Tom Crean on the “Toxic” Indiana Fans Question

[Tammany Hall]

Fwiw, Query asked Crean what he thought about this little controversy:

Rumors, questions, and discussions followed Leal’s comment. Are the fans too toxic? Could that be the reason why they missed out recruits or players in the transfer portal? Former Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean joined Query & Company Wednesday afternoon and was asked that question.

“I don’t know if I believe it. I think the fans, from my experience, any booing or any negativity that I delt with, wasn’t anything close to some of the stuff I was dealing with back there with the administration. I wanted every one of our players, no matter how great it was or how rough it was, to understand the privilege it was to play there and it’s special because of those people. There is a passion for that place that very few have.” Crean stated.

“Indiana’s built on the grass roots of Indiana. Administratively or coaching wise, the moment that you forget it was built on the communities, counties, rural areas, you name it, that’s how Indiana basketball was built. You better never forget how Indiana basketball got built. Those people there, they love it. Some of them hate it, but they weren’t born to be Indiana fans anyways. The ones that love it, they love it. Can they take it over the top? Sure. There is NOTHING like it when that place (Assembly Hall) is rolling and those fans are bringing that intimidation factor to the opponent. To get to those days, you got to go through some of the hard days and the last thing you ever want to do is disrespect the people that make it what it is.”

Link to 1070 Interview

 

[HillzHoozier]

Fwiw, Query asked Crean what he thought about this little controversy:

Rumors, questions, and discussions followed Leal’s comment. Are the fans too toxic? Could that be the reason why they missed out recruits or players in the transfer portal? Former Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean joined Query & Company Wednesday afternoon and was asked that question.

“I don’t know if I believe it. I think the fans, from my experience, any booing or any negativity that I delt with, wasn’t anything close to some of the stuff I was dealing with back there with the administration. I wanted every one of our players, no matter how great it was or how rough it was, to understand the privilege it was to play there and it’s special because of those people. There is a passion for that place that very few have.” Crean stated.

“Indiana’s built on the grass roots of Indiana. Administratively or coaching wise, the moment that you forget it was built on the communities, counties, rural areas, you name it, that’s how Indiana basketball was built. You better never forget how Indiana basketball got built. Those people there, they love it. Some of them hate it, but they weren’t born to be Indiana fans anyways. The ones that love it, they love it. Can they take it over the top? Sure. There is NOTHING like it when that place (Assembly Hall) is rolling and those fans are bringing that intimidation factor to the opponent. To get to those days, you got to go through some of the hard days and the last thing you ever want to do is disrespect the people that make it what it is.”

Link to 1070 Interview

He's an odd duck but a very, very good human being. He'll always be part of the IU family.

 

[HoosierAlum07]

Maybe IU should hire Crean to take Dolsons place as AD? He seemed to recruit well, but was a terrible in-game coach! CMW can use all the help he can get!

 

[RegionHoosiers]

That's a great quote. Wondering what he was talking about in terms of the administration.

 

[Chicago-bound Hoosier]

CTC 1
CMW 0

What a mess we’re in.

 

[ButHerEmails]

Maybe IU should hire Crean to take Dolsons place as AD? He seemed to recruit well, but was a terrible in-game coach! CMW can use all the help he can get!

I still hear people saying Crean was great and we should’ve never gotten rid of him. If he was a great coach, he would’ve done better at GA. Pearl has managed to win at Auburn. Pearl has won everywhere he’s been. He may not win the SEC every year, but he’s done a damn good job at a football school. Pearl would probably win at GA too.

 

[RegionHoosiers]

I still hear people saying Crean was great and we should’ve never gotten rid of him. If he was a great coach, he would’ve done better at GA. Pearl has managed to win at Auburn. Pearl has won everywhere he’s been. He may not win the SEC every year, but he’s done a damn good job at a football school. Pearl would probably win at GA too.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever said he was a great coach. But he respected IU fans, had some recruiting success (even if inconsistent) and worked hard. Haven't heard anyone that wants him back on the bench but he's better than the two that followed him.

 

[larlane]

Classy to take the high road regarding the fans from the man who said "It's Indiana" when he was hired. Not sure that quote applies any more.

 

[.Gerdis]

That's a great quote. Wondering what he was talking about in terms of the administration.

and it leads to the question, which I keep asking, is the issue that we just haven’t found the right coach???

Or, is it much deeper than that? It is possible that the IU job is the ideal place for a coach to destroy his career. I’ve seen many people here say that so and so would have won multiple titles here. I have always questioned that.

Crean was certainly quirky and I never enjoyed watching him hop around, but we keep placing all the blame on the coaches. Maybe they haven’t been the problem at all.

 

[ButHerEmails]

I'm not sure if anyone has ever said he was a great coach. But he respected IU fans, had some recruiting success (even if inconsistent) and worked hard. Haven't heard anyone that wants him back on the bench but he's better than the two that followed him.

I didn’t say it was on this site but I have had people say that to me.

 

[kmathum]

I still hear people saying Crean was great and we should’ve never gotten rid of him. If he was a great coach, he would’ve done better at GA. Pearl has managed to win at Auburn. Pearl has won everywhere he’s been. He may not win the SEC every year, but he’s done a damn good job at a football school. Pearl would probably win at GA too.

not a good coach but significantly better than woody.

