Certain days just have a different, more exciting feel about them, and every year this is one of those days for me.

Another season of Hoosier hoops tips off tonight.

Tom Crean and his young, talented team take the Assembly Hall floor tonight against Howard. The Big Ten Network is carrying the game, which will tip off at 8:00 ET. (FYI, find out all IU basketball viewing info at our 2009-10 IU basketball TV schedule).

Indiana has rolled in two exhibitions games over Grace and St. Joseph’s (Indiana), which is exactly what they are supposed to do. Neither game was televised here in Dallas, so tonight will be my first opportunity to see IU’s much heralded group of newcomers that will be making their official debuts this evening:

• Jordan Hulls
• Bobby Capobianco
• Maurice Creek
• Derek Elson
• Bawa Muniru
• Jeremiah Rivers

And then the guy that I am the most excited to see: Christian Watford.

IU basketball game days are always the hardest days to get through. But hey, at least I now have a job where I can pass some of the time by writing about the Hoosiers.

Hoping for a solid 15-20 point victory tonight and a good confidence builder for all the new guys. Nothing spectacular, but this is a game we should control from the outset and win with the cruise control on during the last ten minutes. We may not be experienced enough yet to do that, but I think it would show a major improvement over last season if we could.

And that’s all this season is about: improvement.

I’m also interested to see what Devan Dumes’ role will be this year. He was the go-to guy on offense for much of last season until Verdell Jones stepped up late in the year, but Dumes plays wild and out of control a lot of the time. His experience, I presume, will keep him as a key cog in the rotation, but I wonder how his role with start out and then evolve as the season progresses.

Just one of the key questions heading into tonight. Can’t wait. Go IU!

(Come on…you knew the headline had to have some kind of lame pun involving “grace”.)

Yes, it was only an exhibition game against Grace, but last night proved to be an encouraging and auspicious beginning to the 2009-10 basketball season for a program seeking redemption.

Tom Crean and the Indiana Hoosiers did exactly what an IU team should do: impose their will on a far inferior opponent and cruise to an easy victory. Though reports of the game indicate that Grace played the Hoosiers tough for the first 24-25 minutes, IU won the game 96-73.

Coming off of a season that saw the Hoosiers lose home games to Northeastern and Lipscomb, any win — even an exhibition win that doesn’t count — is a welcome event.

And for anyone who took IU’s opponent last night for granted, just ask Syracuse fans how that worked out for them.

Let’s go around the IU blogosphere and newsosphere for reaction to the game. I had previous obligations and was not available to plunk down the $3 to watch it live on the Big Ten Network’s website (although I would have), so I’ll let those who actually saw the action provide the insight.

From what I’ve read and from the time I’ve spent trolling IU forums this morning, a couple of things are clear:

1. What we expected is confirmed: the talent level is way, way, way up this year.
2. Christian Watford is a really talented all-around player.
3. Bloomington native Jordan Hulls is going to be this team’s floor general and a fan favorite from Day One.

Reaction below. As detailed in our handy-dandy 2009-10 Indiana mens basketball tv schedule, the Hoosiers next take on St. Joseph’s (of Indiana) in their second exhibition game on Monday.

Indiana Struggles Early, Rolls Past Grace in the Second Half — (Inside the Hall)

A couple of thoughts from Indiana’s exhibition opener:

Watford was very effective after he settled down. He looked a bit anxious early, which is to be expected for a freshman, but his athleticism around the basket made an instant impact. He got to the line nine times and connected on all of his attempts. Impressive debut.

The basketball IQ of Hulls will make him a fan favorite in Bloomington. He has a knack for setting up teammates and when left open, he was able to knock down some shots. And he didn’t register a turnover.

Here are some player interviews (including Jeremiah Rivers, Verdell Jones, Jordan Hulls, and Christian Watford) found at Inside the Hall:

And here is the post game audio from Tom Crean.

Freshman Impressive in IU Exhibition — (CJ.com)

On a night when all eyes were on IU’s highly touted recruiting class, the freshmen didn’t disappoint.

Christian Watford had 19 points and 11 rebounds, helping IU’s five freshmen combine to score 52 in a 96-73 rout of Grace College.

“We’ve been looking forward to showing people what we can do,” Watford said. “A lot of publications have us ranked last in the Big Ten in the preseason, and we just think we’re better than that.”

IU Gains Fresh Start to Season — (FW Journal-Gazette)

“I don’t put a lot of emphasis on the points, I put more emphasis on the rotations, playing through fatigue, and I thought we took quality shots,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “… I thought all our freshmen came in and contributed and made strides as they got better.”

**********

* – Christian Watford photo credit: Rob Goebel / The Star via IndyStar.com

Wednesday cannot come fast enough. After watching the Browns stumble through another horrible Sunday, I am already excited about the turning the page and moving on to college basketball season.

Truthfully, I’ve always been a college basketball fan more than I am a fan of any other sport, and this year there will be nothing distracting me from following every second of Indiana’s 2009-10 season, which should see Tom Crean and the Hoosier program rebound from the unavoidable train wreck that was the 2008-09 season.

Last year was obviously tough to suffer through, but I am firmly behind Crean and the plan he has in place to return Indiana’s basketball program to respectability, and ultimately to prominence. I’m not expecting miracles this year, but I do believe that a .500 record is within reach now that the talent level is more commensurate with a Big Ten power.

When and where can you watch the team this year? Below is the 2009-10 Indiana Hoosiers mens basketball TV schedule, along with some helpful links to help you find good deals on IU basketball tickets.

• StubHub: Indiana Basketball Tickets
• TicketsNow: Indiana Basketball Tickets
• RazorGator: Indiana Basketball Tickets

Indiana Hoosiers Mens Basketball 2009-10 TV Schedule

Words cannot express how excited I am for the upcoming IU basketball season.

Actually, I take that back. Certain words can express my excitement, such as the ones written by Dana O’Neil (thanks @ryancorazza) a few days back at ESPN.com.

Since I don’t have much time today for writing, I will give you an excerpt, a link to her story, and then some other intriguing Friday afternoon links.

I love the NFL and the MLB playoffs, but I will always be a college basketball fan at heart. I’m ready for Year Two of the Tom Crean Era (i.e. The Purge Kelvin Sampson From the Memories of All IU Fans Era) and it cannot get here soon enough.

So why bother? Why sign on with a program that is just laying the first bricks of rebuilding?

“We’re going to hang banners and win awards before we leave here,” Elston said. “But we’re also going to change the program. We’re going to be the team people talk about for a long time, the ones that brought Indiana back. That’s something a lot of people don’t get the chance to do.”

IU’s fresh faces offer hope for fans — (Dana O’Neil, ESPN)

Here is one more excerpt to whet IU fans’ appetites for the coming season(s):

But when Hoosiers coach Tom Crean went out to find the pieces to begin rebuilding his roundball phoenix, he targeted a certain kind of kid.

OK, for starters, he wanted good players. That was helpful, and he got them. Creek played in the Reebok All-American game; Watford is listed as No. 26 in the ESPNU top 100; Hulls was an Indiana Mr. Basketball.

More than that, Crean wanted kids with strong character, the kind who wouldn’t hang their heads when things got tough and wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the expectations of a fan base patiently waiting to get back to the business of winning.

It took just one weekend’s worth of practice to assure Crean he has the right guys.

I am pumped already. No, I am not expecting miracles this season. I would be satisfied with a .500 record after last season’s debacle, with any postseason play a success. The expectations obviously increase for next season, Year 3 of the Crean Era, but for this year I just want to see something that resembles IU basketball again. The kids played their hearts out last year and I appreciated every second of their effort, but the talent just wasn’t there.

Coach Crean is bringing the talent back to Bloomington. The wins should follow.

In other basketball news, everyone’s favorite NBA writer has a new NBA column out. Read it while you’re shirking your work responsibilities (you know you are!) this afternoon:

• Welcome to the NBA Preview, Part 1
• Welcome to the NBA Preview, Part 2

Caught word on Peegs.com this morning that Victor Oladipo has committed to the IU. Oladipo is a 6′4 guard from basketball powerhouse DeMatha and joins 6′6 wing David Williams of Jacksonville, FL as IU’s two commits thus far for 2010.

