Column: A few cracks in IU’s foundation

Well, that’s it. IU’s season is over.

Maybe mercifully and maybe for the best. The 2010-11 IU basketball season has faded into oblivion.

Now, it’s time to start looking back. Maybe it will take a couple months — even into next season — to fully comprehend what happened this season.

But the initial reaction leaves a handful of bad memories, and only a few good, that will linger into the offseason and into next season.

At the beginning of the season, I said this ought to be a forgettable season. Almost every player on the roster (minus senior Jeremiah Rivers) was presumed to be back next year.

So, if improvement was made within the roster this year, it’d be even better next year.

Then, this team was still getting put together. The foundation was still visible, and some of the construction parts (in the form of 4- and 5-star recruits) weren’t going to move in until the next few years.

So with missing parts and players that were only going to get better in the ensuing years, anything completed this season would be improved upon in the next.

But now, the third year of IU coach Tom Crean’s foundation building saw a few cracks.

Maybe more than a few.

Before anyone jumps to say there were some unforeseen circumstances, I’ll say it.

Some of those cracks were not so much the fault of anyone. Guy-Marc Michel, the 7-foot mystery, was supposed to help out in the desperately-need-help post position.

Sophomore guard Maurice Creek never got healthy. There were other injuries.
Without those setbacks (and what team doesn’t go through some adversity?) this team wins maybe a couple more games. Does a couple more wins really save the season?

Second, there was — believe it or not — some improvement. This team got blown out by Big Ten teams on a consistent basis the past two seasons. That didn’t happen this year. Thursday’s close contest was a classic example. Those near-wins (or close losses) amount to, I guess, moral victories.

After the game, Crean and the players talked about the improvement, if unseen in wins, that had happened this season. It came from the team’s closeness, they said.

“We grew together as teammates,” IU sophomore Christian Watford said. “We’re teammates on and off the courts. That’s one of the great things we have with each other.”

It’s easy to criticize, but before doing that, this team is still a basketball team. The Big Ten Tournament mandates 30 minutes of time for media in the locker room, and as soon as I walked in, I could just feel the disappointment in the players.

There was nothing pleasant about talking to the visibly despondent Hoosiers. These guys are good people, and they always talk about good friends.

The maddening part then — maybe for players, coaches and fans alike — is that the closeness didn’t translate to success on the court.

And why that closeness didn’t translate is where the cracks began to form. There were issues of accountability, toughness and leadership — mental aspects that create a giant divide between mediocrity and success.

Mental issues may not be easy to solve, either. Sometimes players have those intangibles. Others don’t and may never learn them.

So that’s where IU is. It finished with its third consecutive 20-loss season and posted a 3-19 record since mid-December.

The season was not as forgettable as it should have been. The foundation now has some cracks to repair before the sleek, shining new parts can be built.


E-mail: nmhart@indiana.edu