Three returning scholarship players, (Mcgee, Crawford, Taber) Four neophytes to the Big Ten (Pritchard, Roth, Williams, Dumes) and Three walk-ons. That is the make up of the Indiana University Men's college basketball team for the 2008-2009 basketball team. Tom Crean made a statement yesterday when he officially released four players, leaving the team without much experience and without a full roster. The move gives Crean instant credibility among die hard hoosiers fans, old and young alumni, particularly older alumni who crave Bobby Knight's return, former players who believe the program has run amok, and probably the General himself.
Our program is going to be run with class. The inmates will no longer to run the asylum. These players are going to be student athletes and attend class. At Marquette, Crean had his coaches check each day to make sure his players attended every class. The dreaded APR that might IU to lose another scholarship next year will be an after thought. The players will no longer play for themselves but for the name on the front of the jersey. Recruits will still come to IU in large part because of Crean, but they will respect and cherish IU's storied tradition the way players of recent memory did not.
"There was a culture of entitlement in this program," Crean said Friday. "And that had to stop." Coaches have said things like this before, and the last two coaches didn't live up to their promises. Crean's actions mean he's serious about bringing IU back to the top, making it a power and doing it the right way, even if it means suffering through a terrible season. Suffering through a miserable season seems to be a right of passage for the elite programs. Before Ben Howland and Roy Williams took over at UCLA and UNC, both programs suffered through single digit win seasons. But look at them now. The right coach took over and changed the attitude of the program and each are considered the cream of the crop in college basketball. IU will likely suffer the same fate this upcoming season, but in two or three years from now this trying time will be but a distant memory.
So I ask you to do what Coach Crean has been asking us all since the day he arrived...have patience. Give him some time. IU should be back on top soon enough with the likely addition of top ten recruiting classes. Crean is going to be able to provide the high school players something no other program can, playing time.
Either way, he is going to build the program the right way.
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