Academic growth protects Hoosiers from continued scholarship losses

The IU men’s basketball team improved its academic standing enough to prevent further NCAA penalties, according to the Academic Progress Rate report released Wednesday by the NCAA.

IU coach Tom Crean’s group, which earned a 3.16 GPA during the spring semester, brought its one-year APR of 811 in 2007-08 to 975 during the 2008-09 campaign, a jump of 164 points. Crean, who led the Marquette men’s basketball squad to scores higher than 970 in his last four years with the program, said this type of academic success is what he expects of his players.

“Our track record at Marquette and Indiana shows we have never paid lip service to academics, and, moving forward, as we build it back up, we never will,” Crean said in a statement. “For our players to be taught by the incredible faculty at this institution is a privilege and not a right.”

APR is calculated using a point system. Players can earn a maximum of two points per term — one for remaining academically eligible to play and one for remaining enrolled at their institution. This number is then divided by the total number of points an institution could earn.

The APR is based on a four-year calculation — in the case of the 2010 APR, IU’s 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons were used. Using the three previous years offsets the 2008-09 score of 975, bringing the Hoosiers’ mark during the entire period to 878.

The biggest detriment to the team’s score was the fact that the end of Mike Davis’ and Kelvin Sampson’s coaching at IU fell in this four-year period, IU Athletics Director Fred Glass said.

“Mike Davis’ APR in his last year was 826, and Sampson in his last year was 811, and those just dramatically dragged down the overall average,” Glass said.

While this number is still below the score of 900 needed to avoid what are known as “historic penalties,” the 12-point overall improvement in four-year APR was enough to prevent further sanctions by the NCAA. IU received a two-scholarship reduction following its APR report in 2009 (which the University served during the 2008-09 season) and a public notice. After the notice, further and stricter penalties could be analyzed.

Several changes within the department allowed Crean’s team to reach the IU varsity sport average of 975 in APR..

Glass said the athletics department simplified its structure, allowing one member of the senior staff to focus on solely academics. He also oversaw the reduction of senior staff by a third, allowing IU to hire another academic adviser who worked with only the men’s basketball team. Finally, an adviser traveled with the team during its road games to ensure the student-athletes had help when away from Bloomington, if needed.

The department also jumped from last in the Big Ten in terms of space for academic work to fourth with the construction of a student-athlete academic center in the North End Zone Facility in Memorial Stadium.

“There’s a lot of good things to talk about,” Glass said. “Student-athletes are delivering the bacon on this, but it’s coaches and — to a lesser extent, but importantly — University administration support that I think is pushing us in the right direction.”