Jones has progressed nicely, and will be a nice role player for future years. Better guards supposedly on the way will relegate the Third Edition of Verdell to the position of sub.

Dumes is a thug. Plain and simple, he should not be wearing an IU uniform post Sampson. If Crean had any nads, he’d dump him.

Story is a wasted scholarship. Might do well at ISU or Taylor. Not a smart player/has no basketball intelligence.

Williams brings nothing to the game at this level. And for those who keep saying he’s the next Vaden, you’re right…he needs to be playing for Mike Davis at UAB, not IU.

Pritchard has scored because he’s been the go-to guy. He’s also the only post presence we have. He’s as good right now as he’s going to be. He’s slow, his footwork is horrible, and he’s going to foul out of 70 of the games he’s in when the other team goes inside a lot. Again, a nice role player and future sub if the talent gets better.

Matt Roth is the worst defender in the Big 10, and has no chance of ever improving. Like Pritchard, he’s slow, his footwork is weak, and the only thing he brings to the game is he can hit if he’s open. The next time he creates a shot will be the first.

Moore, God love him has a ton of heart, but you’re already seeing him lose playing time. He can’t guard, he can’t shoot, hell…there’s not much he can do. But what the heck, let him hang around since he bleeds Cream and Crimson.

And that leads us to Tom Crean, the ugliest and shortest cheerleader in the game today. He may get IU to some 4th, and maybe an occasional 3rd place finish, but he will not take IU to the heights of an Izzo, a Ryan, a Painter, a Weber. It will not happen and it’s time to be honest about it. One win in the NCAA’s and done, not making it every other year, NIT losses, and no Big Ten titles is what Crean will bring to IU for the four-five years he’s here.

He’ll run your average clean program, with the occasional screw up like Dumes this season, most of his kids will go to class though no one is talking about those basketweaving courses being offered (and it’s not just at IU, but it’s become IU since the arrival of Mike Davis and his players), and several of them might even graduate.

But for Crean to put a constant contender on the court, he’s going to have to be one hell of a lot better coach at IU than he ever was at Marquette where basketball was the only show in town. Crean, if one’s honest, is a fairly decent coach who says the right things, who constantly acts like a fool, who just isn’t good enough to take IU back to the Knight years, unless one thinks Knight’s last seven years were good.

As for this team playing hard, sure they do. But do they play hard AND smart? Not in my lifetime or yours. Basketball dumb is sitting in Bloomington. Not one of the current crop of Hoosiers would start on any other Big Ten team. Not one.

Crean picked them, talked about how good they’d be, how excited he was to get them. Hell, Williams was even a Crean recruit who followed him to IU, and we’ve seen how great a pick that was.

For my fellow IU fans, don’t hold your breath waiting on greatness from this group or Tom Crean. It ain’t gonna’ happen.