There are basketball fans and then there are those folks who follow the Indiana Hoosiers. The Hoosiers basketball program is one of the most storied men’s college basketball programs which includes them making eight Final Four appearances and winning five national championships. But with the Hoosiers last Final Four appearance coming in 2002, the anxiety around this program has grown.
Tom Crean
When Tom Crean was hired to be Indiana’s men’s basketball coach in 2008, he walked into a very tough situation. The Hoosiers were on probation due to recruiting violations under former head coach Kelvin Sampson and thus in Crean’s first season in Bloomington, Indiana was only able to win six games. Each of Crean’s first three seasons with the Hoosiers saw Indiana finish with a losing record before they were finally able to break through and reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in both 2012 and 2013. But after the early departure of forward Cody Zeller and guard Victor Oladipo to the NBA, Indiana would regress and fail to make the tournament in 2014.
Impatient fans in Indiana wanted the school to move on from Crean, but he would respond by getting the Hoosiers back to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons with another trip to the Sweet 16 last March. And after the Hoosiers strong showing last season, they were expected to be a contender this season which saw them begin ranked 11th in the Associated Press Poll.
But after the current college basketball season began on a high note for Indiana as they knocked off the Kansas Jayhawks, things went south in a hurry. On November 22, the Hoosiers suffered a shocking 71-68 road upset at the hands of the Fort Wayne Mastodons of the Summit League. Indiana was able to rebound to defeat the North Carolina Tar Heels on November 30; however Big Ten Conference play has not been kind to them.
Indiana dropped their first two games in the Big Ten and they have been swimming upstream ever since. After knocking off the Penn State Nittany Lions on February 1, the Hoosiers were at 5-5 in the Big Ten, but they have not won a game since as there is no chance of them winning the conference title for a second consecutive year.
At 5-10, Indiana is currently in 13th place in the Big Ten while their overall record is 15-13. And unless the Hoosiers are able to win their final three regular season games, along with running the table in the Big Ten Tournament next month, an invite to the NCAA Tournament won’t be in the cards.
Make no mistake about it that the talent is there for this Indiana team which includes junior guard James Blackmon Jr., who is leading the team in points per game with 17, and sophomore center Thomas Bryant who is tallying 13.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest. But what has done Indiana in this season is their inability to win the close games. This season the Hoosiers are 1-7 in games that have decided by five points or less as they’ve lacked that Yogi Ferrell type player who can put this team on his back in order to make things better. And the inability for the Hoosiers to succeed in those close games falls into the lap of Crean.
It also isn’t helping Crean’s case that this is somewhat of a down year for the Big Ten with the perennial powerhouse in the Michigan State Spartans not being the typically dominant team which we’re accustomed to seeing. The Big Ten more than likely won’t see a team receive a top seed in the NCAA Tournament next month and Indiana has been unable to take advantage of a slightly down year for the conference as only the Rutgers Scarlet Knights are looking up to the Hoosiers in the standings.
If Indiana is able to rebound and show some life over the next few games, I do believe that Crean will be able to save his job. But if the Hoosiers are unable to get out of their funk, I would not be surprised to see Crean get his walking papers. However Crean has shown the ability to rebound before, but it’s just that the Indiana backers want to see this team continuously be a contender in the mode of some of their rivals such as Michigan State and the Kentucky Wildcats. The Hoosiers basketball resources are second to none in the Big Ten which means that the boosters want to see results.
Crean’s team has not given up on him as they’ve given maximum effort in recent heartbreaking losses to the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Iowa Hawkeyes. But effort alone without victories isn’t good enough for a program the caliber of Indiana.
Source: Sports-reference.com
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