Crean names 2 assistant coaches

IU head coach Tom Crean named two assistant coaches to his staff Thursday.\nCrean tabbed two of his former assistants at Marquette, Tim Buckley and Bennie Seltzer, to join him in Bloomington. They will help Crean in rebuilding the reputation of the IU program after alleged NCAA violations and possible academic problems with players.\nThe two coaches will be valuable assets in both recruiting and developing players on and off the court, Crean said in a statement released Thursday.\n“I believed that I had one of the best coaching staffs in the country at Marquette, and I’m honored to have Tim and Bennie as part of the Hoosier basketball family,” Crean said in the statement. “These gentlemen are two of the hardest working and most loyal individuals I have known and their insight, abilities and experiences will be a great asset for our student-athletes.”\nThe new coaches will begin recruiting duties right away as the NCAA is in the first week of a month-long signing period for recruits. With sophomore guard Armon Bassett and junior guard/forward Jamarcus Ellis still off the team, the Hoosiers only have seven of their scholarship players on board for next season. Teams are allowed a maximum of 13 scholarship players per year.\nBuckley will return to the Hoosier state after spending the last two seasons at Marquette. Buckley was the head coach of Ball State from 2000 to 2006, where he compiled a record of 143-139. Under Buckley, the Cardinals won the Mid-American Conference West Division in 2002 and advanced to play in the postseason NIT.\nThe new Hoosier assistant also has experience coaching in the Big Ten, as Buckley served as an assistant coach at Wisconsin during the 1993-1994 season and as an assistant for former Hoosier player Steve Alford at Iowa during the 2006 to 2007 season.\nBuckley said he cherishes the opportunity to be a part of Indiana basketball.\n“My family and I are very excited to return to the state of Indiana,” Buckley said in the statement. “Indiana University offers one of the most tradition-rich basketball experiences you can imagine, and I am thrilled to be a part of Coach Crean’s staff and look forward to adding to the great history that exists at IU.”\nSeltzer spent the last two seasons at Marquette after serving nine seasons under former Hoosier coach Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma. Seltzer was on Sampson’s staff at Oklahoma when the program violated NCAA rules for making impermissible phone calls. Seltzer was not implicated in the scandal.\nSeltzer met Sampson in 1989 when he was a freshman player at Washington State where Sampson was head coach.\nSeltzer said in the release that he is excited to rejoin Crean and Buckley.\n“Indiana is one of the most storied programs in the country, and our family is energized by this new chapter in our lives,” Seltzer said in the statement. “I’m excited to be a part of the path that Coach Crean is setting for the future at Indiana and look forward to this opportunity.”