IU Standout Returns as Basketball Coach; Crean Grades Tough

Whitney Thomas, one of the best basketball players in Indiana history, is ready to make her mark as an assistant coach.

Thomas will join Felisha Legette-Jack’s staff seeking to make as much impact as a coach as she did as a player. She is the only Hoosier to ever surpass 1,000 career points, 1,000 career rebounds and 200 career steals.

“The family atmosphere if very important to the growth of our program and bringing Whitney back as an assistant coach is a tremendous get,” Legette-Jack said in a university release.

Thomas totaled 1,240 points, 1,090 rebunds, 258 assists, 237 steals and 73 blocks. She ranks second in school history in steals and rebounds. Her 32 career double-doubles rank fourth at IU.

“I look forward to helping the program grow into something special,” Thomas said.


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If you play basketball for Indiana and Tom Crean, you’d better go to class.

Yeah, you hear that from every coach, but not every coach puts the teeth into it that Crean does. He’s always taken pride in his players’ academic performances and, after the misery the program endured during the end of Mike Davis’ run and the Kelvin Sampson era, the program has finally gotten back on track.

Crean keeps track of his players every academic movement. If they’re late for a class, he knows it that day. If they miss a class, he knows it right away. If they’re struggling, he knows that, too.

If you’re late for a class, the next day you have to come to Assembly Hall at 6:30 in the morning and either run the arena stairs (if you’ve been in the place, you know how much fun that is), or endure a rigorous workout with strength coach Je’Ney Jackson (who probably isn’t happy HE has to be working that early).

If you miss a second class, you have to come in at 5:30 in the morning for another session. If you’re late a third time, the whole team has to come in early.

Yeah, that would cause some major player unhappiness with the offender.

Crean said nobody has ever had a third screwup.


*****


You probably know that the Big Ten recently heard officials from Indianapolis and Chicago make their pitches to host the Big Ten football championship game and the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

League officials are set to make a decision soon.

Right now Indianapolis has all three events. It’s had the basketball tourneys for a number of years (next spring is the final year of the contract). It will host the inaugural football title game in December as the league makes room for Nebraska and divides itself into divisions, the names of which are so silly we can’t bring ourselves to say them.

For football, you could play the game in the fan-friendly comfort of Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium, which was designed to host a Super Bowl and will next February if the NFL ever gets its act together and resolves its labor dispute.

Or you could play on the frozen tundra of Soldier Field, which looks like a poorly designed flying saucer and will never host a Super Bowl. Chicago officials pushed the fact that the average temperature in early December in the city ranges from a high of 41 to a low of 28. But anyone who has endured the weird weather of the last year or so knows that averages no longer apply. Figure an End of Days type blizzard, and we say that with total objectivity.

IU coach Kevin Wilson and Purdue coach Danny Hope are pushing for Lucas Oil Stadium. Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald favors Soldier Field.

As far as the basketball tourneys, if you care about the fans, the teams, the convenience and reasonable prices, it’s Indianapolis all the way. It’s not even close.

Here’s the deal, and this is huge in these economically challenged times. Chicago is a gazillion times more expensive than Indianapolis. You have the kind of traffic and construction issues to turn Rush Limbaugh into a liberal Democrat. You have bagels that cost more than a Donald Trump hair weave. In Indianapolis, you can walk to Conseco Fieldhouse, passing great restaurants along the way that won’t tax your credit card limit. In Chicago, nobody walks to the United Center from the nearest hotel. Nobody walks to the United Center from anywhere.

It’s possible one city could host the football game, and the other the basketball tournaments. Big Ten officials also could rotate the sites.

Nobody has asked us, and probably never will. Still, the choice seems as obvious as a Snookie tan: Indianapolis rules.

Worse Than Kelvin Sampson – Ohio State Football Going Down

Ohio State is going down big time.

Coach Jim Tressel is out. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor is under investigation by both the school and the NCAA into receiving cars and extra benefits beyond the tattoos and selling Buckeye memorabilia. And who knows what’s going on with his reported mentor, a Pennsylvania businessman named Ted Sarniak. Pryor likely has played his last game for Ohio State.

Forget all the big names becoming the next Ohio State coach. The program is about to become toxic. If the NCAA has any backbone at all, it will hit the Buckeyes hard. Big names won’t want any part of this mess, which will extend well beyond the one-year interim coach status of Luke Fickell, who might end up being the permanent coach with a successful season.

