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Tom Crean, Indiana Find Themselves Under the Microscope

By Matt Johnson

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For fans of the Indiana Hoosiers, the last few weeks have probably felt like an unwanted, poorly written sequel.

It was about 19 months ago that coach Tom Crean and his celebrated basketball program endured a spate of legal issues, starting with Hanner Mosquera-Perea’s arrest on OWI charges in February of 2014. Since then, the Hoosiers have seen Emmitt Holt injure former player Devin Davis in a bizarre car accident last November. Then came the dismissal of both Davis and Mosquera-Perea due to marijuana charges in May.

But the problems haven’t ended there. Just last week, Holt and freshman Thomas Bryant were cited by Indiana police for illegal possession of an alcoholic beverage. In other words, Indiana’s apparent system of deterrence, which Crean openly discussed before the start of last season, hasn’t had the impact Hoosier Nation was hoping for.

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So, for the second time in less than a year, Crean (along with Athletic director Fred Glass) have had to answer questions about player conduct rather than fielding the usual preseason queries regarding the team’s prospects for 2015-16.

Naturally, Crean is saying all the right things, noting there needs to be greater accountability and leadership from his players. The problem is, Crean said essentially the same thing last season. And while the Hoosiers were ultimately able to put such distractions behind them during a promising 20-win campaign, one has to wonder whether the Hoosier program will be trotting out the same old song-and-dance again in coming months.

Indiana is hardly alone when it comes to player discipline woes. A systemic problem appears to rising inside Assembly Hall however, and once again, Crean’s team will have to deal with nagging questions about their behavior off the basketball court.

As of now, Hoosier brass is refusing to panic. Glass has already stated he doesn’t believe in a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to discipline. Nevertheless, problems inside Indiana basketball cannot simply be ignored; not when the Hoosiers return a roster that expects to battle Maryland for Big 10 supremacy in 2015-16.

For the Indiana faithful, the entire situation feels like a bad dream. Under the direction of Bob Knight, the Hoosiers rarely (if ever) had run-ins with the law. Mike Davis’ tenure yielded more of the same and even the disaster that was Kelvin Sampson managed to keep Indiana’s players pretty clean.

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Things seem to have changed under Crean, a coach who was already under the microscope for failing to reach the NCAA Tournament in 2013-14. Fans of Hoosier basketball expect yearly trips to the Big Dance and Crean’s squad had taken a major step backwards the season before all their legal issues began.

Add it all up and Crean is facing greater pressure than ever before. School president Michael McRobbie is now stepping in, letting Glass and Crean know enough is enough. And if the Hoosiers’ off-court struggles spill over onto the court, expect Indiana fans to also start chiming in loudly.

The bottom line is Indiana is at a crossroads. Crean has always recruited well, and even with recent dismissals, looks to have a team ready for a push towards the top of the Big 10. But college basketball is a sport of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately priorities. And if the Hoosiers struggle out of the gate, the seventh-year coach may start finding folks in Bloomington not quite so faithful.

Next: Indiana Dismisses Emmitt Holt

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