Browsing various scouting reports about Oladipo, he is currently on the fringe of being a consensus top 100 player in the nation and is rising because of a great summer.  Oladipo is described as being in constant motion offensively although not yet a great mid-range shooter, is a defensive-minded player, and has obvious hops (see video below). He is also apparently very academic-minded and once beat up a guy at church because he thought the dude looked like Kelvin Sampson.

Okay, so that last part is not true…but how quickly would he endear himself to the IU faithful if it was?

Follow the links to StubHub for great deals on IU basketball tickets, all Big Ten basketball tickets, and tickets to the 2010 Big Ten basketball tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

To sum up the Victor Oladipo scouting report, it sounds like he is an athletic jack-of-all-trades who, as of yet, is a master of none. But he fits the Tom Crean profile of a high-energy, high-character guy around which Crean can build his up-tempo, attacking style of basketball.

Anyway, when most people think of Indiana basketball, they think of goofy white guys in really short shorts. Sure, there have been plenty of such players to come through the program, but times have changed. (And for the record, the goofy guy to the right, Brian Evans, was named Big Ten Player of the Year as a senior, so you can stop your snickering…ass.)

Not only do the Hoosiers now wear shorts of a reasonable length, but Tom Crean is putting together what appears to be a pretty athletic roster. Once he arrives at IU Oladipo will join, among others, athletic 2009 freshmen Christian Watford and Maurice Creek, and based on the video below — a dunk-fest featuring Oladipo and long-time friend Creek — there could be some pretty exciting fast breaks in Bloomington in the years to come.

(Hat tip for the Victor Oladipo-Maurice Creek dunking video to Inside the Hall. My apologies in advance for the wretched music.)

Video: Victor Oladipo and Maurice Creek Dunk-Fest

Another reason to like Victor Oladipo if you a Hoosier fan is that, according to the Indiana Daily student, Oladipo claims God led him to commit to IU:

Oladipo, the No. 133 recruit in the nation according to Rivals.com, committed Monday to playing college basketball at IU. His commitment came after a night of prayer and time with his family.

“God had pointed me toward Indiana,” he said. “He was giving me signs. I felt like that was where He wants me to go.”

Well, all I have to say is that Oladipo is like many IU fans in that respect. Of course, the god who led us to IU basketball is probably not the same one to which young Victor is referring.

Oladipo also said that the relationship he developed with Tom Crean, as well as his longtime relationship with Maurice Creek, influenced his decision.

While I would like to see Crean pluck a few more native Hoosiers from the high school ranks as he completes his 2010 and 2011 recruiting classes, Oladipo appears to be a guy that we can all get excited about. He may not be a superstar blue-chipper, but he could end up being the kind of four-year (*cough…AJ*) player that (*cough…Moye*) consistent winning college teams are built around.

Welcome aboard Victor. I can speak from experience and say that you will love Bloomington. And if reports of your effort, hustle, and character prove true, I can definitely say that Bloomington and the IU faithful will love you right back.

**********

* – Brian Evans photo credit: Peegs.com

* – Victor Oladipo photo credit credit: Rivals via Testudo Times

This will be a fun series for me to research and write, however, because I can relive the glory days of Indiana basketball — that wonderful time when a 1-17 conference record would have been deemed a complete impossibility. As this year proved, however, even the most incomprehensible collapse of a once proud program is possible with the perfect storm of catastrophic player departures and recruiting scandals. All of us IU fans are clinging to the optimism that it was just a one year blip and that Tom Crean will have us back competitive again next year.

Because, you see, while the IU program took a big hit this season, the IU tradition is still alive and strong; and the reason for that is IU’s splendid history of NCAA Tournament excellence. No, Indiana has not been a great tournament team over the past 15 years (except for that awesome 2002 run), but between 1973 and 1993 there were few teams who could match IU in postseason success. The table below, which lists the schools with the most NCAA Mens Basketball Championships, is proof positive of this.

Let’s get to the table and then analyze a bit. First, a few relevant NCAA Tournament links (some of which have not been posted yet, but will be), especially if you are planning on attending any of the tournament games this year:

• 2009 NCAA Mens Tournament Dates and Site Breakdown
• 2009 NCAA Womens Tournament Dates and Site Breakdown
• NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament History: Past Champions, Final Four participants, Final Four locations by year, and interesting tournament tidbits
• NCAA Tournament All-Time MOPs: Mens and Womens Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player Winners
• NCAA Womens Basketball Tournament Champions
• StubHub Tickets: 2009 NCAA Mens Tournament Tickets
• StubHub Tickets: 2009 NCAA Womens Tournament Tickets

The following table provides an ordered list of NCAA Champions in mens college basketball from most to least. It includes the number of titles for each school that has won at least one, and the years in which those titles were captured. I actually included this table at the bottom of a previous post, but figured it deserved its own. Here you go:

Obviously, for me, the best part about this NCAA Champions table is the school in third place: Indiana. The Hoosiers have won as many titles as the rest of the Big 10 combined. The Big 10 needs to get a move on or it could get shut out this decade. Michigan State closed the 90s by winning the 1999-2000 championship, but it has been bupkus ever since for the conference.

North Carolina actually has a pretty good shot to tie the Hoosiers with their fifth championship if the Tar Heels can D up in the tournament. They certainly have the talent to win it all and will likely enter the 2009 NCAA Tournament as the #1 overall seed.

We know one thing: Kentucky won’t be adding to their total any time soon.

UCLA obviously has the most impressive historical resume of any school in the country — by a long shot. And the Bruins have reached three straight Final Fours, but have been unable to close the deal. It appears that UCLA is not good enough to make the Final Four this year, but stranger things have certainly happened. It still boggles my mind to look at their dominance in the 60s and early 70s. Just an amazing run, led by native Hoosier (but collegiate Boilermaker) John Wooden.

Kansas joined the rarified air of 3-time NCAA Champions with their title last year. UConn, Louisville, and Michigan State all have two, but could stretch that number to three in this year’s tournament. I think there is a good chance that San Francisco will be sitting on their two titles for a long, long time in the future…

Out of the NCAA Champions in the Top 6, Indiana is obviously the furthest away from claiming another title based on our performance this season. However, Hoosier fans can take solace in that fact that each of the five other schools has dealt with periods of turmoil and struggle to rebound and become national powers once again. If Indiana is to hang a sixth banner in Assembly Hall, it will have to follow a similar path.

Hopefully Tom Crean is leading us on a path to do just that.

Add it up: another phone call violation (even though it was “minor” and self-reported); my publishing of a regrettable post filled with overreactions and hyperbole that I had to edit later; and, just a little while ago, Indiana being completely non-competitive at home in a double-digit loss to Northwestern — the first IU loss to the Wildcats in Bloomington since 1968.

Damn.

Obviously today does not rival the worst days of Coach Snake’s final season in Bloomington, but the events of the last 24 hours have still been pretty discouraging.

But that is the last negative sentence I am going to write tonight. Instead, I am going to focus on one of the very few positive lights I can see shining through the dense and dreary fog of what is now the twilight of the 2008-09 season.

And that positive light is Indiana senior forward Kyle Taber.

Tonight, during the Hoosiers’ defeat at the hands of Northwestern, Kyle Taber scored a career-high 12 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and blocked two shots while playing only 18 minutes because of foul trouble. Taber’s contributions tonight were solid, but not the most meaningful of his career; nothing for me tops his performance against Purdue last year when he scored 6 huge points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and had 2 assists plus a steal in an IU victory.

But the fact that Taber scored his single-game career high in the his second-to-last home game seems fitting. Kyle Taber is all about perseverance and improvement.

On Tuesday, March 3, Kyle Taber will take the floor of Assembly Hall as an Indiana basketball for the last time. He will do everything he can to help lead Indiana to an upset victory over the mighty Michigan State Spartans, and then he will participate in one of my all-time favorite Indiana traditions: the Senior Day speech. Kyle seems to be a man of few words, a guy who quietly goes about his business in a hard-working and diligent manner, so I don’t anticipate him talking very long.

However, what I do anticipate lasting very long — what I hope will last very long — is the standing ovation that Kyle Taber will receive from the Indiana faithful. I will not be there in person, but I will be standing and cheering from my spot in front of the TV (or computer, if I have to switch over to a radio feed to hear Kyle’s speech).

Kyle Taber is what Indiana basketball is all about. Check that — Kyle Taber is what Indiana basketball used to be about, and what we all hope that it will be about again under Tom Crean in the very near future.

