'I can't die until Purdue wins one': Boilermakers fan, 92, has waited 80 years for NCAA title
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IU Insider Q&A: Bloomington's stormy present

Zach Osterman
zach.osterman@indystar.com
After IU's recent skid, Hoosiers fans are getting restless when it comes to Tom Crean.

Welcome back to another week in the mailbag. It's been a tumultuous one in Bloomington, and I'm not sure when that tumult is going to subside.

I've tried to answer as many questions as I could this week, with one thing to keep in mind: There were a lot of questions with the same basic premise, so not every one made it in (you can probably guess what that premise was). I tried to make sure everything got addressed somewhere, though.

Let's go to the questions.

@morningmarsden: "What needs to happen for Crean to save his job? Is making the tournament enough?"

Well, let's be clear here: I don't think any coach will ever keep or lose his or her job based purely on one metric or a handful of games. If there is a change this year, it's not going to be because of what happens to IU basketball in the next 10 days.

So to that point, I don't think the NCAA tournament alone is the rubric for whether or not Tom Crean's job comes up for review in the offseason. Fred Glass has, in my experience, never gotten carried away by a minor cross-section of results.

That's not to say Glass and his administration won't take a long look at the direction of the program whenever the final horn blows. I just don't think NCAA tournament qualification alone somehow makes the difference there.

@bailey_leo: "Any chance Tom Crean is gone if IU loses its next two? Seems almost inconceivable, but there has been a lot of rumbling since Iowa."

I can't say for sure one way or the other right now, as mentioned above. But I think it's fair to say the direction of the men's basketball program will probably be examined after this season ends.

Jerod: "Can you compare and contrast the feeling around the team right now with what last year felt like as the season came to a close?"

There's a key difference between last season and this one.

Last year, I think everyone generally expected more from Indiana, which meant fans spent a lot of the season assuming that young team would eventually click everything into place and make a tournament push. The end felt very abrupt, when it came.

This season, the opposite basically occurred. Indiana did put it together and drive to the top of the Big Ten. Near the end of January, the Hoosiers were arguably playing the best basketball in the conference outside the state of Wisconsin. Now, questions are -- fairly, I think -- being asked about what happened to that high-scoring, swashbuckling team, because Indiana hardly resembles the squad that was sprinting toward a comfortable return to the NCAA tournament six weeks ago.

So it's a difference, I think, in the source of frustration. Last season, it was in perception of a team that could never bring together all of its parts. This season, it's the way the latter half of the Big Ten schedule has played out. The one common thread is the frustration both have produced.

@FittsTwitts: "Should the students shoulder some of the blame? They have been lackluster all season."

I can't see how students have created any more of this problem than any other interested party.

Has student attendance waned this year? Yes. Is it noticeable at home games? Yes. Are students that do attend still generally engaged? Yes. Does this have to do with rising out-of-state attendance? No. That's a silly argument.

Declining student attendance is a problem everywhere right now. Duke basketball, Alabama football, Oregon football -- these are all programs having trouble getting students in seats, and then keeping them there. There's no one clear cause for it, and no one solution. Suggesting it's an IU problem -- or, frankly, that it's a serious part of the problem this season -- is shortsighted, in my opinion.

@AaronMatas: "Why do Crean's teams (appear to) fizzle at seasons end? Seem to peak in January/February. Even two years ago weren't playing best ball late."

OK, I did some math on this (which is to say, I added up a bunch of records). In the last four years, Tom Crean's teams have gone 92-42, including this season to date. In February and March, those teams have gone 27-21. They've gone 41-30 in league play overall in that span, for a winning percentage of .577. That's only slightly above the winning percentage in February/March, .563.

The bigger split is, perhaps understandably, between 2011-13 and 2013-now. Indiana was 56-16 in that first stretch, and 20-9 in February and March. The Hoosiers have gone 36-26 since, and 7-12 in February and March.

Now, this is an admittedly basic way to quantify the answer to your question, but I don't think it's an unfair one either. It's certainly a more noticeable trend in the last two years, but Indiana also hasn't had the talent or balance it had from 2011-13, for any number of reasons.

So basically, in answer to your question, I think there's some merit to your theory, but stats also suggest it's as much a split between the first two years of that cycle, and the last two.

@bburch22: "Did Tom Crean miss 20 shots at the rim (against Iowa)?"

He did not. But coaches are always going to have to carry the heaviest criticism, just as they often absorb the greatest praise. It's the nature of the job, especially in college.

@ayyymane_19 "Who is the next 'Cody Zeller' type recruit that IU has a chance of landing?"

Thomas Bryant is the obvious answer here, but let's be fair -- when you consider the weight of Zeller's decision, what he represented at the time and what it meant to Indiana, I don't think another recruit will ever garner quite the same attention.

But Bryant would be the closest thing at this point, a McDonald's All-American big man who would provide instant lineup credibility and fill the obvious hole Indiana has inside.

MUSIC OF THE WEEK

Went with The Boss. Perhaps one of his most underappreciated pieces of work:

Got questions about IU basketball? Get them answered in our weekly Insider Q&A! Just send your questions to IU Insider Zach Osterman via Twitter to @ZachOsterman, or via email to zach.osterman@indystar.com, and then check back every Thursday for the answers!