Tressel lied multiple times to the NCAA, broke NCAA rules and his own Ohio State contract, and tried to cover up his players’ violations.

Players have been alleged to have received extra benefits that include deals for cars and the stench apparently reaches to the Ohio State compliance department.

Talk about lack of institutional control.

A Sports Illustrated article that appeared Monday night said that the practice of trading Ohio State memorabilia for tattoos had gone on at least since 2002 under Tressel and involved at least 28 players. It also detailed possible violations Tressel committed while an Ohio State assistant coach in the 1980s and while the head coach at Youngstown State (star quarterback Ray Isaac accepted improper benefits including cars).

Speaking of cars, the Sporting News reported that a Columbus, Ohio, car salesman sold more than 50 cars to Ohio State athletes and relatives in the last five years because the school’s compliance department directed them to him. A compliance department official denied it to the Columbus Dispatch. The car salesman said he had the phone records to prove it. Then Ohio State officials said the Dispatch screwed it up and then, oops, there were a bunch of phone calls with the salesman.

With all this going on, no wonder Tressel tried to cover it up.

In the end Tressel had to go, but that won’t be enough to avoid sanctions that could rock the Buckeye program worse than what has hit Indiana basketball.

The NCAA will likely look at Ohio State as a multiple offender. Former Buckeyes Maurice Clarett and Troy Smith were suspended by the NCAA for receiving money and other benefits from Boosters.

The death penalty is not in play. After seeing what it did to SMU in the 1987 (shutting down the football program devastated the athletics program and the university), NCAA officials won’t ever go that route again, but they will make a point of showing that no school, even one with the clout of Ohio State, can break the rules.

First thing up –- address the travesty that allowed Pryor and four other teammates to play in last year’s Sugar Bowl even though they’d broken NCAA rules. Ohio State should forfeit that victory over Arkansas.

Next should come a ban on postseason participation. It should be multiple years.

There needs to be scholarship reductions, recruiting restrictions and a cleaning house of the compliance department.

Don’t be surprised if at least athletic director Gene Smith soon joins Tressel in the ranks of the unemployed. In fact, the university will probably impose its own penalties to try to avoid nastier sanctions.

The NCAA will hit Tressel with a show cause penalty that almost certainly will end his college coaching career. Perhaps he moves on to the NFL (Kelvin Sampson became an NBA assistant at Milwaukee after devastating IU’s basketball program). Perhaps he starts a tattoo parlor. Coaching college football is over for a guy who won five national titles (one at Ohio State), and a ton of Big Ten championships and games (he was 106-22 in 10 years with the Buckeyes) in a 37-year career.

Yeah, you’ll read about Urban Meyer and Bo Pelini and others taking over after next season. Ain’t happening. Coaches have seen what Tom Crean has gone through at IU. Big names won’t want any part of that.

Tressel is done and Ohio State is going down big time.

Having Faith – IU Track Rocks; Hulls and Oladipo Thrive; Final A-HOPE Thought

Is Faith Sherrill finally ready to rock the national track scene?

Signs point to it.

Yes, her big-time throw of 60-foot-4.5 shot put in Saturday’s NCAA regional meet didn’t count because it came in warm-ups, but it demonstrated better than anything else the Indiana senior’s potential. Of course, so did her previous four Big Ten titles and being a four-time All-American, but this effort, coming just two weeks before the outdoor nationals in Iowa, indicates she’s about to end her national meet frustrations.

And as a senior, it's her last shot.

Sherrill has never won a national title, but has seemingly challenged for years. In last winter’s indoor nationals, she came in seeded first and finished fourth.

Sherrill eventually led all regional competitors on Saturday with a throw of 17.51 meters, which is 57-foot-5.5. That was nearly two feet better than anyone else.

She is one of eight Hoosier track athletes to qualify for the outdoor nationals.

Another is fellow shot putter Monique Riddick. She earned the 12th and final spot with a throw of 16.24 meters (53-foot-3.5).

Sarah Pease, De’Sean Turner, Andrew Poore and Andy Weatherford all made it in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Pease had an automatic qualifying time of 10:09.14. Poore ran an 8:51.32, Weatherford had an 8:46.62 and Turner got in with an 8:39.40. Turner’s time is the third best in IU history.

