Good points my friend. Not sure if you read the original article or the edited version (should have held off on hitting “publish” until I was thinking rationally) but I’ve cooled down considerably.

I still think that just because of how close we are to the debacle of last season, and because it was a phone call violation specifically, that they should have stayed out in front of this one. At the very least, say something in December when the one week penalty is being served.

I agree with you that no system will prevent errors 100% of the time, and that Tom Crean is doing a great job. As I said before, I probably had some leftover venom and anger for the jerk who coached us previously and it spilled out in an irrational way.

As you always do, thank for keeping me straight when I get a little too excited and forget to think first, talk second.

You make some really good points, and I realized I probably allowed my visceral reaction to write the original post as opposed to a rational head. I knew I should have waited until the morning!

I still think that this is something TC should address, and that they should have addressed at the time, just because of how sensitive the subject is and how close we still are to the mess from last year. It would have been a great opportunity to show how committed TC and the university are to doing things the right way.

Still, I can’t publicly chastise TC too much when the one I’m really pissed off at is the lying snake now in Milwaukee who created this mess in the fist place.

As your friend, I respect your opinion over most writers in sports because I know your intentions are always the best and I don’t think you are writing things just to “sell papers” if you will.

However,

I really have to disagree with you on this issue. First to be clear, I don’t think you or I would ever give a honeymoon period when it comes to doing the right thing. Now to the point, it seems like you are upset at the process, but I think you are off base. This isn’t a issue and that’s why TC hasn’t addressed it. You agree that it was an honest mistake, so I don’t really know what you expect, by Crean addressing the situation, all it does is point to the fact that it is an issue, when it’s so clearly not.

Let’s add a little perspective here, say IU is looking at 100 kids over the next 4 years, thats 200 calls a week, all of these calls can be made any of the coaches. That’s a lot of things to keep track of, even the most strict system has the possibility of producing a single error. In the business world they came up with a term, Six Sigma, to help minimize errors, as you know there isn’t a way to have 100% quality.

Please, you went to the university, you understand the bureaucratic tape that is involved with something as small as reserving a class room. It all has to fit in the system and go through the proper channels. I think that questioning the timing of the release is premature and fails to understand the NCAA system, I think it would be improper to comment on the issue before filing the report as the NCAA might view that as an issue.

Also, maybe balance the story with some of his successes in the class room. Jobe got 100% in a class, did you ever do that? I didn’t, and I was born in this country. Coach Crean is doing a great job, give the man a break until he does something worthy of a piece, this certainly is not.

I don’t think I’m dumb enough, considering I basically acknowledged your very point:

“IU fans and non-IU fans can rationalize this “just one call” any way they like and say it’s not a big deal. Shoot, for all I know a little slip-up like this may very well have occurred under Coach Knight. As the IndyStar article says, “schools routinely turn themselves in for minor violations of the NCAA’s complicated rules.” Well guess what? Most schools in most seasons are not struggling to tread water in the wake of a horrific ethics scandal that rocked the foundation of their once proud and integrity-filled program; but that is where Indiana’s basketball program currently finds itself.

The combination of time, location, and circumstance implore an unyielding and impermeable commitment to airtight intregity. Based on this report, a violation slipped through.”

I don’t doubt that this kind of stuff happens all the time at lots of schools, probably on a regular basis. But if there was one school where it shouldn’t have even come close to happening, it is IU…and especially this season. Maybe I’m being too strong and too harsh and expecting the impossible, but I expected the controls in place to be so stringent that nothing close to a violation could happen.

I’m not really as upset about the violation as I am about the fact that it’s just coming out now. I just wish Crean had said, “Look, this happened but it should not have. It was an honest mistake and we are self-reporting it and will self-impose a penalty. But I am accountable to the IU program and its fans, and this was my fault. But we’re on top of it and always looking for ways to ensure that our compliance is as airtight as possible.”

Or something like that. Part of the culture the jackass who coached last year created was of looking the other way, denying, and lying. I think Tom Crean and the basketball program need to go to extra lengths to ensure any remnants of that culture has been eradicated. I’m sorry, but rationalizing a violation, no matter how minor, and not requesting public accountability by our coach, is not my idea of ensuring that IU basketball is on the right path for the future.

But thank you for your comment and perspective…it is always much appreciated. And like I said, maybe I’ll feel differently after a night to sleep on it. Maybe the shock of “IU”, “Tom Crean”, and “extra phone calls” in the same sentence was just too much handle with last year still so fresh in the mind.

I’m still fully behind TC…I just want to make sure that we are overly cautious to create a culture as defined by integrity and ethics as is possible in the corrupt world of college basketball.