Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Syracuse Basketball sanctions – Jim Boeheim’s outrage is only as misguided as the system that caused it

by Kent Sterling

Every once in a while, the corrupt system in college sports punishes a guy who did nothing most don’t. That has left Jim Boeheim bewildered by sanctions including scholarship losses, 108 wins stripped, and a suspension for nine games next season.

What Syracuse head basketball Jim Boeheim coach knew, encouraged, violated, or ignored is not at issue. Neither is whether Boeheim appeals sanctions levied by the NCAA that will hinder the Orangemen program’s competitiveness for the next three seasons.

What’s important is that many college students, who are also athletes, are being preyed upon to feather the opulent nests of coaches. Book after book have been researched and written, and NCAA investigation after NCAA investigation have been conducted. The findings show longterm egregious exploitation of young men who are supposed to be educated as payment for thousands of hours of work. Athletes are part of a business model where coaches make many millions each year and schools work tirelessly to spend all their revenue because showing a profit will fuel calls to pay athletes as employees.

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And what did Boeheim whine about in his press conference yesterday? The NCAA sanctions aren’t fair to him. Who gives a damn what’s fair to Boeheim? Let’s talk about the kids who should have been educated instead of made eligible to play so they could give Boeheim his best chance to win games.

“Although the infractions report does not find that I had personal involvement in any violations of NCAA rules, the Committee on Infractions has asserted that for the past 10 years, I did not promote an atmosphere of compliance within the men’s basketball program, and I did not monitor the activities regarding compliance of those within the program,” Boeheim read.

“This could not be further from the truth. This is far from a program where student-athletes freely committed academic fraud. I believe the penalty is unduly harsh.”

We could spend hours parsing the phrasing used by Boeheim, like why the word “freely” was used to modify “committed”. And he might be right that he did “monitor the activities regarding compliance of those within the program.” It may be that he just monitored it poorly.

Eligibility is the goal at many university athletic programs rather than providing a meaningful education. Every once in a while, a school leaves a trail of emails that allow the school or NCAA to rear its head and claim a stand on a withering moral high ground with a smackdown the likes of which Boeheim decried yesterday.

It would be easy to hammer Boeheim for being self-righteous and Nixon-esque in his non-denial denials, but the system is so screwy that I’m willing to give him a pass. Boeheim is bereft of the character needed to accept culpability after 40-years in a business where admitting mistakes is the only unpardonable sin – other than losing.

Chaos is rewarded, adherence to a code where meaningful educations for all is shunned or short-circuited, and the ends justify the means – and have since the beginning of collegiate athletics. These sad truths have allowed slime to prosper, and lose its grip on the principle that should guide everything that occurs on a college campus – as Emil Faber’s statue in “Animal House” so succinctly stated, “Knowledge is good.”

College athletics are a wonderful venue for teaching so many important lessons. Nowhere outside the military are young people exposed to adversity on the level that exists in college sports. There is a perfect link between hard work and a positive result that ordinary students are not exposed to. There is so much good in college sports that allowing the massive potential for revenue generation to poison it is unconscionable.

Winning means everything, and coaches are hired, rewarded, and fired due to their ability to win and perpetuate the facade of amateurism. Coaches, administrators, and all others who cash checks drawn on accounts bulging with cash made available through media contracts, ticket sales, and merchandising made possible by the efforts of unpaid labor yammer endlessly about the value of an education as compensation for athletic prowess.

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The weakness of using the term “student-athlete” – a term former NCAA head Walter Byers invented to sidestep a possibility that schools might have to pay workman’s comp to injured athletes – as an employer would for an employee – is exposed by the torrent of programs being found in violation of the tenets of the NCAA.

Boeheim is not a cause of the problems that are pervasive in college sports, just a cog in a wheel crafted and greased by profiteers. The confusion Boeheim feels as the result of the NCAA’s bludgeoning of the program he built is understandable. He isn’t doing anything that dozens if not hundreds of coaches have done throughout time to win and continue to enjoy the largesse provided by a talent for prodding and pushing kids to heave a leather ball through an orange hoop.

None of it makes sense. For Boeheim to expect it to is his only real mistake.

(Kent Sterling hosts a radio show afternoons from 3p-6p on CBS Sports 1430 in Indianapolis.)