 

[IUNorth]

and it leads to the question, which I keep asking, is the issue that we just haven’t found the right coach???

Or, is it much deeper than that? It is possible that the IU job is the ideal place for a coach to destroy his career. I’ve seen many people here say that so and so would have won multiple titles here. I have always questioned that.

Crean was certainly quirky and I never enjoyed watching him hop around, but we keep placing all the blame on the coaches. Maybe they haven’t been the problem at all.

Just haven't found the right coach. Don't over think it.

Davis...pretty easy one to peg, at this point.
Sampson...great coach, circumstance and fit was horrible.
Crean...Georgia proved he just isn't a reliably good basketball coach.
Archie...IU, and now Rhode Island, proves he isn't a good overall basketball coach.
Woodson...we're living through that, and it ain't great.

There isn't a common theme among these guys, they're all VERY different from each other. They employ different styles, they have different backgrounds and coaching experiences, some of them recruited a lot of "Indiana kids", others didn't or haven't... Only 1 of them is a good basketball coach though. He was good at IU, he was good before IU, and he's good now.

If any of the other fellows allowed the Indiana experience to "destroy their career"...they're not strong enough individuals to be consistently good basketball coaches.

Find a solid guy, a good teacher of the game, with any sort of dynamic personality, and they'll be successful at Indiana.

 

[Tammany Hall]

Find a solid guy, a good teacher of the game, with any sort of dynamic personality, and they'll be successful at Indiana.

This keeps me interested in IUBB. As discussed in another thread, there are 15+ coaches who would work. This isn’t that hard.

I also hope the next BoT Chair and Pam clean up whatever admin/governance nonsense we have going on. Let the AD do their job. Support the AD and the coach. If the results aren’t there, change the AD, and empower the next AD to fix it. Stop all this meddling and politics and run things professionally.

 

[IUNorth]

This keeps me interested in IUBB. As discussed in another thread, there are 15+ coaches who would work. This isn’t that hard.

I also hope the next BoT Chair and Pam clean up whatever admin/governance nonsense we have going on. Let the AD do their job. Support the AD and the coach. If the results aren’t there, change the AD, and empower the next AD to fix it. Stop all this meddling and politics and run things professionally.

Agreed on all of this. I have a strong feeling that Dolson could be a really, really good long term AD at IU...if as you say, he's allowed to do his job.

I'm sure everyone is going to freak out when May is hired by one of Louisville or Michigan this offseason. And maybe that will be a big miss for us. But there are many, many others out there that could win big at IU as well.

Take some time, research their coaching histories, interview them multiple times...have IU's analytics nerds put some numbers behind the perceptions...find a guy that's proven his teams consistently play solid basketball, that has proven to be able to manage a college program, has shown in recent years an ability to adjust and react, and improve his team through the portal, without relying on it. As you work your way through all these things, you'll whittle the list down to 4-5 guys, and at least a couple of them would give up their first born son to coach at IU.

It really shouldn't be as hard as IU has made it. And I'm now certain, from all the anecdotal evidence, that our Admins have been the main culprits behind our crappy management of the men's bball program the last 25 years or so.

 

[RegionHoosiers]

and it leads to the question, which I keep asking, is the issue that we just haven’t found the right coach???

Or, is it much deeper than that? It is possible that the IU job is the ideal place for a coach to destroy his career. I’ve seen many people here say that so and so would have won multiple titles here. I have always questioned that.

Crean was certainly quirky and I never enjoyed watching him hop around, but we keep placing all the blame on the coaches. Maybe they haven’t been the problem at all.

After he was fired I seem to remember him saying something about hoping the next guy gets the support needed from the admin. Not sure what that would be. He had a huge recruiting budget.

Kind of funny we've gone from oversigning and players getting "creaned" to having zero recruits.

 

[Tammany Hall]

After he was fired I seem to remember him saying something about hoping the next guy gets the support needed from the admin. Not sure what that would be. He had a huge recruiting budget.

Kind of funny we've gone from oversigning and players getting "creaned" to having zero recruits.

Yea. I wonder that too. Maybe he just wanted more time/longer term commitment (though he was signed through 2020). Maybe he wanted to drop a few bags for players (seems unlikely). Other than that — I’m not sure what else it could be. As you said he had the big bbball budget and everything else IU brings. Probably just unhappy he was let go.

 

[h20pls]

Classy to take the high road regarding the fans from the man who said "It's Indiana" when he was hired. Not sure that quote applies any more.

Your post was a gut punch of sorts...it's something that I've been mulling over for a few years.

Whether we're an "It's Indiana" program (as my heart would tell me) or we're an irrelevant program (as my mind tells me).

It saddens me.

I've written several times that I believe NIL and the changing landscape is a bit of an inflection point in college athletics. And somewhere, someone in this tangled web of administration, AD leadership, donors, etc. is missing it...

 

[frikkenfrakken]

Maybe IU should hire Crean to take Dolsons place as AD? He seemed to recruit well, but was a terrible in-game coach! CMW can use all the help he can get!

If he wanted to be an assistant, I'd say sign him up. He can't coach a lick of defense, but he mostly had good offenses and recruited okay. Had success at MSU as an assistant too.