Status of Jordan Crawford

I'm not sure how much each of you gets caught up in the rumor mill......if you do, then you have probably been hearing many rumors that it is only a matter of days until Jordan Crawford is the next (and last full scholarship player) to get booted off the team or leave the program. Ever since Brandon McGee's dismissal, the Crawford rumors have really been heating up. Then, when Rivers signed, many crazed fans jumped to the immediate conclusion that Rivers was taking the scholarship soon to be vacated by Crawford.

Then, last night, I was browsing the peegs premium forum and peegs himself said he has been hearing things that Crawford's days may be numbered.

All of this had me worried because the exact same type of rumors were present in the days leading up to McGee's dismissal.

However, the latest news appears to be good news on the Jordan Crawford front. The Hoosier Scoop has posted the following from Crean's speaking event at Huber's Winery:

– Crean said that there is no change in Jordan Crawford’s status. Crawford, who will be the only returning player who came to IU on scholarship, is back in Detroit right now and will not attend summer school. “He doesn’t need to, and I think it’s good for him to get home,” Crean said. “It’s important to remember that those guys have been through a whole lot.”

Click here for other tidbits from Crean's speech at The Hoosier Scoop.

Jeremiah Rivers

Jeremiah Rivers (the son of Doc Rivers) has committed to IU this past weekend. A few weeks ago, the Washington Post had reported this as a done deal, but then that turned out to be premature. But it does appear to be a done deal now.

Jeremiah is 6-4 and 210 pounds.

Rivers will sit out this upcoming season and then join the Hoosiers as a Junior with the class of Hulls, Creek, Elston, and Capobianco. For that season, Crawford will be the only other Junior on the team.

His numbers from this past season at Georgetown are not that impressive. He averaged 18 minutes, 2.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 0.7 steals, 1.0 assists, and 1.0 turnover per game. His season shooting stats were 32.5 FG%, 30.6 3PT% , and 57.6 FT%.

Crean has been playing in the same conference as Rivers for the past 2 seasons, so he obviously knows Rivers very well. From what I have read, he is a great defender. I sure hope he's a great defender because those offensive numbers are pretty bad. I checked out his freshman numbers as well and they were similar, but worse. Anyway, he does fit the Crean mold of being high character. And if he really is a great defender, then I think it is a smart move. It is important to have a lock-down perimeter defender in college basketball. Especially since the Hoosiers will be a very young team and younger players often struggle on the defensive end. So, he fills a need and is a different type of player than Crawford, Hulls, and Jones.

I have to admit that I have watched some Georgetown games over the past two years and I don't remember Rivers at all. Do any of you recall seeing him play for the Hoyas?

Jobe, Hulls, McGee, & Gladness

The Book on Jobe:
He big. He tall. He never seen basketball.

This has to be the most interesting signings so far. 7 feet tall, 255 pounds. Yet, in JuCo ball, he was only able to average 3 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 block. I guess the good news is that he only played 13 minutes per game.

Of course, his JuCo coach said that the JuCo game is up and down and Tijan will be better suited for D-1 ball. But that's what coaches say, they always stick up for their guys. Let's not kid ourselves, this is a big-time project.

But I still like the signing. IU desperately needed size and Jobe provides size even if he provides almost nothing else. Crean is big on player development, so maybe he can turn him into a contributing player. At the very least, you hope he can get some rebounds and block some shots. And with next year's team, who cares, just throw him out there for the entertainment value.

This will be interesting to watch. Generally speaking, you expect a JuCo player's numbers to go down when moving to D-1, but I actually think Jobe will contribute and put up some better numbers than 3 & 3. Like some of the emails today, at 7-0 tall, it's hard to be out there and not get rebounds or blocks or the occasional basket.

Another good thing about this signing is that it sounds like it is another high character guy, so that's been a constant theme for the Crean recruits and that's exactly what we need.

Another nice thing is that he is coming in as a junior. So, if he is an unsuccessful project, his scholarship will open up in 2 years and it balances out the classes a little bit.

Ok, this just came to me and I think it paints the perfect picture.....I think of Jobe in the same way that "The Chief" played basketball in the motion picture classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".




Jordan Hulls:
Hulls is a 6-0 point guard out of Bloomington South for the '09 class. I think this is a great signing. He looks like a Hoosier basketball player. He was also being recruited heavily by Purdue and had interest from Duke and Stanford as well. His offensive skills look very good -- dribbling, passing, and shooting. The question will be his quickness, strength, and whether he can hold his own on the defensive end.

Again, a very high character kid. I think I read he has a 4.0 grade point average. A few weeks ago, IU was in desperate need of a point guard. Now, suddenly that position looks pretty good with Verdell Jones in the '08 class and Hulls in the '09 class.

Click here to follow a link to some highlights of Hulls at Jam Fest.

Note: the last IU player out of Bloomington South was Chris Lawson. Yuck.

