Beachfront Property

Crean's staff still being out recruiting is definitely a bad sign. However, if Crean believes he is going to be a head coach somewhere next season, it would make since for his staff to still be out building relationships.

Exactly. Marshall is the best basketball coach being mentioned. The returning roster (w/out Bryant, OG and JBJ) would probably be the most talented team he has ever coached.

This is a great question. Does anyone have an answer? What happened the last time an NBA coach was not fired and moved back to college basketball? What was the timeline?

I think some Wisconsin fans must have voted in that poll.

I am with you on Marshall. He is my #1 choice. Wins every year without the inherent advantages we have at IU.

I agree 1000%. Crean outrecruited Wisconsin every year and went 2-16 against them. I think getting the top Indiana high school basketball players is a piece of the puzzle though.

Does a staff of Steve Alford, Ed Schilling, and Kory Barnett “lock down” recruiting the state of Indiana?

Groce hasn't been fired yet, has he? I would imagine they will make an announcement at a similar time to us.

What is the timeline for a decision? We have cleared one hurdle - Glass did not come out right after the Wisconsin loss and state Crean will be back next year (as Shawn Eichorst did for Tim Miles at Nebraska). Is there a precedent for doing it prior to the NIT? If so, who would coach us during the NIT? I can’t imagine there is an advantage to firing Crean sooner rather than later - as all of the coaches we want are either looking at NCAA runs or the rest of their NBA seasons. I am craving good news (Crean Fired or leaving for another job). What is a realistic timeline?

As a booster with very good seats I can tell you that 95% of the people who sit around me are done with Crean, but none of us know anything about his future. Fred is well aware of our concerns – I assure you.

That is simply not true. Show me an instance of this happening. Does Glass have a list of replacements? Of course. Could he be doing research on those replacements? Absolutely. But he is not calling Billy D’s agent before Crean has been fired.

Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble and be the reality police but all of these rumors are total garbage. The only people who actually know anything are Glass and McRobbie. None of these “insiders” be it “Mile” or “Janitor” actually know anything. IU is not going to fire Crean mid-season and you CANNOT start reaching out to prospective candidates while you still have a coach. Show me an instance of this happening. What does it say to prospective coaches if your athletic department is reaching out during the middle of the season? Maybe NC State is reaching out to coaches because they have actually fired their coach, but no schools who have not fired their coach are doing it. I understand Janitor works with the program and may think he has inside information, but unless Crean has notified the team he is not returning – any information he has on this front is just speculation. To summarize, Crean may very well get fired at the end of the year (and I hope he does!). Billy D may be our next head coach (I hope he is but HIGHLY DOUBT IT.). However, anything you are hearing now that is not directly from Glass or McRobbie has absolutely no credibility.

Sorry Magnanimous, I hope you're correct but I have a hard time believing anyone outside of Glass and McRobbie know anything about this decision at this point. I am sure there are rumors within the athletic department, but I would doubt even the Board of Trustees would know anything for certain at this point in the season.

Greg Gard and I am not saying we should actually hire Greg Gard, but I would take a Greg Gard clone in a heart beat. Wisconsin plays great basketball. He's won 30+ games in a row when leading with 5 minutes to go. We would not need 1 and dones to compete for national championships. Wisconsin competes for the conference championship every year and came very close to winning a national championship (much closer than we've gotten since 2001). As embarrassing as it is - Wisconsin is the basketball program we should model ours after. When was the last time Wisconsin turned the ball over 25 times in a game?

Really? Sorry if this has already been discussed. Can you explain? That is great news.

A question on Crean's buyout - According to tomcreanbuyout.com Crean's buyout drops from $4 million to $1 million on July 1. The national championship game ends on April 3. Can we wait 3 months to fire Crean in order to save $3 million? How could this work?

Yea, I don't even care what recruits we keep. My point was more about the fact that if Crean had a stellar recruiting class coming in, he would be in a much better position. Instead he is fully exposed.

The injury narrative works a lot better if you have Kris Wilkes and Paul Scruggs coming in next year.

Great question. I cannot remember it happening. People will kill me for this but the big ten coach I would want ahead of Collins is Greg Gard. I don't think he would leave Wisconsin, but the Badgers play great basketball and they are good every single year regardless of how many 5 star and 4 star recruits they land. Greg Gard could win a national championship at IU. I know this would never happen - I guess what I am highlighting is that I want an X's and O's coach.

Thus, the title of the thread. Also, in DD's Big Ten Power Rankings on Twitter he states that IU may be benefiting from a shorter bench. Clearly he got this from Btown Banners - which raises the question - which poster is actually DD? Sunday Night Dakich Big 10 Index #5 IU..lose Hartman Morgan and OG no problem..3 in a row..Blackmon unreal..IU better w shorter bench?

Note: I fully understand this is one game and a very small sample size. Here is a wild theory - feel free to tell me I am crazy. Last year, JBJ goes down and the Hoosiers go on a run to the Big Ten Title after looking terrible in the non-conference. JBJ's poor defense is blamed. People claimed we were simply a better team without him. This year, OG goes down for the season and Morgan has to miss the game. We play the best offensive game we have in months. I don't think anyone is going to claim we are a better team without OG and Morgan. However, is it possible we play better as a team with only an 8 man rotation? JBJ makes a couple of shots and Crean doesn't immediately yank him out of the game. McRoberts is able to get in a rhythm and make plays without knowing in the back of his mind he is about to get pulled from the game. What are your thoughts? Am I just being overly optimistic?

Also, to answer the question posed in the thread title - YES.

When you say not sold out, I assume you are referring to tickets sold by the athletic department and not on the secondary market? I agree with you that this is surprising. However, I am not concerned. The Delaware State game was VERY FULL (students not in town). If that game was packed, I cannot imagine a scenario in which there are a lot of open seats for Wisconsin. We REALLY need the Wisconsin win. However, don't look past Nebraska. Crean seems to have a head scratching loss every year (hopefully we already had that in FW). Nebraska has some talent on their roster despite a rough start to their season.

I edited my original statement, which was incorrect regarding the 5 minutes. I had to go to the stat sheet.

I am hearing there was a drinking incident involving one of our players (not in the top 8 of the rotation). Anyone else hearing the same thing? Any details. I don't want to give the name without the facts.