Could Indiana and Steve Alford be a match made in Hoosier heaven?

Had Crean piled up more wins, he could have survived. Winning Big Ten titles is fine, and Crean won a pair of them over the last five seasons, but in the 21st Century, it’s all about winning big in the NCAA Tournament. But it’s not that simple.

Glass praised Crean for digging the Hoosiers out from an NCAA recruiting scandal that left the team with only two returning scholarship players in 2008-09.

It was an unlucky season with significant injury problems – IN played the last several weeks without one of its stars, OG Anunoby – but the Hoosiers have nevertheless played sloppy basketball, mediocre on defense while turning the ball over at a high rate on offense. To make matters worse, Indiana Athletic Director Fred Glass dubbed Simon-Skjodt Assembly Hall “unavailable” for what should have been a first-round home game for the Hoosiers. For a program with such a storied tradition, the losses were hard to stomach.

UCLA head coach Steve Alford, perhaps Knight’s most heralded recruit, who led the Hoosiers to their last national championship exactly 30 years ago this month.

Michigan State assistant Dane Fife played on the last IN team to reach the Final Four, the surprise 2002 team led by Knight’s replacement and current Texas Southern coach Mike Davis. Even after Crean took IU to back-to-back Sweet 16s, he could do little right.

Getting rid of Crean one year removed from a Big Ten title feels like a quick hook.

This recent run looks particularly good when compared to what IN has done recently. It took Crean three years to rebuild a winning program.

“Two Big Ten titles the last four years, had injuries this year, beat North Carolina, beat Kansas, have injuries, stuff happens”. But he’s also been at the helm of 14, 15, and 16 losses in three of the last four years.

Back then, he said, “One of the main reasons we did it (move to Boston), beyond the tradition, the history, the opportunity to coach in this city and here with the Celtics is that they were willing to commit to the long term, because we knew it wasn’t going to be easy”.

In the last four seasons, IN only finished above.500 IN conference play once, last year’s Big Ten championship team.

While Hoosier fans have always been clamoring for former Butler coach Brad Stevens to return to the college ranks and get IU back to winning national championships, it seems like the current coach of the Boston Celtics is perfectly content in the NBA. Specifically at IN, it’s about consistently winning as if you’re a superpower program IN the manner of North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and Duke.

But it was all downhill from there.

The Hoosiers, however, fell to 18-16 this season and bowed out in the first round of the NIT. If Crean had stayed, it was expected that Bryant would, too.

If there’s a coach in the country who best fits the silhouette of Indiana’s most successful clipboard holder, it’s Marshall. But he never was able to launch IN back into the elite stratosphere with fellow basketball bluebloods like Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke and Kansas. The Indiana brass had seen enough.

Bennett reportedly earns about $1 million less at Virginia.

Thanks to Crean, the Hoosiers’ program is certainly in better shape than it was back then.

At least that was deemed to be the case today by the administration at Indiana University.