T1B

Hoosiers pick Marquette’s Crean as new coach
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AP Photo CAKJ102
By MICHAEL MAROT
AP Sports Writer
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana University will hire Marquette’s Tom Crean as its basketball coach and is expected to introduce him at a news conference Wednesday.
University trustee Philip Eskew confirmed the hiring. Eskew said Crean had signed a letter-of-intent with the university and was meeting with his team Tuesday night.
Team spokesman J.D. Campbell said a news conference had yet to be scheduled.
The hiring comes near the end of a tumultuous six-week period in which former Hoosiers coach Kelvin Sampson resigned amid an NCAA scandal, interim coach Dan Dakich replaced him and then lost four of seven games.
Dakich also suspended guard Jamarcus Ellis for disciplinary reasons for the Hoosiers’ game at Penn State, and announced Tuesday that Ellis and guard Armon Bassett had been kicked off the team for missing two scheduled events.
Crean, who led Marquette to the Final Four in 2003, will responsible for rebuilding not only Indiana’s reputation as a national power but also its sullied image as a squeaky clean program.
“I think he’s a great choice,” Eskew said. “He has a Big Ten background, a Midwest background, he’s recruited in the state of Indiana and he has an impeccable record, so I think Indiana is on the road to recovery.”
Now the question is what kind of team will Crean inherit.
Starting forwards D.J. White and Lance Stemler both finished their senior seasons, and it’s uncertain whether Bassett and Ellis, two of the starting guards, will return after being punished for missing an appointment last week. When they didn’t show up to run laps the next day, Dakich decided to dismiss them from the team.
On Monday, freshman Eric Gordon is expected to announce whether he will declare early for the NBA. Most figure, he’s leaving, which would leave Indiana without all five of its regular starters from last season.
Crean went 190-96 in nine seasons at Marquette. He leaves for a job that came open after Sampson’s latest alleged missteps with the NCAA.
Sampson left in February amid a phone-call scandal that brought five allegations of major infractions from the NCAA. Dakich’s promotion to interim coach fueled threats of a player boycott and the Hoosiers (25-8) never recovered. They lost four of their final seven games, including a last-second defeat against Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals and an 86-72 loss to Arkansas in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Since firing Bob Knight in September 2000, a move that sharply divided Indiana fans, the Hoosiers have failed to find a suitable successor. Mike Davis, who replaced Knight, never won enough to satisfy Indiana’s rabid fans, and it took Sampson, Davis’ successor, less than two years to stain the university’s once-impeccable reputation for playing by the rules.
Sampson took the Indiana job in March 2006 and two months later was penalized by the NCAA for making 577 impermissible phone calls between 2000 and 2004 when he was coaching Oklahoma.
The second wave of charges emerged in October when a university investigation found Sampson and his staff made more than 100 impermissible calls while still under recruiting restrictions and that Sampson participated in at least 10 three-way calls, another violation of the NCAA’s punishment.
Athletic director Rick Greenspan called the violations secondary, imposing a one-year extension of the NCAA’s recruiting restrictions and pulling a $500,000 raise. The Hoosiers also took away one scholarship for the 2008-09 season.
However, an NCAA report released Feb. 13 by Indiana claimed Sampson provided false and misleading information to investigators from both the university and the NCAA, failed to meet the “generally recognized high standard of honesty” expected in college sports and failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the program.
Sampson has denied intentionally providing investigators with false information.

Screw_Michigan wrote:i was pretty surprised to hear the news of crean going to bloomington, but as i thought it over, the more i thought it was a good hire. did a great job at marquette, big ten guy (and unfortunately a central michigan alum) and a terrific recruiter. and best of all, he doesn't come with blood on his hands.

eric gordon should think of dwayne wade and stay at least another year. if he decides to pull the "this isn't the coach i came to play for" shit, then he's going to really fuck himself.

FLW Buckeye wrote:Shine,

Any chance Crean reinstates the two that were recently booted from the team?

Q, West Coast Style wrote:Wazzu Job > IU Job

Sin,

Tony Bennett

Screw_Michigan wrote:

Q, West Coast Style wrote:Wazzu Job > IU Job

Sin,

Tony Bennett

Bennett has a lot more latitude and margin for error in Pullman. He's still really young and has a solid program already in place to build off. He knows exactly what the future has for his program and he's "overachieving" with what he has, a great position to be in if you're a coach. Not to mention even if he pulls a tits-up season in a few years, he won't have to worry about rabid fans (like at IU) calling for his job.

If Bennett comes to IU, he's facing possible (more like probable) NCAA sanctions, one less scholarship, an empty cupboard, a serious pressure cooker in Bloomington (especially for someone so young). I can understand why Bennett would pass on the IU job and I believe that Crean is a much better fit than Bennett would be. Bennett is waiting for a similar job to open up in a few years, but if you ask IU fan, there is no better job than the one in Bloomington.

Mustang wrote:Yeah, there might not be as much pressure but I look at that as kind of a cop out. You're given an opportunity to coach at one of the 1/2 dozen storied programs in all of college basketball.........and you turn it down??? Sure, you can have your own little niche in BFE Washington, but you get to play your games on Pacific Time Zone and the state of Washington isn't exactly a basketball hotbed for talent. Enjoy your anonymity. At IU, as a young coach, you have the potential to coach here a long, long time and carve out a legacy, kind of like a certain coach hired here in the early 70's. OK, the cupboard is kind of bare here right now.........but that won't last. This is a great basketball state, ripe with talent and TONS of kids want to play for IU. Great basketball coaches relish such given opportunities. IU is no stepping stone. It's a final stop for a good coach. Now Crean gets that opportunity. Good move, Tony. Enjoy Pullman.

MuchoBulls wrote:I am surprised by this move. Shoalzie hit the nail on the head about the potential rebuilding job that he may have at IU.

Mustang wrote:It's a final stop for a good coach.

Mustang wrote:Michigan.......also a final stop for a coach. No stepping stone...unless your name is Amaker.

M Club wrote:

MuchoBulls wrote:I am surprised by this move. Shoalzie hit the nail on the head about the potential rebuilding job that he may have at IU.

rebuilding a basketball program takes what, five minutes? why would you let a couple rough seasons in a meh conference dissuade you from leaving milwaukee? i'm sure iu is part of his 15-year plan and not his five.