One legitimate criticism of Tom Crean during his tenure in Bloomington was the program’s non-conference scheduling.
In 2015-16, Indiana won the Big Ten title outright by two games, but only earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament. The lackluster non-conference schedule certainly played a part. According to Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, IU’s non-conference slate for 2015-16 ranked just 160th nationally and the RPI ranked IU’s non-conference schedule 208th.
Here’s a look at IU’s non-conference strength of schedule for the last six seasons, according to Pomeroy and the RPI:
There are plenty of problems with these numbers beyond the tournament seeding implications.