by Kent Sterling
Fred Glass is doing the right and prudent thing by waiting to act. The status quo should be maintained until the right replacement can be hired.
Change is coming at the top of the Indiana Basketball program, but it will have to wait.
Fred Glass is the athletic director at Indiana University and a very smart guy, and I believe he will do the right thing.
It won’t just be one right thing, but a series of right things that will allow the Indiana Basketball program to evolve forward both in competitiveness and behavior.
The most important part of a regime change is not the removal of the leader, but the selection of the person who will replace him. Without that important piece in place, the initial act of asking the original coach to pack should be done only as a last resort, and Indiana Basketball is not there yet.
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Given the current state of affairs in Bloomington, the best course of action – the strategy most fair to everyone involved – is to allow Crean to continue to serve as the coach until the end of the season.
To negotiate his departure today would leave the program in a state of chaos. Either Tim Buckley or Steve McClain would be tasked with being the interim leader. Whatever feint network of discipline that currently exists would vanish because there is zero chance of either Buckley or McClain being the permanent head coach. The season would be lost, and the rebuild following the season would be at least as bloody as that Crean embraced in 2008.
No one wins in that scenario. Not the players, not the fans, and not Indiana University. The program would have no chance to compete, and the misbehavior that has Crean’s job in jeopardy would likely spiral downward.
Bad news all around would be the result for a Glass overreaction today.
The right path is one of prudence and patience. Understand that left to his own devices, Crean has built a flawed program that has succeeded on two fronts – Academic Progress Rate and graduation rate for those who stay three years or more. That’s important.
Failures exist at Indiana in behavior and quality of basketball. The Big Ten regular season championship was nice. The rest showed an inability to recruit the talent needed to win or build a game plan to succeed when the talent did exist.
A successful basketball program at Indiana means recruiting great kids committed to playing basketball at the highest level, and then leading them there. Degrees must be earned, and bad apples separated from the program with dispatch. Playing basketball at Indiana is a privilege, not a right, and when bad decisions are made they are addressed with serious consequences. When habitual irresponsibility is shown, separation is required – not a four-game suspension. And the suspension should not be scheduled to end immediately prior to the first tough challenge of the schedule.
Whomever the coach at Indiana is, he must be the right person to execute on all levels, and that person is not available to report to Bloomington today, so making a change would be imprudent at best and irresponsible at worst.
And so Glass will continue to encourage the best possible outcome based on the status quo in leadership. When the time is right, a change will be made because it has to be. Based upon what available metric would a change not be called for? Graduation rates and perfect APR scores are nice but only part of the equation.
Most high school basketball coaches could help 13 guys make grades and earn degrees. Crean is being paid more than $3-million a year to do far more than that, and a significant chunk is for making certain that his players live as campus leaders and are safe. The events of the last 8 1/2 months have shown that neither is happening in Bloomington.
Absent also is winning at an acceptable level.
Change is coming, but not until the timing is right. Hoosier Nation will need to wait for the next great reason for hope.
What if Davis would have died or had permanent damage????? Then what Kent????? The season is lost you actually think they were going to make the tournament with these things going on?? Why don’t you go ask some of the walk-ons that left the program last year what is going on down there before writing anything else!!!
Firing Crean today would do what to improve the situation? Be pragmatic for a second.
Why does everybody say how smart Fred Glass is. We have an athletic director who has never been an athletic director, a football coach who has never been a head football coach and a basketball coach who never played college basketball??????????
I think we should clean house!!!!!!!!
Amen Brother!!!!!!! Guy’s a clown. Fred Glass that is.
Why can’t anybody see this, I am an IU alum, but had 2 kids go to another big 10 school and an SEC school, They don’t have clowns like this running their programs.
I think Matterhorn’s point is a sound one in terms of what’s going on behind the scenes, and what has been going on from a cultural perspective for some time now. I can speak to this only due to my acquaintance with the Marlin family, and the Hulls family, although obviously Jordan wasn’t a walk on, stayed 4 years and so forth.
