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.