Players deserve some respect

Three regular-season games remain for the 2008-2009 IU men’s basketball team, now destined to go down as the worst, statistically, in school history.

One hundred and twenty more minutes, plus the trip up State Road 37 for the Big Ten Tournament next month, and then we can all safely assume this season will end.

It’s obviously been a long and frustrating one for fans, coaches, players and pretty much anyone else who remotely cares about IU basketball. It’s also been a draining season – perhaps more draining, if possible, than the marathon of disaster that went down last year.

It’s taken its toll on fans, some of whom have grown frustrated with on-court results in recent weeks. It’s taken its toll on Tom Crean, who appears more worn recently by his team’s struggles.

It’s also taken its toll on the players, many of whom Crean said are starting to feel “mental fatigue” after a season longer and harder than most, if not all, have ever experienced.

Even veteran forward and former walk-on Kyle Taber – who’s probably seen more in his five years in cream and crimson than any other Hoosier in history – admitted he’s never really gone through a season as tough as this.

It seems from our live chats and blog discussions that many IU fans’ frustrations stem from the team’s on-court struggles, which makes sense. No IU fan has ever had to endure a season like this.

But it’s easy to forget among the banners, the pageantry and the list of All-Americans as long as my arm that these players, though tough, are in way over their heads.

We’ve all heard the statistics in some form: True freshmen account for almost three-quarters (71 percent) of IU’s game minutes, the Hoosiers lost 98.8 percent of last year’s scoring and Crean has been forced to set all kinds of program firsts with starting freshmen.

Crean gets them to hustle and play hard every night, and because of this, they’ve gotten pity applause from road crowds, opposing coaches and pretty much every TV analyst the Big Ten Network has on payroll.

But as this season winds down along with the gauge on their collective gas tank, these 14 individuals – plus or minus the odd baseball player or manager – deserve your respect.

They have been asked to do an immense thing, staring into one of the brightest spotlights in their sport. They have been tasked with saving IU basketball, or at least keeping it on life support long enough to get help from others who can.

Matt Roth, Verdell Jones, Kyle Taber, Devan Dumes and yes, even Tijan Jobe, never looked like contenders for anything this year. Never once did anyone suggest this team could finish above .500 or entertain the notion of postseason play.

But they work hard every time they step on that court, which deserves more than an empty pat on the back.

Yes, I know I’m drinking the Kool-Aid today – something some of you surely think I do too often, and others think I do not nearly enough.

But perhaps it’s time, as we near the end of this journey, to give some credit to an under-talented group that truly never has backed down.

They’ve lost focus. They’ve turned the ball over needlessly and carelessly. They have done all sorts of things that make you want to pull your hair out and stomp on it.
But never have these players asked for any credit – or a break – despite the enormity of their task.

The break will only come at the end, but the credit – not for playing hard, but for willingly throwing themselves into fight after fight knowing they likely will not win – should be given throughout.