Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Basketball – Five reasons Tom Crean should stay and another five he should go

Indiana coach Tom Crean has three years left on his contract.

Indiana Athletic Director Fred Glass will wait until the season ends and then evaluate the basketball program. The decision will be made to either retain Tom Crean as the basketball coach or relieve him of his responsibilities.

There are two sects of Indiana Basketball fans – those who view Crean as the hero of IU hoops who rode in on a white horse to save the program during its darkest moment with diligence and excellent recruiting, and those who see him as an overmatched schemer whose hyperactivity and inability to teach defense has frustrated players and fans.

Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

Indiana will play the final home game of a very disappointing season tonight against Northwestern, a team enjoying its finest year. Indiana is 5-10, in 13th place among 14 teams in the Big 10.

For many fans who spend the majority of their idle time ruminating about Indiana Basketball, the result of a season that began with such promise is unacceptable.

Let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons or firing and retaining Crean to see if we can find a little clarity or common ground. Here are five reasons – in no particular order – to hold on to Crean:

Who is a better replacement? The names being thrown around as the next coach are either pie in the sky pipe dreams or uninspiring. Brad Stevens (Celtics), Steve Alford (UCLA), Archie Miller (Dayton), Tony Bennett (Virginia), Chris Mack (Xavier), Dane Fife (assistant at Michigan State), Will Wade (VCU), and Kevin Keatts (UNC Wilmington) are among the names that come to mind as potential leaders, but do any give you the notion that a sixth banner is right around the corner? Maybe one of them would either agree to come or provide IU with its next great coach.
Injuries robbed this Indiana team of chance to succeed. Collin Hartman would have brought steady delivery of fundamentals and leadership, and O.G. Anunoby can defend all five spots as an athletic freak. James Blackmon Jr. was gone for a few games too. With a healthy roster, Indiana might have been good enough. With Hartman healthy, it can be assumed that IU would have been one point better @ IPFW – a game lost in overtime). With Hartman and Anunoby playing, they likely would have been a bucket better against Minnesota and a point better than Iowa. By being four points better, Indiana would be 18-10 and 7-8 in the Big 10, and inside the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. It’s likely IU might have found a way to be a bit better than that.
Indiana has won two Big 10 championships in last five seasons. The NCAA Tournament is a crapshoot, and winning four straight games in March to advance to the Final Four is tough. Winning more Big 10 games than anyone else in the conference is a test of basketball and intestinal fortitude.
Hoosiers program better today than 10, 15, or 20 years ago. After Damon Bailey’s graduation, Indiana under Bob Knight started recruiting all over the place, and the result was an uneven mess. Mike Davis was unready to lead IU by his own admission. Kelvin Sampson was an amoral and corrupt leader (according to NCAA rules at the time) of a previously pious and chaste program. Crean inherited a mess, and cobbled together rosters that became very competitive in his fourth season. From 1995-2012, Indiana advanced to one Sweet 16 and shared one Big 10 regular season championship. From 2013-2016, Indiana won two Big 10 titles outright, and has advanced to three Sweet 16s.
Maybe this is as good as it gets for IU. Indiana is not Louisville, Kentucky, North Carolina, or Duke. It’s also not the consistent winner that Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Michigan are. A close comp over the past six years is West Virginia. Is there a coach out there like John Calipari was after the grim and brief Billy Gillespie era at Kentucky, or a Roy Williams following Matt Doherty and Bill Guthridge at UNC who can resurrect Indiana to it’s former greatness?

Okay, let’s compare the reasons to keep Crean with some that call for a regime change:

Style does not sync with Indiana heritage. Even when winning, Indiana fans are baffled by the Hoosiers inability to defend and take care of the ball. For generations Indiana players appeared smarter and better prepared to compete than their opponents. Today’s Hoosiers either out-talent opponents or lose.
Crean can no longer recruit Indiana. Four high school seniors from Indiana are ranked in the top 30 nationally, and none will play for Indiana. IU continues to offer Indiana kids, but none seems as keen on playing in Bloomington as Cody Zeller or Yogi Ferrell were. If Crean can’t recruit the home state hot bed, how can they compete with the programs that can. Gary Harris, Trey Lyles, Zak Irvin, Caleb Swanigan, and Kyle Guy would have helped Indiana win games if not championships.
Incoming class not a game changer. Clifton Moore, Al Durham, and Justin Smith are doubtless nice young men who have a great talent to play basketball, but they comprise a recruiting class not ranked in the top 40 in the country. Their arrival will coincide with the almost certain departure of Anunoby, Blackmon, and Thomas Bryant. Fans are not bullish that brighter days are ahead based upon the current state of Crean’s recruiting.
Alternative to firing is an extension. If Crean is invited to return to Bloomington by not being asked to leave, he will have three years remaining on his contract, and as his buyout drops to $1-million on July 1st, he will ask for an extension that rewards him for the success that had been lacking for 15 years prior to his arrival. Can Indiana justify extending the contract of a coach whose presence in Bloomington has motivated thousands of empty seats in Assembly Hall over the last month.
Failed to post winning Big 10 record three of last four seasons. Indiana’s record over the last four Big 10 seasons is 36-33 with three non-winning seasons. That is a mediocre result that includes one very nice 15-3 season. Taking the unfair step of removing the 2016 campaign, Indiana is 21-30 in conference play in 2014, 2015, and 2017. If past is prologue, the future looks dim indeed.

