by Kent Sterling
Moments like this were few and far between for Peter Jurkin. In fact, in two seasons he never made a field goal in only 18 minutes of play.
Just two days after rolling out the Indiana University’s athlete’s bill of rights, yet another basketball player’s scholarship will be recovered by the program that stumbled through a 17-15 season, ending minus a postseason tournament appearance.
The explanation for Peter Jurkin’s transfer from Indiana University’s basketball team was that he wanted more playing time. That’s usually at the root of a player’s decision to play elsewhere, so it wasn’t a surprise.
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Why he felt that more minutes couldn’t be had with the Hoosiers is a valid question as he is one of only two returning players with the size to play the pivot. A victim of recurring injuries, Jurkin’s minutes have been sparsely awarded through his first two seasons, but if healthy he would have been a nice tool for coach Tom Crean.
Evaluated individually, the abandonment of players from the Hoosiers is easily explained.
Austin Etherington was able to gain immediate eligibility at Butler – the program for which his father played. Etherington never appeared a good fit in Bloomington, and enjoying his final season of college hoops at Hinkle Fieldhouse makes sense.
Jeremy Hollowell’s move to Georgia State to play with longtime summer teammate R.J. Hunter for coach Ron Hunter was similarly sensible. Hollowell wasn’t comfortable at IU, and was a mistake in recruiting. Playing system basketball is not a lot of fun for Hollowell, and after two years of slogging through that unpleasantness, he decided to move on.
Jonny Marlin transferred from Indiana despite playing a little bit as a walk-on. He’s a solid player, but behind a roster filled with guards he was destined for a good seat for games and a ton of work on the scout team if he stayed.
Joe Fagan is pursuing an education that he would like to see end in medical school, and basketball is a serious time eater. Another walk-on, Fagan making education his priority is a solid explanation for bolting.
Noah Vonleh leaving for the NBA is the most justifiable of all reasons to jump ship. Making it to the NBA as quickly as possible has always been Vonleh’s goal. He didn’t re-class to leave high school a year early because he was in a big hurry to play in Assembly Hall.
Those five who have left the team combined with the four graduates (Evan Gordon, Will Sheehey, Jeff Howard, and Taylor Wayer) leave the Hoosiers with seven returning players from a team that can be generously described as mediocre.
Jurkin moving on reduces the number of players remaining from the self-proclaimed “Movement” recruiting class of Ron Patterson, Peter Jurkin, Hanner Mosquera-Perea, Jeremy Hollowell, and Yogi Ferrell to just two after two years.
Transfers aren’t inherently bad for a program, but when they occur in such bulk, questions about the direction of the program are justifiably asked.
The positive of Jurkin leaving is that there are now two scholarships available for the very talented 2015 class. The bad news is that the Hoosiers will have only 11 players on scholarship, and no senior leadership for a season where Crean needs more than the 17 wins earned last season to quell the increasingly persistent chatter among reasonable alums and boosters about the potential for a coaching change.
From the outside looking in, the work done to rebuild the program after Kelvin Sampson and Rob Senderoff did their level best to destroy it appears to be unraveling. It’s possible that a lineup consisting of a combination of Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr., Troy Williams, Stanford Robinson, Robert Johnson, Devin Davis, and Mosquera-Perea could achieve significant success. There is also a chance it can’t.
Indiana Basketball is at a crossroads. The mass abdication by undergraduates might have a positive result, but that doesn’t necessarily resolve the questions of why so many players are willing to walk into Crean’s office to announce their intention to quit on their dream of playing in Bloomington.
While the work by Crean needed to re-boot the Hoosiers program in 2008 was Herculean, getting the wheels back on the rails in 2014-2015 may be an even tougher challenge.
IU needs to erect a statue of Yogi Ferrell. He remains loyal despite better opportunities elsewhere. You don’t see that much these days.
What other opportunities are you aware of? He had opportunities before he signed his LOI. His only option now is to keep working on his game inside of Cook Hall. You make it sound like transferring is a better option. Sitting out an entire year for someone trying to get the pros is not likely.
Really? No other school with a brighter future than IU would want him? Sitting out is absolutely no big deal. If it was his senior year coming up, I would agree. However, two whole years to establish himself as an NBA prospect with his achievements would not hurt himself at all and probably give him a better shot at an NCAA title. If he would have made himself available for the draft this year, he would have been taken.