As mentioned above, Kyle Taber has persevered and improved throughout his Indiana career. He has also achieved in the classroom, shown dedication to his team and school, and set a tremendous example for what a student-athlete should be about.

(By the way, the thought is occurring to me that I’d like to slap myself for wasting so much time last night writing that angry rant about the self-reported minor infraction. Sometimes in the daily to hourly search for story ideas, both bloggers and the mainstream media treat negative stories like bees treat honey, which is why guys like Kyle Taber don’t get more of the press and recognition they deserve.)

Consider the tumult that has enveloped Kyle Taber’s basketball career at Indiana. He walked-on as a Hoosier in 2005 during Mike Davis’ tenure after graduating from Evansville Central High School. Davis was later fired and replaced by the coach to whom I do not refer by name on Midwest Sports Fans. Once said coach was relieved of his duties for showing flippant disregard to the prestige and pride of the Cream & Crimson, Dan Dakick took over to end last season. Then Tom Crean became IU’s head coach before this season, the fourth head coach under whom Kyle Taber has played.

Before I go on, I do want to recognize our former coach who is now employed by the Milwaukee Bucks for one thing. In the Fall semester of last year, he awarded Kyle Taber a well-deserved scholarship. There is not much good that I or anyone can say about Kelvin Sampson, but I suppose he does deserve to at least be acknowledged by name one time for rewarding Kyle Taber for his contributions to IU basketball.

Throughout the five turbulent years that Kyle Taber has proudly donned the Cream & Crimson, he ostensibly has never lost sight of the most important reason why is attending Indiana University: to be a student.

Kyle was named Academic All-Big Ten as a freshman, as a sophomore, and as a junior; and I don’t doubt that he will make it a four-year sweep and be named Academic All-Big Ten yet against this year. For a program that became defined by academic problems in the aftermath of last season’s collapse, Kyle Taber stood tall as a 6′8, 220 pound vestige of what once was special about basketball players at Indiana Unversity but had become just a distant memory.

At the end of last season, Kyle Taber was named Indiana’s Most Improved Player. The honor was well deserved as Taber went from playing 14 combined minutes as a freshman and sophomore to playing 247 minutes for a team that many people thought at one point could challenge for a Final Four berth before collapsing. He started 4 games last season, shot almost 78% from the field (11-14) and grabbed 2.5 rebounds per game.

This season, Kyle Taber deserves to be named Indiana’s Most Improved Player again — and not just because he is one of only two returning players from last year. Taber has started all 27 games, and heading into tonight’s contest was averaging a career-high 4.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while playing 23.8 minutes per contest and shooting 50% from the field. All of those averages will receive a little bit of a bump when tonight’s stats are added in.

But in my opinion, Kyle Taber deserves more than to just be named Indiana’s Most Improved Player. Kyle Taber deserves to be named Indiana’s Most Valuable Player.

We all know that Kyle Taber is not the best player on this year’s team, and he certainly is nowhere near the most talented. He does not have the best stats, has not played the most minutes, and very well might lose to every other Hoosier but Tijan Jobe in a game of one-on-one. However, I cannot fathom an argument that could dissuade me from the thought that Kyle Taber is the Hoosier most deserving of being called the 2008-09 Most Valuable Player for IU.

Winning the Team MVP award would be a culmination of Kyle’s perseverence through five of the strangest and most trying seasons in Indiana basketball history. A Taber MVP would be a proclamation that Indiana basketball truly still does stand for character, integrity, hard work, improvement, dedication, academic achievement, and the perpetual placement of team above self.

Kyle should be named Indiana’s 2008-09 MVP not just because of a dearth of worthy candidates, but precisely because Taber is a worthy candidate in the truest sense of the phrase “most valuable.”

Tom Crean said from the beginning of this season that his goals were to build a foundation of accountability, heart, and work ethic. He knew, and we knew, that wins would be few and very far between. Unless we can walk away from this season knowing that we began laying the bricks for a return to Indiana’s foundation of excellence in each of these areas, then the 2008-09 season was a complete and utter failure.

I do not think this season was a failure by any metric other than the scoreboard. This team may not have won many games, but they have helped to develop the foundation of a program that will win again and win the right way. And there is no player who did more to help further the development of that foundation this season than Kyle Taber.

And all he did was continue doing what he’s done for his entire IU career.

Kyle Taber went from being a bench warming walk-on under Mike Davis, to the team’s most improved player under Coach What’s His Name, and now has become a legitimate Team MVP candidate under Tom Crean. Kyle Taber won’t show up in any IU record books, his number will not be retired, and he will never be considered among even the top 200 players to wear an Indiana uniform.

But if anybody ever asks for the personification of Indiana basketball, in my mind you can give them one name and sum up what it means to be a Hoosier: Kyle Taber.

Kyle helped us bridge the gap from a forgettable era of upheavel and destruction to the new era being fostered by Tom Crean that is aimed at delivering a return to a greatness. We may have begun this season with less experience than almost any other team in basketball history, but at least the experience we had provided a link in the form of Kyle Taber that allowed us to harken back to the good old days, while looking forward to the good new days that are forthcoming.

Presence and quiet leadership by example can absolutely provide significant value. Kyle Taber’s quiet leadership by example, in my opinion, was the most important presence on this year’s team. That’s why he deserves to be named IU’s Team MVP for 2008-09, and why he will forever go down as one of the truest Hoosiers in the great and proud history of IU basketball.

This blog clearly needs someone to edit the editor every now and again.

After doing a little more reading of words perhaps more informed and reasonable than my own, I’m not quite as worked up as I was when I originally posted this. I am still disappointed, and I still think there needs to be some public accountability, but I’m not ready to jump off a bridge as it probably seemed when I first posted. So I have edited this post somewhat from its original version. Here ya go.)

According to a report posted Tuesday night at IndyStar.com by Mark Alesia, Indiana University self-reported an impermissible phone call made by assistant coach Roshown McLeon to 2009 IU signee Bawa Muniru. As a self-imposed punishment, Tom Crean and his assistants did not make any phone calls for a week in December. Here is an excerpt from the rather brief story by Alesia:

According to the report, when assistant coach Roshown McLeod left a voice mail for Muniru on Oct. 25, it was the school’s third call to him in a week — exceeding the NCAA limit by one.

Coach Tom Crean, who normally makes one call per week to recruits, placed two to Muniru — the Sunday and Wednesday before McLeod’s call on a Saturday.

The report said Crean “simply made a mistake,” thinking his Sunday call had counted against the previous week’s allotment. The athletic department’s compliance department discovered the violation.

There is no confirmation of when the compliance department discovered the illegal call. My assumption would be that it was in December during a routine check of the phone records and that the penalty was imposed immediately. Regardless, there are a couple of key questions that come to mind for me immediately:

1. If the impermissible call was, in fact, found out about in December, it would have to have been at least five weeks after the call was made. Considering the catastrophic effects of illegal calls under the previous coach, why would Coach Crean and the compliance department not be doing constant audits of the phone records to ensure compliance?
2. If the basketball program is conducting real-time audits of the phone records, and the impermissible call was caught immediately after it happened, then why did the self-imposed ban wait until December? Conveniently that would have pushed it to after the November signing period.

(Update: New post over at the Hoosier Report appears to clear these questions up some. The post provides a link to the self-report form. Seems like the Hoosier Report actually engaged in legit journalism, unlike me who just flew off the handle and published statements I later had to tone down. Here are the basics, according to the Hoosier Report:

“The report indicates that on October 25, Roshown McLeod made what was the third call of the week to Bawa Muniru. Tom Crean had made a call on that Sunday, and again on Wednedsay. Because of IU’s practice schedule, he thought the Sunday call had been made the previous day. IU found the violation on November 21, reported it on December 10, and imposed a sanction of no calls for a week in December. It sounds as if the staff has a good system for preventing these sorts of issues–the head coach and the responsible assistant each make no more than one call a week to a recruit–but it failed in this instance because of a misrecollection by Crean as to the date of the first call. McLeod made what he thought was his one call of the week, but he didn’t have it. Expect howling from the usual quarters, but I don ‘t think this is a major concern, just a major annoyance.”

Either way, I find it difficult to look the other way or play the “it’s only one call” card after what we went through almost exactly a year ago. An impermissible phone call? Seriously? For obvious reasons, of all the minor/secondary violations that could occur, this one is truly the most major of annoyances — at a minimum.

