I Wonder If Brad Stevens Is Monitoring This Tom Crean-AAU Mess [UPDATE]

It seems as if there’s a pretty solid pipeline from a strong AAU program (Indiana Elite) to the Hooisers. That’s nothing new – many AAU programs attempt to steer high school stars to certain programs. Not all of them get exposed. Some of Fish’s findings:

"After Drew Adams, the son of Mark Adams [Indiana Elite coach], was promoted to director of operations/video coordinator in April 2010, Crean signed or picked up commitments from eight players with ties to A-HOPE and/or the Indiana Elite program. According to summer team forms on file with the NCAA, the younger Adams previously coached three of the players with Indiana Elite, and his father acknowledges that two — 2012 commits Perea and 7-foot-1-inch Peter Jurkin, part of a class ranked No. 1 in the country by ESPN — lived at his Bloomington, Ind., house last summer while he was their coach at Indiana Elite. Drew Adams’ original hiring in September 2009 as IU’s coordinator of basketball systems came just before an NCAA rule change that would have prohibited IU from signing players he previously was associated with for two years."

Strangely, Drew Adams made a move this summer – right around the time ESPN was working on this story – to New Mexico (where former Hoosier Steve Alford is head coach). Just coincidence, or was Indiana looking to quickly get him off the staff, knowing this story would have an impact?

"A-HOPE paid for Perea’s round-trips to Bogotá, Colombia, last summer and this past Christmas — the latter not long after he verbally committed to the Hoosiers in October. Mark Adams also has provided Perea a cell phone and pays the bill, gave him a used iPod and bought a $400 laptop that Perea shares with another A-HOPE player. Such treatment potentially violates NCAA extra benefits bylaws and thus could impact Perea’s initial NCAA eligibility at Indiana."

So, uh, Perry Jones … what do you think about this?

"Indiana Elite founder Mike Barnett is accused by multiple sources of having raised the possibility of adopting former Indiana Elite player DeAndre Liggins, without his mother’s permission, to influence his college selection. Four people familiar with Liggins’ recruitment claim that Barnett, who professes close friendships with prominent college coaches and in the past has represented coaches in contract negotiations, also promptly discontinued Liggins’ cellphone service when he committed to play at Kentucky rather than a Barnett-preferred school."

That’s a bad look for the AAU program.

How will this impact Tom Crean? Maybe not at all. Crean’s a very good coach who took Dwyane Wade and Marquette to the Final Four. His first three years at Indiana have been pretty awful (6, 10 and 12 wins), but it didn’t help that Kelvin Sampson left the program in tatters. The Hoosiers figure to improve in year four of the Crean era – everyone’s back, plus they get super recruit Cody Zeller – and they better. If the NCAA begins to poke around and it looks like some sanctions are coming, would they retain Crean? On the heels of Sampson’s phone calling mess, my guess is no.

The worst kept secret in college basketball is that Butler’s Brad Stevens won’t take any job in college hoops – other than the Indiana gig, which would allow him to remain close to his Indiana roots. Surely you’re aware Butler is rebuilding …

Basketball ties that bind [ESPN]

[UPDATE: As a reader notes, the Indy Star looked into the ESPN report, spoke with Mark Adams, and he claims the NCAA is aware of everything in the story and it’s all above board. Writes Kyle Neddenriep of the Star: “There is a lot written to digest, but no ‘smoking gun’ at this point that would lead to any trouble down the line.]