Indiana Basketball – Passionate fans turn surly and Tom Crean is their latest victim

by Kent Sterling

Assembly Hall is the temple where Indiana fans congregate, and all they demand for their passion is hope. If Tom Crean cannot provide it, someone who can will be sought.

It’s hard to figure. After 20 seasons of entrenched mediocrity, Indiana University Basketball still resonates in the Hoosier State.

Virtually every home game sees almost every one of the 17,472 seats at Assembly Hall filled with excited fans hopeful that brighter days are ahead for the Cream & Crimson. Kids ask for a pair of candy striped warm-ups for Christmas, and each recruiting success is examined with a forensic eye for detail.

It’s been 28 years since Indiana’s last National Championship, and 13 years since the last visit to the Final Four. Over the past 20 seasons, Indiana has compiled 177-163 record in the Big Ten, and the two trips to the Sweet 16 since 2002 coincided with Cody Zeller’s presence in Bloomington.

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Indiana fans continue to loudly insist the Hoosiers are not just relevant, but a top five national program. UConn has won four of the last 16 NCAA Tournaments. Kansas has won 11 straight Big 12 titles and a National Championship. Duke has won four NCAAs since IU’s last and has lost five or fewer ACC games in all but won of the last 19 seasons. North Carolina has won two NCAAs and six ACC titles since Roy Williams took over in 2003. Kentucky? All time winningest program with 2,174 victories, a 529-64 record at Rupp Arena, 48 SEC regular season titles, eight NCAA championships, and a likelihood of finishing the current season 40-0.

Hell, Wisconsin has never finished lower than fourth in the Big Ten under Bo Ryan (who took over in 2001), with winning conference records in every single season. How about Michigan State? In Tom Izzo’s 20 seasons, Sparty has gone to six Final Fours, 12 Sweet 16s, and finished first or second in the Big Ten 11 times. Tom Izzo has lost a total of 107 Big Ten games. Crean has lost 77 in 13 fewer seasons.

I could go on.

None of this is meant to demean Indiana Basketball, which I have loved since IU won a National Championship my freshman year in Bloomington. The precision and beauty of the motion offense and the tenacity of the Hoosiers’ man-to-man defense was a joy to behold. Indiana won, and they did it with players who attended class, earned degrees, and were recruited on the up and up.

With many Indiana kids, recruiting was marked by abject indifference from Bob Knight, and still the players came. And they won.

Indiana University was a remarkable basketball machine that took local kids and beat America’s best.

Those days are gone, but for some reason, the passion of the fans has metastasized.

That unyielding love is a double edged sword that can defend a bully like Knight, or slay coaches who do not satisfy their unquenchable thirst for stylistic play and victories earned in bulk. Mike Davis was hailed as a flawed but congenial hero in 2002 after IU advanced to the NCAA Championship game, but consigned to the scrap heap after the following four years of mediocrity. Davis was a hermit in the end, beaten by the fans whose relentless derision was impossible to compartmentalize.

Kelvin Sampson surrendered the moral high ground Indiana had gained throughout generations of exactitude in following NCAA rules. Dan Dakich was a defibrillator that shocked players back into Indiana-esque compliance, or stunned them right out of Bloomington, and Tom Crean has been an ill-fitting occasionally successful coach too eager to be liked for a fan base who views a natural desire for popularity as a critical weakness.

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The fans that celebrated wins with Crean in the concourse of Assembly Hall now yell “Tom Crean sucks!” when his son Riley enters a game for his high school team. Crean says his wife feels “anguish” as she watches Riley or the Hoosiers play.

That passion is an unwieldy beast that can turn quickly, but never fades. There is a constant search for reasons to hope, and it sometimes bring fans to the brink of madness. As soon as a coach fails to provide motive for faith, they turn.

And they have turned on Crean.

Hope will return to Bloomington because it is the fuel powering the insane fandom that is the last remaining vestige of brighter days long gone.

Indiana Basketball – Tom Crean Radio Show farewell has fans buzzing

by Kent Sterling

Tom Crean’s closing during his radio show last night has Indiana fans wondering about the future.

Strange days in Bloomington.

Hard to figure out what is going to happen next, but Tom Crean may have foreshadowed the next shoe to drop with his sign off to Indiana University voice Don Fischer, “There is a lot of great honors you can get in any walk of life, but especially in coaching basketball, but being able to partner up with you the last seven years, being able to be in here with you this year, to be at this podium with you, I’d put that right at the top, and I’m dead serious. So thank you, for everything.””

