It’s Time To Pay Attention To The Hoosiers

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Tom Crean

When Tom Crean took over as the men’s head basketball coach of the Indiana Hoosiers in 2008, he knew that he would have plenty of work ahead of him. The Hoosiers were staring at NCAA sanctions due to former men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and because of this, Crean started at the bottom in Bloomington as he went 6-25 in his first year at the helm. But the powers that be at Indiana were patient with Crean and by his fourth year at the school, he was able to get the Hoosiers to the NCAA Tournament. To start the 2012-2013 college basketball season, Indiana was the top ranked team in the Associated Press Poll to begin the year for the first time since 1979. The Hoosiers would make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tourney in 2013 and they’ve been in the Big Dance in three of the last four years.

But the State of Indiana is basketball crazy to say the least which has unfortunately put added pressure on Crean. And even though that Indiana went 20-14 last year, there were some folks in the Hoosier State that wanted the school to dismiss Crean. However Indiana appears to have made the right decision in sticking with Crean.

The Hoosiers came into this college basketball season ranked 15th nationally. But after beginning the season with a record of 3-0, Indiana stumbled in the Maui Invitational as they lost to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels to finish in fifth place in the eight-team field. But after losing to the Duke Blue Devils who are the defending national champions on December 2, Indiana has been rolling. The Hoosiers wrapped up their non-conference schedule with an 80-73 victory over the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame before setting out to begin their Big Ten Conference schedule. The Hoosiers are unblemished in conference play as they are 6-0, and overall they have won their last 10 contests. The Hoosiers have beaten up on the bottom feeders in the Big Ten, but you don’t apologize for winning and they have also haven’t left anything to chance being that they’ve been blowing out teams which was highlighted by their 103-69 thumping of the Illinois Fighting Illini this past Tuesday night. And now with a record of 16-3, all of that talk about Indiana needing to part with Crean has been quieted.

The main problem for the folks that follow Indiana basketball is that they still envision Bob Knight walking up and down the baseline at Assembly Hall. For 30 years, Knight was the head basketball coach at Indiana and he was known as “The General” as it was indeed his way or the highway. In 30 years at Indiana, Knight had a record of 662-239 which included three national championships. The next Bob Knight is not coming down the road anytime soon as this is a much different era of college basketball. And the folks at Indiana don’t understand that as Mike Davis was run out of town in 2006 in spite of leading the Hoosiers to four NCAA Tournament appearances in his six years at the school while some folks there still haven’t fully warmed up to Crean either.

The State of Indiana has always produced top-tier high school basketball talent, but being that the landscape of college basketball has changed with more nationally televised games along with the allure of getting to the NBA as quickly as possible, it is not guaranteed that a player will want to play collegiately in his own backyard. Some folks want Crean to bring in the McDonald’s All-Americans in the same fashion that the Duke Blue Devils and Kentucky Wildcats do, but that’s not Crean’s style. Before coming to Indiana, Crean was an assistant basketball coach under Tom Izzo for the Michigan State Spartans. In 1999, Crean got his opportunity to lead his own program when he was named as the head basketball coach of the Marquette Golden Eagles. By Crean’s fourth year at Marquette, he led the Golden Eagles to their first Final Four appearances since 1977 and he was able to send players to the NBA such as Dwyane Wade, Travis Deiner, and Wesley Matthews. At Indiana, Crean can hang his hat on knowing that two of his former players in Tyler Zeller and Victor Oladipo were first round picks in the NBA Draft as it isn’t his style to consistently go after the five-star high school recruit.

Yogi Farrell

With the current Indiana team, they are a lunch pale team which is right up Crean’s alley and more importantly, they are winning. Senior point guard Yogi Farrell is leading the team in points (17.1), and assists (6.1) as he should garner some recognition to be the Big Ten Conference’s Player of the Year. Farrell played with both Zeller and Oladipo, and although that he didn’t come to Bloomington with the same sizzle as they did, he has still developed into a solid college player along with embodying Crean’s style of play.

The schedule will get tougher next month for Indiana as they’ll have five showdowns between that time and the end of the regular season with the Iowa Hawkeyes, Purdue Boilermakers, Michigan State, and Maryland Terrapins who are all currently ranked. And if that isn’t enough, the Big Ten Tournament in March will be another gauntlet to run ahead of the NCAA Tournament. And for any people out there that still don’t believe in Crean and his coaching style, barring a huge setback it will be the fourth time in the last five years that the Hoosiers will be dancing which is a stretch that hasn’t happened since Knight was on the sidelines there; as that should be a signal for the Crean haters to back off and simply let the man do his thing.

Source: Sports-reference.com

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By | 2016-01-21T17:38:55+00:00 January 21st, 2016|Categories: College Basketball|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

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