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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Tom Crean is getting ready for a restart at Indiana.
After a bumpy first month as the Hoosiers coach, Crean spent Thursday riding around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval with three-time winner Johnny Rutherford, hoping the changes at Indiana will go as smoothly and quickly as the laps.
Crean acknowledged the program's image had been damaged by recent allegations of recruiting violations, academic troubles and player dismissals before looking ahead.
"It's important to move on," he said. "That's what we try to do as coaches, get through these situations with the hearing, the APR (academic progress report) and those kinds of things."
With so many lingering reminders, switching gears won't be easy for the Hoosiers.
On a day rain washed out Crean's chance to be the honorary starter for Indy 500 practice, the Hoosiers were expected to file their official response to the NCAA's accusations. School officials did not plan to make the report immediately available to the public, and Crean provided no details about what was in the report. He said he had not been consulted.
Next month the school has a hearing in front of the infractions committee in Seattle. Former coach Kelvin Sampson, who accepted a $750,000 buyout in February after the NCAA accused him of five major rules infractions, and Crean are both expected to attend, although Crean is uncertain whether he will be asked to testify.
"I don't know yet what they'll have me do, but I knew from the beginning that I would be at the hearing," he said. "Whatever they ask me to do, I'll do. But I think there's been enough damage to Indiana and it's time to move forward."
Not so fast.
In July or August, the NCAA is expected to rule on Indiana's case and could hand down sanctions that go beyond the recruiting restrictions and loss of a scholarship imposed by school officials.
Crean will start next fall with only three returning scholarship players after kicking three players off the team last week. He said he can't wait to begin workouts that will be more than just 3-on-3 drills.
But the oddest twist in this saga occurred last week, when freshman forward Eli Holman told Crean he planned to transfer and became so agitated in the coaches' office that campus police were called.
Holman announced Wednesday he would attend Detroit Mercy, where he will be reunited with Ray McCallum, a former assistant at Indiana under Sampson.
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