INDIANA APR PROBLEMS

[catBBfan]

Big Ten basketball: Low APR could cost Crean scholarships at Indiana
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 6:21 AM

Tom Crean isn't worried about wins, losses or even rosters right now.

To him, it's all about making grades.

As if the new Indiana coach didn't have enough to worry about with an NCAA investigation, he's now wrestling with an academic problem that threatens to cost the program up to two additional scholarships.

"The APR (academic progress report) is really the governing body for all of what's going on right now, so we have to put that at the forefront of where we're at," he said yesterday. "I think every coach running a successful program has to be concerned with where we are in terms of the APR."

If Indiana fails to meet the NCAA's cutoff score of 925, it faces the prospect of losing more scholarships. The school already stripped itself of one next season because of Kelvin Sampson's alleged phone call violations, and The Indianapolis Star reported the men's basketball team is expected to turn in a score of 899 next month.

NCAA rules say any team below 925 could lose a scholarship for each player who leaves the school while academically ineligible. The maximum penalty in men's basketball is two scholarships.

Crean declined to identify specific players who were struggling in the classroom because of privacy laws but acknowledged he is concerned about the Hoosiers' academic performance as a whole. Plus, he still has not decided whether to reinstate starting guards Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis, who were dismissed from the team just hours before Crean took the job April 1.