A pair of pole vaulters made it. Vera Neuenswander led the field by clearing 13-foot-1.5 without a miss. Ahbe also cleared 13-1.5. Ahbe is making her second straight appearance at nationals.



*****

It appears that IU’s Victor Oladipo and Jordan Hulls are making the most of their China experience. Both played on a Reach USA team that is 5-1-1 on its Chinese tour. Reach USA beat a Lithuanian Club team 104-99 with Oladipo totaling 13 points, three assists and three steals, and Hulls adding 12 points, four rebounds and two steals.

In an earlier win over Lithuania, Hulls had 12 points on 4-for-6 three-point shooting while Oladipo had six points, four rebounds and three assists. In another game, Oladipo had eight points and eight rebounds, and hit a buzzer-beating game-winning three-pointer.

It looks like both are averaging around 7.8 points on the trip.

Oladipo and Hulls are among the 10 college players involved in this cultural exchange program with Reach USA. The trip ends on Tuesday.


*****


Here’s a final thought about the drama involving A-HOPE, Indiana and recruiting.

Unless something far bigger emerges, IU won’t suffer any consequences and standout forward Hanner Perea will play for the Hoosiers. Yes, A-HOPE official and Indiana Elite coach Mark Adams supplied Perea with benefits such as air fare home to Columbia, but whether that violates NCAA rules, as implied in the ESPN.com story, is unclear.

There’s a big gray area here because A-HOPE is a non-profit organization and, as such, can do things other entities can’t. Adams has insisted he went through IU’s compliance department and the NCAA to make sure rules weren’t broken.

Figure the NCAA will take a deeper look at that, and eventually ban any kind of benefits for any athletes, even from non-profit agencies. That will clear up any confusion.

Until the next problem emerges.

What’s Up With ESPN, A-HOPE, Perea and IU Basketball?

Okay, so you've seen the well-researched ESPN.com report on Indiana, basketball recruiting, the Bloomington based nonprofit organization called African Hoop Opportunities Providing an Education (A-HOPE), super-recruit Hanner Perea, paid-for trips, cell phone and laptop, and have had a Kelvin Sampson flashback.

Oh no!

Suddenly after three years of misery and rebuilding, when everything seems ready to fall into place so the Hoosiers can return to postseason basketball relevance, comes an investigative piece that suggests Perea, the highest rated of IU’s top-rated 2012 recruiting class, received illegal benefits from A-HOPE and his Indiana Elite travel team coach, Mark Adams.

Specifically ESPN reported that those benefits might mean NCAA rules regarding preferential treatment and extra benefits were broken. The key word is "might" because A-HOPE is a non-profit organization and the NCAA is still formulating rules regarding that kind of entity. A-HOPE provides such benefits for all its players.

Could that mean the 6-9 Perea will never play for IU? Are the Hoosiers about to return to NCAA infamy? And what about the connection with Drew Adams, Mark’s son and the Hoosiers’ former director of basketball operations, and the entire connection between the Indiana program, A-HOPE, Indiana Elite and even adidas (which supplies shoes and apparel to IU and Indiana Elite)?

Keep this thought in mind -- Julie Cromer is very good at what she does.

And another one -– Tom Crean is way too smart to jeopardize three years of hard work.

Still, questions have been asked and the NCAA could get involved.

First, Julie Cromer is IU’s senior associate athletics director for compliance. She was hired from the NCAA to make sure IU follows all the rules. Because there are almost as many rules as there are stars in the universe, this is a complex task. Cromer is up to it. So is her beefed up compliance staff.

Anyway, nothing in the ESPN story suggests that Indiana did anything wrong. It does, however, question the hiring of Drew Adams. He recently left to join the New Mexico program and former IU All-America Steve Alford, and the article, written by Mike Fish, suggests that move had a darker reason, that Adams fled because of the questions about his hiring and involvement with Indiana Elite.

That seems extremely unlikely.

The implication was that Crean hired Drew Adams, who had done some coaching with Indiana Elite, to help form a pipeline between Indiana Elite and the Hoosiers. For instance, all five members of IU’s Class of 2012 -- Yogi Ferrell, Ron Patterson, Perea, Peter Jurkin and Jeremy Hollowell -- play for Indiana Elite. Two players in the Class of 2011, Cody Zeller and Austin Etherington, are from Indiana Elite.