I know that it sounds worse that it probably is in reality, but “honest” mistake or not, I still think it’s unacceptable and I don’t understand why we are only hearing about this now.

The illegal phone call reportedly took place on October 25th and the program served its self-imposed suspension in December. It’s now February 24th, and according to the report by Alesia they obtained the report through a public records request. I would expect Tom Crean to explain this with full disclosure the moment he found out that an error had taken place. And to all those who say that these types of violations happen all the time, I say fine; but how often do they happen the year after a school sees its entire program crumble because of the same violation (albeit in a much higher quanity)?

That’s why I think there is ample reason to warrant an explanation from Crean.

Based on the circumstantial evidence, it sounds to me like Coach Crean and the basketball program hoped this would stay under the radar. I have read many message board posts tonight that suggest exactly what the IndyStar article says: that college basketball programs report minor recruiting violations all the time. Perhaps this is so, and I’m a little out of touch. Still, I just think that considering the circumstances, Crean and IU should been out in front of this one, even if they thought it would stay quiet.

I’m glad I decided to stay up and edit this because my original post does seem a little unreasonable now that I’ve gotten over the shock of seeing “Indiana”, “Tom Crean”, and “recruiting violations involving phone calls” in the same story. I am just quite passionate about the integrity of Indiana basketball and the continued rebuilding of the reputation and commitment to rules and ethics that defined IU athletics under Bob Knight and Bill Mallory while I was growing up. In fact, I care about that much more than winning, and I believe that we must repair our basketball program’s broken code of ethics before we can even think of rebuilding the proud tradition of excellence on the floor.

I have been firmly in Tom Crean’s corner every second of his tenure so far. I have kept my expectations in check for wins and losses this year, and have been vocal in staying positive and upbeat during the least successful on-court season in the history of the program.

But I will not keep my expectations in check for integrity.

IU fans and non-IU fans can rationalize this “just one call” any way they like and say it’s not a big deal. And in the grand scheme of things, maybe it’s not. Shoot, for all I know little slip-ups 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. And it means there is a different level of accountability, in my opinion.

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 think anything happened that is egregious or that Tom Crean should be tarred and feathered for; and, as some over at Peegs have suggested tonight, Crean and IU perhaps should even be getting some amount of credit for reporting the violation in the first place.

Under normal circumstances this would not really be a huge deal to me considering the realities of college basketball recruiting, but I still think that given the circumstances of the last year, even a violation this “minor” should have been followed by explanation and full disclosure at the time. I am probably in the minority in thinking this, but so be it.

What do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Luckily I didn’t fall asleep before I could edit what was probably not a very well thought out post originally. I’m still disappointed that even a minor violation had to be reported, and I believe that Tom Crean should address this soon — hopefully after an IU win over Northwestern tonight. More than anything, I think I’m just still pissed at the ass clown who was coaching here before, the one who created the mess that made me cry wolf as my first instinct upon reading the IndyStar story tonight.

My main source of excitement all year long has been the promise of moving forward and closing the door on the immediate past. What I read tonight immediately swung that door back open and brought everything from last year right back to the forefront of my mind. Hopefully with time that knee jerk reaction will subside.

All I want is to believe beyond any doubt that IU is back to playing completely by the rules and taking steps each day towards banner #6. For a moment tonight that belief was shaken, for what I really hope is the last time.

The game is now over, with the Boilermakers winning 81-67. My prediction was a 4-point win for the Boilers, I think they were favored by 22, and it ended up at 14. I guess that sounds about right. Here is the IU-Purdue box score if you’re interested.

While I am never happy about a loss, especially to Purdue, I think Indiana represented itself it well by playing hard, looking competent for stretches on the offensive end, and not allowing Purdue to ever run away with the game. Until E’Twuan Moore’s three-pointer with about 3:30 minutes left, the Hoosers were hanging around between 6-10 points down, just a few quick threes away from making it a game. But Moore’s three was a dagger that pushed the Purdue lead to 12 and effectively ended IU’s hopes of a comeback.

Here are a few observations and things we learned today:

1 – It is an absolute travesty that IU and Purdue are only playing once this year

This point is really too obvious to spend a lot of time worrying about. Does the Big Ten conference just stick its head up its own rear when it decides on the schedule? Certain rivalries should always be played twice a year, end of story. Indiana should always play Illinois and Purdue twice a season, no questions asked. I’m not even saying anything else because it is the one thing that IU and Purdue fans can agree on. There should be a meeting in Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers might not win, but they certainly could make it a competitive game. Now that this game is over, the fact that IU and Purdue are only playing once this year is really starting to piss me off.

2 – If Purdue shoots well in March (and Hummel is healthy), they can make a tournament run

I am impressed with this Purdue team. They struggled out of the gates in the Big Ten season but are playing really well right now. They play suffocating man-to-man defense and have solid continuity on offense. And when E’Twuan Moore is shooting the ball well from outside they become especially difficult to defend. The big caveat is Robbie Hummel’s health. I don’t think they have enough multi-dimensional players to compete with the top teams in the nation if Hummel is out, as evidenced by their 1-3 Big Ten record without him. With Hummel in the game, however, he provides that one guy with size who can do a little bit of everything.

3 – JaJuan Johnson is talented, but will never realize his potential until he learns how to focus

Full disclosure: This is the first full Purdue game I have watched this year, so Boiler fans can correct me on this one if I am wrong; but JaJuan Johnson really seems to lack focus. He played a very good game today though. 14 points, 10 boards, and 5 blocks. He showed range on his jumper, obvious athletic ability, and has undeniable talent. Yet, he made some really careless turnovers and got caught out of position a number of times on defense. And while I love Tom Pritchard and Kyle Taber, they are not in the upper echelon of big men that Johnson will have to face come March. If Johnson increases his ability to focus, he could be a monster as a junior and senior. He’s so talented, he may be anyway.

4 – Indiana has a team full of role players, but two guys have emerged as pieces to build around for the future

Nick Williams, Devan Dumes, Matt Roth, and Malik Story all bring unique individual abilities to the floor, and all will be solid players in the cream and crimson for the next year (Dumes) or three (the others, all freshmen). However, on a good team that can contend for a Big Ten title, they should be bench players who fill specific roles playing 10-15 minutes a game. And I don’t think that is a knock on them at all. They are getting tons of playing time as freshman because IU had so little coming back this year, and will be better players because of it. But each has critical deficiencies that put ceilings on their potential:

• Nick Williams is too short to be a guy who lacks quickness and handle
• Devan Dumes is not consistent enough as a shooter and plays out of control with the ball
• Matt Roth is a non-factor if he is not getting open looks from 3, and lacks quickness to get open if defenses focus on him
• Malik Story is simply average from a skill standpoint and athletic ability standpoint

With all that said, all four of these guys have tremendous heart and because of it they have been more productive than their respective talent and skills would suggest they’d be. They have also continued to fight in the midst of an awful season and will forever have my appreciation and respect, as well as that of Hoosier fans everywhere. And while they will improve moving forward, these are the kind of guys who should be like Pat Graham, Brian Evans, and Todd Leary on the 1993 team: solid role players who are not asked to do more than they are capable of doing and who contribute to a winning team.

There are two guys on this year’s team, however, that are proving to be future starters that IU can build around: Tom Pritchard and Verdell Jones.

Pritchard has been pretty consistent all season, though his play dipped a bit recently. I thought he played well today though. He was active offensively, made some tough shots, did a solid job on the boards, and played well with fouls in the second half. He finished with 12 points and 8 boards, which I think will be a similar line to what he’ll put up as a senior when he plays Purdue. Pritchard has obvious deficiencies in foot speed, overall athletic ability, and free throw shooting — only one of which he can really do anything about. But he is a physical presence with decent skills and a high basketball IQ. He can be a Matt Nover-type contributor who you can pencil in for 10-14 points and 8-10 boards every night. He is almost that right now as a freshman.

In terms of improvement, no Hoosier has improved more from the beginning of the season to now than Verdell Jones. Honestly, at the beginning of the season I was wondering why we gave him a scholarship and why he was playing so much. He looked scared, he turned the ball over left and right, and had no physical toughness. Over the last few weeks, Jones has shown off his offensive abilities and become a much more poised leader with the ball in his hands. He still does not dribble especially well and makes lazy passes, and he simply has to get stronger, but 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in his first trip to Mackey is nothing sneeze at.

