Tom Crean has been very unhappy with the off-the-court troubles that his players have been getting into over the past couple years. He has been forced to remove players from his team, suspend players and see players miss extended time due to injuries that were sustained from the stupidity of their decisions.
Last season, the Indiana Hoosiers were not a terribly competitive basketball team. They lacked the type of depth that they needed and were too small to match up with most of the better teams in the nation.
Looking ahead to this year, Crean knows that he needs to find more leadership among his players and also talked about what he should have done in the past to help fix the issues away from basketball.
“You know what I wish I had done when Hanner (Mosquera-Perea) first got in trouble?” Crean said. “And I love Hanner to death. I love Hanner Perea. I’d go back and remove him from the team. The responsibility of their behavior falls on me.”
There is no question that the Hoosiers have a chance to rebound and get back on their feet quickly in 2015-16. They have a lot of talent coming in and joining the ranks in Thomas Bryant especially, but also have Yogi Ferrell and Troy Williams among others coming back for another season.
Indiana needs to figure out a way to get back to contention in the Big Ten if Crean wants to keep his job.
Crean has been drawing a lot of heat over the last couple years, and there are quite a few fans and people at the university that want him gone. Despite the critics that he has, the Hoosiers have kept him so far and want to see if he can get the program back to the point it was at just a few years ago.
One thing is for sure, which is the fact that the Hoosiers cannot continue to have the off-the-field problems that they have had the last couple seasons.
It will be interesting to see if Crean changes how he handles situations off-the-court moving forward. He obviously wishes he had been harsher with Hanner Perea. More than likely his tolerance of the issues away from basketball will lessen.
Expect to see the Hoosiers begin getting their program back on track this season, and to see Crean be more strict with his players off-the-court as well.
Can’t get enough of Campus Sports? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to stay updated with the latest news and exclusive giveaways!
*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
