Coach Crean,
I wanted to take a minute to say Thank You for your 9 years of service to Indiana University. When you accepted the position, your respect for the history of the program and "It's Indiana" absolutely resonated with a fan base that was seeking a coach who recognized our storied past, and a fan base was yearning for a return to national prominence. You inherited a mess (literally, as I think you had potting soil strewn across your office in one of your first days as coach, if the stories were true), and were able to build it back to respectable level in relatively short amount of time. You, the players, and fans were all in it together - kind of a "us against the world mentality." There wasn't a whole lot of winning those first 3 years, but I think everyone recognized that success would take a bit of time, and you had our full support..
And for me, there were 2 significant moments that stand out as sort of a "coming out party" - 1) 11/12/10 (Cody Zeller's commitment to IU) & 2) The Wat Shot (12/10/11). I think all IU fans can describe those 2 days as some of the biggest days for IU basketball in recent years. We needed something to go right for IU after a few really difficult years, and Cody's commitment was the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. And when Christian Watford hit the 3 at the buzzer to beat our arch enemy, I thought the roof was going to blow off Assembly Hall. I fell over in my seat, got a bruise i'm my shin that hut for a month, walked back to Nick's to an inch of beer all over the floors, played Sink the Biz and watched the shot on repeat with hundreds of other raging fans to the wee hours of the morning. "We're Back" t-shirts and "This Is Indiana" were seen and heard for months on end..
Some of my favorite IU players have played under your guidance - Victor Oladipo, Jordan Hulls, Cody Zeller, OG Anunoby, Collin Hartman, etc. You brought in players that we fans could be proud of donning the IU jersey (minus one or two guys, but all in all not too bad over 9 years). Certainly better than your predecessor, Kelvin Sampson. You developed players on the court, and made them men by the time they had left. By all accounts, you ran a clean program and from stories told, if a recruit or their parent asked, "what else can you give me beside a scholarship", you told the recruit he could go look somewhere else. You didn't cave into to the pressures to produce winners at all costs if it meant sacrificing your principles.
Its not that fans didn't like you as person. In fact, I think nearly every one agrees that you are a man of great faith and family. You are type of person who would give the sweater off your back to a person in need. And for me, that is the toughest part of this. To be honest, I think you deserved the benefit of the doubt because of these traits. And it is the internal battle of emotions - on one hand, here is a person, from all stories, who seems to be a great man with a strong moral compass, with a great family, and a love for IU basketball and IU traditions and a capable coach vs. a coach who has some shortcomings that seems to have existed for a long time, not necessarily in your evaluation of talent or ability to motivate players, but a coach who has struggled to win consistently, who doesn't appear to be frustrated by the careless turnovers, the lackadaisical defense, and the odd substitution pattern - that I struggle with.
Coach, at the end of the day, I think Mr. Glass' decision was the best decision for all parties. It wouldn't have been fair to you to have you be a lame duck coach. The calls for your departure, whether fans agree they were warranted or not, grew increasingly louder as the season went on, and it was getting uglier with each passing day. It would have been worse next season if there were some hiccups in the team's performance. I sincerely wish you and your family the best in your next stop and there will be several of us who pick up the paper or read ESPN to see how your next team is performing, as I don't think there is any doubt you deserve another D-1 coaching job. Thanks for you doing your best to represent IU over the last 9 years. We had some great (and a few not so great memories) during this time, but such is life. Best of luck Coach, and go IU!
I wanted to take a minute to say Thank You for your 9 years of service to Indiana University. When you accepted the position, your respect for the history of the program and "It's Indiana" absolutely resonated with a fan base that was seeking a coach who recognized our storied past, and a fan base was yearning for a return to national prominence. You inherited a mess (literally, as I think you had potting soil strewn across your office in one of your first days as coach, if the stories were true), and were able to build it back to respectable level in relatively short amount of time. You, the players, and fans were all in it together - kind of a "us against the world mentality." There wasn't a whole lot of winning those first 3 years, but I think everyone recognized that success would take a bit of time, and you had our full support..
And for me, there were 2 significant moments that stand out as sort of a "coming out party" - 1) 11/12/10 (Cody Zeller's commitment to IU) & 2) The Wat Shot (12/10/11). I think all IU fans can describe those 2 days as some of the biggest days for IU basketball in recent years. We needed something to go right for IU after a few really difficult years, and Cody's commitment was the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. And when Christian Watford hit the 3 at the buzzer to beat our arch enemy, I thought the roof was going to blow off Assembly Hall. I fell over in my seat, got a bruise i'm my shin that hut for a month, walked back to Nick's to an inch of beer all over the floors, played Sink the Biz and watched the shot on repeat with hundreds of other raging fans to the wee hours of the morning. "We're Back" t-shirts and "This Is Indiana" were seen and heard for months on end..
Some of my favorite IU players have played under your guidance - Victor Oladipo, Jordan Hulls, Cody Zeller, OG Anunoby, Collin Hartman, etc. You brought in players that we fans could be proud of donning the IU jersey (minus one or two guys, but all in all not too bad over 9 years). Certainly better than your predecessor, Kelvin Sampson. You developed players on the court, and made them men by the time they had left. By all accounts, you ran a clean program and from stories told, if a recruit or their parent asked, "what else can you give me beside a scholarship", you told the recruit he could go look somewhere else. You didn't cave into to the pressures to produce winners at all costs if it meant sacrificing your principles.
Its not that fans didn't like you as person. In fact, I think nearly every one agrees that you are a man of great faith and family. You are type of person who would give the sweater off your back to a person in need. And for me, that is the toughest part of this. To be honest, I think you deserved the benefit of the doubt because of these traits. And it is the internal battle of emotions - on one hand, here is a person, from all stories, who seems to be a great man with a strong moral compass, with a great family, and a love for IU basketball and IU traditions and a capable coach vs. a coach who has some shortcomings that seems to have existed for a long time, not necessarily in your evaluation of talent or ability to motivate players, but a coach who has struggled to win consistently, who doesn't appear to be frustrated by the careless turnovers, the lackadaisical defense, and the odd substitution pattern - that I struggle with.
Coach, at the end of the day, I think Mr. Glass' decision was the best decision for all parties. It wouldn't have been fair to you to have you be a lame duck coach. The calls for your departure, whether fans agree they were warranted or not, grew increasingly louder as the season went on, and it was getting uglier with each passing day. It would have been worse next season if there were some hiccups in the team's performance. I sincerely wish you and your family the best in your next stop and there will be several of us who pick up the paper or read ESPN to see how your next team is performing, as I don't think there is any doubt you deserve another D-1 coaching job. Thanks for you doing your best to represent IU over the last 9 years. We had some great (and a few not so great memories) during this time, but such is life. Best of luck Coach, and go IU!