Crean also brought in Kory Barnett as a walk-on player. Barnett is the son of Mike Barnett, who is on Indiana Elite's board of directors.

To some, that smacks of conspiracy and that IU pushed the boundary of what’s acceptable in recruiting.

Look, Crean hired Adams for a lot of reasons. Was recruiting one of them? Of course. Recruiting is extremely competitive and you have to be aggressive. Recruiting is about relationships and the better your relationship is with a player, the better your chances. If Drew Adams could help, well, other programs have hired AAU and high school coaches in part because of recruiting. That didn’t break any NCAA rule, although the NCAA has since amended things so that teams, if they hire someone with an AAU affiliation, can’t sign players that person coached for two years.

As far as Indiana Elite funneling players to IU, well, it also has sent players to Purdue, Butler, Kentucky, Ohio State, North Carolina, Duke and Michigan.

Specifically, Marshall and Mason Plumlee went to Duke; Tyler Zeller went to North Carolina; Terone Johnson, Patrick Bade, Lewis Jackson and D.J. Byrd went to Purdue; Deandre Liggins went to Kentucky, Erik Frohm went to Butler, and so on.

Still, Crean's recent hot streak with in-state players has attracted attention. Crean and Mark Adams suggested in the ESPN.com story that rival coaches were the driving forces behind the story. Crean mentioned Purdue and Baylor (which was heavily involved in recruiting Perea) as possible sources. Fish wrote that neither school cooperated with the story.

Mark Adams told the Indy Star’s Kyle Neddenriep that he had a conference call with the NCAA and the IU compliance staff about his relationship with Perea and the A-HOPE Foundation, and that everything Adams does is above board. He said he uses much of his own money to run the foundation and does it for humanitarian reasons. He also said his son’s leaving Indiana had nothing to do with A-HOPE and everything to do with a better opportunity.

The NCAA might disagree. In the end, its rules are open to interpretation, and its interpretation is the final word. If it finds fault, there will be consequences. Perhaps Perea will never play for IU. And if there were other things going on in which the Hoosiers were directly involved, well, do we really need to revisit that topic.

Breaking the rules would be out of character for Crean. He prides himself on doing things the right way and succeeding through hard work, not cheating. His career has been based on that.

Of course, in this cynical age of Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones, it’s hard to be sure of anything, but it’s harder to believe IU, Crean and Cromer would be dumb enough to ruin everything they’ve spent so much time and effort building.

They are not dumb.

McGary Vs. Jurkin; IU Basketball gets Good Academic News

A reader wanted to know if IU is going after rapidly improving big man Mitch McGary and what’s up with Peter Jurkin in the never-ending Class of 2012 recruiting saga.

First, Tom Crean and company are taking a long look at McGary, who in one year has gone from not worth the time to the nation’s most improved big man. In fact, he might end up being the nation’s BEST big man.

Rivals.com lists McGary as the No. 5 overall player in the Class of 2012. ESPN.com has him at No. 4.

The 6-10, 250-pounder still has some work to do to be the best because three of the players ranked ahead of him are big guys, led by No. 1 Isaiah Austin, a 7-foot forward committed to Baylor.

McGary’s move from Chesterton, Indiana, to Brewster Academy in New Hampshire –- which moved him from the Class of 2011 to the Class of 2012 -- was a good one in a lot of ways. He learned to handle the academic load and to overcome attention deficit disorder. He got bigger and stronger while maintaining his ability to run the floor. He’s become a big-time prospect.

McGary showed during the adidas May Classic in Bloomington that he is still prone to the occasional poor on-court decision, but that’s true of a lot of players. Coaching can correct that if the player has a good attitude and work ethic, and a strong desire to improve.

That seems to describe McGary.

As you might imagine, a LOT of schools are after him. Those include Arizona, Kansas, Texas, Marquette and Cincinnati.

As far as Jurkin, well, he’s been sidelined with a leg injury this spring. He isn’t ranked by any of the major recruiting sites. We’ve never seen him, so we don’t know if he’s closer to the project status of Tijan Jobe or the future star potential of a D.J. White.

IU needs a physically imposing inside presence to take the load off Cody Zeller. Is Jurkin that guy?

In just over a year, we’ll start finding out.



*****


Okay, it’s not quite as big as winning a national championship, but the fact IU’s men’s basketball program scored a perfect 1,000 in the NCAA Academic Progress Rate for the 2009-10 academic is another sign Crean has the program going in the right direction.