Anyway, my point here being that you’re actually both correct in my opinion. This will be a lost season in terms of on court success, or at least the odds would seem to strongly favor that. However, this is the worst possible time of year to seek a replacement candidate, and leaving the program in the hands of a lame duck interim head coach would certainly not improve an already flawed culture at best, and at worst, enhance the blood bath.
I’m grateful beyond words that we don’t have to consider Devin having passed away or suffered debilitating permanent damage from the accident, but the program’s culture, and quality of leadership, both on and off court, is severely lacking, and in this alum’s opinion, beyond repair under Crean. Is this season lost? Yes, most likely. Would it serve any practical purpose to put Tim or Steve in a lame duck position for the upcoming season? I can’t envision any. As a result, and again, in this one alum’s opinion only, I have to concur with Kent that the program would be best served in the long term by a regime change at season’s end.
So, is it even forgone conclusion that Crean is going to be fired? Many have been calling for it for a couple of years. When Vonleh decided to leave, I thought it was time for Crean to exit, too. At least now coaches have a season to think about whether or not they want to become candidates. Which brings me back to . . . Is it a forgone conclusion that Crean will be fired?
Based upon this spate of arrests and behavioral issues, I believe he’s gone – but not before the end of the season when he can be replaced by someone ready to lead the program.
Let’s hope nothing else happens or there will be a big time lawsuit…………….meaning if you leave Crean and something happens.
Kent,
I come here today to sincerely wish Devon Davis a speedy recovery, and to hope that the Indiana basketball program can go through a swift healing process.
Nearly 30 years ago, Kentucky went through a painful, but needed period of correction. And Kentucky’s rivals — national and regional — were all too happy to assure that the pain was lingering and intense.
Now, through odd circumstances, both North Carolina and Indiana are enduring potentially program shattering moments.
But I find that I feel no satisfaction in that, despite years of hearing about the superiority of “the Carolina Way” or how Indiana “wins the Right way.”
Instead I really do feel sad. College basketball can never be what it was in the 1940s or the 1970s or the 1990s even. But with the right leadership at the elite basketball programs, something worthwhile can yet be salvaged. College basketball needs Indiana and North Carolina to rise from these difficult days.
When that happens, I hope all of us will have learned enough to be beyond the arrogance about our rivals’ shortcomings and the sanctimony about our superiority.
I want to continue to enjoy the wins, lament the losses, but not wish ill on other fan bases who simply want the rich redolence of a lifetime of devotion for their team to linger a while longer.
For some reason, a few comments went straight to spam – including yours. Sorry it took me a couple of days to figure it out and approve the comment. Appreciate your thoughts.
kent sterling this is wisdom at its purest. ironically its the same argument I made in the spring on your site. but enough about my genius. “a football coach who has never been a head football coach.” what? was nick saban ever a head football coach before he became a head football coach? was bob knight ever a head basketball coach before he became a head basketball coach? when it comes to firing coaching I light the torches and gather the pitchforks before anybody. Wilson is learning and the foundation is still being built. everybodys pissed including me that this season is a bust. but if sudfeld stays healthy we win at least 5 games probably 6. yeah yeah no backup qbs. had two good ones and Wilson ran them out of town. no he didn’t. those guys wanted to start. they left because they were second and third best. does Wilson do some boneheaded stuff? sure. but so do I and so do you. it is undeniable that Wilson has gotten better athletes. and his program is turning them into real football players. so if in a couple of more years if he hasn’t turned the corner yet and we look at replacing him there will be legitimate players for the next guy. I fault Wilson for waiting too long to fire Mallory. given another year with knorr at the helm this defense is going to be respectable. I just hope he doesn’t wait 3 years to replace johns. Indiana football cant hire nick saban. but it can try to find the next nick saban. that’s the idea with hiring a guy that’s never been a head coach. I am in no way comparing saban to Wilson. its the idea getting greatness at bargain prices. Wilson is a calculated gamble. on the other hand Indiana can afford brad stevens. I don’t tknow what the price is but everybody has one. my guess is that price goes down with every Celtics loss. brad stevens has a price. kent im really glad you came around to my way of thinking.
