You've got to be kidding me. IU fans have completely lost their minds. I won't even get started on what Coach Crean inherited when he left a successful program at Marquette to take over the mess that was Indiana Basketball. And he did so with a passion and enthusiasm that any normal human being would have had squashed the second year into his tenure.
He then takes IU to the pinnacle of college basketball for two years. Starts below the bottom, takes IU to the top, then this season has occurred. I am a true IU fan, I was there when Knight was coach, and I was there when 12,000 would show up to Assembly Hall during Crean's first two years. By the way, the bandwagon seems to be getting less crowded and all this negativity cannot be good for recruiting, but continue on with your rants verbalizing your anger with the program. I don't care how much money he gets paid, it can't be enjoyable for him and his family who have sacrificed much to help our program succeed be so negatively critisized now.
I am as frustrated as anyone about the roller coaster that this IU team has been. I wish they would be the team that beat Michigan all of the time, but they aren't. There is something going on with the team dynamic that isn't allowing them to reach their full potential. I will concede and say that everyone, players and coaches, deserve some of the blame, but to want the guy fired after this is just asinine.
Here is what I will get started on. Coach Crean reached out to me and our community after an EF-4 tornado destroyed much of our town. That was a big deal to the people he contacted that were injured. He has helped look for missing college students, he has helped them get their cars out of snow drifts, he has contacted numerous sick and dying people, he has allowed a student going blind to attend an IU game, he has done all of this and worked his behind off to help IU be consistently successful.
It is a sad state of many fans who smile, shake his hand and want to be close to him, then want to question every single decision he makes. I will say that the fan base in Indiana is smarter than the average fan base, but most have never coached a 3rd grade game not to say major college basketball. You don't attend practice, you don't know what's going on within the team, you don't know how hard the coaches and players are working and they want to be successful also. Trust me, losing like the Penn State game makes you miserable, for a long time.
I can live with some of the things that THEY (coaches/players) do up in Bloomington because I feel that the program is in great hands. Hands that not only try to win basketball games, but has a love, compassion, and empathy for Hoosier fans who understand what really matters in life....people.
