The above quote is attributable to new Indiana coach Tom Crean, whose program was rocked again yesterday with the news that IU will give up two scholarships in anticipation of a poor APR score in 2008-09.  You may recall that the Hoosiers with a score of 899 already ranked in the bottom eight BCS schools in the most recent APR scoring.  Seeking to counteract an anticipated horrendous score based on the 2007-08 debacle (can you get a zero in the APR?), Indiana has decided to get proactive and attempt to take their medicine all in one lump next season.  Keeping in mind that IU lost seven players this offseason (not to mention a coach and an AD), Assistant AD Frank Cuervo had this to say:

It’s not necessarily about one issue.  It’s obviously related to the APR score. In terms of reasons, it’s not necessarily due to just players leaving.

Um, yeah, it’s not about players leaving per se; rather, it’s about players leaving an academic clusterf*ck in their wake.  Considering what we know about how Kelvin Sanctions with respect to his organizational management skills (almost as good as Tubby Smith’s missing fax), it’s not a leap to believe that most of his players at IU were barely skirting by in the classroom.  Several of them may have stopped attending classes altogether. 

Crean Needs Some Good News For Once

The NCAA has a lot of decisions to make in the coming month with respect to the IU program.  The NCAA Infractions Report is due near the end of July, and Indiana appears to have put its best foot forward throughout this process to retroactively police itself.  But we fear that the ‘clean house’ approach may not satisfy the NCAA, who may use this situation to steer conscientious programs away from questionable-character coaching hires in the future.   Regardless of the penalties levied, with only eight scholarship players suiting up in 2008-09 Hoosier basketball is probably facing its worst season  since Lou Watson’s 7-17 debacle back in 1969-70.  And without snagging a few Eric Gordons all at once, it’s unlikely Indiana basketball will “get back” until early in the next decade.   

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 4:00 pm by rtmsf and is filed under rtc analysis. Tagged: apr scores, indiana, kelvin sampson scandal, tom crean, tubby smith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.