Tom Crean

[BradleyJD]

There is a good piece about U of I and Tom Crean.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/paul_daugherty/02/17/crean/

I always liked Crean, and I think he is the perfect coach for Indiana. I love this line from the story....

"It's not even rebuilding. Rebuilding implies a foundation. A house leveled in a tornado still has a basement. Indiana had no basement."

When Crean took the job, I took heat on the PJStar board for saying that I thought Crean could have Indiana back to competing for Conference titles in 3 to 4 years.

In year two, he is heading in that direction. The guy is a good recruiter and a great coach.

[Buesch N Chips]

There is a good piece about U of I and Tom Crean.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/paul_daugherty/02/17/crean/

I always liked Crean, and I think he is the perfect coach for Indiana. I love this line from the story....

"It's not even rebuilding. Rebuilding implies a foundation. A house leveled in a tornado still has a basement. Indiana had no basement."

When Crean took the job, I took heat on the PJStar board for saying that I thought Crean could have Indiana back to competing for Conference titles in 3 to 4 years.

In year two, he is heading in that direction. The guy is a good recruiter and a great coach.

Being an Illini fan as well as BU, I don't like that Crean is at Indiana. He's a good guy doing a lot of good things. I liked it much better when Mike Davis was there screwing everything up. Crean will make those players as good as they can be.

[tornado]

...

In year two, he is heading in that direction. The guy is a good recruiter and a great coach.

there are even Hoosier fans who would argue this strongly..his highly touted transfer from Georgetown point guard averages less than 5ppg and 3 apg in Big Ten games...
he has no big man and none on the horizon, and only two of the players he has currently available to him average more than 6 ppg.
They may be a bit better than last year but that's not saying a whole lot...
they've only won 3 of their last 13, and are averaging only 55 ppg over the last few games.

Did you not see the article I linked by scout.com..saying it was their opinion that the Hoosiers' national recruiting prowess was completely gone..and that they now have no more than just a strong prowess inside their own state and that's about it...
it still might be years before they are even above .500 considering that even with 4-star recruits currently....they are still losing to George Mason and Loyola of Maryland on their own home court!
There are even a few rumors that Crean will significantly "Crean house" after this season in order to boot the chaff and open up a few more rides so he can go shopping.
As it is, the disadvantage of bringing in so many young players all at once, is that Crean is locked into all those scholarships for 3-4 more years...he has virtually no open rides to work with for about 3 years unless he jettisons some dead weight soon...

[BradleyJD]

Did you not see the article I linked by scout.com..saying it was their opinion that the Hoosiers' national recruiting prowess was completely gone..and that they now have no more than just a strong prowess inside their own state and that's about it...
it still might be years before they are even above .500 considering that even with 4-star recruits currently....they are still losing to George Mason and Loyola of Maryland on their own home court!

I don't know about any scout.com article.

I will say that the guy can coach. He has already gone up in wins this season. He has almost 0 experience playing and they are finding ways to win some games.

He will be a winner there.

[Buesch N Chips]

I don't know about any scout.com article.

I will say that the guy can coach. He has already gone up in wins this season. He has almost 0 experience playing and they are finding ways to win some games.

He will be a winner there.

We agree!!!!!

[BradleyJD]

We agree!!!!!

For once

[Grassman]

I Love to watch him pace up down the sideline, like a caged rat looking for cheese! He probably walks 10 miles a game.

[Braves4Life]

Crean has a monumental task that will take 5-7 years to make things work. I think he IS a good coach and will be lower middle of the pack in the Big-10 in 2011-12 (in 2 years). I think he could potentially have IU back in the NCAA's by 2012-13.

Essentailly, Crean faces almost the same challenge as a school like SIU-E going to D-1. He does have the name brand advantage of IU but also faces much stiffer competition in both games scheduled and recruiting challengers. Remember, IU essentially got the death penalty.

[Indy_BB]

He'll soon drop below .600 for his LIFETIME winning percentage. He has coached at two schools where he plays approaching 70% home games.

He is by all measures an average coach. He just hit the Lotto having one of the best basketball players on the planet (not to mention two more pros)

He is to coaching what "Crash" is to film.

[BradleyJD]

He'll soon drop below .600 for his LIFETIME winning percentage. He has coached at two schools where he plays approaching 70% home games.

He is by all measures an average coach. He just hit the Lotto having one of the best basketball players on the planet (not to mention two more pros)

He is to coaching what "Crash" is to film.

What?

[That Guy]

Like this thread, but there is one thing you have wrong, Indiana is IU, U of I is that school down the road with the worst fan chant in collegiate sports...

And to the other poster who said that he is an average coach who "lucked out" by coaching 3 pros... he did recruit them and help develop them did he not?

Indiana will be back in the tourney in 2 years, book it. Possibly even next year...

[tornado]

Crean has a monumental task that will take 5-7 years to make things work. ....

Indiana people themselves like to use the example of Baylor as a parallel to their own devastation...but there are two HUGE differences between the Baylor situation and the Indiana situation...
Baylor was hammered far, far worse with NCAA penalties and devastated way, way worse....and they bounced back way, way faster than you or anyone seems to be giving Indiana to bounce back.

Baylor had to start over completely in 2005-2006 with zero players and a new coach, and honestly, Baylor is NOT Indiana and has nowhere near the ability to recruit nor land anyone..they just didn't have an iota of "recruiting prowess".
Their first year, they weren't even allowed to play non-conference games and truly had to deal with severe NCAA penalties that restricted scholarships and recruiting (Indiana never got a thing from NCAA and had only a tiny self-imposed hand slap).

So did it take 5-7 years for Baylor to "make things work?
Nope, their first year they won 4 (4-13) but their four wins were all against decent Big 12 opponents (recall Crean only won ONE Big Ten game his first year - against a similarly devastated Iowa and not any decent team)

Then in their 2nd season, Baylor was a .500 team, and even won a game in their conference tourney.

By their 3rd season they were 20 game winners (21-11) against a TOP 100 SOS!!
They won 24 their 4th season, going 7-2 in the post-season almost winning their conference tourney - even knocking off Kansas in the process.

This year they are 20-5 and in the Top 25..so I'd say they have proven that a school in a major conference should NOT get a pass for 5-7 years just to "make things work".
The loud grumbling against Mike Davis at Indiana started by his 3rd & 4th year there, even though Davis averaged 22.3 wins per year in his first 3 seasons...by his 5th year, Davis was being given ONE more chance, and even that 6th season of 19-12 was NOT acceptable for the Hoosier folks, and Davis was gone.
I suspect the grumbling will start if Crean is still under .500 his 3rd year...and right now with no real PG or big man on the horizon, that's a strong possibility...

[BradleyJD]

The loud grumbling against Mike Davis at Indiana started by his 3rd & 4th year there, even though Davis averaged 22.3 wins per year in his first 3 seasons...by his 5th year, Davis was being given ONE more chance, and even that 6th season of 19-12 was NOT acceptable for the Hoosier folks, and Davis was gone.

But, don't forget this....

Mike Davis, was and is, slightly insane too.

[Braves4Life]

But, don't forget this....

Mike Davis, was and is, slightly insane too.

How so? I always thought he was a good coach and was unfairly "run" out of IU.

[BradleyJD]

How so? I always thought he was a good coach and was unfairly "run" out of IU.

He told the media he was not the right man for the job about a month after taking the IU job, then he told the media he wanted to coach in the NBA, while he was still at IU.

I am pretty sure he also once accused a black official of being racist against him because he was a black coach.

The guy always seemed a bit off to me.