It’s been nearly two full years since we last said goodbye to the mess begotten of Kelvin Sampson’s late-night departure in 2008. The faces have nearly faded, so much so that it’s almost easy to forget that at least some of them are still out there, trying to put an orange ball in a round iron hoop for someone’s enjoyment.

Enter Paul Daugherty of SI.com, who brings us this brief piece about Jordan Crawford finally settling in at Xavier. Crawford, you’ll recall, was essentially the last of Sampson’s one-time recruits to leave Indiana, heading east to play for Sean Miller.

Then Sean Miller left for Arizona.

Just like Kelvin Sampson had, albeit under different circumstances.

The article talks about the post-Sampson period briefly before delving into Crawford’s transition to Xavier. Both Crawford and his mother Sylvia (who is a publicist for the city of Detroit? Yeesh.) talk with Daugherty, making both good points:

“I wish all the grown people with the power would realize the situations they leave these young people in,” (Sylvia Crawford) said. “You trust they’re on top of things. You put a lot of trust in the university. It challenges my faith in them. Why is the kid the one punished?”

And bad:

Crawford said he knew it was time to leave when he saw one of the last Hoosiers holdovers, Brandon McGee, running stadium steps in the rain, as punishment for being late to study hall.”He was two or three minutes late,” Crawford said. “It was after the first day of summer classes. No homework. I was thinking, if they’re going to do him like that, they’re going to do me like that, too.”

(more…)

After Nike confiscated the two videographers’ tapes that were rolling during the Dunk Heard Round The World, there was a slim chance it was ever going to see the light of day.

But thanks to a guy who filmed it off his cell phone — at least that’s what it appears to be from the poor quality — and sold it to TMZ, you can now feast your eyes on the dunk over on their site. It seems this was a third shooter, one Nike apparently didn’t know about.

But wait! There’s more!

Another site, eBaum Nation, has a much higher-quality video of the dunk from a better angle. Take a look at that here. Perhaps TMZ, which wasn’t supposed to put it up on their site until tonight after it debuted on their TV show, found out about eBaum Nation’s better video, so they decided to release theirs early. No word on where or how the eBaum people got their hands on it. Yet.

Anyway, enough about the particulars of where the video resides online. Let’s talk about the dunk. It’s anti-climatic. But that’s what everyone was expecting. The dunk was basically a Paul Bunyon-esque tall tale a few weeks back, but now that it’s right in front of our eyes, well, it’s not that great. Former Hoosier Jordan Crawford still dunked on LeBron James. But James was late sliding over in transition; he barely puts any effort into defending.

So yes. There you have it. Crawford gets his day in the sun. We all finally get to see the video. Now when is Hoosier Hysteria?

(You can listen to Crawford talk about the dunk here.)

The last time most Indiana University fans thought about Jordan Crawford was probably June 11, 2008. That was the day when Crawford announced he would not return to Bloomington for his sophomore season. Some of you probably cried when you realized that Kyle Taber was the last man standing.

Crawford decided a month later that he would transfer to Xavier and with Sean Miller’s departure for Arizona, he’ll suit up next year for first year coach Chris Mack.

When I think back about Crawford’s season at IU, two things immediately come to mind: 1) He was an incredibly talented and gifted player with a boatload of potential; and 2) He was often erratic and downright frustrating to watch. Some of you even referred to him as “TUO” or “The Undisciplined One.”

Based on point No. 1, it really didn’t surprise me that Crawford reportedly posterized LeBron James the other day in Akron. What did surprise me is the amount of coverage this dunk, which we will probably never see, is garnering across the Web. Here’s a healthy sampling:

+ Ryan writes at MOUTHPIECE blog that LeBron needs to lighten up. {MOUTHPIECE blog}

+ Chris Chase writes that by censoring the video, LeBron just made Crawford’s dunk into a legend. {The Dagger @ Yahoo!}

+ LeBron gets dunked on; none of us are witnesses. {Deadspin}

+ Nike doesn’t want you to know about Jordan Crawford, but Marquis Teague describes the dunk. {The Hoosier Scoop}

Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew.

