Maybe, I have/had no insight into what's going on inside the program, but I also don't feel like Crean ever really emphasized good tough defense, so maybe he could, but it was a wall made of drywall not concrete blocks or brick.
Many times I'd see a guy rushing to the basket when an opponent had gotten by his man, apparently late for help D, but in reality they weren't trying to help on D at all, they had already conceded the basket and were really just trying to retrieve the ball to inbound it quickly. I would bet that Crean coached them to inbound the ball out of the net before it hit the ground. Used to drive me nuts. Sheehey and Watford did it often. I think that was a big reason for the general "softness" IU has had with players for the last many years.