Shall we road trip to the Georgia site and let them know what to expect?Go read some of the Georgia boards. Those knuckleheads are estatic over the hire. It’s funny stuff. One poster stated how great his teams were at defense
Official: Crean to Georgia
- Thread starter Pryght
- Start date
What is your favorite turnover? Doesn't matter as you will soon be stuffed full of them. Good luck.
I don’t think Tom Crean is the Antichrist, as some clearly do. He did, after all, agree to take on a job at IU that most established coaches wouldn’t have. We were on probation because of his predecessor and had a returning roster consisting of two walk-ons. Think about that.
And he did a good enough job to win us a couple league titles. So it wasn’t all doom and gloom as some would have you believe.
The problem is that Crean’s apparent ceiling just wasn’t as high as we all wanted and hoped it would be. He wasn’t a supercharged Ferrari...he was a four-banger Fiat that topped out in 3rd gear.
First of all, congratulations. I wish both you and him the best. And I'm happy for us because he comes off our payroll totally, although that had already happened to some extent because he was working for ESPN.
The positives...he is a very good speaker. Went to many alumni association events where he spoke, and he knows how to, at least initially, get people fired up and drum up support. A far as coaching, offensively he is very good. His teams will turn the ball over too much, but they generally find a way to score against average to decent defenses. Recruiting, again at least initially, should be impressive.
The negatives...the things that have been touched on above are pretty accurate. His defenses are, with some rare exceptions, poor. His overall problem, in my view, is that his act just wore thin with everybody after a while. He whines, makes excuses, and panics in recruiting. Local talent and coaches completely turned him off. This state produced 23 4-stars or better in his last four years here, and he got one of them. And that one committed, de-committed, and the re-committed, for whatever reason. Other than his Final Four year at Marquette, his teams generally tank at the end of the season. His tournament resume should have been much better given the talent he brought in from 2010-2013. After he underachieved with that talent, everyone here pretty much turned on him.
If he has learned from his mistakes, I think he could be a terrific coach. Problem is, I don't think he was ever willing to do that while he was here.
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lol. Maybe Archie should move Georgia up near the top of his recruiting area list if there is a huge abundance of talent nearby. It's open season on the recruits from out of state schools in Georgia.
Can someone just forward the email from the Marquette fan from 11-12 years ago? It was absolutely spot on and still applies today because Tommy Naismith ain’t gonna change. He’s too smart to.
At IU he didn't "have to travel far for talent" either, but he did because nobody in Indiana wanted to play for him.
No you were't. You defended him to the bitter end.
If I was defending him it was against the brutal attacks on him personally and not whether he should stay as coach. If I wanted him to stay then why did I e-mail Glass asking him to make a coaching change.
I remember some Marquette fans posting that Crean's schtick wore thin. The big problem wasn't Crean, tho.
The big problem was that Crean was all we could get at IU after the dismal mismanagement for the previous decade.
But Crean's overhype, lack of focus on defense, run-and-gun offense without significant half-court offense except for that..ahem..gawd-awful weave, and scattergun recruiting, faulty substitutions, underutilization of an inside game, etc...were bothersome.
Reluctantly, I agreed with management that Crean needed to stay so as to stabilize the much too fast turnover history of then more recent basketball head coaching at IU. That is until the last few years...ugh.
Turning the page...the few fans that I know of Georgia football do not even understand anything but football and maybe a little soccer.
Crean just might be a good fit down there...except that...in the SEC...he will stand out as being one of a few clean head coaches.
On a positive note...he can beat Kentucky.
And he can work on a real tan...not one out of a bottle.
Robert Johnson played 3 years for Crean and 1 year for our new coach Archie Miller. Robert did an interview recently with Max Bielfeldt and was asked about the differences between the 2 coaches. Rob basically said Crean's teachings were complicated and hard to learn, and Archie simplified things, because Archie had actually played the game. Rob said Archie showed them what to do in easy steps, on the floor, apparently to the joy of the whole team. Robert did give Crean some credit though, he said after Archie showed them what to do, Rob realized that Crean was trying to teach the same things. So 3 years of futility with Crean was cleaned up in a short time with our new coach.
Yeah like others have said he was surrounded by talent at IU. He could not get them to come. He turned off the high school coaches in Indiana. The man cannot spell defense let alone teach it.
That said good luck to him and your team. The other SEC coaches will love him at Ga.
I wish him well. He is no longer IU problem. For that you should all be grateful. He is a nice guy and no one should wish him failure.IU was way too big a platform for him. He had a little success but even Mike Davis had better success. I really liked Mike as a person. Miller will do his very best not to let talent in Indiana slip through the cracks.Crean could never get Indiana hs coaches' favor.
