With the recent departures of Armon Bassett, DeAndre Thomas, Jamarcus Ellis and Eli Holman, the Hoosiers are down to eight players, apparently only three of which are scholarship players.

This takes what was going to be a mediocre squad and probably makes it downright bad.

But please, please don't take it out on new coach Tom Crean. With his hiring, the school probably made its first good move in regards to the basketball program since well before the firing of Bob Knight.

Unfortunately, the program hit rock bottom earlier this year with the ridiculous problems Kelvin Sampson brought on. The four departing players are all Sampson guys. Good riddance.

Let the blood-letting begin.

So let's just give Crean a chance. He had a good thing going at Marquette, but chose to come to IU because of what it used to be and what he believes it can be again.

It certainly had nothing to do with what the program is like right now.

I'd like to put a timetable on IU's return to true prominence, but I don't think that would be right. Suffice it to say that I think they got a coach who runs a clean program and does things the right way.

Unfortunately, in today's sports world doing things the right way doesn't always coincide with quick turnarounds.