I'm not down on them winning that outright title - it was a great accomplishment. But any unbiased observer could see IU was not as strong the last 2-3 weeks of the season. Crean- up until last year- never caught on to the concept of tapering practices late in the season.
He's been in coaching long enough to know the conventional wisdom of late season practices. He just is determined that he is above conventional wisdom. If he were a football coach, he would need to show his brilliance by regularly going for it on 4th down from his own 25.