Debunking myths again...Indiana did not get ripped by the NCAA

Watching the Ohio State at Indiana game on ESPN2, I got overwhelmingly nauseated by the 5th, 6th, and 7th times the announcers mentioned that Tom Crean came into Indiana and had NO players, and that the cupboard was bare, and that he had to start from absolutely scratch, and that he had NOTHING to work with!! and that the NCAA had hammered them.

OK --this is false and it's easy to prove, but laying those legends to rest might be harder since all the TV and radio broadcasters must obviously still believe it.

OK -- here's goes the simplified version.....

Tom Crean was hired on April 2, 2008........if you don't believe me -- just google it.

But as he was negotiating -- he needed open scholarships, and two players had already been suspended for disciplinary and drug issues, Armond Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis.
As a condition of taking the Indiana job, Crean insisted they be dismissed even before he said yes to the job, and they were dismissed on April 1, 2008 -- but it was Crean who made the call.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3323406

BUT -- at the beginning of April, Indiana STILL had SEVEN other players that for some reason get portrayed as having already been long gone...but they were NOT!
They were still on the Indiana roster, had eligibility remaining and most - if not all but one - were expected to return!
Their names were -- Jordan Crawford, Eric Gordon, Eli Holman, Brandon McGee, DeAndre Thomas, Kyle Tabor, Brett Finkelmeier.
All were still in school, ON THE ROSTER, on scholarship (except Finkelmeier - a walk on), and with eligibility to return the following fall...and ALL were very talented players - 4- and 5-STAR!

Bassett and Ellis were dismissed right away before Crean was announced as head coach, as I noted.
Then CREAN went to work booting several of the others. He didn't have to boot Gordon -- because Eric Gordon went in the 2008 NBA draft.
Eli Holman & Brandon McGee didn't leave until mid-to-late-May, Gordon in June, DeAndre Thomas not until late July, and perhaps the BEST of those who would have definitely been returning, Jordan Crawford, didn't decide to leave IU until July 11, 2008, THREE full months after Crean was there, and so whose fault is it??
You cannot possibly portray those guys as being gone when Crean arrived, yet I continually hear people do just that!!
Most of those guys were said to have been dismissed personally by Tom Crean, even though clearly some would have stayed if welcomed.
http://www.kentucky.com/2008/06/12/431409/jordan-crawford-leaves-iu.html

So --it was Tom Crean's own desire to boot those players, free up the scholarships, and thus start with one season that he could use a lot of scholarships.
He was using one to bring in Matt Roth, and one to bring in Tom Pritchard..who had already signed LOI's.

But the fact that all those other highly rated players left was nobody's fault but his own. He can't blame anyone else and please stop making the guy into a helpless victim in all this, as he ran off several 4-Star players who would have racked up a lot more wins than the guys he kept behind at IU.

In Roth & Pritchard he also inherited two desirable recruits who were already signed at Indiana and who kept their commitments...so had he wanted, Crean could have started his first season with at least 9-10 top notch returning or arriving players, but he CHOSE NOT TO!!!

Then he swayed Nick Williams, another highly regarded guard who was headed to play at Marquette for Crean, to change his committment and instead go to Indiana.
AND he also picked up Malik Story, Devan Dumes, Verdell Jones, Tijan Jobe, and Broderick Lewis.
These guys weren't all 5-Star caliber - but they were all at least 3-STARS, and very desirable players!
Had he wanted he could have possibly had a roster of the following..

Eric Gordon 5-Star (however - left for NBA)
Eli Holman - 4-Star, Top 50
Brandon McGee - 4-Star, Top 75
Jamarcus Ellis - 4-Star #1 rated juco player nationally
DeAndre Thomas - 3-Star per rivals
Jordan Crawford - 3-Star, Top 150
Armond Bassett - 4-Star, Top 75
Kyle Tabor -returning 5th year scholarship player
Matt Roth - 3-Star
Tom Pritchard - 3-Star
Nick Williams - 3-Star, Top 150
Malik Story - 3-Star per Rivals
Verdell Jones - 3-Star, top 150
Devan Dumes - 3-Star
Tijan Jobe - 2-Star, 7-footer juco player
Crean also got transfer Jeremiah Rivers, 3-Star, but Rivers didn't play in 2008-2009 and sat out until 2009-2010.
Broderick Lewis
Brett Finkelmeier
and he even had a few other walk ons Kory Barnett, Evan White, Kipp Schultz, Daniel Moore..

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/ind-m-baskbl-mtt-09.html
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/041508aaa.html

BUT -- note also that Indiana's recruiting classes of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 were also highly rated! The First Class 2009-2010 was rated as high as TOP 5 in the nation!

So -- again, had Tom Crean simply worked to keep all the players he had, then added the ones he did get or which fell into his lap because they were alreasy signed, he'd have had...as many as - 15 scholarship players..FIFTEEN, so he could have even let a couple go...
He'd have had ONE 5-Star, FOUR 4-Stars, and EIGHT more 3-Star rated kids, plus the others.
Gordon likely would have been gone no matter what, but the rest that left were all due to Crean's wishes.......and the ones he had "IN THE CUPBOARD" weren't all that bad!!!
With those top prospects that would have been his roster the first year, then add the Top 10 recruiting class the following year, it gives little excuse for such terrible play in Crean's 3 years.
And so -- let's finally put an end to the "cupboard was bare" legend/fairy tale.

Lastly -- two of the lost scholarships at IU were due to BAD grades and no progress on APR -- they had nothing to do with any NCAA sanctions for violations. Only one of the rides was self-imposed for the cheating -- and then the NCAA accepted that and added VIRTUALLY nothing else -- IU actually got off tremendously easy considering the degree of cheating and violations.