BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP)—Tom Crean isn’t worried about wins, losses or even
rosters right now.
To him, it’s all about making grades.
As if the new Indiana coach didn’t have enough to worry about with an NCAA
investigation, he’s now wrestling with an academic problem that threatens to
cost the program up to two additional scholarships.
“The APR (academic progress report) is really the governing body for all of
what’s going on right now, so we have to put that at the forefront of where
we’re at,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I think every coach
running a successful program has to be concerned with where we are in terms of
the APR.”
If Indiana fails to meet the NCAA’s cutoff score, 925, it faces the prospect
of losing more scholarships. The school already stripped itself of one next
season because of Kelvin Sampson’s alleged phone call violations, and The
Indianapolis Star reported the men’s basketball team is expected to turn in a
score of 899 next month.
Neither Crean nor team spokesman J.D. Campbell would confirm that number
Tuesday.
NCAA rules say any team below 925 could lose a scholarship for each player
who leaves the school while academically ineligible. The maximum penalty in
men’s basketball is two scholarships.
Crean declined to identify specific players who were struggling in the
classroom because of privacy laws, but acknowledged he is concerned about the
Hoosiers’ academic performance as a whole. Plus, he still has not decided
whether to reinstate starting guards Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis, who were
dismissed from the team just hours before Crean took the job April 1.
Crean believes there’s an old-school solution to this predicament.
“I think the players have to have a personal discipline that far surpasses
anything the coach or the academic advisers hold you to,” he said. “That’s
been the thing I think we’re looking for more than anything, do anything you can
to build on your education here.”
The academic woes are yet another twist in a monthslong saga that has
included allegations of NCAA rules infractions, Sampson’s midseason resignation
and a threatened players’ boycott when Sampson left.
Crean’s task is putting everything back together.
But because of the school’s self-imposed recruiting restrictions, Crean has
spent much of his first month in Bloomington emphasizing the basics to players—
attending class, improving grades and showing up on time for appointments—in
hopes of preventing another obstacle that could leave the Hoosiers with even
fewer players next fall.
“There’s no question we’re doing better (academically), and I gauge that
from what the academic advisers are saying,” Crean said. “We’re going to go to
class, we’re going to be on time to class, we’re going to be with the tutors and
we’re going to be on time with the tutors.”
Some solutions are already emerging.
Crean is making progress on the recruiting front after losing Big Ten
freshman of the year Eric Gordon to the NBA and two prominent signees. Forward
Devin Ebanks and guard Terrell Holloway were released from their national
letters-of-intent after Sampson agreed to a $750,000 buyout in February.
Guard Nick Williams, Alabama’s top player, signed with the Hoosiers on
Monday. He initially signed with Marquette, where Crean coached previously, and
was released from his letter-of-intent there.
Crean got more good news Tuesday when junior college star Devan Dumes signed
with Indiana.
Dumes and Williams now join guard Matt Roth and forward Tom Pritchard in
this year’s recruiting class, and Crean has started to assemble a talented class
for 2009, too. Forward Derek Elston, of Tipton, Ind., has said he will honor his
previous commitment to the Hoosiers, and forward Bobby Capobianco, of Loveland,
Ohio, announced last week that he would sign with the Hoosiers in the fall.
Yet the most important aspect to Crean is getting his players to perform
better in the classroom, and while the early results have made Crean hopeful,
they’ve also made him anxious.
“It’s too early to tell,” he said. “I know that sounds funny with two
weeks left in the semester, but it’s just really too early to tell.”
The new Indiana coach is wrestling with an academic problem that threatens to cost the program up to two additional scholarships.
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