Does that sound like a guy committed to returning or saying goodbye?

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Time will tell, and if Wichita State is able to end the Hoosiers season Friday at 5p-ish, fans may not have long to wait to find out.

People generally don’t say goodbye unless they are leaving, and when Crean spoke about the “last seven years,” ears across Indiana perked up. It was kind of like seeing your gravestone with the year of death carved into the marble.

There are so many divergent opinions about Crean as the leader of the most important job at Indiana University that gauging the joy, sorrow, ambivalence, hope, disdain, and optimism that might accompany the departure of the latest coach to fail to thrill the difficult-to-satisfy Hoosiers fan base is like catching a ball of water.

For those who wish Crean gone, the question remains who might be willing to replace him. Indiana is not a top five national job, and it might not be a top five job in the Big Ten.

Put yourself in the shoes of a candidate, and evaluate the Big Ten’s basketball programs. Is Indiana better than Michigan State? No. How about Wisconsin? Nope. Ohio State? The Buckeyes are flush and can spend without fear of running the well dry. Michigan? Same thing. Rutgers, Northwestern, Penn State, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, and Purdue are at the other end of the spectrum. IU has an edge in history over Iowa and Maryland, but in terms of the last decade, they are pretty close.

Candidates are not going to be swayed by, “But this is Indiana!” They need cash, resources, and a light of success at the end of a short tunnel to consider a change.

Minus Fred Glass emptying his wallet ($6-million/year?) on a rainmaker like Brad Stevens, what candidate who would unify and please Hoosier Nation will take the job? Sean Miller? No chance he’s leaving Tucson for Bloomington. Fred Holberg? His end game is an NBA gig. Tony Bennett? He refused to interview for some NBA jobs and makes over $2-million in salary and bonuses at a place where he and his family have roots. Will $4-million make pry him from Charlottesville?

Gregg Marshall? No chance Indiana brings that cantankerous but successful guy to Bloomington. As nutty and difficult Crean can be, people in Wichita are far less kind in describing Marshall. Shaka Smart, Archie Miller, Bobby Hurley? Hurley is kind of interesting. Winning at Buffalo isn’t easy.

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One thing for sure, Glass can’t afford to hire “a guy” because his equity has been drained due to the extension he negotiated with Crean that includes a wacky buyout of $12-million. Indiana needs to replace Crean with THE right guy, or why replace him at all?

The tone at the end of Crean’s radio show was ominous, but potentially meaningless. It did drive forward the story of Crean potentially accepting another job, which would seem a silly choice for Crean to consciously make if he isn’t going to leave.

The doubts about the direction of Indiana’s program are certainly not helping Crean recruit to Indiana, and would seem to make longterm survival less certain.

Crean is a very savvy user of the media, and is very aware of what he says to it, which is why the comments yesterday are being taken seriously.

What he said last night was yet another set of tea leaves that point toward one potential outcome, but reading too much into it will either bring you joy or disappointment depending upon which side of the Tom Crean fence you currently stand.

Mary Willingham finally gets paid by UNC-Chapel Hill for doing the right thing for student-athletes

by Kent Sterling

Mary Willingham has $335,000 reasons to smile this morning, buther real reward is in UNC being unable to pass through athletes without giving them the education promised.

Mary Willingham, the former academic advisor for the University of North Carolina’s athletic department, saw a wrong and tried to right it. For that she was dispatched, and now she will get paid.

Sometimes life actually is fair.

Student-athletes were admitted to UNC minus the basic classroom skills needed to survive the academic rigors there, but were needed on the field/court, so they were shepherded through a curriculum that did not represent the education they were promised in exchange for the use of their athletic prowess.

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Mary told the truth about the mess as others looked the other way, trying not to upset the very profitable apple cart that led to excellence and cash. At first, she was warehoused like many of the athletes she tried to help, and finally was propelled from employment at UNC through systemic malice.

It’s true that Mary resigned, but let’s be honest about that. She was driven from the university by those who treated her with great hostility for trying to help those who needed it, and revealing a methodology of admitting student-athletes that were not prepared to succeed at UNC.

So now she gets $335,000 from the school in a whistle-blower settlement. After legal fees, she will net roughly three years salary from her former position.

For a school with athletic revenues and expenses of just over $82-million, $335K is tip money, but hopefully the harsh media spotlight Mary’s work has generated will cause (or has caused) a change in the way student-athletes are treated in Chapel Hill.

