With Indiana up big in the final seconds of the game, Devonte Green throws up the lob to Freddie McSwain who misses the alley-oop, setting off a furious Tom Crean.
Crean furious his team tries last-second alley-oop
- Thread starter Tango Two
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whatever. I rather he didnt react that way because now this becomes a replay/trending video and draws attention to RU being blown out and essentially needing mercy from the opponent
That was my take as well. I like that decorum is still fought for, but in a situation like this I was okay with it. Crean also immediately apologized to Pikiell for that, and Pike of course said something to effect of "no biggie." But it was a nice gesture by Crean.
Its a situation where a head coach from a opponent is trying to apologize to Rutgers for a bad decision by one of his players.Crean ,however,was pacing back and forth on the sidelines all game like he was worried about the outcome and yelling at the referees about questionable calls. Rutgers will gain respect only when there are players on the court that actually scare the opponent with their talent.Schools run up the score all the time to increase their stature in polls and ultimately NCAA seeding.
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Crean is a great coach and that was a classy move.
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teaching moments, I like to watch Coach Izzo when his team is up 25 and he is screaming at them for making a mistake...thats when you really know you have a great coach
and I know posters will call me out for it (even though I like PIKE) ..but maybe just maybe it is time to stop patting guys on the a$$ for this quality of play and continued mistakes.
He did a great job at Marquette. IU is a bit full of themselves. It's not Bobby Knight and 1976.
It's not about Bobby Knight or 1976 with IU fans. Consider...
In nine seasons Crean has won more than 20 games three times. He has only had three seasons with a winning record in B1G conference games. In 2013-2014 they needed a B1G Tournament win to get their 20th.
Looking at his record he is 104-109 without Cody Zeller on his roster (6+ seasons) Big Ten: 41-72.
If you throw out his first two seasons: 88-63 without Cody Zeller (4+ seasons) Big Ten: 36-41.
If you take away the sub 225 cupcakes from the record, Crean is below .500 in his overall win percentage in years 3 thru 9.
He is paid $3.16 million per year. IU fans expect more with the resources he's given. Oh and the best Indiana HS players keep going elsewhere, except Zeller.
Only once did Crean get to the Sweet 16 at Marquette. But he did return the program to relevance and made the NCAAT multiple times.
Having said all of that, I like Tom Crean and plenty of programs would love to have him. But the results he is getting at IU is unacceptable to a huge segment of their fan base.
His teams have talent, but are soft and dont play D. Not impressed with him, McCaffrey and Little Ricky.
Casually throwing out Cody Zeller is a bit unfair? There have been two fantastic runs by Wisconsin and MSU that very few have surpassed.
I get it, but Crean won Indiana's first Big Ten regular season championship since 2002. And he has won the conference regular season twice at IU ('13 and '16). He took over a team in a bit of a mess post-Kelvin Sampson, has made the tourney 5 of the 6 years since getting over that hurdle, been to 3 Sweet 16s at IU and as I wrote previously won the Big 10 regular season title twice.
I understand IU expects even more than that from an HC, but Crean is pretty damn good (in my opinion).
"His teams have talent, but are soft and dont play D." Poster above regarding Crean.
Wow, how great is that: we lose to a soft team that doesn't play defense. Boy, I feel better now.
Wow, how great is that: we lose to a soft team that doesn't play defense. Boy, I feel better now.
Wasn't doing it casually, I was trying to point out that minus that brief period of time Crean has a mediocre record at IU.
Zeller was hailed as "the savior of Indiana basketball" but once he left the program slid back to an upper middle of the pack B1G team.
Yes, with Dwyane Wade. That is the one time he got to the S16 there, and past the S16 anywhere.
It isn't like turning around Rutgers. Indiana sells itself. He has done a great job recruiting.
Indiana is in an interesting spot. Crean dug them out of a hole. There was the Kelvin Sampson scandal, sanctions and kids weren't graduating.
For three years they didn't go to the NCAA Tournament. Then they returned to relevance but have had trouble building on that. He is under contract thru 2020. At some point the AD has to decide whether to extend him or not. No extension will send a signal that hurts recruiting.