I thought Verdell was outstanding today. For the first time all season I thought he looked completely comfortable on the floor. He made some beautiful passes, did a great job of pulling up for the 10- to 15-foot jumpshot, and led an IU offensive attack that played pretty well, all things considered, against a team that really knows how to lock down on defense.

Verdell Jones also has one huge advantage that cannot be taught: height. At 6′5, he is a tough matchup for most guards in the Big Ten. He has gotten eaten alive though by shorter, quicker players this season when he is careless with the ball; but as his ball-handling and decision-making improves he is going to become a really tough matchup on a night-in, night-out basis. With talented players Maurice Creek and Christian Watford, among others, coming in at the guard and wing spots next season, this year’s freshmen will have more competition for playing time. Verdell Jones is proving that he has the talent to be a starter on a top-flight Big Ten team. If he can continue grow physically, as a ball-handler, and in the mental aspect of the game, we could be looking at a player who puts up stat lines like today’s on a nightly basis.

5 – The IU-Purdue rivalry is going to be really fun again

In the late 80s and into the mid-90s, the IU-Purdue rivalry was awesome. Calbert Cheaney against Glenn Robinson. Brian Evans against Cuonzo Martin. AJ Guyton against Chad Austin. And of course, Bob Knight against Gene Keady. Over the last decade or so, while the game is always exciting, it has lacked that extra bit of star power and top-level performance. A major part of it has been the two programs’ transition from legendary coaches to the guys at the helm now. Another part of it is a huge lull in the two programs’ ability to keep the top in-state talent at home. And honestly, it has been rare recently for both teams to be really good at the same time.

But I think with Tom Crean and Matt Painter settling in as the long-term stewards of Indiana and Purdue basketball, this rivalry is on the right track towards becoming one of the elite rivalries again on a yearly basis.

Painter has done a great job of building a solid nucleus around in-state players. Tom Crean is bringing some good Indiana kids in next year and supplementing them with top-flight national talents like Creek and Watford. Give IU one more year to settle in next season, and then I think these two programs are poised to be in the upper third of the Big Ten for the next decade. And with these two coaches we know that the games will be extremely physical and hard fought.

For once, I am not completely despondent after a Purdue loss. I have resigned myself to the pitiful fate of seeking moral victories in every loss. The state of our program demands it. Today, the Hoosiers showed that they have two starters and four solid bench players ready to go for next season. Assuming three or four of the new guys are ready to step in and contribute right away, we can look forward to a still young but much more talented team next season that should be ready to compete for a Big Ten title again in 2011.

And hopefully, God willing, moral victories will no longer be an option.

Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment, and perhaps I’ll feel differently if today’s game goes as every expert predicts it will go (read: blowout), but there is still always something special when Indiana and Purdue take the court together. Today is no different, and in fact is a little extra special because it is the first meeting in what should be a long and competitive rivalry between two outstanding coaches: Tom Crean and Matt Painter.

I am about to do something that I rarely do, and that may shock anyone who knows me. So brace yourselves. But I am about to give someone affiliated with Purdue a compliment.

I really, really like Matt Painter as a coach. Obviously I hate his guts because he coaches for Purdue, and I want to see him lose every game, but I respect what he is building in West Lafayette, and his teams embody what I am optimistic that Tom Crean can build in Bloomington (just better, of course). Painter has produced a team with many home-grown kids from the state of Indiana that protect their home floor, play tough and physical defense, and make every game a battle. They are not flashy, but they are solid and successful. And I can tell you this: I’m already penciling Purdue in for the Sweet 16 and the brackets aren’t even out yet.

(Pause. I am going to wash my hands now because I feel dirty and traitorous for having typed the previous paragraph.)

All that said, I wouldn’t trade Tom Crean for Matt Painter, and even though Purdue is better than Indiana this year, the fact remains that the ceiling for greatness in Bloomington is and always will be higher than in West Lafayette. At the end of the day, while Purdue has us 21-20 in Big Ten titles, the five national championships and 8 Final Four appearances dwarf the modest success that Purdue has had on a national level. Now that we have a coach who can build a winner the right way, and for the long-term, the Hoosiers should be able to elevate to the height of that ceiling once again.

And hopefully today is a step in the right direction.

A lot has been written over the past 36 hours about the frustration that Tom Crean showed after Thursday night’s loss to Wisconsin. He was not particularly amicable with Bo Ryan during the post-game handshake, and did not stay around long to answer questions with the media. Apparently, at least according to this forum thread, such behavior was his M.O. after particularly tough losses while at Marquette. Call me crazy, but I doubt IU fans will hold that against him. We have a little bit of experience with coaches who do not always display the height of their jocularity after losses.

To be perfectly honest, I felt the same way after the Wisconsin loss. I’ve stayed pretty positive all year, but that second half was pathetic. We looked tired, lacked focus, and did not even play up to our modest capabilities. We were terrible and non-competitive. I don’t think too many people realistically expected victory, but we all certainly expected a better effort than that. Tom Crean has stayed remarkably positive all season long in the face of some of the most dire circumstances and results any big-time college basketball program has ever experienced.

I’ll forgive him if every now and then the frustration boils over.

I hope and expect that the team saw every bit of that frustration in the locker room. If we play against Purdue in Mackey today like we played at home in the second half against Wisconsin, we’ll lose by 30 points. If we bring the effort and intensity we have brought all season long we can make it a semi-competitive game and at the very least not be embarrased. Like many, I will be rooting as hard as I can and hoping for the best, but I’d be shocked if IU pulled off a victory. It sure would be a beautiful thing, but while I hate Purdue with every fabric of my being, I don’t disrespect them enough to predict an IU win on their home floor. Not this season anyway.

I did say at the beginning of the year that if we went 1-15 in the conference, but beat Purdue, that I would consider the season a success. We already got our one win against Iowa and it remains to be seen if this year’s Hoosiers are capable of a second. But if somehow — by some combined stroke of luck, serendipity, and downright divine intervention — the Hoosiers are able to sneak out of West Lafayette with a win, it will erase an entire season of frustration and disappointment and make the whole ugly experience just a little more palatable.

I’m not holding my breath, but I’m certainly holding out hope.

Whatever happens today boys, just go out there and play hard and give your best effort. We have known all year as fans that we have to keep our expectations in check; but only for Wins and Losses, not for effort, focus, and heart. We left a lot to be desired in the second half of Thursday, but today presents a great opportunity to attone. Let’s send a message to Purdue and the rest of the Big Ten that we are not years away from competing. Go out there and compete today and show everyone that the pride of the cream and crimson endures, even in the face of tremendous struggle and frustration.

I’ll be in front of my TV cheering for all 40 minutes and believing every second that we’ll find a way to win (rationality goes out the window once the ball is tipped…always). I don’t ask for much, just to see that same effort and belief in you.

Go IU!

Official Game Info:

• TV: Big Ten Network
• Time: 2:00 ET
• Location: Mackey Arena in West Lafayette

Prediction: Purdue wins, but the Hoosiers make it a far more competitive game than anyone expects. 62-58 Boilers

On Monday, Ryan over at Inside the Hall encapsulated the Hoosier bashing that permeated the sports blogosphere that day. He cites FOMSF Josh Q. Public’s article about Indiana basketball, as well as the initial Deadspin take on the issue from Rick Chandler. As you can see in the comments section of the Josh Q. Public post, I took exception to points being made by both.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am like a papa bear protecting his cub when people pile on Indiana basketball. I realize that a certain amount of piling on is warranted right now given the way our administration has allowed the IU basketball program to sink to the depths it has fallen to this season. But when you start unnecessarily disparaging Bloomington, or making claims that IU basketball is finished as a national powerhouse, I feel the need to stand up and lend some perspective.

The greatest memories of my childhood involve going to IU games at Assembly Hall with my dad, and then heading right out to the driveway afterwards to pretend that I was Calbert Cheaney or Damon Bailey or Brian Evans. You mess with IU basketball and you’re messing with me. As Colin Cowherd likes to say, “fan is short for fanatic.” Well, that is definitely true in this case.

Rick Chandler, mentioned above, posted about Indiana basketball again yesterday. It took the form of a response to the criticism that he received in many corners of the sports blogosphere. And while I did enjoy the post for reasons I will get to in a second, I wholeheartedly disagree with the following assertion that Rick made in his original post and reiterated yesterday:

Oh, Bloomington will still be a great basketball town, but what I mean by basketball backwater is that the Hoosiers will always take a back seat to Duke and North Carolina and UCLA and even Wake Forest and UConn. They’re no longer special. Email me the next time Indiana reaches the Elite Eight. I’ll be waiting.

