You drive by the cozy little home on the tree-lined street where you grew up and find the trees are all dead from Dutch Elm disease and the house burned down.

You are shocked, heartbroken and angry.

You should be an Indiana University basketball fan. Same thing.

This is Tom Crean's second season as coach of the Hoosiers with a roster that wouldn't scare a good AAU team. It's not his fault, even though student boos are echoing throughout Assembly Hall and you could fry an egg on his forehead after ugly games like Thursday's 78-46 Big Ten pasting by Wisconsin.

Crean was ejected in the second half for arguing with officials and later tore his team up like a Dear John letter.

He has the passion of a bullfighter, but his players, who have lost nine straight entering tonight's game at Iowa, lack that essential trait, and it's driving him batty.

Eleven of the Hoosiers' 18 losses are by 15 points or more and they are taken to the woodshed way too much.

Andrean grad Dan Dakich had 17 memorable years invested in the program as a player, coach and administrator. Few in the game are more qualified to speak on IU's travails. What he sees happening saddens him, much like a drive down that street of dead trees and burned-down home.

"What it looks like to me is those two losses to Illinois (72-70) and Purdue (78-75), back to back, just sucked everything out of them," said Dakich, now a fixture on the Big Ten Network. "They lost confidence and a little bit of hope. It happens even at the pro level.

"Unless you've been through it, and clearly Indiana doesn't have guys who have, yet, it's a hard, hard thing. Fast forward two years. They're gonna have guys who've been through a lot. Those games may go their way then and if they do -- bam! -- you take it off."

Crean knows Indiana must win consistently to draw top recruits who want more than a squeaky-clean coach who stresses academics first, the game second. He will get them, eventually.

His current group probably won't see it, so he's got to hit a home run with the next two recruiting classes.

"This was starting from scratch and I understand the frustration. It's Indiana basketball," Dakich said. "You got one (recruiting) class for Crean and that was a makeshift class. He had to get somebody so he got (Tom) Pritchard to stay. He got (Devan) Dumes, who wasn't even a good MVC player (at Evansville). And Verdell Jones was a kid nobody was giving a scholarship to.

"The people who do understand Indiana basketball understand it was a train wreck (under Kelvin Sampson) and had to be cleaned out, so I know what Tom's dealin' with. He's got to be given some time."

Dakich admires the job Matt Painter is doing at Purdue, but added he had become a household name in state-wide recruiting while serving under the legendary Gene Keady. Hot prospects Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore were still in high school.

IU hoops, like that blighted neighborhood, will flourish again.

Question is, are its hungry fans willing to wait?

This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach him at al.hamnik@nwi.com.