McGee Dismissed From Team

The reshaping of the Indiana basketball roster continued Thursday with another player dismissal.

IU announced that Brandon McGee, a 6-7 freshman forward/guard from Chicago’s Crane H.S., has been dismissed from the program for “academic and team guideline negligence.”

McGee’s exit leaves the team with only two returning scholarship players from last year – guard Jordan Crawford and former walk-on Kyle Taber.

"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," Crean said in a prepared statement. "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."

McGee played in 17 games as a true freshman, averaging 1.5 points and 1.0 rebounds. Despite those numbers his loss is still a big one considering the mass exodus of players from a year ago.

With the spring signing period wrapping up yesterday, Indiana is slated to have eight scholarship players for next season. Taber and Crawford will be joined by a six-man 2008 recruiting class that includes guards Matt Roth, Devon Dumes, Nick Williams and Verdell Jones, forward Tom Pritchard, and center Tijan Jobe.

While the spring signing period has come and gone, Indiana still has hopes of adding one more marquee player to the class. Former Arizona commit Emmanuel Negedu was released form his letter of intent earlier this week, and the 6-7, 220-pound forward is considering IU, Memphis, Georgia Tech and Tennessee.

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