He frames this point with a terrifically entertaining anecdote of himself as a young reporter getting a surprising 20-minute interview with Bob Knight. He also describes what must have been a surreal scene in Bedford watching Damon Bailey play in high school. While I obviously do not endorse his pessimistic view of the future of IU basketball, I highly recommend reading the post for an entertaining journey back to, admittedly, the old glory days of IU basketball and Coach Knight.

After reading the article, I decided that if Coach Knight had seen enough of the young Rick Chandler to grant him an interview that surprised everyone Rick told the story to later, I could at least offer up the respect of considering his arguments. Maybe he is onto something, and Indiana basketball as I once knew it is like a dinosaur: legendary and powerful in its day, and still worthy of remembering and appreciating with both fondness and awe; but extinct and no longer relevant for contemporary purposes.

I fully realize that I am supremely biased when it comes to IU basketball. I feel like I can rationally analyze the team’s performance and not make predictions or statements that are too outlandish and blinded by fanaticism, but I know that what I consider to be objectivity can sometimes be imbued with the conflict between head and heart that all die-hard fans experience.

So after reading Rick’s article yesterday I decided that for once I would make my best effort to analyze the current state of IU basketball solely with my head, while fully knowing that it would be impossible to totally remove my heart from the proceedings.

Let’s get a few things out of the way that are and have been well established:

1. Indiana basketball still has amazing fan support. I moved from Indianapolis to Dallas last April, so I have to watch IU from afar this year, but the crowds at Assembly Hall have been outstanding this season. I knew that IU fans would rally around this year’s team if they played hard and showed heart. They have.
2. Tom Crean is the right man to get IU basketball headed in the right direction. When a program has sunk to the depressing depths that IU currently wallows in, you need a coach who is pathologically optimistic and positive, almost bordering on irrationality. Tom Crean’s boundless energy and enthusiasm, and his belief in IU basketball, are exactly what we needed in the aftermatch of the coach who will not be named.
3. You can still recruit to Indiana. Considering his late start, I think Tom Crean did an amazing job of bringing in the freshman class that he did this year. Nick Williams was the Player of the Year in Alabama last year, and came with Crean to IU after committing to Marquette. Sure, he mainly followed the man that recruited him, but the idea of playing for a program as historically prestigious as Indiana had to have a little something to do with it. Even Verdell Jones, while not a superstar by any means, was a top-150 recruit who decided to come to Bloomington late in the recruiting season. And we know about Indiana’s outstanding recruiting class coming next year, led by Christian Watford and Maurice Creek. Any rating service you find has it rated in the top-10. And this is a brand new coach recruiting to a school mired in recruiting violations, probation, and very little tournament success since 2002. The Indiana brand must not be completely dead yet.

All of this being said, I am not foolish enough to think that Indiana is still currently on the same level as UCLA, North Carolina, or even Duke, which itself has played below its previously established standards in recent seasons. Even in the Big Ten, Michigan State is now the alpha dog. While teams like Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Illinois have joined Indiana in a rotating wheel of top-level Big Ten competitiveness this decade, Michigan State is always at or near the top.

But we all know that Indiana basketball once was among the elite of the elite. Between 1975 and 1987, Indiana won three national championships, made eight Sweet 16s, had two undefeated regular seasons, and won six Big Ten titles. Expand that to 1993, the last truly great Indiana team, and there were twelve Sweet 16 appearances, seven Elite 8 appearances, and nine Big Ten titles.

Since 1993? The Hoosiers had a magical run to the National Championship game in 2002, and “only” missed the NCAA tournament twice, but only got to the Sweet 16 one other time (1994) and tied for a Big Ten championship in 2002. That’s it. Considering the greatness that IU fans had become accustomed to, the last 15 and now going on 16 years have been pretty down.

So what basis, if any, is there for IU fans to say that Rick Chandler or any number of other non-believers is wrong to say that Indiana basketball as we once knew it is essentially dead? Is there another college basketball program out there that fell on comparably hard times but was rejuvenated?

Let’s consider UCLA as an example. We know about their greatness under John Wooden, but the last season of Steve Lavin’s tenure and the first season of Ben Howland’s tenure produced a record of 29-36. Over the last three seasons, UCLA has been rejuvenated and reached the Final Four every time. But between 1993 and 2002, the Bruins won a National Title, and played in six Sweet 16s. So while they had a momentary blip of failure, there was not such a systematic and consistent decline as we have experienced in Bloomington. Plus, I don’t think even Rick Chandler would consider UCLA’s campus to be “backwater”, thus rendering UCLA moot for purposes of this comparison.

Kentucky is a proud basketball powerhouse that has fallen on more modest times recently, finishing the last three seasons unranked. But before that Kentucky finished #1, #2, and #7 from 2003-2005. There is not really a comparison to be made here, as Kentucky is currently mediocre but certainly not at the depths of Indiana.

Admittedly, I have not dug as far as I could, but I do not have a perfect college basketball comparison to make that suggests Indiana can reclaim its pre-1994 stature among the elite. Perhaps this absence of a direct comparitive college basketball argument to Rick Chandler’s article can be seen as implicit acknowledgment of the validity of his point; but I ask you to hold on for just a minute. While there is a not an obviously perfect basketball comparison to make (at least that I can find), there could be a pretty solid comparison to make from the world of college football.

The program I will reference and explore is Oklahoma. Let’s do some quick analysis:

National Championships:

• Oklahoma has 7
• Indiana has 5
• Both schools are among the top 5 in history in their respective collegiate sports’ record books.

Conference Championships:

• Oklahoma has 42
• Indiana has 20
• Oklahoma is first in Big 12 history, Indiana is second only to Purdue’s 21 in Big Ten history.

All-Time Wins

• Oklahoma has 791 all-time wins, good for #8 in college football history. The Sooners have won approximately 72.8% of their games.
• Entering this season, Indiana had 1,635 all-time wins, good for 10th all-time heading into this season. (They are 11th now, with Notre Dame vaulting over the Hoosiers). Indiana has won 64.8% of its games.

Legendary Coaches

• Bud Wilkinson followed up a very good coach in Bennie Owen and established Oklahoma as a true national power with 145 wins and 3 National Titles between 1947 and 1963. Barry Switzer continued the tradition with 157 wins and 3 more National Titles between 1973 and 1988.
• Branch McCracken followed up a very good coach in Everett Dean and established Indiana as a true national power 364 victories and 2 National Titles between 1938 and 1965. Bob Knight continued the tradition with 661 wins and and 3 National Titles between 1971 and 2000.

Just looking at these raw numbers, there is certainly a comparison to be made. Yes, Oklahoma has the advantage in each category, other than the striking similarities in coaching history, and if you were comparing Oklahoma football to Indiana basketball, the edge would be to Oklahoma; but that is not the goal here. The goal is to establish the comparison of a national powerhouse, located in a so-called “backwater” college town, that has experienced great success, then fell on hard times, but the resurrected itself back to national prominence.

Consider the performance of Oklahoma in the aftermath of the controversial final few years of Barry Switzer’s tenure. Gary Gibbs took over and won 65% of his games, going to 3 bowl games over half a decade. Howard Schnellenberger coached one disastrous season in which he went 5-5-1. Then John Blake coached the team for two years, going 12-22 and Oklahoma fell off the national radar. Then the Sooners hired Bob Stoops away from Florida, everyone hailed him as the perfect fit for Oklahoma, and the program did a complete 180. Stoops has won 82% of his games, brought another National Title to Norman, and has Oklahoma among the nation’s elite again.

Now consider the performance of Indiana in the aftermath of the controversial final few years of Bob Knight’s tenure. Mike Davis took over and won 59% of his games, reaching four NCAA tournaments and had the one magical run to the title game during his half decade. Then the lying snake who shall not be named coached the team to a 43-15 record over two seasons, but was fired in the middle of last season, after which Dan Dakich coached the team to a disastrous 3-4 finish. Now Tom Crean has taken over, and everyone has hailed him as the perfect fit for Indiana. The team is still struggling with the disaster left behind by the coach who shall not be named however, so the 180 has not been as immediate for Crean and IU as it was for OU under Bob Stoops.

