IU finally has its man in Tom Crean.
Crean and IU Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan landed at Monroe County Airport Tuesday evening, greeted by about a dozen fans and a couple members of the media.
Greenspan said Crean’s experience, his winning record and the coaches he’s previously worked for helped make the decision to hire the former Marquette head coach an easy one.
But now, Hoosier fans want to know if Crean has what it takes to bring the Hoosiers back to being a regular contender in the Big Ten conference and the NCAA Tournament.
If the past is any indication, Crean is capable of coaching a team deep into March.
The new head coach has won both a conference championship and made a Final Four in his nine years at Marquette. Crean led the Golden Eagles to a 190-96 record as the team played in both Conference USA and the Big East Conference.
His most successful season came in 2003 when Crean and the Golden Eagles won the Conference USA championship and advanced to the Final Four, losing to Kansas in the national semifinal.
That Marquette squad was sparked by the play of current NBA star Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat. Wade was not heavily recruited out of high school, but exploded on to the national scene during the NCAA Tournament and was drafted No. 5 overall in the 2003 NBA Draft.
“Tom Crean was smart to see something in Dwyane the rest of us didn’t,” Memphis coach John Calipari told Basketball Digest in 2003.
Greenspan said Crean is a proven recruiter who can get the best out of his players. Besides Wade, Crean has recruited NBA players Travis Diener and Steve Novak, along with Indiana high school star Dominic James.
Crean started his coaching career in 1989 as a graduate assistant at Michigan State under legendary coach Jud Heathcote. Former Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson also served as a graduate assistant under Heathcote in the 1970s.
Crean next served as an assistant to Ralph Willard at Western Kentucky and Pittsburgh before returning to Michigan State as an assistant to Spartan coach Tom Izzo. It should come as no surprise that there are a lot of similarities in the two coaches’ styles – utilizing the fast break but remaining disciplined in the half-court offense. His teams play pressure defense and are known to crash the boards for rebounds.
His success is not limited to the court, as Crean has been praised by Marquette’s Athletic Director Bill Cords for his involvement in the Milwaukee community.
“He’s done so many things outside of basketball for the good of the community and the good of people in the state,” Cords told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2004.
