

Indiana Coach Tom Crean talks with the media during the Big Ten media day in Rosemont, Ill., last month. (Paul Beaty/AP)

Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean has had a tough few days. It all started Saturday when two of his players were involved in a bizarre car crash where one player ran over the other. A Bloomington, Ind., police report summarized by the Indianapolis Star explains the string of events:

Emmitt Holt, a freshman forward, had just dropped off teammate Devin Davis, a sophomore forward and Warren Central grad, in the parking lot of Memorial Stadium. As Holt, driving a 2012 Jeep Liberty, turned back onto 17th Street, Davis entered the roadway unexpectedly, and was struck by the car. A map of the incident provided with the report indicates Davis was discovered by police responding to the incident on the north side of 17th Street, just northeast of its intersection with Indiana Avenue. The report indicates Davis, 19, had been drinking, but he was not cited. Holt, 18, was cited for illegal consumption of alcohol, a misdemeanor, and for operating under the influence of alcohol under the age of 21, an infraction. According to an Indiana press release, he registered a blood alcohol content of 0.025 after the incident.

Davis was seriously injured in the incident, while Holt came away unharmed, although Crean did dole out a four-game suspension to the player.

Davis’s family, meanwhile, released a statement on Sunday evening, saying their son’s condition was improving. He could speak and use all his limbs, but still faced “a road to recovery ahead.”

But before the dust could settle on that, two sophomore players, Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson, were suspended for four games, as well. (Just like Holt, the suspension covers two exhibition games and two regular season games.) The news dropped on Monday night when results of a drug test showed the two players had failed, the Indianapolis Star reports.

With four players sidelined before the team has even played a regular-season game, people came out to criticize the basketball program, and specifically its leader — Coach Crean, who went on a pre-scheduled radio show Monday night. Some of the callers were reportedly not very nice.

Caller: "Why does Tom Crean still have his job?" Don Fischer cuts him off. http://t.co/EYaG3OXJ0B #iubb — Jeff Rabjohns (@JeffRabjohns) November 4, 2014

Sports columnists gave their two cents, as well.

“It’s only a matter of time, now. Tom Crean cannot coach the Indiana basketball team much longer. When would be too long? The Hoosiers’ first exhibition is Thursday night. That would be too long,” Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel wrote on Tuesday.

CBS Sports writer Gary Parrish chimed in as well, beginning an article titled “Disconnect between Tom Crean and players has Indiana in disarray,” like this:

The text came from a college basketball coach late Monday. It consisted of four words that created a simple question about Indiana’s Tom Crean. “Can he survive this?” Needless to say, it’s never good when your colleagues are asking such questions literally days before the start of your season. Likewise, it’s never good when a caller waits on hold during your first coaches show of the year to ask why you still have a job. And it’s never good when the local columnist is essentially calling for your job. And it’s never good when your boss is forced to try to defuse the entire situation publicly.

It’s true, Indiana athletic director Fred Glass did come to Crean’s rescue, as noted in a tweet by Herald Times reporter Mike Miller.

Fred Glass: "Tom is absolutely not in trouble. Tom is part of the solution. He's not part of the problem." — Mike Miller (@MikeMillerHT) November 4, 2014

But will Glass’s optimism last?

The latest problems the team is facing echo some of what it faced in the past. Previously this year, two other players, juniors Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Yogi Ferrell, faced legal issues, as well as suspensions. Those issues have since been cleared up. The memory, however, lives on.

Former Indiana University men’s basketball player and interim head coach Dan Dakich called the entire IU basketball program an embarrassment on his Monday morning radio show on 1070 The Fan.

“Indiana basketball right now, very simple, if you don’t stand for anything, you fall for everything,” he said (via IndyStar.com). “Gregg Doyel was dead on. Indiana players, you’re getting ready to get your coach fired… I love Indiana basketball down to my core. It’s who I am. But not this crap..”

Crean’s critics suspect he will survive in the short term, but don’t believe in him for the long-term, especially if the team doesn’t fare well this season, which Crean’s critics predict.

“There’s no way he survives past March,” the Indianapolis Star’s Doyel said after joining Dakich on the radio. “The season is already in the dumper. The distraction level, the hysteria among fans, they already want him gone. Once they start playing games and losing some of them … the noise is only going to get ratcheted up higher. That’s the way it goes. … And I think Fred Glass knows Tom Crean is gone.”