Sweet 16 blowouts the problem and what could of changed things in people's mind?

[Aaron 4,147]

I know for me the problem with Crean was not losing in the Sweet 16 given the unpredictable nature of the tourney. It was the un-readiness of getting blown out in them. Obviously Zeller's 1st team hit its ceiling and I think everyone agrees that was the one team Crean got every last bit out of and pushing Kentucky was all that could be reasonably expected.

Now let's fast forward to 2012-2013 where we were unable to attack Syracuse's 2-3 zone and got blown out. Let's say instead of getting blown out by Cuse we attack the 2-3 zone well and in a back and forth game we lose a heartbreaker in the last minute. Everything else in the Tom Crean era is exactly the same except we give UNC a great game in Sweet 16 in a back and forth game lose in the last minute. Does this scenario change anything about how we feel about the Crean era?

How about if everything is exactly the same except we squeak into tourney the 2 years we miss and lose in 1st round? What if the year we lost to Cuse instead we go on to a Final Four or win a National Championship but everything else plays out the same way? In my mind things would of been different with a combination of playing close games in the Sweet 16 and at least making the tourney every year OR if the 2013 team goes on to win a national title.

I am curious what results would of changed people's mind about the Crean era being a success and what results would you still want him here as a head coach?   

    

[Walking Boot of Doom 18,170]

Honestly believe no one would have ever developed a significant issue with him as the head coach of Indiana if he had taken the Zeller/Oladipo team to the Final Four. Even an Elite Eight loss with that team would have triggered feelings of significant disappointment.

[Trish 11,408]

That 2013 team with Oladipo and Zeller needed at least a final four appearance. 

Last year was interesting.. ran into a hot UNC team that night. We hit 13 3's that night i believe, that's usually a W for us.

This year was the final straw of being inconsistent. We should still be playing..

[WayneFleekHoosier 46,738]

To me it wasn't the sweet sixteen losses but they way we lost them is a piece of the pie.

 

It's like Glass said, it's the vastly inconsistent results within seasons and between seasons.

 

Beyond that, it was that we had the same problems as a team year after year. In game coaching rarely impressed. Recruiting was on a decline, it seemed.

 

But ultimately we didn't win enough or consistently enough. I think that's a fair bottom line.

 

 

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[Brass Cannon 24,064]

To me it's simply the fact that some of his potential replacements have a down year and they are out the first weekend. Crean has a down year and the season was a complete waste. How we lost SS games is pretty inconsequential 

[AZ Hoosier 6,025]

What could have changed things in (Hoosier fan's) minds? Crean getting his team ready to play. Teaching them how to play against that Syracuse zone - teaching them to play against ANY zone.

But this is an academic exercise, at best. Crean is gone, and hopefully this lack of preparedness will not affect the Hoosier basketball team ever again. Sure, we will lose games - even get blown out from time to time by more talented teams, but there is NO excuse for an Indiana basketball team to ever be unprepared for any match up. That can never happen again, no matter who the coach is or who the players are. Being unprepared is laziness on both the coaching staff and the players part, and cannot be tolerated.

[Artistderek ahead 7]

I think there are two types of fans expressing views on this and they are worlds apart.  There is the casual fan who loves basketball, liked Crean's up and down pace, doesn't really know the X's and O's.  They look more at the record and I think would be more influenced by a few key wins here and there.   I hear this all the time, they say,"But we won Two Big Ten championships".

Then there is the other group.  I am going to say there is 2 sub groups within this category.

The first sub-group are people who played ball, I talk about this with my friends who played ball.  It wasn't fun for us to watch IU under Crean because all we saw was all the mistakes, and the unsound things that his teams did. Not blocking out, not in a defensive stance, horrible defense, and crazy turnovers, the list is endless.  All of my friends, every single one of them, just quit watching because if just mad them mad.

The other sub- group are people old enough to remember Knight and liked the way his teams played.  Indiana fans were proud back then of the fact that IU played smart and played great defense. Heck, Btown McDonald's gave a free hamburger to anyone with a ticket stub if Indiana held the opponent to under 50 points.  

Asking those fans to like watching poor defense and high turnovers , well that  is a big pill to swallow.  Poorly played basketball is hard to watch even when we are winning.  A few more wins make no difference.