Update: Indiana announced just minutes after the start of the NCAA tournament’s first round that it has fired Tom Crean. This post, originally published earlier in the morning, looks at how the relationship between Crean and fans fell apart.

Indiana, once ranked No. 3 in the country this season, lost in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday night. The game was in Atlanta, against Georgia Tech and first-year coach Josh Pastner, and the Hoosiers were listless. That’s the thing about the NIT: teams either play with a carefree joy or an unbearable burden. Indiana had the latter.

Athletic director Fred Glass had turned down an opportunity to host the game at historic Assembly Hall, saying he didn’t want to “devalue” the arena by playing a game during spring break, when students and many others would be out of town.

This is Indiana basketball, though. It should be able to draw a sizable crowd at home in any situation. That it can’t, Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel argues (persuasively), is proof of how angry fans are with coach Tom Crean.

There are myriad reasons — some valid, others not — that Indiana fans are ready to move on from Crean. Mainly, his teams have not won on a consistent basis. According to Inside The Hall’s research, the Hoosiers’ six wins in the NCAA tournament over the last five years ranks fifth in the Big Ten. Their 62 conference wins over that span is also fifth.

This is not where Indiana fans expect their program to be.

Poor recruiting is the root cause of this instability. In Crean’s case, he’s been able to lure a few McDonald’s All Americans like Cody Zeller and Yogi Ferrell, while also unearthing stars like Victor Oladipo and OG Anunoby who weren’t touted by recruiting sites. But constant roster turnover meant this year’s team had only one senior and two juniors (who’d been there three years and were important contributors).

Crean inherited a mess created by Kelvin Sampson’s recruiting violations, and he preached patience for the first three years he spent trying to rebuild the program. He spoke repeatedly of instilling a winning culture where young players would learn from upperclassmen.

Nine years into his tenure, that culture still appears to be missing. ESPN analyst Paul Biancardi droned on and on about Indiana’s lack of leadership during the game Tuesday, relaying a message from Crean that while the players were “good kids” none of them were leaders. Biancardi also scolded Indiana fans for having unreal expectations and repeatedly defended the job Crean has done in Bloomington.

As if anyone other than Crean is responsible for finding and/or developing leaders on the Indiana basketball team. As if Indiana isn’t paying Crean like an elite coach, and providing him all the resources he could ever need.

the idea that indiana fans aren’t well aware of what tom crean has and hasn’t done here is, frankly, insulting — CRIMSON QUARRY (@crimsonquarry) March 15, 2017

Now Indiana fans wait. Glass, a lawyer, is methodical by nature and has remained silent on Crean’s future. And while rumors surfaced that Crean was interested in the Missouri job, he denied it and at least publicly sounds like a coach with no plans to leave.

He probably should, though. Crean is undoubtedly a talented coach who will win — at least intermittently — wherever he goes. He’s incredibly knowledgable about the game and was a revelation on Yahoo’s draft coverage last year. I think he’ll coach in the Final Four again someday.

But he’s not right for the culture that already exists at Indiana. He never adjusted to it, nor did he adjust it to him. One of these things should have happened by now.

I actually think Crean is uniquely unsuited to Indiana, and has been from the start. He wants to play the sort of free-flowing basketball that will appeal to top recruits. And he doesn’t care where those recruits come from; he loves to scour the country for talent, making full use of a healthy recruiting budget.

Indiana fans would be fine with any offense run by players from anywhere if it led to Final Fours. Or maybe even Elite Eights. Crean’s hasn’t. And it has also offended an astute fanbase that values solid basketball built around not turning the ball over. Most of those fans see through Bob Knight the person — as outlined in this terrific L. Jon Wertheim story — but still value to some degree Bob Knight the coach. For them, Knight helped codify what they always believed, and if it has ever been true it was most certainly true long before Knight even got there: players from Indiana play the game the right way, and at an elevated level. (And there’s a case to be made that Indiana’s talent base was more important to IU’s success than Knight, who went to the Sweet 16 only once with Texas Tech.) Knight’s teams were rarely unprepared and didn’t get out-hustled; that’s Indiana basketball. Players from Indiana are tough on defense and the boards. They set clean screens and roll hard to the basket. They execute when inbounding the ball (you’ve never seen a fanbase grip about inbounds plays like Indiana’s.)

These are cliches, of course, but the state of Indiana does produce an incredible number of well-coached players each year. There’s a culture there, and what’s true of any culture is that it wants to be told it is unique and special. Especially, in the case of Indiana basketball, by the coach at Indiana University.

Crean “won” his introductory press conferenced nine years ago by saying, “It’s Indiana. It’s Indiana.” He appeared in awe of having arrived at one of the country’s most prestigious basketball programs. He surely did not understand the pressures that came along with the job then, but I’m also not sure he’s adjusted to them yet — mainly how deeply he would have to bow to the feelings fans already have about how basketball should be played. And politicking with in-state high school and AAU coaches while building at least partially around their players is part of the job. Indiana kids playing for Indiana is part of the allure for fans, especially if the on-the-floor product is going to be as boom-or-bust as Crean’s has been.

This is not to paint Hoosiers fans as stubborn and unchanging. They were open to Sampson’ tough, grinding style and gave Crean years to convince them that his way was the right way. He has not. They’ll be open to any style a new coach might bring, but will always default to the idea that their state produces enough talent to compete at the highest level if a coach can simply show them how to play solid, fundamental basketball.