Bob Knight and Nick Sabin were head coaches with a proven record before they were hired to the big leagues. I don’t think bob knight or Nick Sabin were unable to win at least one conference game their 4th year on the job.
as I said im not comparing wilsons ability to saban. im validating the logic of the hire. proven track records cost money. iu football cant afford a proven track record. kevin Wilson is the lowest paid coach in the big ten. not many people want the job. he has ties in the Midwest having coached and recruited at Miami oh and northwestern…the northwestern that went to the rose bowl. he was the 2006 ncaa football coach of the year at Oklahoma. look it up. he has always been in winning programs. he has always put together dynamic offenses. he coached 2 Heisman winners and Adrian Peterson at Oklahoma. he has landed the 2 best recruiting classes in successive years in iu history. tevin coleman. wait aminute…it appears as though a track record is surfacing. the one that we can afford.
The best vice presidents don’t always make good presidents!
the winning will happen. if sudfeld doesn’t get hurt we beat iowa. we probably beat Michigan. we might beat Rutgers. we hand purdue its ass. again. just like last year. we already beat the team on top of the sec west…there. yeah I know bowling green. football programs simply are not built as quickly as basketball programs. but if this team is healthy and squares off against bill lynchs 2010 team well…bill lynch would get ran out of town and iu would hire kevin Wilson. bill lynch was a head coach by the way. so was dinardo. they weren’t good ones though. but its iu football. its what we could afford. and kevin Wilson is the best coach of the three.
I think IU can do better, I would like to see an other hire like Hoepner, which had the leadership skills, respect of fans , alumni and had a proven record at a MAC school. An up and coming MAC coach would love the IU job.
Final thoughts
I think IU can do better, I would like to see a hire like coach Hoeppner, he was a class act, had the respect of the fans and the alumni and had a proven track record at a MAC school, also from Indiana.
I think a lot of up and coming MAC coaches would take the IU job.
I think IU can do better. I would like to see a hire like Coach Hoeppner, a class act, leaderships skills and had the respect of the fans and the alumni. He also had a proven track record as a MAC coach, who was from Indiana.
I would think a young and upcoming MAC coach would love the IU job.
PS As an alum, for 35 years, I think IU always makes this so difficult, we should have hired Alford, and other IU family members.
After doing some further reading this evening, I’ll be very interested to see how the trustees manage this issue. With reports leaking from Bloomington that while Glass hasn’t come around to the idea that Crean is to blame for any of this and supports his retention 100%, the trustees squarely place the blame on Crean’s shoulders. Hard to imagine Fred going down with the ship, but stranger things have happened. The bigger issue is the sliding scale language contained in Crean’s contract, which would call for a payment of $14M if fired this season, but dropping to $7.5M after the following season and ultimately bottoming out in the final 3 years of the deal at $1M.
Point being, $14MM is one giant, bitter, budget busting pill to swallow, yet early indications are that the trustees are thinking in those terms. Of course, there’s always the go-to deep pockets among the booster ranks that would probably write the necessary checks, but I would think it’ll take a very big name replacement.
Redemption and relevance, thy name is Brad Stevens. The question is, would he bail out on Ainge and company after year 2 to return to the college ranks, even if the money was acceptable? Only Brad knows the answer to that one, and while I would think the job would appeal to him, loyalty and commitment are among his calling cards. Should make for a very interesting late spring / early summer.
I always appreciate your rational commentary. You hit all the right notes.
Fred Glass spent a significant time in politics, and he understands this terrain better than most. I ascribe Glass’s recent behavior to his understanding that the program and university are better served by Crean continuing to coach this season.
Maybe IU should have hired an athletic director who spent a considerable time as an athletic director!!!!!!
Maybe IU should have hired an athletic director who spent a considerable amount of time as an athletic director!!!!
Didn’t work very well with Greenspan, did it? I trust Fred’s pedigree and judgment.
Grrenspan hired coach Hoepnner, a class act!
Something about a blind squirrel finding a nut comes to mind. Hoeppner was a great choice.