Column: Ensure a season they won’t forget

I pity this Indiana team. I really do.

Unfortunately, it might come to be known as the team that preceded “the team,” an appetizer of success compared to the main course many speculate will come next season.

It’s not the team’s fault that every loss this season will be followed by whispers of how the 2012-13 Hoosiers will fare against the same opponent. But that’s just the harsh reality of the team’s predicament.

The 2011-12 Hoosiers are the opening act to your favorite band, the name called before yours on graduation day, that passionate kiss leading to — well, you get the point.
But this sentiment doesn’t have to overshadow the next five months of basketball. And it shouldn’t.

Everyone and their mothers have predictions of how IU will finish this year.
No matter if the Hoosiers finish their season in the NCAA Tournament or the National Invitational Tournament (I think the latter), five seniors will end their careers playing in candy stripes.

Four of those seniors are scholarship players — guard Daniel Moore received a sholarship this season — who took a chance with an animated coach from Marquette and his rebuilding effort for a program whose championship banners had begun to gather dust.

One of those seniors, guard Verdell Jones III, said he knows exactly how he wants his graduating class to be remembered.

“Guys who persevered,” said Jones at Big Ten Basketball Media Day. “Guys who didn’t quit. Guys who didn’t transfer when it got tough. Guys who set the foundation and helped build IU to what it’s going to become. Guys who improved significantly and matured. I think this year, people will realize that.”

Jones, Moore, forward Tom Pritchard and guard Matt Roth deserve to be
treated with the same amount of enthusiasm and energy in Assembly Hall as the 2012 class next year.

The four and their teammates won’t be as talented as next year’s squad, nor will they win as many games.

Assistant Coach Steve McClain said from the time he arrived in Bloomington last season, he knew there would be a divide starting next season.

“There was never any debate about these are the guys. These are the ones that are going to change it,” McClain said of the 2012 recruiting class.

A change from what, though?

Obviously, a change of fortunes in the win-loss column, as I foresee this year’s team making it to the postseason for the first time with IU Coach Tom Crean, albeit a trip to the NIT.

But what I hope doesn’t get lost in the transition to more winning ways is exactly what Jones alluded to: grit, passion, perseverance, commitment to academics, coaching staff, Indiana and­ — win or lose — to doing things the right way.

Barring another colossal implosion, there will never again be a four-year stretch with as many losses as this, 46 in Big Ten play and 66 overall.

This season will certainly be a jump in the right direction for IU, as the Hoosiers will finish with a winning record, but it still won’t meet the expectations of those who experienced the days of Knight, Jefferies or even Gordon.

That’s why I draw this season as the closing of a chapter in both Indiana basketball and the Crean Era.

A chapter that saw students rush the court for a victory against unranked Minnesota, an eruption of cheers for a seven-foot center from The Gambia for simply pulling down a rebound and a student manager suiting up as a reserve guard.

Essentially, IU basketball went from living in a Manhattan penthouse to its mom’s basement for the past three seasons.

When history looks back at this time in IU’s history, it will likely label it as a rebuilding period, with the 2011 season as the bridge to either greatness or more mediocrity. History will look at the individuals who worked their tails off to lay the foundation for the rebuilding effort. I implore you not to.

Jones, Moore, Pritchard and Roth will not be inducted into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame among a collection of proven winners. Their names will likely be an afterthought when trips to the NCAA Tournament again become the norm. After college, they won’t be put into a pool of potential NBA lottery draft picks.

What this group can be credited with, though, is helping author a period in IU history that won’t soon be duplicated.

­— azaleon@indiana.edu