The distilled result of the five reasons to replace Crean is an apathy among longtime fans and donors that might compel action.

Pacers Paul George learned the unpleasant lesson this week that he is simply an employee

Paul George is as frustrated as many valuable employees are when they learn they are just employees.

There comes a time in every man’s life when he learns who he is and where he stands – when he finds that he is not truly a member of the club despite being told of his importance to its members.

He learns that an employer’s actions speak louder than words.

That time for Indiana Pacers all-star Paul George came as Thursday’s NBA trade deadline drew near as the Pacers shopped him around to other teams.

George did not like being kept out of the loop, ““I kind of was on the ropes just like you guys were on what was about to happen. It was kind of a dark moment of uncertainty. That was the frustrating part. You want me to be your guy here, I thought I would be in the loop a little more than that.”

George needs to understand two things – his last name is not Simon – as in the name of the family that owns the Pacers – and he is a worker bee in the Pacers organization. Continue reading →

John Calipari paints himself as victim while defending Fox and Gottfried

The top diva among college basketball coaches loves to bury whines inside defense of peers.
credit: Stephen Dunn/Hartford Courant/MCT/Landov

No one in sports is as clumsy and obvious in banging his own drum while defending others as Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari.

Listening to Cal whine about how college basketball coaches paid millions to educate and lead students are victims in our society is either nauseating or funny depending upon your ability to laugh at self-importance.

Last night, after Kentucky posted a hard-earned win over Georgia, Calipari opined about the state of coaching and how Georgia coach Mark Fox is doing a great job. Sadly for Fox, Calipari is not Georgia’s athletic director.

Calipari also defended the recently fired Mark Gottfried of North Carolina State.

No one would argue that building a top tier program at a football school like Georgia is tough as hell for Fox or any other coach, or that NC State retaining Gottfried to finish the season post-termination is idiotic.

The messages about his peers aren’t offensive, unless you are the AD at either Georgia or NC State – it’s the way Calipari paints himself as a victim through his membership in the fraternity of coaches that’s irksome. Continue reading →

Indiana Basketball – Is Tom Crean a great recruiter? A look at every class tells the tale

In this picture, there is one great recruiter, but his machine simply has to select great players. Tom Crean needs to find them.

So often, the answer from Indiana fans when asked about Tom Crean’s leadership of the Hoosiers basketball program is, “Poor game coach, quirky guy, but great recruiter.”

His rep as a challenged game coach is overblown, but so is the usual valuation of his recruiting process. We all agree on the quirks.

Normally, I am not a fan of ranking basketball players 18-and-younger. No one can tell the difference between the 32nd best player in the class of 2017 and the 46th. Kids can be clustered, but as you’ll see below, the rankings of a kid like Victor Oladipo did not take into account the work ethic that would drive his jump from barely in the top 150 in the class of 2010 to the second overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft. Continue reading →

Indiana Pacers – Mired in mediocrity, is it time for Larry Bird to play “Let’s Make a Deal”

Larry Bird has completely made-over his roster in two years, but the Pacers are still mediocre.

On the game show “Let’s Make a Deal”, contestants can stand pat with a modest wad of cash, or trade it for what’s behind the curtain. Sometimes it’s a new car, and other times it’s a goat.

Stick with mediocrity, or risk it for a car or a goat.

That’s the Indiana Pacers right now. They are an OK team, one game above .500 at the All Star Break. President of basketball ops Larry Bird can trade for what’s under the box, behind the curtain, or behind Door #1.

The problem is goats could be behind all three!

The Pacers are one of the NBA’s most mediocre teams with a roster cobbled together through a few draft successes, a couple of decent trades, and a few middling free agent signings. Continue reading →

Indiana Basketball – Is Tom Crean the right coach for Indiana in 2017-2018?

Tom Crean is doing all he can, but is it enough?

When I evaluate the work of others, my first step is to break the production of the employee into component parts. By measuring contributions in individual silos, I tend to be more objective and through that objectivity discover whether my visceral gut feeling is accurate.

