Home Jersey

This latest round of deflection has centered the conversation on Tom Crean, who is ancient history at this point. We have 9 years of data since then from 3 different coaches and the problem has persisted. It's not fans. It's coaching. A program that spends like IU - to say nothing of the Indiana basketball brand - has not been getting what they've paid for over the last two decades. In a given decade, at a minimum, a program that spends like us should make the tournament more often than not. A couple times you should go to the second weekend. That's the bare minimum and none of the last four coaches were able to do that. It's been 18 freaking years of worse than mediocre results. The fanbase didn't do that. It seems kind of crazy to make that case?

Good coach. This is devastating news for Syracuse fans. Their world view is basically shattered after being clearly rebuffed for Providence of all places.

Gosh the IU fanbase is so rabid and demanding in 2026, if you just act like Tom Crean's stretch from 2008-2011 never happened, the problem will be clear as day.

Meh disagree. If that was their NIL budget this year, they can still be a final four threat as long as Few is their coach. They're definitely more of a final four threat than Indiana, even in this era with our financial advantages, as long as Few is there IMO.

Run out of town after... 9 years and 4 tournament appearances and one winning conference record in the last 4 years? Haha

Cam Heide hits a huge 3 to seal it for Texas toward the end. Nice for him. Always thought he was a pretty good player at Purdue

Archie's big bro is such a better coach than him haha

Randy Bennett is apparently considering the ASU job

Tom Holland is only 5'8" so at 5'7" Cronin might have a shot with her IF she likes bald angry men too... you never know...

Pulling hard for SLU today

I'd love to see him do his own version of the commercials Knight used to do. Those were hilarious

I just saw a clip of Mark Pope's reaction to the final sequence of regulation against Santa Clara. Sucks he coaches Kentucky because he seems like an otherwise pretty likable dude.

More wishful thinking IMO. We will find out one way or another!

Fist 30/25 game in the tournament since Elvin Hayes in 1968

Tarris Reed's 27 rebounds save the day for UConn. They just had a 1:35 long possession because of his offensive boards. With 74 seconds left he has an outside shot at a 30/30 game lol

UConn in trouble

Very true!

Likely. And the kid he plucked out of nowhere in D2 is probably playing in the NBA next year. He's got 2 more wins and 2 less losses in the NCAA tournament than DDV and he only became a D1 coach last year lol. They don't have a ton of NIL, but it doesn't matter because McCollum clearly knows how to identify underrated talent and develop it. Very wishful thinking IMO that he's going to suddenly flounder because of one player leaving given his track record. If someone wanted a Cig like basketball hire, that's your guy.

It is a question mark, but I am happy to go on the record now and say "probably a lot better than people are thinking"

Purely stylistically, I enjoyed watching Iowa play more than Indiana this year. Call me a McCollum fanboy if you want lol

Crean's issue is not that he lost the state lol. It's that he was disorganized and at times seemingly manic. He's a good guy - always grateful he came here when we were in a bad spot. Like him in the media. Put together some really talented teams, made a really good run here. He simultaneously overachieved his abilities and underachieved with the talent he had. Just was never gonna win a title. And he stunk at UGA after. Why ignore that but not his first 3 years here? Lol. It was time.

I do not care to rehash Tom Crean. We clearly think differently about how his tenure ended and that's perfectly okay. The actual point in this conversation is about what the program, who spends at the top of CBB, should expect in a given decade. We have 9 years of Crean, with 4 NCAA appearances, and 9 years of Archie, Woody, DDV for a combined... 2 NCAA appearances. That's 6/18 (33%) by the way. Neither decade has been up to the standard of a program that spends like we do. That has 0 to do with the Indiana fanbase or brand.

I'm not sure why you seem to have trouble understanding where I stand. It's a pretty linear train of thought, similar to Woody needing to go, that you're bizarrely contesting lol. I did not say a coach needs to do that. I said the program needs to do that. Which perfectly aligns with the idea that you can a sorry SOB like Archie or Woody who has proven himself to be a bad coach by year 3. Because it's obvious. Crean consistently underachieved with his talent. He rode D Wade to a final four, showed himself to be incapable of winning a title due to the complexity of beating a 2-3 zone, was given the opportunity to keep going, then flamed out. Also, he made the tournament... 4/9 years.

I think a program that spends like ours should, in a decade, bare minimum expect to make the tournament more often than not with at least a couple teams that make the second weekend. We can all agree on that, right? That's putting aside all of IU basketball's history, no FF/title expectation, no demand for star recruits or the best players from Indiana, etc. If we can't agree on that, well okay, but I guess I'd sorta wonder how any fan could enjoy watching a program that had the last 10 years we did. And how anyone could think the way it would've been better was to extend Tom Crean (47-75 [.385], 15-57 [.208] SEC with Anthony Edwards) or Archie or Woody, lol