The way I see it, the years after the departure of Bob Knight in Bloomington are following a very similar path to the years after the departure of Barry Switzer in Norman. Right now, Indiana is in the midst of its “John Blake years”, so to speak; with the obvious difference being that Blake was not the long-term answer, but Tom Crean is. Crean has taken over a once elite program that returned all of 30 points last season. This year’s Hoosiers are one of the youngest and least experienced teams in college basketball history. The Hoosiers’ performance this year certainly is not an indictment of Tom Crean, and he should not really be judged by wins and losses until probably two seasons from now, next year at the absolute earliest.

So why can’t Indiana experience the same phenomenal resurrection that Oklahoma has experienced? The fan support of the two school is similar, the strength of the historical brand is similar, and both schools’ administrations are committed to fielding elite-level basketball and football programs, respectively. Plus, Oklahoma’s turnaround was marked by the arrival of a high-energy, high-enthusiasm coach known to be a good recruiter. Tom Crean has arrived in Bloomington with obvious energy and enthusiasm, and is also known as a good recruiter. Plus, unlike Stoops when he came to OU, Crean has head coaching experience and has been to a Final Four. You don’t think the status that comes with being Dwyane Wade’s college coach and having a Final Four on your resume won’t help him on the recruiting trail? Look at next year’s class; it already has.

Plus, if Bloomington is “backwater” then what, exactly, is Norman? As referenced by Ryan over at Inside the Hall, Forbes recently rated Bloomington as one of the top-10 college towns in America. (As an alum, I wholeheartedly concur.) And while no one is claiming that the Forbes list is the be-all end-all, I don’t see Norman on there. Yet Bob Stoops consistently signs top-10 recruiting classes. Additionally, Tom Crean has the opportunity to recruit to a “better” academic institution than Bob Stoops, at least according to the prestigious U.S. News and World Report rankings. Indiana was rated #71 out of all U.S. universities while Oklahoma came in at #108.

Again, let me reiterate: my purpose here is not to try to say that Indiana basketball is better than Oklahoma football, and I’m not trying to tell you that Bloomington and Indiana University are necessarily better than Norman and Oklahoma University. The entire purpose of this breakdown of the two programs and the schools is to show you the similarities, and is my best effort to provide solid evidence that Rick Chandler is wrong to believe that my beloved Indiana Hoosiers basketball program can no longer reach elite levels.

After going through this entire exercise (and completely blowing off work this morning), I feel confident in asking Rick Chandler and any other IU basketball non-believers one very simple question:

If Oklahoma could do it, why can’t IU?

I do not dismiss offhand the possibility that there could be compelling counter-arguments to what I have presented today. But, what I can say is that the process of writing this post has made me even more excited about the Tom Crean era of IU basketball and even more fervent in my belief that the Hoosiers can once again become a consistent national contender. At the very least, the story of Oklahoma football has given me a legitimate and very comparative example to grasp onto as I search for reasons to believe as much in the block IU, the candy-stripe warmups, the banners, and the cream & crimson as I did back in 1993.

Who knows, maybe cream & crimson just happen to be the official colors of college sports powerhouse resurrection? Bob Stoops did it in Norman and I see no reason why Tom Crean cannot do it in Bloomington.

You can assess for yourself whether I am making that judgment more with my heart or with my head. I feel pretty good that it’s a healthy combination of both.

And despite all the naysaying, I feel great about future of the Crean & Crimson.

What do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

In the second half of today’s rematch in Bloomington, however, the Hoosiers perhaps offered a sign of what is to come in the near future: real competitiveness against a top-20 team.

Despite being down 38-21 at halftime, and continuing to play without suspended leading scorer Devan Dumes, Indiana played hard and played well in the second half. On a couple of occasions the Hoosiers got the Illini lead down to 8 or 9 points, but were never able to take the next step and erase the rest of Illinois’ advantage.

(Follow the link to view the Indiana-lllinois box score)

For the Illini, the game was won inside. Indiana actually held Demetri McCamey to only two points, but Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale combined for 32 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 blocked shots. Davis in particular was impressive with his poise and athleticism, and turned in what IU fans will no doubt agree was the best performance ever at Assembly Hall by someone named Mike Davis.

No offense intended for IU’s former coach of the same name, but it what it is.

While another home loss is hard to take, and Indiana never truly threatened to win this game, the team’s fight and defense in the second half was encouraging. Matt Roth and Malik Story played especially well in the second half, doing everything they could to compensate for the offensive void that Devan Dumes’ absence has left. Story finished with 9 points and was assertive in taking the ball strong to the hole. Roth finished with 13 points and put some juice into IU’s comeback attempt by nailing three second half 3-pointers.

At the end of the day, the same problems plagued Indiana today that have plagued the team all year: overall lack of talent and depth and an inability to make free throws. The Hoosiers shot 24 free throws but made only 11. In a 13-point loss, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how much different the game could have been if the Hoosiers had made their free ones.

In a season of moral victories, the second half of today’s game was another one. It continues to be imperative for IU fans to maintain realistic expectations of this year’s undermanned team. We all want victories, but this is another building block game that helped us to build the foundation for many more victories in the future.

Or at least we hope.

That said, it always sucks to lose by 13 at home, especially to Illinois. Another reward like we got a few weeks back against Iowa sure would be nice before this season is over. Maybe once Devan Dumes is back we can get one.

Junior guard Devan Dumes has been suspended indefinitely after being kicked out of the Hoosiers’ game on Saturday for some flailing elbows, one of which caught Michigan State center Goran Suton in the twig’n'berries.

Here is the press release, courtesy of Peegs.com:

DEVAN DUMES SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University men’s basketball coach Tom Crean has suspended indefinitely junior guard Devan Dumes for his actions during Saturday’s game at Michigan State.

“After coming home and having the opportunity to review the game film, I believe that discipline is necessary and deserved in this matter,” said Crean. “A line was crossed that was unacceptable. However, Devan is one of ours and like with all of our players we want them to learn and understand what it takes to be successful.”

Dumes will not play when IU visits Minnesota on Tuesday night.

“I truly regret my actions and I will learn from this situation,” said Dumes. “I apologize to everyone involved for doing something that is uncharacteristic of how I play the game. I am looking forward to putting this behind me and being a better leader to my teammates.”

Dumes will continue to practice and travel with the team.

In case you didn’t see it on Saturday, here is the video of the flying elbow that got Devan Dumes kicked out of Saturday’s game:

I could not find video of the elbow Dumes threw into Goran Suton’s junk, but it looked about as bad as this one. Basically, Dumes and Suton were running to the other end of the court side-by-side and Dumes wound his arm up and then back, into Suton’s package, in an exaggerated running motion. Suton doubled over and had to take a breather on the bench.

We’ve all been there. It didn’t look good.

The officials took a break to look at the video of that elbow, but decided to not even call a foul on Dumes, who was called for an offensive foul earlier in the game for clearing space with his elbows while holding the ball on the offense.

Needless to say, the flying elbow in the video above was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I really like Devan Dumes. He is unruly and gets out of control at times on the court, but he plays hard and with passion — too much sometimes, obviously. I applaud the move by IU and Tom Crean, and hopefully Dumes does indeed learn from this. Anyone who has watched IU play this year knows that our only prayer to get victories is to have Dumes leading us on offense. Not having Dumes against Minnesota will make being competitive a much tougher challenge. But hopefully taking a stand now will help Dumes, and the new foundation of IU basketball being built by Tom Crean, grow for the future.

And while Dumes suspension is not good news for the Hoosiers, as least it proves one thing: we now have a coach who will take a stand with players and insist on discipline and sportsmanship. It’s a far cry from the last two years under the jackass-who-will-not-be-named.

Good move Crean. Devan, learn your lesson and get back on the floor. I think the Hoosiers have one more win in them this season, but we all know that we need Devan Dumes at the top of his game for it to happen.

A little background: back in the day, my dad had two season tickets and went to the games with my mom, until one fateful night when Bob Knight grabbed the jersey of then-IU freshman Delray Brooks and she vowed never to go to an IU game again. (Brooks, of course, later transferred to Providence and played on their Final Four team under Rick Pitino.) Her loss, however, was my gain. I slid into her seat and never missed a game until the year after my family moved from Bloomington in 1994. And I guess the timing of this move was fitting, considering the 1993 IU basketball team is my favorite sports team of all time, and IU basketball has never been as good since.