Let’s do that as well as we can from 35,000 feet with Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean. It’s especially appropriate because there are some in the IU fanbase who just don’t like Crean. His sideline antics and complicated responses to simple basketball questions are off-putting to some, so let’s apply some objectivity to his leadership and remove the impulse to view him subjectively.

I’ve broken his responsibilities down to some elementary components – recruiting, results, academics and compliance, in-game scheming, and fundament instruction.

Recruiting – Crean is always given great credit for recruiting skill, and I have never understood why. Yes, he found diamonds in the rough like Victor Oladipo and O.G. Anunoby. That is good. Not being able to entice a single top 10 recruit to Bloomington in his 10 classes is not good. Continue reading →

Indiana vs. Purdue double foul call correct but virtually unprecedented – feckless officiating at its worst!

Whether this was a charge, double foul, or block may not have decided last night’s game, but it was an atrocious bastardization of the rules of basketball.

A double foul call may not have altered the outcome of the Indiana vs. Purdue tilt last night at Assembly Hall, but it sure appeared to be a ludicrous application of basketball justice.

IU’s Thomas Bryant drove to his left against presumptive Big 10 Player of the Year Caleb Swanigan as the Hoosiers trailed by five with :45 left in the game. There was contact, and Swanigan fell. Bryant hopped a bit and shot. The ball found its way into the bucket.

Both Bryant and Swanigan were playing at that moment with four fouls, so when two officials blew their whistles, the ramifications of their decision to call a block or charge would be a serious change agent in the momentum of the game.

If the call went against Swanigan, Indiana would be down three and a foul shot that could cut it to two. And Swanigan would be DQ’ed. If the call was a charge, Bryant would be out of the game and it would be Purdue ball.

One ref called a block and the other a charge. Officials are instructed to hold their calls in a situation like this until they can find unanimity. Most of the time, a quick glance is all that is needed.

In this situation, both made simultaneous and dramatic gestures that were contradictory. A rule exists that calls for this to be a double foul. The ball is inbounded by the team that enjoyed possession of the ball at the sideline spot nearest the infraction.

All three officials met at length before deciding to split the baby, as the rule demands. Continue reading →

Indiana Basketball – Don’t shovel dirt on 2017 Hoosiers grave just yet

As Thomas Bryant fought for the ball last night, the Hoosiers will continue to battle for an invite to March Madness.

Indiana is not dead yet.

Last night’s loss to Purdue will not help the Hoosiers case with the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, but it was not the last nail in their coffin.

Indiana is 5-7 in the Big Ten, losers of four of their last five after bowing out 69-64 to the Boilermakers at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, but don’t write them off completely.

Sure, stacking losses can’t help, but losing twice by five to ranked teams during the past five days shows the Hoosiers are still capable of playing well enough to compete against the top of the conference.

Against the top 200 teams as ranked by Ken Pomeroy and the RPI, Indiana has won only five of its last 14 games – hardly what anyone hoped for after wins against Kansas and North Carolina prompted visions of a Final Four appearance even among sane fans and media.

But past is not always prologue, and it doesn’t have to be for the Hoosiers. Losses are disappointing, but Indiana still has a path to 9-9 in the Big Ten – which would likely kick open the door to the Big Dance. Continue reading →

Baseball is attacking pace of play on all the wrong fronts

Fans are having a tougher time staying awake at the old ballgame, and baseball’s ideas to fix the problem are more ridiculous than the problems themselves.

Putting MLB rules czar Joe Torre in charge of enhancing baseball fans’ experience watching the game is like putting a plumber in control of the design of a toilet seat.

Only users need to be consulted when changes are made for the benefit of the users.

Baseball is going to tinker at the low-minor league level with starting each half inning of an extra inning game with a runner on second base.

This is a tactic to speed up the game for the fans, or so they say. It might be better presented as a tactical move to save bullpens already overused by managers who insist upon running through five relievers during a normal nine inning game. Continue reading →

Indiana vs. Purdue tonight – Tom Crean needs to tell fans to get with the program

Instead of campaigning for love, Tom Crean needs to be above being affected by thoughts of fans.

Whether Indiana basketball coach is too nice or too needy a guy, he needs to stop it.

When Indiana plays Purdue tonight at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, the Hoosiers will be playing for their NCAA Tournament hopes, and Tom Crean will be coaching for his job.

If IU fails to earn an invitation to the Big Dance, enough fans might be pushed toward indifference to make a change in leadership the only answer in building hope for the future in Bloomington.

Even with two Big Ten regular season championships, it might be tough for anyone associated with Indiana to make the case there is light at the end of the tunnel if Indiana can’t find a way to win four of its remaining games beginning with tonight’s rivalry contest.

None of that should matter to Crean. Fans are generally nuts, and Indiana fans confronted by a coach who covets their affection are completely off the rails. Continue reading →