Mary won today, but for generations, UNC athletes will win because Mary stood up alone as their emissary while many decided the sacrifice required for telling the truth was too stiff to warrant their intercession.

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Telling the truth is always the right thing, and while I’m sure Mary would be happier continuing to help athletes learn, $335K lessens the pain of being a teacher without a classroom.

NCAA Tournament Bracketology – Midwest Region a battle of five Indiana teams vs. Kentucky

by Kent Sterling

Five Indiana teams have a shot to wipe that smug smile off John Calipari’s face before his Wildcats get to Indianapolis.

Indiana a #10 seed? Wow. That wasn’t the only surprise of the NCAA Tournament bracket, but it was the biggest to me.

Losing nine of their final 14 games with the five wins coming against Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Rutgers twice evidently meant nothing to the committee. Good for Indiana, bad for teams that won games late in the season against tournament bound teams but were relegated to the NIT.

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Indiana will play Friday against #7 seed Wichita State, and likely bow out, but you never know in this deal. As long as games remain – so does hope. Can Indiana beat Wichita State? Sure, and then Kansas will await. Can Indiana shoot it well enough to beat the Jayhawks? Why not. I suppose. I’m not bullish on Indiana because they don’t defend.

Hands down on close-outs, losing track of multiple guys when in a zone, and a lack of hustle in transition, Indiana has confounded me all season with poor defense.

Purdue’s resurgence was one of the great stories of the season. Dead in the water in December after losses at Mackey to both North Florida and Gardner Webb, the Boilermakers found their collective mojo and began playing like Purdue as they won 12 Big Ten games, earning an #8 seed.

Matt Painter not only gets off the hot seat, but looks like a very happy guy with kids who are fighting for him.

In this lose and go home environment of the NCAA Tournament, Purdue has a couple of tough opponents if they want to get to the Sweet Sixteen. First up is Cincinnati, and if the Boilers can get past a talented Bearcats team, undefeated Kentucky awaits.

It will take 40 minutes of outstanding play for Purdue to have a chance against Kentucky. Having two seven-footers in A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas is a plus for Painter, and Jon Octeus has been wonderful, but the road past Kentucky may run through Dakota Mathias’ ability to knock down threes. Purdue is an interesting matchup for Kentucky in that they are built similarly, but Kentucky has superior athletes across the board.

To beat Kentucky, Purdue doesn’t need to be the better team – they just need to be better for 40 minutes.

Butler opens against a very talented team in Texas. Interesting matchup between opposites. Butler is well-coached with a roster of brothers. Texas has Isaiah Taylor and Myles Turner at the point and the post, but have had difficulty playing well for long stretches. The game they gave to Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament showed them at their best and worst.

If Texas decides it wants to play 40 minutes, Butler will have trouble, but their is no evidence they’re capable of that level of focus. If Texas gets off to a big lead, Butler fans should take a deep breath and relax. Texas will likely revert to the mean. That said, Butler needs to play smart and shoot it well to take advantage of the inevitable Texas lapses.

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Notre Dame is a #3 seed as a result of their remarkable ACC Tournament triumph, and a win against Northeastern is all but a given. In the second round, the winner of Butler and Texas will await. Jerkin Grant is a great guard, and the rest of the Irish roster is good enough. Zach Auguste brings some size.

The Irish could wind up in the Sweet 16, but will need to beat Kansas to get to Kentucky.

Valpo gets a great draw with Maryland. Don’t get me wrong – Maryland is talented enough with Dez Wells and Melo Trimble to run Valpo out of the gym, but they sure looked like a dysfunctional group in the Big Ten Tournament who might be ready to take that long dirt nap. There was no joy in their play, and morose teams tend to be the upset victims in March.

The Indiana team with the best chance to knock off Kentucky is Purdue, and if that is the second round matchup in Louisville, it should be riveting stuff.

While the State of Indiana enjoyed a better draw with five teams in the field this year as compared to their shutout last year, it’s very possible that fans will need to root against Kentucky to retain interest in the Big Dance beyond the first weekend.

That will be enough for me.

Breakfast with Kent – Five teams from Indiana in Midwest – Only one can beat Kentucky!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq3H1j0Jw-g

Indiana Basketball – So many questions from texters about IU hoops, including “Does winning mean unending purgatory under Crean?”

by Kent Sterling

“Ah-ha, I knew half of you bloated southern Indiana hilljacks were out to get me!”