That gave the Hoosiers a 929 four-year average. Anything above a 925 and you have no worries. Below a 925, as the Hoosiers had been the previous few years thanks to ex-coach Kelvin Sampson’s cast of misfits and Mike Davis’ final-year struggles, and you run the risk of losing scholarships.

In fact, IU took a self-imposed penality of two reduced scholarships after recording an abysmal 866 score for the 2007-08 year. That was one of five straight years of averages below 925.

Under Crean, the Hoosiers recorded a 975 and 1,000 in his first two years.

What do those numbers mean? Basically, they record whether players are on pace to graduate and how well schools retain players. Guys transferring or leaving early for the NBA affect the numbers, but if they leave in good academic standing, it doesn’t hurt as much. That’s why Eric Gordon continued to do the job in the classroom even after announcing he was leaving IU after just one year to enter the NBA Draft.

Figure the Hoosiers will continue to thrive in the classroom. That’s been Crean’s M.O. since he became a head coach and that’s not going to change. Unlike Sampson, he’ll bring in only guys who are willing and able to meet their academic, athletic and social responsibilities as representatives of the university.

It also means every IU sport is above the 925 mark.

Remembering Dave Schnell; DeChellis Surprises; D.J. White Camp

Dave Schnell was one of the good guys, a great college quarterback, a fierce competitor, a man who didn’t flinch when asked to beat the odds.

He led the Indiana Hoosiers to a football victory at Ohio State in 1987, and to understand how significant that is, you have to realize it remains IU’s only win there since 1951.

He helped IU beat Michigan that same season (the only time it’s ever beaten the traditional powers in the same year) and to consecutive victories over Ohio State (that hasn’t been done since).

Schnell could beat just about anything except the one thing that remains a chillingly formidable foe –- cancer.

On Sunday, after a four-year battle that saw him go from 220 pounds to around 100, Schnell died at age 44 in Elkhart.

Quarterbacks are judged mainly by victories and in that, Schnell thrived. He started his last three years and IU was 21-13-1 in that stretch.

Schnell is all over the IU passing records lists. He threw for as many as 378 yards (in a 34-10 win over South Carolina in the 1978 Liberty Bowl), which ranks fifth in school history. His 5,470 career passing yards rank fifth and his 27 career TD passes are sixth. His 56.2 career percentage is fourth.

His passing numbers likely would have been better if not for superstar tailback Anthony Thompson. He rushed for 5,299 yards and 67 touchdowns in that same era.

Schnell’s success wasn’t a surprise. Sports Illustrated named him the nation’s top high school player in 1985 after leading Elkhart Central to an 18-2 record his last two years. He went with IU and coach Bill Mallory even though the Hoosiers were just 4-18 in the previous two seasons.

He signed as a free agent with the Buffalo Bills in 1990. Quarterback Jim Kelly was there and soon Schnell wasn’t. He returned to Elkhart and got into the insurance business, where he lived and worked until he died.

He will be missed.


*****


Ed DeChellis got emotional with his surprise decision to leave Penn State and take a pay cut to coach at Navy.

In truth, it was smart. Yes, he’s taking over a struggling program that was 11-20 last season. Sure, he’ll be going from the high-profile Big Ten to the low-profile Patriot League.

And recruiting will be a lot tougher given Navy’s height restrictions. David Robinson was an exception, but he was 6-6 when he arrived at Navy, then grew to 6-11. He thrived in college and in the NBA.

Still, DeChellis had taken the Nittany Lions about as far as he was going to. Last season they won 19 games and reached the NCAA tourney. In 2009, they won the NIT.

However, career scoring leader Talor Battle graduated, as did key contributors Jeff Brooks, David Jackson and Andrew Jones. Talented but troubled freshman guard Taran Buie left the program.

DeChellis was about to face a major rebuilding challenge and do it with indifferent fan support. While his contract was good until 2014, he only had a 114-138 record at Penn State and just 41-95 in the Big Ten. And with an annual salary of $642,000, he was the Big Ten’s lowest-paid coach.

A bad year might have left him in the ranks of the unemployed, regardless of what his contract said.

At Navy the pressure is less. Instead of dealing with the Ohio States, Michigan States and the rest of the Big Ten, DeChellis will get Bucknell, American, Holy Cross and Army.

