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Bob Kravitz: Taxes are more fun than watching IU, Purdue

Bob Kravitz
bob.kravitz@indystar.com

I did two things Thursday:

I watched Indiana and Purdue lose Big Ten Tournament basketball games.

I did my taxes.

The latter was the highlight of my day.

At this point, I'd rather leaf through another pile of W-2s and 1099s than watch another minute of IU or Purdue basketball. Much to my chagrin, IU will continue playing — a 17-15 record and IU's ability to sell tickets will mean a visit to the NIT. Purdue is done, and not a second too soon. One more loss and Matt Painter might blame himself for global warming.

Here's hoping they don't get the Big Ten Network in heaven: I'd hate to think that Branch McCracken, Tony Hinkle and John Wooden were watching this dumpster fire.

When the year began, nobody warned us we might need novocaine and laughing gas to get through this unholy mess of a basketball season. For crying out loud, we've got 10 Division-I basketball teams in this state, and not a single one of them is heading to the NCAA Tournament. Given the exalted state of high school basketball in this state, how does that happen?

A team from North Dakota is going to be in the NCAA Tournament; none from Indiana.

It's 2005 all over again.

Mind boggling.

IU just never grew up, and yes, that's a reflection on Tom Crean, who's shown in the past he can develop young players. It just never happened this season, with the possible exception of Troy Williams, who started to show flashes toward the end of the season. The feeling here was that IU would be demonstrably better in February and March than they were in December and January. Instead, this Hoosiers team has gone backwards, losing its last three games, looking a whole lot like a team that just wants the season to end.

Even when they were trailing by six points in the final minute of the game, there they were, casually moving the ball around the perimeter, nobody probing, nobody looking to make something happen until Yogi Ferrell launched a couple of 3-point Hail Mary's.

And it was galling.

After the game, Crean was asked what message he imparted to his team after this latest loss. He paused roughly 15 seconds, seemed to get a bit emotional, or maybe he was just overflowing with frustration. Really, what can he tell them at this point? They make the same mistakes over and over and over again. They stop moving the ball. They turn the ball over — 16 times this game. They make defensive mistakes, like when they left Tracy Abrams alone in the corner to make a killer 3-pointer late in the game. Same as it ever was.

"Bottom line is we have to play better," Crean said, finally. "You have to match the toughness and the competitive spirit every time that you play. And we've just got to quit making defensive mistakes in coverages and giving them live ball turnovers. Really what I want to do is try to find a different way to say that message because I've give it a few times. And that's the biggest thing ... We have the talent. They just have to grow up and they have to continue to learn those lessons.''

Crean is out of messages. He's talked himself blue in the face, and this team has not responded. Some of that is youth, but by now, even freshmen should be grown up. Two years into their careers, they're still getting next to nothing from Jeremy Hollowell and Hanner Mosquera-Perea, two fabulously over-hyped prospects.

New uniforms, same old Hoosiers.

It was an entire season in microcosm.

Crean was asked how he would define this season.

"I wouldn't because I hope it's going to continue to keep going," he said. "Fifteen, 20 minutes after the game has ended, I really don't have a definition. I hope we get to continue to play. It would be an honor to keep playing. And I'd like to see us continuing to get better."

Whither Purdue?

This is going to sound crazy, but if Painter misses the NCAA tournament for a third time in a row next season — and the cupboard is relatively bare right now — he moves onto the hot seat. He is right to blame himself; who else is there to blame? Nine years into his tenure, Painter and Purdue should not be missing the tournament in consecutive years, and certainly not three years straight.

It isn't so much that he's recruited bad players, it's that he's recruited the wrong kinds of players. He said it himself recently; he needs more unselfish recruits who will buy into what Painter has been selling all these years.

At least the Boilers played hard, had a chance to win it at the end when Terone Johnson's fallaway corner jumper hit the front of the rim, but that's life with Purdue these last two years.

I guess it could be worse.

I could be audited.

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or email bob.kravitz@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BKravitz.