After a night to calm down, consider, and put together a few coherent thoughts … here is where I stand:

1. Toothless Suspensions

Suspending players for four games, including two exhibitions, and bringing everyone back before the first big game of the year — the SMU game — makes it, essentially, a toothless punishment.

I don’t agree with it.

The individual players and the program do not suffer enough from the punishment for it to have the desired impact on changing behavior, in my humble opinion.

Outcomes and consequences drive behaviors; and repeated behaviors drive culture; and culture creates either a winning or a losing environment.

We have a losing environment right now, and that needs to change.

2. Stan Robinson

Am I missing something? Why was Stan not punished more — given that he’s now had multiple offenses?

Apparently the message isn’t getting to him, especially.

The kid is talented, but he does no one any good, especially himself, if he keeps making these poor decisions. (And remember: a poor decision for an IU basketball is not the same as a poor decision for Joe Student. Stan is not doing anything “bad,” per se, but he is against the standard to which he should be held as an IU player.)

Don’t we owe it to him, and to the current and future players who will learn from it as well, to send a stronger message that helps him (and them) learn?

3. What is the coach’s responsibility?

You can’t accuse Tom Crean of not trying hard enough. Not a chance. Nor of not caring. I doubt any coach in America tries harder or cares more.

But, unfortunately for Coach Crean, effort is really a prerequisite of a job of his stature. And results are the bottom line.

Right now, no matter how much one may like Crean personally, or want him to success, the results are both unacceptable and untenable.

DocLibby is right: Players are responsible for their individual choices. But I do believe that the coach becomes responsible for an epidemic, for repeated poor choices by different players. Because that is an indictment of the culture, and maintaining a winning culture (which includes on- and off-court behavior) is a college coach’s #2 job — after making sure players are actually caring about academics and working toward a life after basketball, which clearly Crean is succeeding at.

4. Still supportive (as always)

I love Indiana basketball, as we all do, and I still support our coach and our players.

Tom Crean is a good man, and I believe our players are good kids. Unfortunately, both our coach and our players make really, really poor decisions — it’s true on the court, and it’s true off it.

But as long as he’s the coach and they are the players, I will support them — even if support, at times, means being brutally candid about what appears wrong … and what definitely is wrong.

And there is definitely a lot wrong with Indiana basketball right now. The former players are right.

Final thought

My biggest hope is this is rock bottom, and a turning point. It has to be.

The suspension decision doesn’t give me a great deal of confidence that a major turning point is coming, but I’m not quite ready to jump ship yet.

Let’s get this right guys. Enough is enough.

What are you thinking about all of this right now? Comment below.

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