My smart phone was buzzing last night and continues this morning with texts from IU alums and boosters, most of whom are concerned that a win against Northwestern will mean a “stay of execution” for Tom Crean as Indiana’s basketball coach.

Those texts underscore the mood regarding Indiana Basketball among those looking for a reason to believe that next year might be better for the team that tethers them to IU both spiritually and financially.

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It’s hard to imagine Crean winning enough to appease the fans who long for the days when Indiana students and alums could proudly boast about winning clean, hanging banners from the south end of Assembly Hall’s ceiling, and being listed among the royalty of college hoops.

The history remains, and Assembly Hall still echoes with the cheers of fans thrilled by basketball excellence. But the current state of the team has people wondering whether glory will ever return.

Concern is rampant, and those loudly expressing it point to the strange optimism a victory over lowly Northwestern has brought to a portion of the fan base and media that can’t seem to call Indiana exactly what it has become – a middle of the road program in a conference suffering through a down year.

Yikes!

Tonight, Indiana will put it’s skill and tenacity to the test again in Chicago, and the opponent is not from the only Big Ten university to never qualify for an NCAA Tournament. Maryland is not Northwestern. A win and they are in. A loss makes the wait for Sunday’s selection show nerve-wracking.

The division of the Indiana fans into two factions is nothing new. Bob Knight had vocal detractors and passionate supporters. The supporters usually won the argument by point to the three NCAA titles and 11 Big Ten Championships he brought to Bloomington, but in the end Knight’s self-absorbed buffoonery, bullying, and 13 year run without a championship gave the haters what they needed to oust him.

I don’t know Crean well, but I admire much of what he has accomplished in Bloomington. The program’s academic progress rate has been perfect year after year. Players generally graduate in three years. Those devoted to playing professionally build their bodies to be as coveted as possible by GMs in the NBA and Europe. There was a Big Ten Championship that was followed by a second trip to the Sweet Sixteen. All good stuff.

Crean is also very nice to people who walk past Cook Hall. He’s given friends of mine personal tours, and seems to enjoy sharing the assets of IU hoops with fans battling illness. That’s enough for some, and for others that list will bring nausea. They will see IU under Crean as an endorsement of ongoing mediocrity.

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Supporters see great shooting and timely rebounding by undersized players as accomplishments. Detractors watch the weave offense and soft/confused zone, and shout at the TV.

These are interesting times in Bloomington – and Chicago – and the questions from those who are pro-Crean and anti-Crean far outnumber the answers.

Is a 12-seed in the NCAA a good thing?
Does a trip to the NIT mean Crean is out?
Should we be happy about the way IU played yesterday, or pissed they didn’t all season?
If there is change, it will be from Crean to whom, Archie Freaking Miller?
Doesn’t anyone remember being the #1 seed two years ago?
Is Crean the reason for the mediocrity of the past two seasons?
Why can’t Indiana recruit Indiana high school players?
What’s “Creaning” and why is it acceptable behavior?
Are the rumors about Noah Vonleh telling Goodluck Okonoboh not to come to IU as he served as Goodluck’s host during his visit true?
Will all the players leave if Crean is fired or quits?
Why wasn’t Crean at the 2013 and 2014 NBA Drafts when he had players taken early?
What kind of a cretin – or group of cretins – yell “Tom Crean sucks!” as Crean’s son Riley came into a sectional game for Bloomington North last weekend?
Doesn’t the graduation and grades of players matter?
Is compliant but okay better than being championship winning cheats?
Has the behavior of players improved, or are they just better at avoiding arrest?

Fans will get one more answer tonight, and then the wait for Sunday begins.

Carmel’s Ryan Cline is my Mr. Basketball for 2015

by Kent Sterling

Ryan Cline will miss shots now and then, but it will always surprise you. A chance to lead – he never misses those.

Great shooter. Great kid. Great winner. Great leader.

Good enough for me.

I don’t know all the candidates for Mr. Basketball, the most coveted individual prize in Indiana high school basketball, but I’ve seen a lot of Carmel High School’s Ryan Cline and spoken to him at reasonable length.

He is the best high school shooter I’ve ever seen. He’s among the best leaders. And all he does is win, which is what he’s going to try to do tomorrow at Noon against McCutcheon in the Marion Regional.