The guy loves a challenge I guess. Maybe he can convince enough kids to run and gun to fit into the middle of the SEC pack, but you have to play D if you want to take the conference. If he happens to figure it out and becomes a thorn in UKs side, I'd be fine with that.
The other aspect that I think fits here is that Uga is th inverse of IU. At Uga basketball is a social event and football is the religious event.
Exactly, that's why this puts CTC in a position for possible success.
Basketball isn’t a social event, it’s an ignored event. They don’t care about it.
I always knew TC wasn't much of a coach, but I did feel like 'we were back' because he was a good salesman and because the IU program has so many advantages that even TC was going to be relatively successful. His Marquette record was significantly better than what he did at IU. What I think happened was that he was so anxious to get IU to the top that he took a lot of chances with guys of questionable character//toughness/attitude. It also seemed to me the pressure of the IU job got to him. To me, it's as good an example of 'the Peter Principle' in actual application as you'll ever find. For these reasons, I wouldn't be surprised if his WP, even subtracting his first 2 years here, is better at Georgia than at IU
Good guy. But if they wanted a good coach, they should'v got someone like Kermit Davis.
Most Marquette fans weren't happy that he left. A few knew better, and posted on our board. For reasons that have been discussed endlessly, he was worse for IU than he was for Marquette. I have to think he'll be better for Georgia than he was for IU. That said, he will not, of course, ever win anything of significance.
Yep, a nice place to land. Great city in Athens, big paycheck, and zero pressure to win big. Not a bad gig if you can get it.
Tom will do well at Georgia. He's a perfect fit. He also gave us everything he had and I respect him for that.
He plays fast and when his guys hit threes they are hard to beat and fun to watch. Lots of talent in GA and he'll get some plus national guys too.
They'll beat UK from time to time and make tournament most of the time.
I wish him well and hope to see them in the NCAA in the future.
Go Hoosiers!.
He plays fast and when his guys hit threes they are hard to beat and fun to watch. Lots of talent in GA and he'll get some plus national guys too.
They'll beat UK from time to time and make tournament most of the time.
I wish him well and hope to see them in the NCAA in the future.
Go Hoosiers!.
"Good" guy? Debatable. Good coach, yes. Really good coach, no. If Ga's aspirations match his ability everybody's happy. And dinners with Joannie's family will surely be more comfortable now that he's got a real job. And IU can use the money.
He couldn’t make the tournament most of the time at IU. Did you see the roster he left us? Maybe he can deceive a few good players early in his time there, but people will catch on to his BS eventually.
It's a good job too. UGA has $$$ and influence. Not a second tier assignment.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
Good pros have come out of UGA. Vern Fleming former Pacer point guard came from there. And of course we have Dominique Wilkins from there as well.
So just like Purdue...minus the "great city" of course...
Crean is at a football school and he’s got a handsome contract. Our payroll is lightened and everyone’s happy; even the Georgia fans despite the snickering from IU. After a few years, the frustration will wear off and fans will thank Crean for his service.
It was the same with Davis. The board couldn’t stand him but is generally grateful to him for accepting the challenge during the roughest time of modern IU basketball history and it will be the same for Crean.
Kudos to the board member who blocked Fred because you can’t blame Crean for wanting to coach. With a few good players, he’ll be in the tournament again, and that should be good enough.
Can’t think of a better ending. Georgia is near Florida where there’s family. Crean is going to hook up his brother-in-laws with the football program down there, and there’ll surely be more locker room speeches.
And we’ll always have updates on Crean at Georgia, of the recruits he brings in and his team’s record; and of course the “Crean’s moved on and so should we” responses. You all will be itchin to post about Crean good or bad.
♪♪No, no, no, no, no peace we find.
Georgia on our minds ♪♪
It was the same with Davis. The board couldn’t stand him but is generally grateful to him for accepting the challenge during the roughest time of modern IU basketball history and it will be the same for Crean.
Kudos to the board member who blocked Fred because you can’t blame Crean for wanting to coach. With a few good players, he’ll be in the tournament again, and that should be good enough.
Can’t think of a better ending. Georgia is near Florida where there’s family. Crean is going to hook up his brother-in-laws with the football program down there, and there’ll surely be more locker room speeches.
And we’ll always have updates on Crean at Georgia, of the recruits he brings in and his team’s record; and of course the “Crean’s moved on and so should we” responses. You all will be itchin to post about Crean good or bad.
♪♪No, no, no, no, no peace we find.
Georgia on our minds ♪♪
You were right on on everything but that. "Spreadsheet" implies analytics, and Crean is NOT a numbers or analytics coach. He's a gimmick coach.
