Cleanup in Hoosierland

The 08/09 Indiana Hoosier basketball team will look nothing like the team that made it to the NCAA tournament last year. Not only is former Marquette coach Tom Crean replacing unsuccessful interim Dan Dakich, but 6 recruits are essentially replacing just about all of last year’s squad.

This mess can be attributed to Kelvin Sampson, who all in all committed 5 major violations (along with Indiana), while at Indiana according to the NCAA. But I’m not here to bore you with all the details of Sampson’s wrongdoings.

I’m here to introduce the 08/09 Indiana basketball team, a completely revamped team in which many freshman and junior college recruits will be asked to play huge minutes.

Let’s start out with the seniors…

The Hoosier’s 07/08 seniors included D.J. White, Lance Stemler, Mike White, Adam Ahfield, and also A.J. Ratliff, who had left the team for good in February. The Hoosiers will sorely miss D.J. White, but nobody else out of that class will be missed too much.

The star…

With Eric Gordon’s departure for the greener pastures of the NBA, one would think winning next season would be a grind without him back, but not an insurmountable task.

But taking into consideration the dismissal of Armon Bassett (11.4 ppg in 29 games) and Jamarcus Ellis (6.8 ppg in 32 games) from the team when Dakich was still at the helm, and no welcome back handshake from Crean, the immediate future of the team looks very dim.

More bad news…

DeAndre Thomas (3.6ppg in 32 games) was asked by Crean not to return, as was Brandon McGee, just recently dismissed last week. And one cannot forget about reading the story of Eli Holman’s tantrum in the coach’s office. Eli will transfer to Detroit.

So that leaves a once storied Indiana program in a world of hurt. And it’s a little worse of a hurt than it seems right now. Many media outlets are reporting Indiana will have 3 players back from last year’s team, but in all actuality Indiana is only returning one player, sophomore Jordan Crawford (9.7 ppg in 30 games). No disrespect for walk-ons here, but returning senior Kyle Taber and sophomore Brett Finklemeier are not what you would call rotation type players at the Big Ten level, not many walk-ons are. However with that being said, Crean just might be forced to give a few walk-ons some serious playing time next year. And with just 9 players currently on the roster, the walk-on tryouts should be nothing short of controlled chaos.

The newbie’s at Indiana…

According to rivals.com and other recruiting sites, Indiana does not boast a single 4 or 5 star recruit for the 08/09 class. Now this really does not mean a whole lot in terms of the overall talent coming to Indiana, but in all honesty, 4 and 5 star recruits have a much better shot at being very good players at the college level than do the lower star recruits. Despite it, Indiana is still ranked in the top half of the conference in terms of the strength of the 08/09 recruiting class. I won’t even get into talking about all of the high level recruits who decided to change their mind and attend college elsewhere after the Sampson ordeal.

The JC’s

Junior college transfers Devon Dumes and Tijan Jobe will step right in and probably start. 6’2 Dumes is from Vincennes JC and scored 16.9ppg last year. Interestingly enough Dumes has played DI basketball before, scoring 8.1 ppg in 32 games with the Eastern Michigan Eagles in 06/07. Dumes will have 2 years of eligibility left.

Jobe is a 7’0 footer from Olney Central JC. Jobe is a native of Gambia and has only been in the States for 4 years. At Olney Jobe scored just 4 ppg. But Olney’s coach Mike Burris has said Jobe’s game has a lot of upside and he compares him to former Marquette big man Ousmane Barro.

“His body and game are better suited at the (major) college level. He runs, he’s raw offensively but he can really defend. He’ll dunk everything within 5 feet. He’s got a lot of upside and potential to his game and he’s a high character kid.”

source

Jobe sounds like starter material on a 10 win team doesn’t he?

As for the other set in stone newcomers, there seems to be a heavy allotment of 3 star guards.

From scout.com

Verdell Jones is 6’4 and is rated the 32nd best point guard in this class.

Nick Williams is 6’4 and is rated the 36th best shooting guard in this class.

6’3 Matt Roth has a 3 star rating like the other guards, but it not rated at all in terms of shooting guard rankings.

Rounding out the class is 6’8 big man Tom Pritchard (3 star), but for Big Ten purposes you might as well call him a small forward. Pritchard is not rated in terms of power forward rankings.

So the rebuilding process has already hit Crean pretty darn hard. I have to wonder if he regrets his decision to leave a pretty well stacked Marquette team. But complacency is never a good thing and maybe Crean wanted nothing to do with it. I’ll give Crean credit where it’s due. He has started to mold this program back into one of class and respect, and for that he should be commended. This rebuilding process looks to be a grueling one just by the looks of the 08/09 season, but Crean is the man for the job. He put Marquette squarely on the map with a Final Four appearance and multiple other tourney berths, so why can’t he get Indiana back onto the map too?

In 1 or 2 years, no way. But in 3 or 4 looks like a safe bet.