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Cline doesn’t just make shots – his release and arc are relentlessly precise. His confidence never wavers, and the results are remarkable, regardless of the situation.

Late in close games, and Carmel played a lot of close games this season, Cline takes the ball and provides the difference for the Greyhounds.

Carmel played in 13 games decided by 10 or fewer points this season, and won 11. Four games either went to overtime or were decided by a single point, and Carmel won all four. There are two ways to win those games, make shots under pressure, and cause the opponent to miss.

There is an undeniable feeling when Cline has the ball that every shot he takes will slice through the net. People in the stands feel it, and so do opponents. They do everything possible to keep the ball out of Cline’s hands, but can’t. And when he gets a touch, he’s tough to keep from getting a clean look – a clean look is all he needs.

As good a shooter as Cline is, the response from teammates to his leadership might be even more important to Carmel’s success. Late in games, Cline holds teammates accountable and they respond.

Talking to Cline, he’s confident, relaxed, and modest. His features are relaxed, and the conversation is easy. On the court, his face hardens into a controlled focus that borders on anger but never crosses a line. There is no question for every second of a 32 minute game that Cline’s spirit is entirely devoted to the challenge of winning – not shooting, scoring, padding stats, laughing, relaxing, or taking a possession off. All efforts are driven by what appears to be an unquotable desire to wring the potential greatness from each possession.

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Over Cline’s four years playing for Carmel, the Greyhounds are 91-10 with two state championships and a chance at a third. Winning is what this kid does, and when he reports to Purdue this summer he is going to bring more than a jump shot to West Lafayette.

If there is a high school basketball player more deserving of Mr. Basketball in Indiana, and there could be because I haven’t met them all, he must be spectacular in every way.

Indiana Basketball – Final exam tonight for Tom Crean and the Hoosiers at the Big Ten Tournament

by Kent Sterling

This is the building where Tom Crean will take an important final exam tonight.

Everyone I knew as a student at Indiana University looked forward to each semester’s last final exam like it was Christmas, the Fourth of July, and New Years Eve rolled into one momentously joyous event. Except for me.

I dreaded it.

That last final meant my opportunities to rescue a mediocre semester of academic underachievement and confusion had passed. No more chances to rewrite a paper or learn Spanish in two days. It was over. Done. Opportunities for redemption – gone.

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Tom Crean’s Indiana University basketball team faces a similar circumstance tonight at 6:30p (ESPN2) when they try to rescue a season gone awry.

Speculation about the future of the program and who might be in charge next season is rampant. More important to many Hoosiers fans than the score of the last game is the buyout number IU would be responsible for if Crean is released following the season.

This is a stark change from the tenor of talk back on January 22, just after Indiana dispatched Maryland with a resounding 89-70 thrashing. The Hoosiers were ranked 23rd the following week, and seemed to be fulfilling the promise of its talented if small roster.

The season then took a perplexing turn. Indiana became mediocre with the second six-game trimester bringing only two wins. The final six games were equally dismal with another two wins and four losses. Even worse, two of those final four wins came against a terrible Rutgers team.

The wins against Rutgers remind me of my parents going over my report card, “I see you got an A. Nice work! Wait a minute, what the hell is Introduction to Film? Why can’t you get an A in a real class?”

Despite losing eight of its final 12, Indiana somehow still qualifies as being among the last four invited to the NCAA Tournament, according to both Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm – award winning bracketologists – so the season can still be saved through some late night cramming and an outstanding performance in the Big Ten Tournament this weekend in Chicago.

A win tonight against Northwestern can move the Hoosiers into a quarterfinal matchup against Maryland that would allow Indiana to cement its status in the Big Dance. The Wildcats are experiencing a season that is the negative image of Indiana’s – losers of nine of its first ten, but winners of five of its last seven.

I hope Crean is more confident walking into the UC than I was when walking into Ballentine Hall for many finals.

Losing to Northwestern would leave the Hoosiers on the outside of the NCAA Tourney with nothing to show for its 2014-2015 efforts but at least one extra game no one will want to play or watch in the NIT.

Tonight’s test is pass/fail, and the stakes are enormous for the players and coaches. A second straight season without an NCAA berth would be greeted with unpleasantries even by the small reasonable sect of Indiana fans trying to find a reason to believe Crean is the right guy to lead the most important marketing arm and ongoing link among alums to the university.