Well, in the more than 20 years that I have been following Indiana basketball, from both up close and afar, I would rank last night’s home victory over Iowa in my all-time Top 10 most rewarding and appreciated wins. Sure, scores of wins have meant more in the conference standings or for tournament seeding purposes. And it isn’t like IU knocked off a conference giant — quite the contrary, as Iowa is in 10th place and was playing without their best player. And the game was at home, in Assembly Hall, where victories used to be a given and not a cause for jubilant celebration.

But this is not a normal season, nor a normal team. And I do not feel one iota of shame or embarrasment or foolishness for feeling, at least for a split second, like IU had won some kind of championship. When you have 5 national championships, a history of consistent success, and are one of the winningest programs in the history of college basketball, you aren’t supposed to be excited about being 1-8 in the conference. Well, screw that. I am excited, and I am really proud of Tom Crean and the Hoosiers.

I would also be remiss if I did not dole out some well-deserved kudos to Devan Dumes. He has taken all kinds of flack — and deservedly so — for lacking poise late in games and making silly turnovers or taking unnecessary shots. Think back to the Michigan game. But last night, Devan Dumes literally put on a shooting performance that is among the best ever witnessed in Assembly Hall. For one night, Devan Dumes allowed IU fans to harken back to the days of Steve Alford, Greg Graham, Calbert Cheaney, Damon Bailey, AJ Guyton, and Tom Coverdale, among others. Look at his statline:

Devan Dumes versus Iowa:

• 27 points
• 8-9 FG
• 5-5 3 FG
• 6-8 FT
• 4 Reb
• 2 Assts
• 2 Stl
• 2 TO
• 35 minutes played

If you substituted Calbert’s name atop that statline and told me it was a game against Michigan and the Fab Five or Jim Jackson and Ohio State, I’d believe it. That’s how good Devan Dumes was last night. And he was certainly not the only one who brought it.

The entire team only committed 11 turnovers, which is how many the Hoosiers have by halftime a lot of games. Kyle Taber played very solidly inside, grabbing 8 boards and scoring 7 points. Nick Williams was his usual scrappy and AJ Moye-esque self, grabbing 9 rebounds (6 offensive) and scoring 14 points. And Malik Story came off the bench to score 9 points in 15 minutes, while being the confident and assertive player that we have seen emerge over the last few weeks.

And as Dumes said after the game, according to the Big Ten Network, the team is looking forward to more such victories over the next month:

“I’m just focused on the second half of the season, and coach told us we can make some magic things happen,” Dumes said. “It’s just really exciting to finally get that first win. There was a lot of smiles in the locker room and a lot of relief.”

Ah yes, the coach: Tom Crean. He is off to one of the worst starts, record-wise, in the long and storied history of IU basketball. Yet, I feel more confident about the direction of our program right now than I did at any time under Mike Davis or the jackass who shall not be referred to by name. Crean’s attitude and positivity and optimism just speak to what I have always wanted IU basketball to be about. And I have been so impressed by how hard we have played all season long despite the consistent losing.

IU fans remember the NCAA tourney flameouts during the final years of Knight’s tenure in Bloomington, and the often disinterested look that Mike Davis’ team gave, and the complete lack of discipline displayed under the lying snake of a man who shall not be referred to by name. Sure, Tom Crean is only in his first season and all of the players are fresh and new — but for a team that has been so consistently beaten down this year to just keep getting up and fighting, and to never give up, well it’s all I want to see out of my basketball team. Wins, no doubt, will follow.

After the game, Tom Crean and the Hoosiers stayed on the court for a little while and soaked in their first victory. The Hoosiers high-fived the fans and Tom Crean even took the microphone to personally thank the fans and tell us that this win was ours. Watch the highlight video from the Big Ten Network if you didn’t see it last night. For any IU fan who has suffered through the last 11 games, and who will probably suffer through more losses this season, last night was a great reprieve from a very frustrating season.

And Coach, while all IU fans appreciate your dedication of the victory to us, last night’s win was yours and the teams’. You guys have battled, and fought, and clawed your way to so many close losses against teams with a lot more talent. Last night, you earned a well deserved victory. We’ll take the next one, but last night was yours.

And the first of many, many, many memorable wins that will happen under Tom Crean at Assembly Hall.

Mired in NCAA sanctions and perhaps the worst basketball season in school history, and on the heels of a complete collapse from the football program in 2008, fans of Indiana University have had little to cheer about during the past calendar year.

That all changed this past Saturday night when Miss Indiana Katie Stam became the first Miss America from the Hoosier State in the 88-year history of the pageant.

Her whirlwind weekend did not end Saturday night in Las Vegas, however. We have breaking news here at Midwest Sports Fans that Indiana University head basketball coach Tom Crean immediately called Katie Stam, a communications student at the University of Indianapolis, to offer her a basketball scholarship at IU. Stam, a native of Seymour, immediately accepted the offer.

“We are very excited to be adding Katie Stam to the basketball program here at IU,” said Tom Crean in a statement made up completely out of my own wandering imagination. “One of our goals is to rebuild the proud winning tradition here in Bloomington, and I am confident that having someone on the team who has actually won something will help us do that.”

Crean cited a FoxNews article titled “Indiana Student Crowned Miss America” as his inspiration for offering her a basketball scholarship. When told that the headline was false, and that Stam actually attendeds the University of Indianapolis, Crean appeared undettered — a probable manifestation of his desperation to just get a win…somehow.

Crean and the Hoosiers currently sit at 0-6 in the Big Ten conference after dropping a heartbreaking game to the Minnesota Golden Gophers at home on Sunday. While the difficult season was expected for the Hoosiers, who play 7 freshman, a junior transfer, and a former walk-on among their regulars, it does not mean that it has been any less difficult for IU fans to handle.

“Have I seen her play? No. Will she be eligible to play for us, considering she is a girl? I don’t know. Does she even have any basketball ability? That remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, unless she he has both of her hands amputated between now and our next game, she should help us cut down on turnovers,” explained Crean.

“I’m sure,” Crean continued, “that Verdell Jones and Daniel Moore will take expection to a girl starting over them, but it will give them a chance to sit and learn a little bit. Heck, Ryan Finkelmeier won’t even play anymore now that we have another guard, but he sprayed his shorts when I told him who his new teammate would be, so at least he’s on board with it.”

Perhaps among the traits that attracted Crean to Katie Stam are the heart, desire, and toughness that she displayed in winning the grueling Miss America competition. Stam fought off a throat infection, laryngitis, and 51 other contestants to be crowned Miss America. She admitted to having trouble sleeping one night last week and even had to take medicine to help her fight the throat infection. Luckily, she got her voice back by Thursday and was able to drop dimes of wisdom like this, which helped her pull out the kind of W that has eluded this year’s Hoosiers:

During the interview portion of the competition she decried the use of performance-enhancing drugs among professional athletes and discussed the definition of glamour. “That beauty that you feel on the inside, it’s that confidence, that radiance inside of you, that’s what glamour is,” Stam said.

In addition, as the picture to the right clearly shows, the other contestants for Miss America (especially Miss Tennessee on the right) would have rather driven a stake through Stam’s muscular thigh than lost the Miss America crown to her. No doubt, Stam’s perseverence in the face of such competitive pressure is something that Crean feels Stam will add to the Hoosiers this season. Additionally, Hoosier legend Bob Knight would clearly be impressed by Katie Stam’s game face.

“Look, we’re getting desperate here. We all knew this season would be trying, but we keep coming so damn close and just can’t figure out a way to win. Katie Stam may not be able to shoot, she may be female, she may not even go to school at IU, but at least she’s won something. That’s more than we can say about our guys right now, and hopefully the winning attitude she displayed Saturday night will rub off on the team,” explained Crean.”

“Plus,” he continued, “I think Katie Stam and Mario Lopez may end up being a package deal, and what struggling sports team couldn’t use A.C. Slater?”

There is not word yet on when Katie Stam will join the Hoosiers, or if she will even be allowed to. One thing is for sure though: having her in the lineup certainly would not appear to decrease the Hoosiers’ chances of getting one Big Ten win this year, but it would at least give Hoosier fans like me something to smile about while mired in the muck of the Kelvin Sampson aftermath.

Photo Credits:

• Top Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images
  
• Bottom Photo: Isaac Brekken / AP