Tom Crean, Verdell Jones and the defensive stopper known as Brett Finkelmeier met with the media earlier today to talk about Sunday’s game at Wisconsin. Nothing groundbreaking was revealed, but Crean did give an update on Devan Dumes:
“He has not practiced. It’s hard to measure today in such a short period of time. He has been shooting and things like that but he has not practiced so I don’t know (his status for Sunday).”
This is not a knock on Dumes, as he is IU’s best scorer, but I think the Hoosiers showed on Tuesday they can compete just fine without him. In other words, it’s not such a big deal if he can’t play Sunday. IU is in for a huge challenge as Wisconsin is fighting for a NCAA bid (a win Sunday probably punches their ticket) and the Kohl Center is one of the toughest places to play in the Big Ten.
Tom Crean appeared on Pardon the Interruption earlier today with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. Video has yet to surface from the World Wide Leader, but here’s a link to the audio of today’s show. The interview is about 9 minutes and 45 seconds into the audio clip. Here are a few highlights:
On whether this season has been better or worse than expected:
“It’s been far harder than anything we could have ever expected. And again, when you take the job on April 2nd you don’t think that within a couple of months you’re going to have a brand new team. And outside of Kyle Taber and a walk-on named Brett Finkelmeier, that’s exactly what had to happen but there’s been a lot of rewards inside of it. Working with these guys has been a challenge but it’s been a fun challenge because it’s been great to watch them get better and to learn to believe. Especially over the last week, they’ve really believed they could win games.”
On the lessons learned from losing this season:
“Enjoy the wins. To never take winning for granted. To never make it a ho-hum type of deal. When you win and you put that time and effort and energy into it, it really means something. It can fuel you to so many more things. But I will never begrudge a win again. And I’m just thankful like at Marquette that I had a chance, it was a privilege to work there. It was a privilege to live there and it was great to coach those guys. They had so much to do with what I’ve learned and what we’ve been able to bring here in a sense of being resilient, being persistent, being demanding and at the same time trying to help nurture them to understand that there’s so much that goes into this and a lot of it’s going to carry into the success of their future life.”
On whether he thinks about how far he could have gone at Marquette this season:
“No, I haven’t felt like that. I’ve really been happy for them. The seniors in that group, they deserve every accolade, every reward that they can get. They did so many things. We were well aware of what we were leaving when we came to Indiana. There were three guys that had scored 1,000 points already in Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wesley Matthews. Lazar Hayward was playing well. We had a guy that would have been there, Tyshawn Taylor, who’s the starting guard for Kansas. We understood what we had, but this was just an opportunity that there was no way I could say no to. So I love what I’m doing and I’m proud of them, proud of their coaches, proud of what Buzz has done and I follow it with a lot of respect.”
With the season winding down, Tom Crean is beginning to reflect on his first season in Bloomington. Ryan Cost of The Palestra sent along the following from Crean’s presser yesterday:
+ 25 years later, Michael Jordan still remembers UNC’s upset loss to IU in the 1984 NCAA East Regional. {USA Today}
+ Tipton senior and IU signee Derek Elston is shining in the spotlight. {Kokomo Tribune}
+ Brian Kernan writes that IU target Kyrie Irving may be the best player to ever play at St. Patrick’s. {NJ.com}
+ Jody Demling speculates that a commitment is forthcoming from Marquis Teague to Louisville. {CJ Recruiting Blog}
+ A scouting report on one of the top players in the 2010 class: Harrison Barnes. {Clone Chronicles}
Quotable: “I’m proud to have coached him, and I know we’ve got more time but when it is senior night you want to make sure that everyone understands. I’ve been demanding of him, as our whole staff has and I’ve been hard on him, as our whole staff has because we have always looked at him as being a very, very valuable part of what we are doing here. He has done that. I am proud of the way he has contributed, proud of the way he has continued to improve. And proud he is a part of Indiana Basketball.” – Tom Crean on Kyle Taber.
Notes written shortly after Michael Santa’s much anticipated IU debut …
“I’ll never accept it and I never have, but this was bound to happen at some point with this team. We’ve asked a lot of them. A majority of theses guys would be redshirting on most any Division I program. I shouldn’t say most, but the high quality level to get that year to get their bodies right, to get stronger and all those kinds of things, to learn the college game. We are asking a lot of guys that have never done this before and it showed up tonight in a big way. There is nothing to hang our hat on tonight. It is just part of it.” – Tom Crean after Indiana’s 75-53 home loss on Wednesday to Northwestern.
No matter how much we’d all like to sugar coat it and talk about the hard work this version of the Indiana Hoosiers is putting in, the reality is that this team never really had a shot to compete at a high level. Crean and the coaching staff have coached them to competitiveness in spurts, but the talent and experience just isn’t there. Crean has done a superb job keeping the attitude and the spirit of his team positive, but there’s only so much you can say when the losses keep piling up. Take this season for what it is: an anomaly in the history of the Indiana basketball and no indication of the direction the program is heading.
– Ryan did an excellent job of summing up the extra phone call the Indianapolis Star reported early Wednesday morning. Under normal circumstances, this would have flown so far under the radar you wouldn’t have even known about it. But the circumstances following Kelvin Sampson’s major violations aren’t normal. You can believe Crean when he says it was an honest mistake, but it was the last thing Indiana needs right now.
I should really be asleep right now, but I just checked my e-mail on my phone quick and Jerod over at Midwest Sports Fan dropped this in my inbox: the Indy Star is reporting the basketball staff made one phone call too many to Bawa Muniru during a week in October. When the violation was discovered, IU punished itself by not making calls for a week in December.
Let’s go to the details:
According to the report, when assistant coach Roshown McLeod left a voice mail for Muniru on Oct. 25, it was the school’s third call to him in a week — exceeding the NCAA limit by one.
Coach Tom Crean, who normally makes one call per week to recruits, placed two to Muniru — the Sunday and Wednesday before McLeod’s call on a Saturday.
The report said Crean “simply made a mistake,” thinking his Sunday call had counted against the previous week’s allotment. The athletic department’s compliance department discovered the violation.
On the surface, not the hugest deal. As we all know, schools report minor, secondary violations like this all the time. It happens.
But, considering Kelvin Sampson’s past transgressions, this is about the worst secondary violation Tom Crean and his staff could have picked up in his first year at the helm, as far as a PR standpoint in concerned.
Again, this is nothing more than a minor mistake, one that IU was right to self-report. We’ll survive. But man, I’d feel far better right now if it was something that had absolutely nothing to do with a phone.
Notes written shortly after Michael Santa’s much anticipated IU debut …