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Many of the more passionate fans have already determined that Crean should be fired. They believe Crean should never have been hired – that he was never a sound fit – and as this season has unfolded, it has become increasingly difficult to not agree with them.

Player misbehavior, recruiting questions, and rumors of player and staff dissatisfaction with Crean’s quirky behavior help heighten the need for positive on-court results. Winning tonight wouldn’t solve many problems, as a subsequent victory against #2 seed Maryland might be needed to put them solidly in the NCAA field, but a loss would raise the volume of cries for Crean’s ouster.

With tonight’s test ahead, there is still hope – a chance to pull a rabbit out of that cream and crimson bag. A passing grade brings another chance. Flunking might mean a trip to the dean’s office for a conversation about whether Indiana University was the right choice for a man of Tom Crean’s talents.

Been there. Done that.

Indianapolis Colts sign gray stallions Frank Gore, Trent Cole, Kendall Langford, and maybe even Andre Johnson to build champion

by Kent Sterling

Colts GM Ryan Grigson had what appears to be a very good day yesterday – one that might be instrumental in hanging a banner in 11 months.

Whatever football can be squeezed from running back Frank Gore, outside linebacker Trent Cole, defensive lineman Kendall Langford, and just maybe wide receiver Andre Johnson, the Indianapolis Colts hopes it puts them over the hump in the effort to climb past the New England Patriots for supremacy in the AFC – and NFL.

Gore and Cole will be 32 when the 2015 season starts, Johnson will be 34, and Langford is the young pup of the group – not turning 30 until the middle of January, when the Colts hope to be in the middle of another long playoff run.

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The Colts didn’t need to pick up the phone to remain the prohibitive favorites in the AFC South. Making the playoffs is a given with Houston, Tennessee, and Jacksonville as their division mates, and if the Colts needed another reason for optimism, being scheduled to play the NFC South gives them another assumed four wins.

(By the way, I know assuming anything in the NFL is foolish, but come on, it’s the AFC and NFC South! That has to be an assumed 10-0 before camp opens in Anderson!)

Sitting still would have been the easy and safe call, but general manager Ryan Grigson is constantly churning the roster to improve bit by bit, and that is exactly what happened yesterday.

Thirty-two year old running backs are historically past or at their career finish line, but Gore has been a model of consistency over his 10-year career. If he has one more season in him where he can be expected to average four-yards per carry, the Colts are going to present the kind of offensive balance that will make them a headache to prepare against for every defense they face.

Cole has forced three fumbles during each of the past two seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles, and if Robert Mathis can regain his explosiveness after his achilles tear, the pass rush so integral to the success of most Super Bowl champions will be back in Indy. Cole leaves Philly as the second leading packman in Eagles history – behind the singularly splendid Reggie White.

Langford as a free agent signing will be overlooked by many, but he’s one of those guys who makes plays without possessing great, well, anything. He’s just good at a lot of things, and capable of making a defense better each week. With the Rams, he was a pro’s pro, and always ready to contribute.

And don’t forget that Grigson also signed several of his own free agents to deals. Safety Mike Adams, offensive lineman Joe Reitz, safety Colt Anderson (where else could a guy named Colt go?), and Cam Johnson will be back.

Adams was an especially big signing as the Colts cupboard is virtually bare at safety. Despite his age – Gore, Cole, and Johnson are contemporaries nearing NFL obsolescence – Adams was better than anyone expected as a late signee who won a starting spot against long odds, and then went to his first Pro Bowl.

The cherry on top of the cake might be Johnson, a certain Pro Football Hall of Famer. At 34, he might have a couple of solid years left in him. His production declined in 2014, but three different quarterbacks threw to him during his final season with the Houston Texans, but those 85 catches would be a career year for many.

Johnson would fill the role of veteran security blanket for quarterback Andrew Luck that Reggie Wayne’s departure opened, and he can also serve in a similar capacity to Wayne as a role model for the young receivers who are developing as the core offensive weaponry for the Colts.

This might be the last shopping spree Grigson indulges in for a few years as the rookie contracts of the elite 2012 draft class of Luck, receiver T.Y. Hilton, Dwayne Allen, and Coby Fleener will soon expire and require expensive extensions.

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Other good news not out of Indy yesterday was the departure of Darrelle Revis who will rejoin the New York Jets. When the best gets worse, and the team chasing them improves, fans get excited.

Colts fans should be champing at the bit for a memorable 2015.