RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Indiana basketball season that wheezed its last breath Friday night will be remembered as one of the strangest in program history, and that's saying something. This is the program that gave us Bob Knight and the whip and the chair and the choke and the perfect season among three NCAA championships and the Mike Davis run to the Final Four. This has been one bizarre program.
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| A fired-up D.J. White leads Indiana with 22 points but no one follows. (Getty Images) |
Arkansas toyed with the eighth-seeded Hoosiers, getting 31 points from Sonny Weems, who made 12 of 14 shots against an Indiana defense that played as if it wanted this season to end. IU freshman Jordan Crawford insisted Indiana played with intensity, saying, "there was energy -- they just played better than us." But Crawford was heavily into denial after the game. As he was repeating his analysis that Arkansas "just played better than we did," teammate DeAndre Thomas loudly offered his own take:
"We didn't hit no shots, man," Thomas said.
"What're you talking about?" Crawford responded. "Don't say that."
"Nah. We didn't hit no shots," Thomas said. "Just like the last six games."
"That's not true," said Crawford, who was 0-for-5 from the floor and didn't score.
Truth is, the Hoosiers haven't shot well since cheating coach Kelvin Sampson was forced out seven games ago, a trend that continued against Arkansas. Big Ten scoring leader Eric Gordon was awful again, going 3-for-15 from the floor for a season-low eight points. Jamarcus Ellis hit Indiana's first shot of the game but didn't score again until the final minute. Crawford was scoreless after coming in averaging 10 ppg.As usual, D.J. White was the best player on the team, putting up 22 points and nine rebounds in a man-sized performance against Arkansas' enormous, deep frontcourt. Armon Bassett snapped out of his recent funk to score 21 points. But that wasn't nearly enough to offset Weems and Darian Townes' 17-and-12 double-double and 7-footer Steven Hill's interior defense.
If you're an Indiana fan wanting the bright side, here you go: At least there weren't many people who saw this thing. Not in person, anyway. By the time it was over, the RBC Center was almost completely empty, drained of its atmosphere and then its fans by Indiana's listless performance. With most of its regulars playing what could have been their last game at Indiana, the Hoosiers offered little resistance against an Arkansas team that lost this season to the likes of Providence, South Carolina, Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia (twice).
The future at Indiana is as bleak as the final month of the season would suggest. This was no aberration. This might have been the start of a trend, a trend that can be traced to Sampson's continued violation of NCAA recruiting rules involving the telephone. Before Sampson was forced out Feb. 22, the Hoosiers were 24-4. After he left, they went 3-4.
And now they might be leaving. Almost all of them. D.J. White is a senior. So are forwards Lance Stemler (nine points) and Mike White. Gordon, as bad as he has looked in recent weeks, still is likely to be drafted in the NBA lottery should he turn pro after this season, and as he said Thursday, he came to Indiana to play for Sampson. Interim coach Dan Dakich, despite a passionate push to remain in charge of his alma mater, isn't expected to be retained on a permanent basis, which means Indiana soon could have its fourth head coach in less than two years. And Indiana's top recruit, Devin Ebanks, has already been released from his scholarship for next season.
But the exodus could be bigger even than that. Crawford told CBSSports.com that he will consider leaving the team after this season -- "I have a decision to make," he said -- and if Crawford leaves, what would stop Bassett, only a sophomore, from reconsidering his own fate? The only Indiana regular who seems irrevocably tied to the team for next year is Ellis, a junior who isn't good enough for most programs to devote two scholarship seasons for one season on the court as a transfer.
While Indiana's future is nothing but question marks, Arkansas has a certain date with top-seeded North Carolina on Sunday -- and while the Tar Heels will be decisive favorites, the Razorbacks might not be an easy mark. Arkansas can match North Carolina's depth, although the status of Stefan Welsh will be critical. Shortly after making consecutive 3-pointers midway through the first half, Welsh rolled his ankle while landing on a defender's foot and didn't play again. He was still limping after the game.
Indiana's injuries are more internal, and self-inflicted. Sampson started it, but the players gave into it. With all of them playing for their season and many of them for their Indiana career, the Hoosiers went down easily. At one point late in the first half, with his team trailing 37-30, Dakich eyeballed Gordon and yelled at him, "Urgency, E.J.!" In the second half, White scored on three straight offensive possessions and punctuated every basket by looking at his bench and shouting, "Come on!"
No one followed. Maybe no one could follow. In hindsight, this Indiana team will be remembered as the one that had already followed Kelvin Sampson off the cliff.
