I’m convinced Tom Crean has been watching Hoosiers on a continuous loop. However, he’s not watching the part where Coach Dale explains to everyone that "this is your team" or the part where Jimmy makes his power-play on Coach (the "I’ll make it" line was Jimmy’s way of saying, "I’m the best player on this team, so why don’t you stick to uncomfortably kissing Myra Fleener and I’ll stick to winning basketball games.") No, Crean is watching a much different scene.

He’s apparently infatuated with the game where Coach Dale sends 4 players out on the court. It must be his favorite scene because he’s doing everything in his power to have that scenario play out right now.

According to an espn.com story by Andy Katz, Crean is down to three returning scholarship players. The University has also announced the departure of four players from last year’s 25-7 group.

Two of those players, Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis, attempted to appeal suspensions handed down from former interim coach Dan Dakich, but Crean decided there wasn’t enough reason to let them back on team.

He also decided DeAndre Thomas wasn’t a "good fit" and Eli Holman lost his mind when he went to tell Crean he was transferring. (Reports say the throwing of a plant was involved. How Andy Katz found that out, I’ll never know. Still, I’d like to know what kind of plant Crean had in his office. Was it a bonsai tree? A cactus? A bamboo plant? I have no idea why this fascinates me so much. Let’s just chalk it up to me not getting enough sleep this week.)

Indiana is now left with three scholarship players that fall into three distinct buckets. Sophomore Jordan Crawford, a chucker who’s ability to chuck somehow grows in exponential and complicated ways depending on how close the game is; sophomore Brandon McGee, who might have had more DNP-CDs than baskets; and senior Kyle Taber, a fan-favorite at IU, which means he tries hard despite the fact that he’s big and slow. Good God… that isn’t even a murderer’s row down at the local Y.

Some day, people might look back at these events in the Crean-IU history and say he made all the right decisions. Right now, all I can think is he better be prepared to tell everyone that his team is on the floor.  Because from where I’m sitting, he’s definitely playing a man down… or four-men down in this case.