholarship is not a good reason for Indiana University.)
When I read this line, I thought, it must be April Fool’s Day: “Leaving for millions and the potential tens of millions coming a year sooner after year four in the league is entirely understandable.”
But then I remembered it is always April Fool’s Day in the world of Indiana basketball and its apologists.
Goes for every early enrollee. Have no idea whether Vonleh is ever going to reap that kind of cash reward. Didn’t think he was ready to be a one-and-done a year ago, so I’ve been wrong about him before.
parallel universe: tom crean is rebuilding uk after being burned down by kelvin chumpson. he gets caught in a few recruiting traps. minor. but caught nonetheless. john calipari is leading IU to its second final four in three years. his players leave because they willmake millions. and will be able to afford an education later I might add. tah-da. im willing to bet most coaches commit recruiting violations. Ours gets caught. Theirs don’t. We get decent to good recruits. They get good to superstar recruits. We return a soph pg that started every game last year and a senior with a ton of experience that was last years 6th man of the year and a top 5 recruiting class. We go 17 and 15, and people say we are young. They start 5 freshmen, are in the final four – AGAIN – and did so by beating our conference champ. eventually calipari will get caught doing something. he will go to the nba and uk will rebuild. they will get 5 star recruits right out of the gate. walk ons are leaving. that means something is wrong. I didn’t want to believe it, but I have to now. Calipari is a better coach, and a better cheater. And I really am an iu fan.
One small correction. Indiana didn’t get caught. It self-reported. All supposed violations were in plain sight, or admitted to. I have no problem with kids leaving. My problem is that they are forced to enroll in the first place.
I said calipari is a better coach. you didn’t correct that. kent who do you think would be a good replacement for tom crean?
Not ready to have that conversation, but I do not believe that Calipari would be a fit at all for Indiana. Calipari wanted the IU job after Sampson’s firing. He told my boss as I stood next to him that he would crawl from Memphis to Bloomington for the Indiana job. Even Rick Greenspan didn’t want to do that deal. Tom Crean has done some very good things at Indiana, although the results this season were very disappointing.
By the way, I change the email address you enter. Language doesn’t bother me, but the F-word gets the site blocked at high schools, so I don’t allow its use.
fyi any language is not intended at any person. it is a generalized tone. no offense I will clean it up.any news on the p;otential xfer? I know youre not dropping the name but what about additional sources and developments? crean has done good things. graduation is creaning phenomenal. but the equation im seeing unfold is going to result a fire and a hire. its not a conversation about who would replace crean now. its about who are the up and coming coaches that no one has heard of?
No way Indiana will ever hire a basketball coach that no one has ever heard of. Brad Brownell, Josh Pashner, and Archie Miller are all going to be at elite programs soon. Dane Fife is a job away. There are plenty of other guys who are good coaches now or will be. Brownell has done a great job everywhere he’s been. Not sexy, but a winner.
I chuckled at the thought of dane fife coaching at Indiana. then I looked up his record as head coach. he coached 6 years at ipfw. every year they finished with a better record than the year before. every year. brownell is average. miller could be a fluke and pastner looks like a terrorist. I don’t want a coach that looks like a terrorist. its bad enough having what appears at a distance to be a bespectacled crow at the helm. cah!
That make me laugh. Thanks. Dane Fife is a real guy that kids wanted to play for at IPFW, and he grinds in recruiting. I love the guy, and thing he is going to make a really good head coach. I was told when he took the job that there was zero chance IPFW would be invited to join a conference, and that winning ten games there would be like winning the NCAA Championship. He got a great kid in Ben Botts to play there, and that helped, but recruiting is part of the job.
If Archie Miller was hired away from Dayton, Fife would be a great target as a replacement.