Tom Crean is on Twitter. I know you’ve probably heard this. And his tweets have been pretty good — an interesting and insightful look at his philosophies and some of the happenings of his team. There’s been other updates besides just that kind of stuff, too. For instance, Crean was watching the “Real Housewives of New York” reunion last night on Bravo. Ha.

Anyway, for all the good Crean’s Twitter account has wrought, there are a few things to know here. Like Facebook and other electronic transmission outlets, there are restrictions on what Crean can do on Twitter, and also what you, the fan, can do on it as well. For instance, Crean can’t be @replying back and forth with you all day, per NCAA rules. If he so chooses, he can direct message with you. Let’s go to a blockquote of something I wrote yesterday for ESPN because I’m too lazy to re-write it.

However, direct messaging on Twitter — which can only be viewed by the two people involved in the communicating — is permissible. (Same goes for Facebook. A coach can use the messaging function, which is similar to an e-mail, but he can’t write on Facebook walls.) This falls in accordance with the current electronic transmission guidelines that are already in place.

“We view that option on Twitter the same as we view normal e-mails,” said Cameron Schuh, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations for the NCAA. “It’s just you can’t post those (direct messages) on your main page.”

“We view Twitter as a blog,” Schuh continued. “As long as coaches are on there talking about what they’re doing with their day and how their practice went or things like that … not getting into specific terms, that’s fine. They can’t talk about a person they’re recruiting, or they can’t use it to talk about their whereabouts on a recruiting trip.”

And speaking of recruiting, now that IU target Kyrie Irving is on Twitter, it’s technically a violation if you, the IU fan, start @replying him and saying “Please, please, please come to IU!” It’s a similar situation to what happened at N.C. State. A student started a Facebook group entitled “John Wall PLEASE come to NC STATE!” He was promptly asked to take it down. The NCAA looks at you as a booster influencing the prospective student-athlete decision, which is a no-no.

Now, I’m certainly not saying I’m wholly in agreement with the NCAA’s policies here. Policing this is damn near impossible, and some 15-year-old kid writing on a recruit’s Facebook wall is rather harmless; it’s not like he’s handing the recruit a pile of cash. There are certainly bigger fish to fry in the recruiting game. But, since technology has never been this organization’s strong suit, it is what it is for now.

Be aware of it, and act according.

Today online, a few companion pieces ran along with it. Including two from me. The first is a column about what it meant for me to be a fan during Sampson’s reign of calling, and what Tom Crean has taught me. A sample:

I’d always heard about the Indiana Tradition or doing things the Indiana Way, but I’d usually roll my eyes at such pronouncements, thinking of them as nothing more but tired, clichéd statements from Bob Knight disciples. I’m a bit of a cynical guy.

Times had changed, I thought. It’s OK to bend the rules in recruiting, as long as you win, as long as you don’t get caught. It’s OK you don’t fit the Indiana mold, doing things the right way with dignity and class, as long as you win. It’s OK to bring in players of questionable character, as long as you win.

This is what the Kelvin Sampson era was at Indiana: win at all costs. And I was hooked, cast under his spell, because that’s all I wanted for my team, too. I wanted to win.

Second is four others affected by Sampson, but like the original piece in the actual print version, is behind ESPN’s Insider wall. Boo.

Lastly, Scott Powers wrote a tremendous story about all the guys who left last year, catching us up with their situations. He got a lot of quotes from Brandon McGee. That guy is behind the Insider wall too.

The moral of this post is that ESPN is putting a lot more of their stuff behind Insider’s wall this year. You’ve been warned, sports consumer.

Oh, and if you want another take on the whole Deadspin topic, Midwest Sports Fan has an indepth look at it today.

Basically, he spent most of the piece gushing about his love for Bob Knight, and how he’s interviewed and talked to Knight and how Knight just loved his questions, and since Indiana Basketball As We Know It went out the door with Knight, we apparently can never be successful again. Oh, and he’s actually been to Bloomington, too. A sample:

On your next point, how Crean has this great freshman class coming in, I’ll give you that. Should have mentioned it. And Indiana will improve next season. But that doesn’t change the main theme; that Indiana basketball as you have known it is gone, probably forever. In terms of wins and losses, we’ve reached the end of an era. Oh, Bloomington will still be a great basketball town, but what I mean by basketball backwater is that the Hoosiers will always take a back seat to Duke and North Carolina and UCLA and even Wake Forest and UConn. Email me the next time Indiana reaches the Elite Eight. I’ll be waiting.

[ ... ]

No, that magical, John Feinsteinian year of 1987 is gone forever, and not Tom Crean nor the return of Steve Alford or Norman Dale himself is bringing it back. Knight lifted the program by the weight of his genius. Yeah, he had blue chippers, but the bulk of his rosters were always populated by JC transfers (Keith Smart, Dean Garrett) and local kids (Bailey, Joe Hillman, Alford) which he took and beat the likes of Syracuse and Shaquille O’Neal’s LSU in the Big Dance. Sure, you’ll continue to pack Assembly Hall, but do you think that success is coming back?

[ ... ]

So if I’m wrong about Crean and Indiana, I’ll be the first to say so, and the Hoosier Reds will be on me. But be aware that you’re in my wheelhouse on this one. I’ve been watching the situation for more than 20 years. And I’ve been taking notes.

