Crean's first concern as Hoosiers coach is solving academic woes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Tom Crean isn't worried about wins, losses or even rosters right now.

To him, it's all about making grades.

As if the new Indiana coach didn't have enough to worry about with an NCAA investigation, he's now wrestling with an academic problem that threatens to cost the program up to two additional scholarships.

"The APR (academic progress report) is really the governing body for all of what's going on right now, so we have to put that at the forefront of where we're at," he told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "I think every coach running a successful program has to be concerned with where we are in terms of the APR."

If Indiana fails to meet the NCAA's cutoff score, 925, it faces the prospect of losing more scholarships. The school already stripped itself of one next season because of Kelvin Sampson's alleged phone call violations, and The Indianapolis Star reported the men's basketball team is expected to turn in a score of 899 next month.

Neither Crean nor team spokesman J.D. Campbell would confirm that number Tuesday.

NCAA rules say any team below 925 could lose a scholarship for each player who leaves the school while academically ineligible. The maximum penalty in men's basketball is two scholarships.

Crean declined to identify specific players who were struggling in the classroom because of privacy laws, but acknowledged he is concerned about the Hoosiers' academic performance as a whole. Plus, he still has not decided whether to reinstate starting guards Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis, who were dismissed from the team just hours before Crean took the job April 1.

Crean believes there's an old-school solution to this predicament.

"I think the players have to have a personal discipline that far surpasses anything the coach or the academic advisers hold you to," he said. "That's been the thing I think we're looking for more than anything, do anything you can to build on your education here."

The academic woes are yet another twist in a monthslong saga that has included allegations of NCAA rules infractions, Sampson's midseason resignation and a threatened players' boycott when Sampson left.

Crean's task is putting everything back together.

But because of the school's self-imposed recruiting restrictions, Crean has spent much of his first month in Bloomington emphasizing the basics to players -- attending class, improving grades and showing up on time for appointments -- in hopes of preventing another obstacle that could leave the Hoosiers with even fewer players next fall.