Let’s get one thing straight.
If IU wins this season, and wins at a high rate, all this turmoil will go away.
The old adage “winning cures everything” isn’t an old adage for nothing.
The IU men’s basketball team has had an awful last nine months. There have been several off-court issues involving alcohol and a good chunk of the players. But something else happened, too.
IU went 7-11 in the Big Ten. It missed the NCAA Tournament. It even missed the NIT.
There are some things more important than basketball. Devin Davis’ recovery right now is more important than basketball.
A 19-year-old man underwent a “traumatic brain injury,” as IU Coach Tom Crean called it. Not a basketball player, but a human being underwent that injury. And we’re all pulling for him. His recovery is more important than IU’s record at the end of this year.
But the other stuff? There’s an easy cure for that — winning.
IU starts its season tonight. No more exhibitions. It plays Mississippi Valley State at 7 p.m., and it will win.
It’ll play Texas Southern at 6 p.m. Monday and it will win that game, too.
During this season, IU fans and media members — probably myself included, if we’re being honest — will wonder aloud if all the off-court troubles will put Crean on the hot seat.
“IU players are out of control.”
“Crean has no handle on his program.”
“These kids don’t know what it means to wear the candy stripes.”
You’ll see all those comments on Twitter, hear your friends say them or may even read them in print or hear them on the radio.
But it’s kind of amazing what a 9-9 or 10-8 season in the Big Ten will do to this program.
Suddenly, the players aren’t “out of control,” they’re “focused.” Crean will be praised for leading this roster laden with youth to the Tournament. And the kids who weren’t worthy to wear the candy stripes a few months prior will once again be a shining example of an IU basketball player — if they hit 40 percent of their threes.
These games won’t really show us anything about how IU will fare during Big Ten play.
Sophomores Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson still have two games remaining on their suspensions for drug use. It’s hard to tell what the puzzle is supposed to look like if you’re missing two-fifths of your pieces.
To reiterate, one thing will determine Crean’s job status at the end of the season: the number in the “W” column at the end of the year.
So let’s just play basketball, for goodness’ sake.
Prediction: IU 79, Mississippi Valley State 62
ehoopfer@indiana.edu
