Crean Guides Hoosiers To Top Of Big Ten Mountain
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
“That Tom Crean … he better win this year.”
“It’s time for a change … we’re not going anywhere.”
“I want a coach that teaches defense!”
Trust me, Tom Crean has heard all of that too.
But despite all of the concerns at Christmas time, here are the Hoosiers standing alone atop the Big Ten, with Crean carrying that giant crimson flag with the giant white “I” up and then slamming it into the summit.
Many Hoosier fans didn’t see this coming because they were so blinded by their past disappointment to notice that this team got better and better at both ends over the course of the season. That was most true at the defensive end, where earlier in the season most of the core eight players either seemed uninterested in giving that effort or were physically not talented enough to play it at that level.
Hoosier fans have to realize they still owe Crean a debt of gratitude for saving their beloved candy-striped pants. Don’t forget, he left a fully-stocked and successful Marquette program to come to Bloomington after Kelvin Sampson was caught breaking NCAA rules for being on the phone with recruits too much in the middle of the 2007-08 season.
They went 25-8 that season, with Dan Dakich taking over the team for the second half of the year.
Then players started to file out the door of the IU program one-by-one. At one point, Hoosier basketball only had four players on their roster that arrived in Bloomington with scholarships in-hand. It’s still a bit of a mystery as to why most of the players left and went somewhere else. I have always assumed that Sampson was responsible for making those players on-campus lives ‘sweeter’ than the normal student (you know what things I am talking about), and when he left and that ‘sweet’ tap got turned off, there was no reason to stay.
Crean’s first season was not simply about finding guys quickly who could not embarrass themselves on the court in the short-term. While it was that, he also had to make people believe that he could make IU … “IU” again.
It took three seasons – three seasons that added up to 28 total wins and no postseason appearances.
Then the biggest moment in recent Indiana University Basketball happened.
November 11, 2010.
That’s the day Cody Zeller turned his back on the pack of big-time programs that dogged him for his home-state Hoosiers.
From that moment on, Indiana basketball had instant credibility again. Players who would have considered four years in Bloomington a prison sentence instead of a college choice now were ringing the phone off the hook in the IU basketball office.
The Hoosiers were back in business.
Since that moment, the win totals have increased from 12 in 2011 to 20-or-more wins in four of the last five seasons and included the 2013 Big Ten title.
So it bothers me that after a 20-14 record that included a 9-9 conference mark last year, the “well this is NOT acceptable” rumblings started to fire up again. They got so loud, the Indianapolis Star ran an article describing the process and financial responsibility for Indiana to fire him. It’s public record, so I don’t have a problem with the article on its face. But the way it was written was more like a “how to” manual, and it just felt sorta sleezy.
And now, well if they want to find Crean to fire him, they will have to look up … because he has once again planted IU’s flag at the top of the Big Ten mountain.[[In-content Ad]]
“That Tom Crean … he better win this year.”
“It’s time for a change … we’re not going anywhere.”
“I want a coach that teaches defense!”
Trust me, Tom Crean has heard all of that too.
But despite all of the concerns at Christmas time, here are the Hoosiers standing alone atop the Big Ten, with Crean carrying that giant crimson flag with the giant white “I” up and then slamming it into the summit.
Many Hoosier fans didn’t see this coming because they were so blinded by their past disappointment to notice that this team got better and better at both ends over the course of the season. That was most true at the defensive end, where earlier in the season most of the core eight players either seemed uninterested in giving that effort or were physically not talented enough to play it at that level.
Hoosier fans have to realize they still owe Crean a debt of gratitude for saving their beloved candy-striped pants. Don’t forget, he left a fully-stocked and successful Marquette program to come to Bloomington after Kelvin Sampson was caught breaking NCAA rules for being on the phone with recruits too much in the middle of the 2007-08 season.
They went 25-8 that season, with Dan Dakich taking over the team for the second half of the year.
Then players started to file out the door of the IU program one-by-one. At one point, Hoosier basketball only had four players on their roster that arrived in Bloomington with scholarships in-hand. It’s still a bit of a mystery as to why most of the players left and went somewhere else. I have always assumed that Sampson was responsible for making those players on-campus lives ‘sweeter’ than the normal student (you know what things I am talking about), and when he left and that ‘sweet’ tap got turned off, there was no reason to stay.
Crean’s first season was not simply about finding guys quickly who could not embarrass themselves on the court in the short-term. While it was that, he also had to make people believe that he could make IU … “IU” again.
It took three seasons – three seasons that added up to 28 total wins and no postseason appearances.
Then the biggest moment in recent Indiana University Basketball happened.
November 11, 2010.
That’s the day Cody Zeller turned his back on the pack of big-time programs that dogged him for his home-state Hoosiers.
From that moment on, Indiana basketball had instant credibility again. Players who would have considered four years in Bloomington a prison sentence instead of a college choice now were ringing the phone off the hook in the IU basketball office.
The Hoosiers were back in business.
Since that moment, the win totals have increased from 12 in 2011 to 20-or-more wins in four of the last five seasons and included the 2013 Big Ten title.
So it bothers me that after a 20-14 record that included a 9-9 conference mark last year, the “well this is NOT acceptable” rumblings started to fire up again. They got so loud, the Indianapolis Star ran an article describing the process and financial responsibility for Indiana to fire him. It’s public record, so I don’t have a problem with the article on its face. But the way it was written was more like a “how to” manual, and it just felt sorta sleezy.
And now, well if they want to find Crean to fire him, they will have to look up … because he has once again planted IU’s flag at the top of the Big Ten mountain.[[In-content Ad]]
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