2008 Indiana Hoosiers Hoops Preview

Tom Crean came to Indiana with his eyes wide open, knowing full well he was inheriting a fractured program because of the ongoing NCAA investigation and the loss of two NBA first-round draft picks in Eric Gordon and D.J. White.

What he didn’t find out until later was that practically everyone else on the 2007-08 roster would be gone as well by the time July dawned in south central Indiana.

Crean opted to hold up the dismissal of starters Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis because of rules violations under the watch of interim coach Dan Dakich. He then told DeAndre Thomas and Brandon McGee that they weren’t welcomed back, and stood back and watched as both Eli Holman and Jordan Crawford decided to transfer to Detroit and Xavier, respectively.

When the dust cleared in Bloomington, Crean had exactly one scholarship player and one walk-on returning from last year’s team. And the one scholarship player — fifth-year senior Kyle Taber — was a walk-on his first three years on campus. Add five incoming scholarship freshmen, two junior college transfers and three more walk-ons to the mix, and you have an Indiana team that will be very unpredictable, but very interesting to watch this season. 

Frontcourt 

Holman could have played significant minutes upfront but opted to move on. In his place, Crean will rely heavily on three players — Taber, freshman Tom Pritchard, and 7-foot Tijan Jobe, a project from the junior college ranks.

Taber is IU’s lone experienced veteran, having played in 22 games with four starts. Still, the 6'7" forward from Evansville took a total of 14 shots last season. He made 11 of them, but the fact remains he was IU’s 11th-leading scorer last year with a 1.3-point average. He also averaged 2.5 rebounds per game.

Pritchard, a 6'8" center, was one of four players who signed to play for Kelvin Sampson, and was one of two who opted not to leave the program when Sampson stepped down under fire in February. Pritchard will have to grow up fast for his game to translate to the Big Ten level.

Jobe is a 7'0", 255-pound native of Gambia who has made stops at two junior colleges. He averaged 4.0 points and 4.0 rebounds as a sophomore at Olney Central College in Illinois, playing sparingly because of constant foul trouble. Crean is hoping that Jobe can provide him with 10-15 minutes of rebounding and shot-blocking, giving the Hoosiers an inside presence that this team sorely lacks.

Backcourt 

The Hoosiers will be decent at the guard position, though it will be true freshmen and one junior college transfer who will be counted on to step in and take the majority of the scoring load right away.

Verdell Jones, a 6'4" freshman, and junior college transfer Devan Dumes will share significant minutes at the point. Dumes is the only other player, besides Taber, who has legitimate college basketball experience. He played his freshman season at Eastern Michigan, where he averaged 8.1 points, before transferring to Vincennes (Ind.) University. While at Eastern Michigan, he once scored 16 points against a Marquette team coached by Crean.

While Dumes can also play the 2, IU will look to freshmen Matt Roth, Nick Williams and Malik Story all to see major minutes at the other guard spots. Williams, a 6'3" guard who had signed to play for Crean at Marquette, may be one of IU’s top two scorers. Roth is a big-time 3-point shooter; Story chose IU over USC, Oregon and Georgetown.

Final Analysis 

The Indiana fan base, not known as a patient bunch over the years, will have to be patient with this IU team. Simply put, Crean will have to work miracles to get his first team to be competitive, especially in the Big Ten. A program that finished 14–4 in conference play last year could be looking at a 4–14 record this season — and even that might be on the optimistic side. It doesn’t help that this team has to play in Maui in November with a field that includes North Carolina and Texas, and the Hoosiers are also scheduled to play at Wake Forest, at Kentucky and in a neutral site game in Indianapolis against Gonzaga.

Crean is a proven coach who figures — in time — to get Indiana back to its accustomed spot at the top of the Big Ten. In the short term, however, the Hoosiers’ goal is to avoid a last-place finish in the league.