Crean has recruited well but not great. Jaren Jackson, Kris Wilkes and Malik Williams are all Indiana kids who are Top 25 recruits in the 2017 class and they committed elsewhere. Jordan Poole is ranked No. 97 and committed elsewhere. IU didn't even make Brian Bowen's (No. 19) list of finalists.
That's zero Indiana 2017 kids ranked in the Rivals150 coming to IU. Same thing happened in the 2016 class. Zero Indiana kids ranked in the Rivals150 signed with IU.
For three years they didn't go to the NCAA Tournament. Then they returned to relevance but have had trouble building on that. He is under contract thru 2020. At some point the AD has to decide whether to extend him or not. No extension will send a signal that hurts recruiting.
Crean has recruited well but not great. Jaren Jackson, Kris Wilkes and Malik Williams are all Indiana kids who are Top 25 recruits in the 2017 class and they committed elsewhere. Jordan Poole is ranked No. 97 and committed elsewhere. IU didn't even make Brian Bowen's (No. 19) list of finalists.
That's zero Indiana 2017 kids ranked in the Rivals150 coming to IU. Same thing happened in the 2016 class. Zero Indiana kids ranked in the Rivals150 signed with IU.
Someone who is talking about Crean with the proper perspective, IMO.
Great job at marquette, but not cutting it at IU.
He's in a tough spot. Indiana's fan base believes they should be competing for the National Championship every singe year based on past success with Bobby Knight. They've been trying to run Crean out of town for years already.
Agree with the above poster in that his recruiting is not great, especially in the state of Indiana where talent is in abundance. The Indiana kids prefer to go elsewhere and Izzo, as an example, has done better in the state than Crean.
The fanbase questions the ability of his team to play defense. He clearly doesn't subscribe to a pack-em-in-the-paint defense, keeping opposing players in front of them and challenging shots, and his teams tend to react/respond to attempting to disrupt passing lanes via deflections.
Indiana also turns the ball over a lot due to their go-go-go offense. It's as if they don't value the quality of possessions, and instead value quantity of possessions.
That being said, I do believe Crean's greatest strength is developing players although Indiana fans will argue he doesn't develop post players (i.e. Thomas Bryant). Watching Indiana basketball consistently for the past 4 years, his players for the most part get better from year to year.
Agree with the above poster in that his recruiting is not great, especially in the state of Indiana where talent is in abundance. The Indiana kids prefer to go elsewhere and Izzo, as an example, has done better in the state than Crean.
The fanbase questions the ability of his team to play defense. He clearly doesn't subscribe to a pack-em-in-the-paint defense, keeping opposing players in front of them and challenging shots, and his teams tend to react/respond to attempting to disrupt passing lanes via deflections.
Indiana also turns the ball over a lot due to their go-go-go offense. It's as if they don't value the quality of possessions, and instead value quantity of possessions.
That being said, I do believe Crean's greatest strength is developing players although Indiana fans will argue he doesn't develop post players (i.e. Thomas Bryant). Watching Indiana basketball consistently for the past 4 years, his players for the most part get better from year to year.
He was right and wrong in this case. He went a little overboard in his on court reaction. Should have apologized to Pikiell, maybe even have player apologize to Piliell and then handle whatever teaching moment he wants to get from this in the locker room and practice. No need to make such a big show.
Its not the 70s anymore, dynasties are over. Indiana better get a reality check if they expect more than Crean because they are not getting it. The Big 10 is just too tough and there are too many great coaches and more parity. Same deal with UCLA, there will be years like this year where the teams can compete for a national championship but there are going to be alot of seasons where the team goes out in the first or 2nd round of the NCAA tourney as well. Is Indiana going to pry away Jay Wright to come take over. Not sure who they think that would be a replacement for Crean, I cant even think of one right now.
When programs like Indiana and UCLA have difficulty maintaining relevance at the highest levels of college basketball,is it any wonder that programs like Rutgers continue to flounder as bottom tier programs?It all comes down to sustaining excellence in recruiting because the coaches in power leagues are mostly top notch.