Brandon McGee:
I think this is another good move by Crean. The message is crystal clear -- there will be guidelines and rules to follow both on and off the court, if you choose not to follow those guidelines and rules, you will no longer play basketball and Indiana University. In this case, it even sounded like Crean was working with McGee's high school coach and family, but it still didn't work out.

I tell you what, if Jordan Crawford survives all of this, I will have a lot of respect for him. If he survives, it will prove that he was doing the right things.

At this point, IU has lost approximately 85-90% of last year's production in almost every statistical category.

William Gladness:
On a sad note, William Gladness died this past week at 34 years of age. He died from a bacterial infection that was made worse because his spleen was removed after he was shot in high school. Gladness was a JuCo transfer into IU and averaged 8.2 ppg and 5.3 rpg in his 2 seasons in the cream and crimson.

Rest in peace, William.

Indiana Jones!

Yes! All the news and rumors pointed to Jones going to Minnesota as a done deal. But Crean pulled it off and we have our point guard.

Verdell Jones is a 6-4, 165 pound point guard out of Champaign, Illinois. He is an '08 recruit, so he joins Nick Williams, Devan Dumes (juco), Matt Roth, and Tom Pritchard for the '08 recruiting class.

Verdell is a 3-star recruit, rated #127 overall, and the 26th rated point guard.

Everything I read is that he is a true point guard, which fills a huge need for the Hoosiers. At 165 pounds, it is no surprise that his biggest question mark is his strength.

The other top 2 schools after Jones were Minnesota and Kentucky. Additional schools that were recruiting him included Oklahoma, Arizona, Virginia, and Tennessee.

Ok, so everything I read WAS that he is a true point guard. That is, until I just went to see if espn.com had an evaluation on him. They call him more of a shooting guard. Here is that evaluation:

Jones really came on this summer. He really knows how to score in various ways; a prolific scoring guard. He is a deep outside shooter, excellent scoring shot from anywhere on the court and gets to the rim at will. He's quick, but needs a lot of strength; weak up top. He is not a great defender but is capable of playing defense but loves offense a lot more. More of a 2 guard than point; not a playmaker; looks to score.

I'm hoping he turns out to be more of a point guard though. First, that is our bigger need. And second, I think his lack of strength would not be quite as big of an issue at the point.

Regardless, I think this is really good for IU. He is now the top-rated recruit for IU in the '08 class.

Go Hoosiers!

Crean, Creek, & Cook

Cook called to say Crean landed Creek.

Quick Note: The "Cancer Sucks" logo will remain over there to the right until our Relay for Life event on June 20-21. If you would like to donate, you can just click the "Cancer Sucks" logo to go to our Relay for Life page. Before moving on, I just want to say that I have been blown away by the responses and donations. Thank you very much.

Now back to the big news. Maurice Creek is a shooting guard for the '09 class who gave his verbal commitment to IU today. He is a 4-star recruit, ranked #63 overall, and the #12 shooting guard in the 2009 class. He was being recruited by Marquette, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Pitt, Texas, and Georgetown.

Some sites have him listed at 6-4 and only 175 pounds, but he says he is 6-5 now and 195 pounds. He played his first 2 years of high school ball in Maryland and now he is at a prep school in Connecticut.

The '09 class is shaping up nicely with Creek at the 2-spot, Elston at the 3, and Bobby C at the 4. Now we just need a point guard and a center.

The Hoosiers will be horrible next year. There's no doubt about that, but I really like what Crean is doing and like the way these new players are stacking up.

By the way, Cook has now been hired on by the IU Hoops blog for a salary equal to mine. He will specialize in recruiting and breaking news. He will not be given writing priveleges until he learns to capitalize the first letter of his sentences. Cook called me with this news within minutes of it going public and he also called me about the Bassett, Ellis, and Thomas news during the day on Friday. I knew he resigned his coaching job, but I thought he was still holding down his day job. Who knows. Who cares. As long as we get our IU hoops news, right.

Here are some evaluations of Maurice Creek from espn.com:

February, 2008: Creek is an attacking player who is extremely quick and has a very good first step. He is a streaky shooter who can get it going at times with deep range. He gets to the rim but must add upper-body strength so he can be a better finisher. Must continue to work on his ball-handling skills because he is much better right now off the ball. Must also consistently play with more energy. He seems to go as his offense does. If he is scoring, he appears to be more into the game and play harder at the defensive end of the floor.

December, 2007: Maurice is a streaky three-point shooter, who can fill it up at times. When he gets going he can make shots with both a hand in his face and also from NBA range. He possesses a quick first step and quality handle that allow him to attack a close-out and get all the way to the rim, although he would do well to add muscle to his upper body to help him to finish more consistently. His ball skills are solid enough to allow him to bring the ball up the floor and initiate offense against pressure, although he is clearly more naturally suited off the ball. Defensively, his output usually comes in direct correlation to his offensive production. When he is making shots and feeling good he works hard and utilizes his length and lateral quickness well on the opposite end of the court. However, when shots aren't falling he can tend to become much less energetic on the defensive end.

