EDIT: How amazingly similar, yet completely different the seasons and the fans of the two programs.


Horrific yet rewarding season comes to an end
Posted: March 13, 2009

Thankfully, blessedly, mercifully. It's over.

And yet as bad as Indiana University's basketball season was -- horrifically bad, historically bad, why-can't-we-put-a-running-clock-on-the-season bad -- there was a certain painful nobility about this season, from the way the players competed, the way the coaches kept coaching and even the way the fans kept supporting their hard-working but ultimately hapless team.
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"I want to thank every fan that supported us from close, far, in Assembly Hall, through e-mail, through letters, on the road, you name it,'' coach Tom Crean said after his team's season-ending 66-51 loss to Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. ". . . Early on we tried to make it as clear as possible while we were going through all the disaster that was known as Indiana basketball in April and May and part of June to understand we had to go through it together.''

From the first night of Hoosier Hysteria to the season's final game Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse, everybody, it seemed, understood the score. Everybody understood, Crean inherited an apocalyptic mess that was so complete, even now he has trouble explaining how crazy things had gotten.

During the summer, he spoke around the state and was asked about the dumpster fire he had found. "I didn't give all the details,'' he said. "I couldn't. First off, most of the people wouldn't believe them.''

The players he adopted had accrued nearly 20 F's in the classroom. Drug use was rampant, the rumors finally being confirmed recently by former Hoosier Eric Gordon. Even before Crean held a practice, he was faced with having to decide whether to uphold interim coach Dan Dakich's gutsy decision to toss Jamarcus Ellis and Armon Bassett.

To his great credit, Crean did the right thing and shut the door on the pair after milking them for their APR (Academic Progress Rate) points.

The exodus continued. It wasn't just Gordon and D.J. White leaving for the NBA, or Lance Stemler and Mike White graduating. Some of the players Crean thought he might retain also hit the road -- or were forced to hit the road. Jordan Crawford. Eli Holman. Brandon McGee. DeAndre Thomas.

Who was coming back to lead the mighty Hoosiers of Branch McCracken and Bob Knight?

Kyle Taber. Yikes.

So what did you expect from this season?

Granted, six wins landed on the low side of most projections -- I figured them for single digits, but closer to eight or nine -- and it's still hard to swallow the very concept of IU losing, at home, on the road or on an ice floe to the likes of Northeastern and Lipscomb.

By and large, Crean did what he was asked to do and more. He continued the housecleaning job begun by Dakich, he insisted that IU basketball stand for something better, and he inspired his undermanned team to play hard every night. (Well, except for the home loss to Northwestern, when it looked like the weight of all the losing finally got to them, which was understandable.)

There was never the sense that Crean and his staff were coaching with one eye cast toward next season, no "help is on the way'' proclamations.

"We haven't coached this team with perspective,'' he said . "I don't think they (the players) played it with perspective.''

And there was this: He recruited an incoming class that is ranked in the top 10 by every recruiting Web site.

The real shame is, the NCAA doesn't have it in its power to transfer the 6-25 mark to Kelvin Sampson's permanent college record. This mess belongs to him. And it belongs to the buffoons who thought hiring Sampson and his baggage was an absolutely grand idea three years ago. If there was justice, Dr. Adam Herbert, former athletic director Rick Greenspan and the clueless trustees would be sentenced to viewing all 31 IU game tapes. Repeatedly. In a small, poorly ventilated room.

As much as IU fans would like to forget this now-buried season, they would be well-served to remember this team. No, they weren't good. All the walk-ons, all the freshmen, all the newcomers, nobody could have expected them to win many games. Crean said his athletically challenged team didn't run a single alley-oop play all season.

But they never committed the mortal sin of quitting, which looked like the case when last year's team tanked after Sampson's removal. And the fans never quit on this team.

"I mean, there weren't winning streaks to bring them to the gym,'' Crean said. "There weren't 30-point scorers. There weren't high wire dunks.

