The NCAA has come down with their decisions on Jordan Crawford and Eli Holman.  DENIED!  They must both sit for the season and then will be eligible next season for the respective teams.  Apparently Armon Bassett is still waiting on his decision, but I can't see the NCAA allowing him to play and keeping the others out.

My thoughts on this:  Good!  These players on not enduring a "hardship" or anything mildly close to it.  They transferred schools and per the rules, they must sit out.  The NCAA is just enforcing their rules.

I know there are some out there that think that the NCAA is just "sticking it" to the student athletes, but I really don't see their point of view in this case.  Eli Holman decided to transfer to Detroit "to be closer to home", but in reality, he just followed former IU assistant, Ray McCallum.  Not only that, but he also got into a pretty heavy altercation with Tom Crean before he transferred, so I think that Holman deserves the least amount of leniency when it comes to this rule.

Some say that Jordan Crawford wanted to stay at the school, but Tom Crean said that he didn't want him there.  If that is the case, then maybe Crawford would have a case, but then I would have to question why Crean didn't want him there.  Was he not doing what he was supposed to do in class?  Was he a bad person to have in the locker room?  I don't know those answers and it would be difficult to prove in either direction on who said what, so the NCAA went with their original rules.

In certain cases, I could see getting permission to play, like in the case of Tyler Smith of Tennessee.  He transferred to be closer to his sick father (who has since passed away) and was granted a waiver to play immediately.  However, none of the IU players have a case like this, so they must sit!  Maybe if Eli Holman actually moved closer to his home, then he might have had a fighting chance.  But since he doesn't know that Detroit and Bloomington are close to the same distance from California, his reasoning makes little to no sense.

If these kids go on and make the NBA, congratulations are in order.  I just hope that they learn a little something about consequences.  If they at least learn that, then they will become better people along the way.

It is going to be a long road for Tom Crean to rebuild the program at IU, but I think that he has the school/fans/administration/players behind him.  Maybe a clean slate is what the school needed.

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