The Spring Break Hangover

Aahhh….Spring Break. Now that I’m relaxed, re-calibrated, sunburned, and full of energy; did anything happen while I was gone?

Let’s review : Moses Abraham chose Georgetown over Indiana. Matt Carlino decided to “open up his recruitment” and will NOT be attending Indiana. Butler’s in the Final Four. And Duke showed how to handle a zone defense while Kentucky looked like it was coached by Mike Davis. Oh….and something about a health care bill?

First, I won’t lose much sleep over Abraham’s choosing Georgetown. Despite the hysterical over-hype by IU fans which would have made a bystander believe Abraham is the 2nd coming of Wilt Chamberlain, he had been a heavy Hoya lean for several weeks with Indiana making a late push. Abraham’s from the DC area, has familiarity with the area, and will be coached by an African American man with a family pedigree of developing big men at a school known for the same. Indiana and Coach Tom Crean clearly made a terrific late push; but all in all, Abraham’s a relative unknown except for what people have seen on highlight reels, and IU’s been down this road before. My guess is the hype outshines the product and if IU fans hear from Abraham again, it won’t be for 2-3 years. Good luck to the kid.

Carlino’s is an interesting case. Here’s a kid who committed to Indiana over 2 years ago, moved with his family to be close to Bloomington, and now wants to look at new schools, many of which are near or in his home state of Arizona. I don’t pretend to know why Carlino opened up his recruiting, and I doubt any IU fan will ever say “damn, if we only had Matt Carlino;” but he’s a talented kid, understands how to play basketball, and is a kid Indiana could use with the right people around him. That said, he’s mostly a 2-guard who would be playing on a roster full of them. My guess is that more than anything led to his decision, and who can blame him.

The trick for Crean now is replacing the two “losses” with players who can and will make a difference; to make Indiana fans forget about Abraham and Carlino. He can’t replace them with mediocre talent, and he needs to use this opportunity to make a statement. At this point, it’s all about who says “yes” vs. who says “no.” I said before that it’s too early to judge Tom Crean, and I still believe that. But it’s not too early to begin expecting results; especially in-state. Indiana now has facilities which will compete with anyone in the country. It has tradition. It has a huge home arena and the advantages that come with it. Other than the piped-in music and embarrassing huge cardboard heads behind the baskets (God, how I miss the pep band and days when students were expected to act like people who understood Indiana Basketball), I see no reason Crean can’t sell IU to any recruit he talks to. Butler is the flavor of the week and certainly deserves a ton of credit for producing the best team in Indiana right now (possibly including the Pacers); and Purdue’s on a decent run. But at the end of the day, Indiana is still Indiana. Isn’t it?

RT Brightman