Usually I do some grilling, maybe some veiled negativity about a hire. Whether it's my school or someone else's, it's more fun to lay verbal waste to that sit and slobber over what a great decision some AD who barely works made on a given week...but I hafta give wild credit to IU on this hire. Why not?
-Crean might not be an "IU guy" but that's not really what they were necessarily after. They weren't when they hired Sampson either. But they were after a guy with inherent knowledge of the state recruiting wise, and of the midwest area. Especially with a litany of hotspots for hotshots in the midwest as a whole. Crean has this. Pulling Dominic James (who absolutely laid waste to me personally a few years ago when I defended him man to man) from Richmond is a total heist. He's 2 hours from Colombus, 2 hours from Bloomington...yet he goes to Marquette?
-Also on recruiting, Crean knows the gig. He recruits Chicago well (remember some kid named Dwayne? He up to anything these days, or just bagging groceries with Jess Settles at an O'Malia's in Des Moines?) and also has picked up lesser recruited kids and developed them into NBA talent...like Travis Diener (debatable on him actually BEING NBA talent) and Nick Novak. He has been an assistant in the Big 10 as well.
-Proven tourney record. Members of the vaunted (and mildly intelligent) coaching search committee were in attendance for the Louisville drubbing of Tennessee, presumably not to take in a game, but to scout for "yes men" to an IU offer. Pitino wasn't in the Cards (wife wasn't on board, high price, not enough years left in the tank) and Pearl...he can't coach in the big time. Tennessee is becoming Arizona, circa before Mike Bibby, Miles Simon, Eugene Edgerson, and on and on....Crean on the other hand has been to a final 4.
-He's clever, he resonates with young kids, and sells his vision well. Marquette is a 2nd trick pony in Wisconsin. And Milwaukee isn't exactly teeming with top notch high school hoops talent. Not only is he recruiting against the rest of the Big 10, he's recruiting against the million lb gorilla that is Wisconsin-Madison, successful in hoops and football. If he can get kids there, imagine what he can do @ IU? I bet Brian Butch wouldn't have left the state.
-He's young. This isn't Pitino, which would have been a slam dunk hire....for maybe 5 years. This is a guy that is still frothing at the mouth over the competition, the coaching. You catch his gyrations in the Stanford game? He may look like he restocks books at the locale library, but he has emotion. And he's good for about 15 more years before he starts getting all tired of the whole ordeal. IU needs stability, experience, cleanliness, Tom Crean.
-The guy actually CAN coach. His system is not overly complex. Generally heavy on guards and peremiter shooting. He's never been able to get NBA talent bigs to his neck of the woods, but he's adapted. Plays a wonderfully spread out motion offense with big men spotting up for 3s, guards penetrating into naked lanes, the whole lot. It's not dry as a popcorn fart like Tony Bennett and not herky jerky like Tennessee, shots everywhere.
-He seems like the type to bring back some of the "Knight crowd." IU has been a program in fan denial since the ouster of Knight. Say what you want about the man (it was his time to go) but he did amass a great following, including former players like Kent Benson, who've admittedly strayed from the program. Crean is an old school type who should bring some of those guys...and fans back. No, they're not losing ground to Purdue in fan base, but there are still those chapped @ the whole ordeal, believe it or not. Ever listen to Wade talk about this guy? Nothing but nice things to say. Sure, we can probably find some former Oklahoma guy to say that about Kelvin, but I can also find a few people who probably would say they liked Hitler as a person. Or worse, Hillary Clinton.
All in all, a good hire for the Hoosiers. Their die hard fans should be pleased. The wins might not come next year, but they will come. Like a fat girl to a Golden Corrall.