November, 2007: Maurice is a scorer. He can assault the rim with good, not super athleticism. However, his forte is being a marksman from beyond the arc either as a spot shooter or a stroker off the dribble. Ball handling is an area for improvement.

Go Hoosiers!

Help the IU Hoops Blog Fight Cancer

Cancer sucks.

Let me repeat that.
Cancer sucks.

Cancer sucks very much bad.

There's really no other way to put it. Please help the IU Hoops blog fight this crappy disease.

As many of you already know, Theresa's Dad Jerry has been diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. And since undergoing chemo treatments, he has also had several mini-strokes. It's already been quite the roller coaster ride and I expect there will be more ups and downs to come.

I'm not going to get all sappy on you, but I will say that Jerry is a great guy. I'll repeat that as well. Jerry is a GREAT guy.

To help fight the good fight, Theresa and I will be heading to Kokomo to participate in the Relay for Life on June 20th & 21st.

If you are interested in helping, please click here to go to Theresa and Jeff's Relay for Life page. Once there, you can quickly and easily make an online donation by clicking "Donate".

My goal is to raise 1 million dollars. I figure with 10-20 loyal IU Hoops blog readers, that's only $50-100K each.

Participation is completely mandatory. Your IU Hoops blog privileges will be revoked otherwise.

Wait, wait, that came out wrong. I meant to say that participation is obviously voluntary.

But hopefully, you will give this some consideration or maybe it will prompt you to take action for some other cause that is near and dear to your heart -- whatever that may be -- perhaps it is causing bodily harm to a Purdue fan, or blowing the whistle on some Kentucky recruiting violations, or anything else that would make the world a better place.

And finally, thoughts and prayers are always welcome.

I appreciate you taking the time to go off-topic and read this post. Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Go Hoosiers and screw cancer!!!!!

Another One Bites the Dust

Apparently, the circus is a permanent attraction in Bloomington.

Chalk another one up to the Sampson debacle as bizarre stories continue to come out of Hoosier-land.

The Hoosier Scoop has added more detail to their original post on Eli Holman leaving the team.

They also added a post with Crean's statement through IU Media relations.

I want to know what really happened. Some things just don't seem to add up.

Crean said he was surprised when Holman told him his intentions to leave the team. But then when asked what prompted the outburst, Crean didn't give specifics but said that Holman "was not getting the answers he wanted."

If it was Holman who made the decision to leave, then what questions could he possibly be asking where he was not getting the answers he wanted.

Perhaps he told Crean that he decided to leave IU and then asked Crean for money to catch a Greyhound bus. When Crean said no, Holman threw a potted plant.

Hmmm.....no, that doesn't seem right on many levels.

Personally, I don't think Holman first came to the basketball office with a 100% decision that he was going to inform Crean that he was going to leave IU. If he was, how would that possibly escalate into breaking a potted plant and the police being called?

I have to believe that academics are part of this story. This is finals week in Bloomington and grades come in shortly after students finish up their exams. The press release said he had a good conversation with assistant coaches earlier that day, then that suddenly escalates to leaving the program, throwing potted plants, and the police being called. Strange. Very strange.

Maybe his grades were good enough to be academically eligible, but maybe Crean has a higher standard and said he would be suspended to start the year.

Or maybe Crean simply communicated his standards and some ground rules for next year and Eli didn't like it.

I don't know, but there is definitely more to this story.

I also think it is a little strange that the situation was bad enough for the police to be called. His behavior took Crean, and others, by surprise and they called the police because they felt he was a danger to himself. Besides just throwing a potted plant, he must have been acting very strange.

Holman does have a history of volatile behavior -- he was suspended in high school for pushing a ref. He was also shot in high school (pictured above), but that was not reported as any wrong-doing on his part.

This had to be related to academics and Holman reacting to some sort of bad news delivered by Crean.

As for the impact to the team, this is a pretty big blow. It's pretty sad to say that losing a player who has played a grand total of 45 minutes in an IU uniform is a big blow, but that is the sorry state of IU basketball right now. Holman was a 4-star recruit. He was 6-9, but was a long player who was expected to be a great shot-blocker and a player that could potentially develop into a really good all-around player over 4 years. Now, as far as big men for next year, we have DeAndre Thomas, Kyle Taber, and Tom Pritchard.

One other concern is that this will likely have a negative impact on the APR (Academic Progress Reports) for IU. If Holman was academically ineligible and transferring, that is a double-whammy on the APR. So let's hope he would have been academically eligible and this outburst was related to something else.

I can't wait to see what the next few days bring.

I have heard that Crean has been studying up on Hoosier history. I hope that includes watching the movie "Hoosiers" because he may very well need to use Gene Hackman's line of "my team's on the floor."

Go Hoosier(s)!

Updated: It's not that this is the first time that potted plants have been thrown around the IU basketball offices. Here is an excerpt from an article that outlines the Knight "incidents":

Then came allegations that Knight:
Berated and physically intimidated a university secretary - once throwing a potted plant in anger, showering her with glass and debris.

Link to full Indy Star article on Knight.