The more I read about Crean the more excited I am about this hiring. My first response was "It could have been a lot worse." But now I've kind of moved to: If we couldn't get Bennett Crean is a great choice. Could be that I'm just being sold on him by the school, but I don't think so.
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
I felt the same way about Creen, I really wanted Bennett but Creen has a longer track record and has been to the final four. It may take a few years but Coach Creen will have the Hoosiers back on top.Originally Posted by Razor Shines
When I see the 2016 Reds, I see a 100 loss team and no direction.
This is from Rick Bozich's column yesterday.
Here is what Crean does know: that a number of his IU players are in serious academic trouble. That he is leaving San Antonio this morning to begin the work of fixing that tomorrow.
That Armon Bassett, one of the starters dismissed from the team by interim coach Dan Dakich last week, has called to ask about reinstatement. But Jamarcus Ellis, the other dismissed starter, has not.
That Crean understands that however he decides to proceed with Bassett and Ellis, somebody is going to howl and call him too soft or too unyielding.
That Crean considers Bob Knight a friend and that the school is interested in reaching a détente with its Hall of Fame former coach.
"He knows I respect him tremendously," said Crean, who has kept notes from a Knight coaching clinic he attended when he was 19 years old. The two were also guests of St. Louis Cardinals' manager Tony LaRussa at spring training in Florida last year.
And that despite all those issues, Crean is convinced Indiana remains a job where he can do special things.
"It's going to be great," he said. "When? That's not relevant yet. But it will be. First we have to get things in order academically fast."
It appears that former IU coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff were as committed to enforcing classroom attendance as they were to keeping track of their recruiting phone calls. Players sometimes balked when they were told to run as punishment for breaking rules.
After Dakich took over Feb. 22, the interim coach tried to improve discipline. But the word is that when Dakich told one player that he wouldn't play because the kid cut class, the player replied with a text message saying he had not been punished the previous time he cut class.
"What I have to find out is who is serious about working hard, who has the motor to work the way we're going to work," Crean said. "That will be the eye-opener now."
Will that include Ellis and Bassett, the only potential returning starters?
Know this: At Marquette, Crean worked vigorously to recruit Bassett out of Terre Haute South High School. He thinks Bassett can play. But he thinks behaving as if you realize playing Division I basketball is a privilege is more important.
"I'm certainly not going to disrespect any decisions that were made before I got there," Crean said.
One day this will make quite a book.
He's saying all the right things, that's for sure.
The more I see/hear/think about this, he was absolutely the right guy for the job.
When all is said and done more is said than done.
I think so too.
It's scary to read how bad it actually was under Sampson. I'm so glad he's gone. It's hard telling how bad it wouldn't gotten if he were able to stick around another year...or longer.
This is all from last week on the Courier-Journal but it hasn't been posted here yet.
It appears that JUCO big man Josh Harrellson (photo) has received his release from Western Illinois. The Cats Pause is reporting that the 6-foot-9, 270-pound Harrellson, who played this season for Southwestern Illinois College, is now looking at Missouri, St. Louis, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Ohio State and Washington State.
Harrellson is an intriguing prospect. He wasn't allowed to talk with Division I schools until he received the release and is now one of the better big man prospects out there. I suspect there will be a major fight for his services. He averaged 14 points and eight rebounds a game as a freshman at SW Illinois.
Upper Marlboro (Md.) Largo center Maurice Sutton, who told me on Wednesday night that he held an offer from Kentucky, might be an option for Indiana also. Sutton, who averaged 18 points, 13 rebounds and nine blocks for the Class 3-A state champions in Maryland, had been recruited by Maryland. "I really liked coach Crean," Sutton told me. He said as of late Wednesday there had been no contact from Crean.
Don't be surprised if Indiana makes a run at former Harvard commitment Frank Ben-Eze. The 6-foot-10 Ben-Eze had been recruited by Marquette before he committed to Harvard. But he's looking around again after an admissions snafu.
Gordon makes it official. He's going pro. He says it is "to compete at the highest level, not for the fame or the money." Yeah, sure Eric. I'm sure that is partially true but c'mon.
Anyway, I wish him the best of luck. I hope he continues to develop and becomes an all-star one day.
It certainly sounds like Crean has inherited a mess there. I have no idea what IU was thinking when they hired Sampson. It's probably a blessing in disguise that he couldn't stay off the phone because if he hadn't been nailed for that, all of that probably would have been allowed to continue.
No kidding Chip. And now we are finding out about academic issues and a serious lack of discipline to go along with the recruiting violations. This story could have been much, much worse had it went on any longer. Good riddance to Sampson.
Yeah, that's what I was talking about. Sooner or later the caca was going to hit the fan there. I think it's great that they caught their own violations but I get the feeling that the lack of discipline and the academic problems would have been allowed to continue as long as they won. It just seems so strange for that to happen at a school like IU that has been so clean for so long. What price victory?
If his performance post-Sampson is what the NBA has to look forward to, it's going to be a long ride.
It's very sad indeed. I don't see how Greenspan survives this one. He's off the hook for the hiring of KS in my opinion but if he knew players were routinely skipping class, that's another story entirely. He could have done something about that.
If Indiana(the university) wanted to send a message, they should have self imposed a ban from tournament play. I think that would keep future NCAA infractions away.
I want to know where the rest of the university staff was? Where was the AD? How are the rest of these jokers allowed to avoid a real housecleaning?
Talk about ruining your previous shiny reputation as the "GOLDEN BOY" of college athletics.
No more sanctimonious Hoosier fans!!
And it would also keep future players from wanting to play at Indiana as well.
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