THE ISSUE:IU coach Tom Crean’s tirade about some students’ behavior last week.
OUR VIEW:Crean is right. There’s no place for profane conduct at an IU game – or any other.
Indiana University hired Kelvin Sampson as its men’s basketball coach in 2006. The school signed him to a seven-year, $7.3 million contract. And the school did it despite the fact Sampson had been sanctioned for recruiting violations by the NCAA while at the University of Oklahoma.
Sampson came to IU and, immediately, he and some of his staff violated his probation with the NCAA by making improper telephone calls to recruits. The NCAA believed he continued to make improper calls even after IU disclosed earlier indiscretions.
Sampson disgraced himself and discredited the school. The university removed him from the bench. Tom Crean of Marquette University was hired to replace Sampson.
IU hired the right man.
Angered by a vulgar chant emanating from the students’ section last week, Crean began a post-game press conference fired up and asking media members to turn on their cameras.
“First things first,” Crean said after Maryland topped Indiana at Assembly Hall. “I love our fans and I love our students. We come to the games and we cheer like crazy for our team and we can be obnoxious and we can be nasty and we can cheer against the other team.
“But we never use vulgarity against an opponent. That is not what happened at Indiana in the past and it’s certainly not going to happen under my watch.”
Crean was upset, even angry, and he was right to condemn the behavior.
“We have too much pride, too many great students, too many tradition-based things here for anything to turn it the other way,” he said. “And nobody deserves that. We have to find a way to be obnoxious without being vulgar because we are too good for that.”
Indiana remains on probation with the NCAA for another two years. If there’s another rules infraction during that time, IU can expect further sanctions, such as the elimination of televised contests or a ban from post-season play.
It’ll never come to that. Not under Crean – ever.
Opinion
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Right man for the job
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