The great shake-up

Hoosier fans will be reaching for their programs when basketball season tips off in November.\nOnly three players – sophomore walk-on guard Brett Finkelmeier, sophomore guard Jordan Crawford and senior forward Kyle Taber – will return from the 2007-2008 team after a series of well-documented shake-ups resulted in a coaching change for the Hoosiers.\nThe trio of returning players will be joined by 10 newcomers – seven scholarship players and three walk-ons – to complete the 2008-2009 Hoosier roster.\nChanges were expected after the resignation of former head coach Kelvin Sampson and the hiring of new IU coach Tom Crean, but few people could have guessed the complete roster overhaul that has taken place the past few weeks.\nSeniors Adam Ahlfeld, Mike White, Lance Stemler and D.J. White graduated. Freshman All-American guard Eric Gordon declared for the NBA draft. Those losses were expected, but the changes did not end there.\nFreshman center Eli Holman informed Crean he intended to transfer just days after the end of the semester.\nCrean did not allow junior guard/forward Jamarcus Ellis and sophomore guard Armon Bassett to return to the program after the pair was thrown off the team for violating team rules by interim head coach Dan Dakich. Additionally, Crean dismissed forward DeAndre Thomas.\n“We fully expect our student-athletes to accept the responsibilities academically, athletically and socially that come with representing one of the top programs in college basketball history,” Crean said in a statement after dismissing Thomas from the team.\nFinally, last week Crean dismissed freshman forward Brandon McGee, leaving just three players from last year’s team on the roster.\n“Our coaching and support staff tried to make this work out, but we felt that there were some basic standard operating procedures that were not being met,” Crean said in a statement.\nIn addition to the dismissals, the two highest-rated recruits headed to Bloomington opted to leave the program and head to other schools.\nCrean wasted little time in putting together an incoming class of seven players in the last months of the recruiting season.\nThe new coach first convinced the two remaining recruits from Sampson’s class – forward Tom Pitchard and shooting guard Matt Roth – to stay committed to the Hoosiers.\nNext, junior college point guard and Indianapolis native Devin Dumes chose IU over Ohio State. The next day, shooting guard Nick Williams, ranked as the No. 146 recruit according to recruiting service Rivals.com, committed to Crean, who had recruited Williams while serving as head coach at Marquette.\nCrean solidified his backcourt for next season by adding point guard Verdell Jones, ranked No. 127 by rivals, who choose the Hoosiers over Big Ten rival Minnesota.\nUnexpectedly, junior college center Tijan Jobe committed to IU. Jobe seemed to be the final piece of the recruiting puzzle until forward Emmanuel Negedu, ranked No. 40 by Rivals, got his release from Arizona, re-opening his recruitment. The Hoosiers are one of four schools vying for Negedu’s services.\nSo many roster changes in such a short amount of time could confuse even the most diehard Hoosier fans.\n“I follow the team very closely,” recent graduate Clayton Glover said. “But I’ve had a difficult time keeping up with all the new additions Coach Crean has made.”\nThose changes were necessary Crean said to build a foundation to return IU to its winning ways.\n“Before you build a team, you need to develop a family,” Crean said in a statement when he dismissed Thomas from the team. “We will go through the learning process, feel some growing pains and experience some bumps in the road along the way. We need the Hoosier Nation to rally around this program as we go through these stages.”