Don’t get me wrong; I am grateful for his loyalty. However, looking around IU’s basketball personnel the past couple of years, I am finding loyalty at a premium LOI notwithstanding. I say, build the statue.
if yogi leaves he sits out a year loses notoriety disappears from scouts and resurfaces a year later in a different system and one where he likely is not the cog that he is today. yogi has free reign. he shoots when he wants drives when he wants passes when he wants throws tiny tantrums when he wants and is unleashed at all times. yogi gets to do what he wants when he wants. and that’s fine. he has earned that. why would he try to re earn that somewhere else where after sitting out a year to likely get less minutes and less control. yogi ferrel is a rockstar in Bloomington. he knows the program is shot and is going use this year to tie up as many loose ends as possible in the eyes of scouts. crean is gone next year so is yogi. sure yogi would have been drafted. but late. really late. this is not loyalty. its common sense. im sure yogi wants graet things for iu. but its not his motive. anyone notice how dismally downtrodden tom crean appeared during the hiring of c martin? ive been telling everyone I know since 1998 that this is the year for iu football. so…this is the year for iu football.
As a former basketball coach, I would take Yogi in a minute to my program and wouldn’t make him “earn” the right to perform at the level he is capable of just because he didn’t do it at my school. He would sit out a year as far as the games are concerned, but he would be in practice everyday and be as sharp as ever. It would be no different than a red shirt without the injury. Any coach would be a fool to act otherwise and NBA teams already know what he is capable of. The extra year in college would only help his maturity – something that a lot of NBA rookies don’t have.
That being stated, I am glad he is staying at IU and hope he isn’t reading this thread.
Indiana basketball is a dumpster fire. The movement was a bowel movement. Yogi should transfer to a program moving in the right direction before it’s too late.
this is the year for iu football?
I think they are ready to play at a higher level. We’ll see if I’m right. I believe Wilson is exactly the right guy to get it done.
kevin Wilson was the best hire at iu since bob knight. I get the sense that this is a true team. it is cohesive. it has the best overall talent weve seen at iu in a generation and its not sitting on its ass saying were talented give us wins. lets say iu has a bowl game and maybe even beats a wisc an osu or mich state. then next year Indiana all of a sudden pulls off a 9 win season. a lot of ifs I know. point being does kevin Wilson stay or does he go after the paycheck? is kevin Wilson happy in Bloomington? is he a hoosier? would he be content to stay at iu?
“The positive of Jurkin leaving is that there are now two scholarships available for the very talented 2015 class.”
Ooops. Make that one scholarship, Kent. Clappy signs a kid named Nick Zeisloft, who averaged 6.9 ppg as a sophomore 2G for a mediocre MVC team, Illinois State. That locks up a scholarship for two years, or until Creaning Time, for a guy who looks glacially slow and plays the one position at which Indiana has quality depth.
And you seriously challenged ESPN for ranking Crean outside the top 50 D1 coaches? Just be thankful they didn’t rank the top 200.
Man, I wish I’d saved those posts where you predicted Crean would succeed at Indiana beyond any success by Calipari at Kentucky. That was back about a National Championship, three Final Fours and four Elite Eights ago, as I recall.
Ooops. Make that one scholarship, Kent. Clappy signs a kid named Nick Zeisloft, who averaged 6.9 ppg as a sophomore 2G for a mediocre MVC team, Illinois State. That locks up a scholarship for two years, or until Creaning Time, for a guy who looks glacially slow and plays the one position at which Indiana has quality depth.
And you seriously challenged ESPN for ranking Crean outside the top 50 D1 coaches? Just be thankful they didn’t rank the top 200.
Man, I wish I’d saved those posts where you predicted Crean would succeed at Indiana beyond any success by Calipari at Kentucky. That was back about a National Championship, three Final Fours and four Elite Eights ago, as I recall
uy? and the Pulitzer goes to phil stooge! good stuff man!
If I predicted that Crean would succeed beyond Calipari, it sure wasn’t what would take place on the floor. Maybe in the classroom, or in the end after another season of Calipari’s is lost to NCAA sanctions.
Putting Crean in the Top 20 would be impossible, but ranking him ahead of Richard Pitino would have been reasonable. Pitino took a team built by Tubby Smith and didn’t make the NCAAs. How he – and several others – made the list is more to the point than Crean being overlooked.
I am going to withhold judgment on the 2014-2015 roster until they actually start playing games. I do not remember seeing Zeisloft play for Illinois State, so I’ll wait to form an opinion.