Today Was a Bad Day

First things first:

Everyone here at TCQ wishes Devin Davis a speed and successful recovery from the injuries he sustained in last night's accident. The sparse and vague reports out there seem to be positive, at least. Hopefully that trend continues and Devin can soon resume his normal life, both on and off the basketball court.

Typically, you want to wait until you get all the information about an incident and know the full extent of the damage done before you start the discussion about what it means for the players involved and the program at large. Unfortunately, that discussion fired up almost instantaneously and it was approached a lot of different ways. Many condemned Holt, many condemned Crean, many condemned a culture problem, and that's the nature of the Twittersphere- you take it for what it is. It gives everyone a chance to broadcast any thought they want to the entire world, and that's a beautiful thing that can, at times, be ugly. I will say that the majority of people kept Devin's health at the forefront, and that was awesome to see.

I know I have a lot of thoughts and I know a lot of people probably won't agree with them. But I don't think we can draw any conclusions until we know all the details. This isn't going to help Crean's case in a year that was supposed to put all of the nonsense of last year behind them. This was a roster that showed a lot of immaturity on and off the court last year and on the brink of a brand new season, it would seem we're not totally squared up in the latter. Though it should be noted that Emmitt is a freshman and has only been with the program since August. Perhaps his mistake is another reflection of a program that is out of control, or maybe the new guy dun goofed.

Regardless: this is a tragic accident and I can hardly crucify the kid when the police, themselves, reported that he was not intoxicated. There's a difference between being over the legal limit for a minor and being drunk, .025 is not drunk. It's not even close. But that doesn't change the fact that the program is, again, one in need of healing, both emotionally and physically.

Ben is going to have your football recap more in depth tomorrow morning, but their loss to a mediocre-at-best Michigan squad was disheartening for many. Particularly, the efforts of Zander Diamont continued to underwhelm as the true freshman looked the part of a typical true freshman. Coupled with some questionable-is-putting-it-nicely decisions by the coaching staff and it was another offensive disaster for a Hoosiers squad that has rarely struggled to score under Kevin Wilson.

Unfortunately, when injuries (and transfers) pile up at the QB position, seasons tend to spiral out of control, take a peak at Maryland's 2012 season if you want a recent analog. Indiana had three capable starting quarterbacks (Sudfeld, Roberson, and Coffman) in January of this year and they lost every single one of them by Halloween. Zander Diamont enrolled in January, meaning he was the 5th guy throughout Spring practice. Historically, Indiana hasn't been a program to have a lot of quality depth, it shouldn't be surprising they're struggling so much when they're this far down the quarterback list.

I don't lay the poor quarterback play at Kevin Wilson's feet, some will, I won't. That said, benching Tevin Coleman, the only guy who gives us a chance to move the ball, because he fumbled a couple of times in the early going and the bizarre trick-play calls when our quarterback is struggling to execute the simple plays deserves criticism. Diamont is not ready to play at a B1G level and I think the coaching staff is making things worse by playing unbelievably conservative on third and longs at one moment, and then running multiple-pitch sets out of the Wildcat the next. The whole offense, from the coaching down to the players, is disjointed and ineffective. You can expect some execution issues with your backup's backup, but we're still on our first-string offensive coordinator.

Stability and identity have to come from the top. They know more about what they have in Diamont than any of us, it was disappointing to see the same sputtering offense come out against Michigan after two weeks of preparation. I think using the Wildcat with Coleman is a smart way, conceptually, to get your best player the ball when your QB is still figuring things out. But I think you have to keep things simple when you're installing things on the fly. The play that was run on third down near the goal line COMING OUT OF A TIMEOUT was inexcusable. It was third and 7 from the Michigan 9-yard line and you bust out the razzle dazzle when the offense is struggling to move the ball the normal way? Yeesh.

Today was a very bad day for the two top revenue-generators for Indiana athletics. Hopefully it gets better from here.