Well, there you have it. We’ll never be successful again because Bob Knight isn’t around. Though, make sure to keep Mr. Chandler’s email address handy in case we miracuously make the Elite Eight ever again. He is, after all, taking notes on all this.

Let me tell you about my morning. I got up late. I put on clothes I wore out to a bar Friday night. I took a cab to work. I wrote some blogs posts for the day job. Typical Monday.

And then, sometime in the late morning, I was on Ballhype, and saw this post on Josh Q. Public. And I laughed. Let’s just say that Josh — IF THAT’S EVEN HIS REAL NAME — might be wise to know at least a little something — this is all I ask, just a little something — about the situation he’s writing about before he goes and posts it on a popular, Digg-esque, sports blog site by himself and has other people “hype it” for him, and before he e-mails it to Deadspin. (We’ll get there later.)

First:

Since Knight’s firing, Kelvin Sampson led the Hoosiers to a 21-11 record overall and a 34th appearance in the NCAA tournament only to be forced to resign due his role in the controversial recruitment of star player Eric Gordon.

Ah yes, this is why Sampson resigned, remember guys? Eric Gordon’s decision to come to Indiana. Nothing to do with that phone call stuff. Zip. Zero. Nada.

Second:

How does this happen? How does one of the most esteemed basketball programs in the nation fall so far?

Dude, it happened because due to the Kelvin Sampson fallout, only 30 total points scored — 30! — returned from last season. That was 1.2 percent of IU’s total scoring output from last season. Some dudes left, others went pro, others got kicked off.

IU has two returning players — one a fringe scholarship player, another a walk-on that never plays– and Tom Crean plays a ton of freshman this year. Have you read anything about IU basketball? Did you study up before you blasted this post across the Internet? Have you watched any games, games where the announcers time and time again harp on this? Do you own a television?

How does Indiana Basketball sink so low?  How low can you go?  How low can you go?

We have apparently entered into a limbo contest.

But enough of that. Josh seems like a nice fellow, one that apparently doesn’t know too much about the state of Indiana basketball. A commenter seems to have set him straight under that post. There are far worse crimes. And plus, 75 percent of the time, I don’t know what I’m writing about either. We forgive you, Josh.

Let’s get to Rick Chandler now.

Rick writes for Deadspin, a sports blog of the highest quality that I enjoy, so it was a little troubling to see him write this incredibly lazy post. We’ll start here, as he speaks about the Dumes’ situation:

And here we have a clue. There was a time when a previous red-sweatered coach wouldn’t have waited until mid-February to iron out the personality wrinkles in his best offensive player. It would have been no later than Nov. 1 that Mr. Dumes would have either been a.) Walking back to campus from somewhere in Iowa; b.) “grip tightening around neck *choke!* … can’t breathe …” or c.) playing for Ohio State.

First off, there were no known issues with Dumes before the elbows; he was suspended for his actions in the Michigan State game. And wait, what? Crean was supposed to suspend Dumes before that, somehow? Because Bob Knight would have done that?

Crean has handled this situation terrifically; he suspended Dumes proactively, and had the kid face the media about it. He’s setting a standard for integrity. Bob Knight would be proud.

For those waiting for a resurgence in Indiana basketball: It ain’t going to happen anytime soon. The system’s not designed for sleepy backwaters like Bloomington, Indiana, to have powerhouse teams in the revenue sports unless there’s a great coach to draw them in, or a coach who’s willing to play fast and loose with recruiting rules. Indiana had the latter with Kelvin Sampson, and they’re still looking for the former. Tom Crean — even though he hasn’t really had a chance to prove what he can do with his own players — isn’t the answer. Have you been to Bloomington? What multi-talented player is going to go there to play for Tom Crean?

First off, Bloomington was just ranked one the best college towns in the nation by quality of life, according to Forbes. I have indeed been to Bloomington, and it’s pretty much my favorite place on Earth. Rick should visit sometime. Once the weather turns in the spring, it’s quite lovely.

I’m not sure what qualifies as sleepy backwaters to Chandler, but perhaps someone should tell him how well a team like DePaul (in Chicago) compared to a team like Kansas (in Lawrence) is doing this season and get back to him about the whole “system thing.”

And really, you’re going to call out Tom Crean for not being the guy WHEN HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A SEASON UNDER HIS BELT? How can he not be the answer if he hasn’t even gotten the full question yet?

Tom Crean is a guy that took a Marquette program from mediocrity to national fame. A guy that had three NBA players during his tenure there and a Final Four appearance. A guy that recruited with the best of them, to Milwaukee of all places. A guy that’s coached his pants off this season. A guy that has Big Ten roots under Tom Izzo. There’s a reason Marquette is damn good this year: Tom Crean. Even if you’re not an IU fan, you recognize this. This down year was expected to happen. Crean will right the ship in the coming years. To answer Josh’s question, you can’t get any lower than this.

Oh, and those multi-talented players that apparently don’t want to come to IU? Apparently Rick hasn’t heard of Christian Watford, Maurice Creek, Derek Elston, Jordan Hulls, Bobby Capobianco or Bawa Muniru who mark the No. 8 recruting class in the nation for 2009, according to Rivals. And these are guys Crean got in his first real year of recruting.

Huff puff puff, enough of this. If anyone from the sleepy backwoods where Tom Crean isn’t the answer and no recruit could possibly want to go wants to chime in, feel free.

Eamonn wrote about this on the Dagger, too And it’s better than what I just slapped together. Go read it.