Did I mention I hate Kentucky too.

With a player like Rivers and a deadly screener like Pritchard and guys who can pop like Jones, Dumes, Creek, Watford, Roth , Elston and Hulls why would you NOT run transition offense ………..ie I think Crean was in fact putting a round peg in a round hole.

Things have not been perfect along the way however and now he faces a round hole with an oval peg . If Crean has made a mistake I would say it was the overweighting of the dribble drive stuff when Hulls and even Rivers have more experience in a different offensive scheme

1. Kids want to play transition based offense, if we run this we can recruit better than Bo Ryan
2. We have a great on ball defender who can turn over the other team, he is also a great rebounder and can start the transition game with no needed outlet pass. He is our most experienced player

THEREFORE
3. lets be overweighted on the transition game of up tempo dribble drive type sets . This works pretty well when the defense is getting stops and rebounds and we get open shots early in the clock.
Defense of Crean: You would do the same if you had Rivers and the best screener in the B10, Pritchard

PROBLEM: We don't have Creek to finish, Roth to pop, and our defense is not as good as it needs to be and Rivers is struggling to finish to make this work. After the intial failed ” quick hitter” in transition we struggle to get into the “secondary” offense and more often than not reset late in the clock w high ball screen and the dribble drive……again.

DILEMNA: Given we are half way through the season does he go back to the drawing board or change schemes ?

GOOD NEWS: Recently however , but only briefly , we showed a double high stack which I thought was the beginning of some Northwestern style motion offense. It is rare to see but we have it in the offense play set.

ILLINOIS GAME: I will be watching the game for any off ball screens by Pritchard to shake Watford/ Jones/Elston loose for a quick pop. If you see this then we are progressing toward a new weapon.

Like others I am not as interested in wins right now as I am in “progress” and ” possibilities ” for the future. Too bad that there are idiots posting on other sites that have no clue how difficult Crean's job is

Second, we, as Hoosier fans, have a reason we are fans of this program. Whether it be that we appreciated the way the teams played, the winning associated with the program, the coach, we are alumni, it was the only thing on the crappy, three channel, 13' black-and-white tv, or we like what our parents or influencing adults like; there is a reason we root for the Hoosiers. When they do not perform the way we are used to or think they should, naturally, we want to project winning or a winning attittude towards the team. Therefore, in our culture, where instant gratification is expected, we have a knee-jerk reaction to what we perceive as weakness or less-than-desired outcome.

Third, we expect improvement and we want to look at the upcoming season as better than the one before. We look for any reason to be optimistic because we want so badly for that to be true. However, when unrealistic expectations meets unrealized potential, disappointment is the only reasonable outcome. Therefore, we need someone to blame when expectations are not met. Therefore, the “fire Crean” attitude from a select group of people.

Fourth, it is very easy to react to a game like Iowa, where the Hoosiers were actually favored, as an upset fan. It is always easier to remember the negative than the positive (except in the case of RMK for a lot of fans). The negatives stick with us better (especially for competitive people). Therefore, we respond negatively and have negative feelings toward the people we blame for the negative feelings. (No, JerryCT, I am not talking about you, your views are legit.)

Now, away from the psychology. I do not believe that most rational IU supporters feel the way the article descibes us. We are sometimes irrational, but we are realistic the next day. We look at the product on the floor and it does not resemble the one we grew close to (motion offense, strict man-to-man defense, tough and winning teams), and that bothers most of us.

I think, on one hand, that Coach Crean does not use his players' strengths well enough. He seems like he is trying to jam players that do not fit his system into his system. Like hammering the square peg into the round hole, hoping it will come out round. It seems as though TP especially has taken a step backward. On the other hand, I bet Caoch Crean feels like he needs to show future recruits that this is his style of play and it should be shown how they can fit into it. I like Coach Crean; he is full of energy and enthusiasm, and that is contagious. He has a plan that he believes will win and he sells that to everyone he meets.

I guess, all that was to say this: I support Coach Crean and I believe he will win here. I do not believe fans have anything to do with him being fired (although rich alumni….that's another story). I do not believe Fred Glass has unrealistic expectations of this situation, so I believe that regardless of tournament participation, Coach Crean will be our coach beyond the 2011 season and we will ultimately be ecstatic about that.