"But yet everybody supported it. And to me, that's where the memories will be.''

A strange and difficult season ends -- thankfully, blessedly, mercifully -- but a new day in IU basketball dawns.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090313...SPORTS0601

I actually like that you post articles all the time, but to put an IU hoops article on the UC main board is confusing to me. Off-topic?

(03-13-2009 11:27 AM)bearcats23 Wrote:  I actually like that you post articles all the time, but to put an IU hoops article on the UC main board is confusing to me. Off-topic?

I was actually kinda torn on where to post this. I was trying to show how the Indiana team/fans looked upon their "lost season" versus how the UC team/fans took to theirs. The IU fans really stuck by their new coach and team (filling their arena most times) and how UC fans just dumped on Mick and the teams to cutting attendance by around 50%. If there is a problem, this can easily be moved elsewhere.

(03-13-2009 11:46 AM)ctipton Wrote:  

(03-13-2009 11:27 AM)bearcats23 Wrote:  I actually like that you post articles all the time, but to put an IU hoops article on the UC main board is confusing to me. Off-topic?

I was actually kinda torn on where to post this. I was trying to show how the Indiana team/fans looked upon their "lost season" versus how the UC team/fans took to theirs. The IU fans really stuck by their new coach and team (filling their arena most times) and how UC fans just dumped on Mick and the tams to cutting attendance by around 50%. If there is a problem, this can easily be moved elsewhere.

I'm glad you posted it, I would've read it regardless of location. You've got to love the passion of the IU fanbase. With Crean I think their collective perseverance will be rewarded- sooner, rather than later.

I think there's a small but pointed difference between UC's initial season with Cronin and IU's with Crean - there was controversy involved with UC's situation, obviously, whereas I think IU people were almost unanimous in their hatred for Kelvin Sampson. They've always been such a clean program, and that's a great source of pride. Sampson demolished it, tarnished the program for years. There was no controversy in Sampson's departure - though, even if there would've been, given the loyalty of the IU fanbase I think most of the seats at Assembly would still have been filled. But that's the difference I see.

i agree, CD. in my opinion, the biggest reason for why IU will succeed is the fan base and its support of the administration. sampson was looked at as the villian that ruined the beloved hoosier program, crean the knight in shining armor. i've actually become kind of envious of how they embrace crean and that young, low-talent team, because i feel like our team never got that type of support. Indiana will turn it around, and the IU fan base will support crean and that team with packed houses until they do.

(03-13-2009 11:46 AM)ctipton Wrote:  

(03-13-2009 11:27 AM)bearcats23 Wrote:  I actually like that you post articles all the time, but to put an IU hoops article on the UC main board is confusing to me. Off-topic?

I was actually kinda torn on where to post this. I was trying to show how the Indiana team/fans looked upon their "lost season" versus how the UC team/fans took to theirs. The IU fans really stuck by their new coach and team (filling their arena most times) and how UC fans just dumped on Mick and the teams to cutting attendance by around 50%. If there is a problem, this can easily be moved elsewhere.

The IU alumni have a lot more pull than the UC alumni when it comes to revenue sports--especially basketball.

There are a fair number of UC alumni who are not interested in revenue sports, and quite a few who denigrate them.

This makes a huge difference during "down cycles".

Hopefully, the composition of our alumni will reflect greater support for sustaining SUCCESSFUL revenue sports in the future.

Rebuilding our fan base has three key parts to it. The first part has to do with performance on the court. If the Cats start to win big, certain elements of our fan base will return. The second part of the process is on the AD and the athletic department to lower tickets prices for all of the upper deck and lower arena seats behind the basket, involve students, and to market the program again in a postive manner. The third part is on the rest of us to show up and cheer for the players even if things are not so great at the current moment. I know it is tough to sometimes to support an average product but maybe if the arena was packed again the atmosphere would inspire our team and send fear into the vistors.