“Why does Coach Crean still ?deserve his job?”
The room went silent, and then the crowd gathered at the Holiday Inn erupted into boos.
A visibly stressed Crean didn’t respond. Don Fischer, the show’s host, ignored it and moved on.
Another caller, who said he was “a member of the IU basketball ?family,” said blame for the IU’s troubles fell directly on its coach.
This time, Crean welcomed the criticism and responded quickly.
“You’re more than welcome to put that on me,” he said. “My shoulders are fine.”
They were viable questions — Crean had just announced the suspensions of three players as ?another lay in serious condition at IU Health Bloomington Hospital.
The season hadn’t yet started, and IU’s worst-case scenario has happened.
Three days earlier, Devin Davis was struck by a car driven by teammate Emmitt Holt, who was cited for underage drinking.
That incident put Davis in serious condition at IU Health Bloomington Hospital and led to Crean ?suspending Holt for four games.
Monday night, he announced four-game suspensions for two more players. Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson had failed a drug test, according to ESPN, and would sit out the season’s opening chunk ?of games.
Davis’ injury and the trio of suspensions are the latest in a string of incidents involving IU players throughout 2014.
In February, Hanner Mosquera-Perea was arrested and charged with operating while intoxicated. He was suspended for two Big Ten games.
Two months later, Robinson and Kevin ‘Yogi’ Ferrell were arrested for attempting to enter Kilroy’s Sports Bar while underage.
Both were charged with consumption of alcohol by a minor and possession of false identification, though both entered a pretrial diversion program.
That’s four drug and alcohol-related incidents in eight months for IU basketball.
The Hoosiers will begin the 2014-15 season with three players suspended and one in the hospital.
Crean said his players don’t understand the distinction that being a student-athlete brings.
“There is nothing normal about being a college athlete,” Crean said, voice rising as he spoke. “You don’t get to have the same freedoms when you have that ?responsibility.”
As the show went to commercial break, an exasperated Crean threw his head back and sighed at the ?ceiling tiles.
The stress of keeping a program from crashing down around him was ?getting to him.
“‘Pleased’ isn’t a word I would use to describe any realm of my life right now,” he said.
IU opens its season Thursday when it takes on Northwood in an exhibition contest. It will do so without six players: two due to injury, three to suspension and Davis. Williams, Robinson and Holt will be available for the Hoosiers’ Nov. 20 game against SMU.
Crean said “there’s always issues in a program,” and that he was growing unsure when IU’s would stop.
“Is that the last one? I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s the last one.
“Nobody is happy.”