+ Kyrie Irving backs off of comments that Indiana is his leader and says the Hoosiers are the “same as every other school.” {The Hoosier Scoop}

+ Irving tells Scout.com recruiting analyst Dave Telep that Indiana has made it clear that he’s their guy and that the Hoosiers are “all in.” {Scout.com, subscription required}

+ Former IU guard Jordan Crawford was the talk of the LeBron James Skills Academy after he dunked on the Cavs star — and then Nike confiscated the evidence. {CBS Sports}

+ Herald-Times sports editor Chris Korman writes that Crawford is no longer the happy-go-lucky kid that he was during his days in Bloomington. {Herald-Times, subscription required}

+ Indianapolis Pike point guard Marquis Teague is down to five schools: IU, Louisville, Ohio State, Purdue and Wake Forest. {The Hoosier Scoop}

+ Teague’s father, Shawn, tells the Indianapolis Star that Kentucky has offered and that his son hasn’t knocked any schools off of his list. {Indianapolis Star}

+ Lawrence North forward Dominique Ferguson refuses to say if he will return Jack Keefer’s program next season. {The Hoosier Scoop}

+ Jody Demling recaps day two of the adidas It Takes 5ive Classic. {C-J recruiting blog}

There’s a lot of good things about the World Wide Leader. Two of my favorite college basketball writers, Pat Forde and Andy Katz, work there. Most of their programming looks spectacular in HD. And they give Colleen Dominguez and Wendy Nix ample face time. (Can we stop with the Erin Andrews fascination already? Thank you, E.)

But as cutting edge and up-to the minute as the Bristol overlords want you to believe their reporting is, sometimes they take 18-day old news and make it their top story. Case in point today: Jordan Crawford to Xavier.

Perhaps Crawford to Xavier was top story worthy. He was, after all, the last in a line of mass defections from Bloomington. Problem is, it was already reported back on July 10. Somebody fell asleep at the keyboard!

Editor’s Note: Don’t forget to submit your list of the top 10 Indiana players of all-time.

We had an inkling of this early on with his admiration for Sean Miller and now it’s official: Jordan Crawford, the last hope for talent retention on the Hoosiers before he decided to head elsewhere, has landed at Xavier according to Mike Decourcy at the Sporting News.

Nothing much more to report here other than this:

Jordan Crawford is expected to appeal for immediate eligibility at Xavier, citing the unusual circumstances of Indiana’s predicament as cause for lenience.

Can’t say I blame Crawford for trying to play immediately — I surely couldn’t stand having to ride the bench for a year in street clothes — but methinks this might be a difficult move to pull off. Best of luck to Crawford, who seems like a swell young man who should develop into a star under Miller’s tutelage.

Thanks to ITH reader Jeremy for the tip.

Bud Mackey, who lost his opportunity to attend IU after being caught at school with crack, is a free man once again. WKYT in Lexington, Kentucky reports that Mackey was released at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday:

Former Scott County High School basketball star Bud Mackey is out jail, but not out of trouble. Workers at the Scott County Jail say Mackey was released at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

He served 60 days for violating his bond. He’s been in trouble since being arrested on drug charges.

A judge says Mackey must now live with his grandfather in Lexington and get a full-time job or work toward his GED. His trial on drug charges begins in August.

The most unbelievable part of the whole story is that Mackey’s name still comes up as one of the “best available” players remaining on the board for 2008 by a couple different recruiting services. I put Mackey’s chances of ever suiting up at a legitimate DI school at less than 50 percent.

Switching gears a bit, Jordan Crawford has narrowed his list of schools to five and Kentucky isn’t among the finalists. Jerry Tipton of The Lexington Herald Leader has the details:

Jordan is considering Xavier, Cincinnati, Texas, Oklahoma and Central Michigan. He’s ”leaning more than heavily“ toward one of those schools, his mother Sylvia said.

The school that Mrs. Crawford is referring to is Xavier, reportedly the second choice for Crawford when he picked Indiana in November of 2006. He’s expected to make his decision sometime this weekend.

The latest departure in the mass exodus from the Indiana program, Jordan Crawford, is reportedly hopeful that he’ll garner interest from a program in Lexington, Kentucky. This according to Jerry Tipton of The Lexington Herald Leader, who got the following update from Jordan’s mom, Sylvia:

“I would hope they would be interested,” she said.

But, first, the Crawford family and Indiana need to work out the terms of Crawford’s release. In the wake of former IU Coach Kelvin Sampson’s departure, Crawford decided last week to transfer from Indiana.

Indiana has not decided what, if any restrictions, it wants to place on Crawford’s choice of a second college, spokesman J.D. Campbell said in an e-mail message.

So the Crawfords must wait for those details to be finalized before seriously considering Jordan’s options.

Besides Eli Holman, Crawford is the only player that left the program willingly, so Indiana has some decisions to make on his situation. It is not uncommon for a school to place restrictions on a transfer, but there have been cases in which a student athlete has fought the restrictions in the media and the school eventually caved to avoid the bad publicity.

Crawford will likely be prohibited from transferring to another Big Ten school, but Kentucky could also be a no-go because of the rivalry between the schools and the fact that Jordan’s brother, Joe, also played there.

So my question for you, ITH’ers, is this…Should IU block Jordan Crawford from transferring to Kentucky? Either way you go with your answer, back it up with some substance and hit us up in the comments. Happy Father’s Day.