Brandon McGee dismissed from IU basketball program by Coach Tom Crean

[CalebMaxson]

Official press release:

Indiana Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Crean announced today that freshman Brandon McGee (Chicago/Crane HS) has been dismissed from the program for academic and team guideline negligence.

“Our coaching and support staff tried to make this work out, but we felt that there were some basic standard operating procedures that were not being met,” said Crean. ”I feel badly for his family and Coach (Anthony) Longstreet (Crane Head Coach) who were helping us to try and make this work, but in the end it just was not possible to continue in the current direction.”

He played in just 17 games and averaged 1.5 points and 1.0 rebounds.

Apparently McGee was struggling academically and not living up to his responsibilities as an Indiana basketball player. He saw his playing time during the season rapidly decrease when former Coach Kelvin Sampson didn't feel like he was playing intense enough in practice. With Crean's decidedly higher standards on such issues, McGee probably never had a chance.

The downside: there are now only two returning scholarship player (Jordan Crawford and Kyle Taber) for next year, and McGee had flashed some potential early in the season.

The much bigger upside: Crean's house keeps getting cleaner, and Crean now has another scholarship to use on a player who's willing to represent himself and IU in the right way.

Let's hope that Jordan Crawford doesn't end up going as well. He actually has some good potential to succeed here at IU.

[BWW]

I really thought after grades came out a couple of weeks ago McGee would be OK. The plus side is opening up a scholership. Hopefully Crawford is doing OK.

[TDHIU]

another tough blow to the team.i too hope crawford stays.

[orangekrush12]

Kudos to coach Crean for his willingness to clean up the program. Its amazing how much damage a coach like Cellvin could do in such a short period of time.

IU certainly will finish in the bottom half next season, but as much as I hate to say it, I fully expect Crean to have your Hoosiers back on track in as little as 2 years. Few coaches could have been a better hire for Indiana--he has great recruiting and coaching abilities, and is known for running clean programs. Kelvin Sampson will serve as a lesson to all Big Ten schools who think about taking a chance on a coach in the future.

[BWW]

I too believe next year might not go as we at first had hoped. But in the long run coach Crean is going to get us back where we want to be. He will do it in a manner that we can be proud of, as we have learned from having Sampson winning is not everything.

[CreamNCrimson86]

Originally Posted by orangekrush12

Kudos to coach Crean for his willingness to clean up the program. Its amazing how much damage a coach like Cellvin could do in such a short period of time.

IU certainly will finish in the bottom half next season, but as much as I hate to say it, I fully expect Crean to have your Hoosiers back on track in as little as 2 years. Few coaches could have been a better hire for Indiana--he has great recruiting and coaching abilities, and is known for running clean programs. Kelvin Sampson will serve as a lesson to all Big Ten schools who think about taking a chance on a coach in the future.

Damage is an understatement. More like complete and utter obliteration. Crean's our guy for the long-haul though!

[BigRed10]

This is quite disappointing, I thought that McGee was actually going to buy into Crean's program. And I do believe that he had considerable potential.

[iuhoosiers17]

What a disappointment. I guess we should have seen this coming since McGee was even reprimanded by Sampson, the player's coach.