Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

BLOOMINGTON – This was Tom Crean like you’ve never seen him. Unplugged, you could call Crean after Indiana’s 75-63 loss to Michigan on Sunday. Almost no energy at all. Exhausted. Drained. Tired – and not just tired after his team’s fifth loss in six games.

Tired of his team.

This was Tom Crean trying his best not to shred several of his players by name, though he did single out the largest contingent of his underachieving starting five.

“Immaturity in the backcourt,” Crean said when asked why the Hoosiers (15-11) have fallen off a cliff – they’ve lost five of seven since OG Anunoby’s season-ending knee injury Jan. 18. “We don't play both ends of the floor with the same purpose that we have to play when our shots aren't going. ... That's got to change.”

Immaturity was one theme of Crean’s postgame commentary. Another was dismay, almost disbelief that his team – his veteran backcourt – is repeating its mistakes even now, 26 games into the season.

The season’s over, by the way. Barring the clichéd “unlikely run in the Big Ten tournament,” the Hoosiers are going to miss the NCAA tournament in a season that began with wins over then-No. 3 Kansas and then-No. 3 North Carolina.

The season’s over, and Crean is starting to snipe. He lobbed a shot at his Sunday opponent to begin his news conference, opening with two sentences about his team’s poor shooting (4-for-19 on 3-pointers) before volunteering this:

“I'm not sure it was the Michigan defense,” Crean said. “Maybe it was. I'm sure they'll credit themselves for it.”

And he was off. Before Crean was finished, he was lobbing even more pointed barbs at his guards, making it crystal clear that they aren’t playing smart enough or providing any leadership. He named no names, not even uttering the words “James” or “Blackmon” when asked a specific question about the junior guard, but offered the following nuggets about guard play on a team starting three juniors there: James Blackmon Jr. (six points Sunday), Robert Johnson (five points) and Josh Newkirk (11).

“We get it (inside),” he said, “and we stand like we've never played basketball before rather than cut.”

“It’s just remedial nonsense,” he was saying another time, again referring to his backcourt’s refusal to make a cut after passing the ball.

“… and some of that doesn't make a bit of sense,” Crean said another time, perhaps about the same topic, perhaps about his backcourt's insistence on leaving good shooters open to rotate to another UM player.

“At some point in time the window's got to crack and we're going to have a little bit real leadership during the game,” Crean said. “And at some point in time we're going to communicate.”

Ah, so that’s interesting. About the word communicate … Remember how Crean was mocked two weeks ago for having assistants hold up signs giving, shall we say, remedial basketball instruction? One such sign said: “Call out screens.”

Crean brought up that topic on Sunday – “I know a lot of you have fun with those signs,” he said – before saying he’d been using them because his team simply doesn’t communicate enough.

“The bottom line is that we've got to do something to get communication up,” he said, concluding a statement that started this way: “I'm not shirking responsibility one iota. It falls on me. One thing I've learned in nine years, it all falls on me.”

And here’s where the story gets really interesting. How hard is this season going to fall on him? Because he’s right: It does all fall on him. The coach who wins gets the fat contract. The coach doesn’t win enough? He gets fired.

Crean isn’t winning enough this season, injuries or not. Even without Anunoby, the Hoosiers started two McDonald’s All Americans on Sunday in Blackmon and Thomas Bryant, a sophomore forward who Crean says is trying his hardest to fill the team’s leadership void.

“It’s a 19-year-old guy,” Crean said of Bryant, “trying to find his own game and trying to lead a group of guys that really he should be getting a little more help (from).”

Talent is not the problem at Indiana. Neither is experience. Which is why Crean seems as confused as an IU fan base showing signs of apathy.

Assembly Hall was barely 75 percent full Sunday, and those who did come couldn’t wait to leave. In a game the Hoosiers trailed 22-13 after 11 minutes and rarely got closer than that, the first exodus out the door came with 4:33 to play and Michigan leading 60-49. More waves came – after a Robert Johnson miss with 2:28 left, after a basket by Michigan’s Derrick Walton with 2:01 left, and then finally after a ridiculous turnover between Newkirk and Johnson led to a Walton layup with 50 seconds left.

The score was 69-57, and the crowd was almost completely gone. Only the hardcores were left, and even they wanted this game to end. When Johnson fouled Michigan’s Zak Irvin with 27.7 seconds left and IU trailing 71-59, the crowd was groaning.

Only one home game remains, Feb. 25 against Northwestern, and given that IU has no seniors – and considering the Hoosiers could be 15-13 by then – Assembly Hall could be a ghost town.

But that’s the future. The present? Two things to wrap up from Sunday.

One, Crean was right: Michigan did take credit for Indiana’s poor shooting.

“We were able to guard them at the 3-point line,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “We did a good job of trying to contain them.”

Two, practice on Monday should be interesting. Especially after Crean’s comments Sunday filter through the locker room. And this was Crean trying to be nice.

“I'm just trying to bite my tongue here,” he said at one point Sunday.

Indiana’s players aren’t the only ones who need to try harder.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atfacebook.com/gregg.doyel.

• Crean knocked down by Michigan player