DeChellis likely will have better job security, and more chance of success, with Navy.

Athletic director Tim Curley released a statement that said Penn State will “quickly begin a national search” and that it would be “comprehensive” and “focused on finding the best candidate to lead Penn State basketball into the future.”


*****

Former Hoosier D.J. White will be back in Bloomington next fall for his annual youth basketball camp. White, who played with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Charlotte Bobcats this season, will personally help direct camp activities. The camp is open to boys and girls ages 6 to 14.

The camp, which is set for Sept. 17 at the Twin Lakes Recreation Center, will emphasize fundamental skills and team concepts.

For more information, call 513-793-2267 or check out www.DJWhiteCamp.com.

On Mascots, A Football Commitment, And Capobianco Part II

You’ve probably seen the buzz about whether it’s time for Indiana to have a mascot.

Indianapolis businessman Jim Gearries told the Indy Star’s Terry Hutchens that he’s pushing for a contest to determine one. He envisions a mascot wearing blue jeans and suspenders, carrying a peach basket with a basketball and a corncob pipe who would be called Hurryin’ Hoosier Harry.

IU has tried a mascot before, with a bison in the late 1960s (a bison is part of the state seal) and with a country dude called Hoosier Pride in the late 1970s. Neither lasted.

IU did have an unofficial mascot in the 1990s thanks to businessman and Hoosier fan Tom Spiece. He came up with “Hoosier Man.” He spent thousands of his own dollars on an inflatable, motorized mascot costume. He spent more money on lessons in how to use it and perform in it.

Why? Because of his strong affection for the university and his belief that IU needed a mascot. Sometimes he performed in it. Sometimes he got Hoosier students to do it.

IU officials were not amused or appreciative, although for a while they did tolerate it. Football coaches Bill Mallory and Cam Cameron liked it. Spiece even went the diversity route by buying an African American Hoosier Man. He bought two motorized scooters so the Hoosier Men could zip around the Memorial Stadium parking lots during home football games.

Athletic director Clarence Doninger wasn’t a huge Hoosier Man fan, but he didn’t object to it. His successor, Michael McNeely, couldn’t stand it. He was clear and to the point -– Hoosier Man had to go. Spiece gave up the Hoosier Men in exchange for Varsity Club points. IU officials took them and put them in storage, sort of like what happened to the Arc of the Covenant at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie.

Eventually Spiece got the Hoosier Men back.

Spiece, by the way, was the same guy who once brought a life-sized dummy of Bob Knight to IU basketball games. Later, he bought a talking Bob Knight dummy (it featured G-rated sound bites). He bought two seats near the court –- one for him and one for the dummy. It was a hit. Referees talked to the dummy during timeouts. During a nationally televised game, an announcer came over and did a mock interview.

Those were the days that the Hoosiers were winning championships. You’d like to think those days will soon return.


*****


It looks like football coach Kevin Wilson has his first commitment for the Class of 2012. Matt Weaver of Peegs.com has reported that cornerback Dion Witty from Florida wants to be a Hoosier. He picked IU over Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Central Florida, Michigan, Nebrask and Iowa State. That’s some pretty solid competition.

Witty, who is listed at 5-11 and 175 pounds, has played mainly safety in high school but has the speed and athleticism to handle cornerback.


*****

The blog on Bobby Capobianco leaving IU generated plenty of comments. Not everybody agreed with me, which is as it should be.

Still, here’s the bottom line –- if the Hoosiers are to become a perennial championship program, the talent level has to improve and coach Tom Crean has to maximize it.

Was Capobianco the kind of player to help get IU where it wants to go? No. Could he thrive at a mid-major school? Absolutely, but he has a lot of work to do. He’ll have a redshirt year. He has to make the most of it and it starts, but certainly doesn’t end, by not fouling.

The Hoosiers, meanwhile, need difference-making big men. Cody Zeller appears to be one, but as a freshman, he’ll have growing pains. In a year or two, look out. Senior Tom Pritchard, in particular, needs to step up.

In the meantime, IU is still recruiting power forward Mitch McGary, one of the nation's best big men in the Class of 2012.

We’re about to start Crean’s fourth year and there’s no reason why, barring some major injuries, the Hoosiers can’t make a postseason tourney next season. There’s enough talent and experience to have a winning record.