Gary Parrish: Disconnect between Crean & Players has Indiana in Disarray

[IU Hoosier41 14,490]

The text came from a college basketball coach late Monday.

 

It consisted of four words that created a simple question about Indiana's Tom Crean.

 

"Can he survive this?"

 

Needless to say, it's never good when your colleagues are asking such questions literally days before the start of your season. Likewise, it's never good when a caller waits on hold during your first coaches show of the year to ask why you still have a job. And it's never good when the local columnist is essentially calling for your job. And it's never good when your boss is forced to try to defuse the entire situation publicly.

 

"Tom is absolutely not in trouble," Indiana athletic director Fred Glass told the Herald-Times. "Tom is part of the solution. He's not part of the problem."

 

Before we go any farther, let me say this: I believe Glass when he insists Crean is not in trouble ... at least not now. He won't be fired today or tomorrow. He won't be fired for anything that's happened already. Technically, that's all Glass is saying. And I believe him.

 

But what happens when Crean posts a losing record in the Big Ten for the fifth time in seven seasons? And misses the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in seven seasons? And doesn't secure the type of recruiting class that excites anybody? And has more off-the-court issues (because history suggests he'll have more off-the-court issues)?

 

Then what?

 

Will Glass back him then?

 

Honestly, I doubt it, if only because a frustrated mob of Indiana fans would then set their sights on Glass. So, make no mistake, Tom Crean is absolutely in trouble here. Again, he won't lose his job today or tomorrow ... or even next week (unless something new and wild emerges at some point in the next week). But Crean was never going to have a roster good enough to compete at the top of the Big Ten this season, and now that ho-hum roster has four players starting the year either suspended or injured by one of the suspended players. Consequently, most smart projections have the Hoosiers missing the NCAA Tournament, and I think those projections are probably accurate. And when you combine those projections with the fact that six Indiana players have generated troubling national headlines for off-the-court transgressions since February, it's reasonable to predict doom.

 

Which is crazy.

 

Twenty months ago, Indiana was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

 

Now it's a mess.

 

So the question is simple: What happened?

 

"There is definitely a disconnect between Tom and the players," one source close to the program told CBSSports.com, and that source added it's been that way for years. Where the disconnect originated is up for debate, and how it escalated to a point where one underage player who was drinking (Emmitt Holt) seriously injured another underage player who was drinking (Devin Davis) by striking him with a vehicle this past weekend is unclear. But it's hard to deny the disconnect, and that disconnect has been obvious for a while.

 

One example is Noah Vonleh's decision to leave IU after one season.

 

To be clear, it's not that Vonleh left.

 

He should've left.

 

But what I always found interesting about Vonleh's decision was how he announced it while Crean was totally in the so-called dark. In other words, Vonleh told me on the record and for public consumption before he told Crean. And, though I was appreciative, I've been doing this long enough to know that's not how things normally go down.

 

Typically, a player tells his coach first.

 

Or that player (or his agent) simply leaks the news anonymously.

 

But Vonleh was perfectly comfortable announcing to the world, late on a Sunday night during the NCAA Tournament, that he was exiting the program and becoming a professional without first having disclosed the news to Crean, and that's an undeniable sign of some sort of breakdown between a coach and a player.

 

I'm told that disconnect also existed when Crean's team was top-ranked in 2012-13.

"It's just that those guys were so talented that they rallied around each other and won," a source said. The same source detailed how there are no seniors on this Indiana roster and just two relevant juniors. Those two relevant juniors -- Yogi Ferrell and Hanner Mosquera-Perea -- have both been caught violating the law in cases related to alcohol, and is it any surprise some of the younger players have unfortunately copied the example they've set?

 

"It's just a bunch of young guys running around," a source said. "No leaders."

Beyond all that, it's worth pointing out the news that Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson will miss two exhibitions and two regular-season games for failed drug tests leaked Monday -- less than three days after the alcohol-fueled incident that has Davis still lying in a hospital with a head injury, and it's difficult to believe that's a coincidence considering a source told CBSSports.com those drug tests were failed "several months ago."

 

My guess: Somebody with knowledge of the failed drug tests recognized leaking them now is a good way to pile on Crean, and, well, it worked. The seventh-year coach spent his first coaches show listening to a caller ask why he still has a job, and, unless Crean overachieves with this roster, that question will be repeated lots over the next four months.

 

None of which means Tom Crean is a bad guy.

 

None of which means Tom Crean is a terrible coach.

 

(Personally, I've known him for a while and like him just fine.)

 

All this means is that Tom Crean is in a tough spot at a high-profile job with a passionate fan base, and those tough spots are hard to escape. Yes, I know, he has a buyout of $12 million, and that's an awesome job by his agent. But $12 million won't prevent a school with Big Ten money from pulling the plug on a coach overseeing a roster in disarray who doesn't win enough, and that's why Tom Crean had better win enough this season. Or else.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24783503/disconnect-between-tom-crean-and-players-has-indiana-in-disarray

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,480]

"Like him just fine".

A ringing endorsement. People who study verbal and nonverbal cues know this quote is as neutral as one can get. Bordering on negative if anything.

[ou812dude 3,326]

wow...Vonleh had a lot of respect for Crean...

/insert sarcastic shrugging round face thing.

[AZ Hoosier 10,953]

 

wow...Vonleh had a lot of respect for Crean...

/insert sarcastic shrugging round face thing.

 

 

You have to earn respect. And you have to work to keep that respect. Crean is a joke, and it’s becoming evident. 

 

The effects of this will be far reaching. If you are the parent of a highly-rated, coveted player who is considering IU, how can you believe that Tom Crean is "the guy" to whom you will trust your son's future? Is this the kind of "father figure" you want for your kid? 

 

 

In the very least, Tom Crean has effectively neutered himself with this turn of events.

[LazOffTheBench 3,638]

Well said, Hoosier in AZ. Coaches at other schools don't need to negatively recruit again Crean. He has done their work for them.