JSHoosier

I have to agree with Dakich, youth is no longer an excuse for this team.  Especially not for that shit show today.   I've always felt youth was only part of it though.

I still say that was one ridiculously stupid contract.  That's not even meant to show how I feel about Crean's coaching, but those kind of buyouts so many years after one measly Sweet 16?  That is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard.   Glass has done good things, I think he's done a real good job overall, but man oh man he had to be on something to do that.

It still looks like more and more of a fluke as each year goes by.  The best he's done since is still 2 wins short of getting there.   Yes, Mike Davis inherited his best team and is on a downward trend.  It's not like Crean has shown anything other than consistent mediocrity though.  His predecessor at Marquette, Mike Deane, had still won 20 games in 4 of 5 years before Crean got that.  Marquette was wildly mediocre with him, and has been more successful with Wiliams has had his own players.     I wouldn't put Crean as low as Davis, but I wouldn't necessarily call him a good coach.  Good at certain aspects, yes. The results are what they are, and they really don't even reflect a good coach.  I'd say he's good at certain aspects of the job (recruiting, developing guards/wings, being an ambassador), but mediocre at the rest.   He's shown he can turn around a program in bad shape, I'll give him that, but he hasn't shown much more.  Marquette was mediocre with him as coach, so he improved the program but not to the point that some people seem to think.

Crean's offense has no flow, some people have had complaints about that his entire tenure.  There are more people complaining about that same thing now.  The on court product really isn't much different.   Great coaches tend to have the track record to back it up, after a 15 year career.  History tends to repeat itself, Tom Crean improved Marquette to the point of mediocrity so what does that say about his tenure here?  Hint:  it's not great.

I said at the same point in the careers.  Davis has been a head coach for 13, this is Crean's 15th.  At 13 years that number is accurate.  The 3rd Sweet 16 came in year 14 of Crean's career, the direct comparison was just 13 years to be an equal measure.   I did write that Crean has been coaching two more years, which adds a conference title and Sweet 16.  Add those and it takes it to 2 conference titles (same as Davis) and 3 Sweet 16s.   Now that I look, his winning percentage isn't accurate at the 13 year mark.  That's his career winning %

There is a difference between supporting the team and being a blind cheerleader pretending everything is roses and rainbows.  I will always support the team, but I will not be the latter.  Pointing out the flaws in Tom Crean's coaching stems from wanting the best for the program, you know, supporting the team.   We'll lose Will and Evan and probably Noah (I wouldn't stay if I was him).  So we'll be adding the likes of Blackmon, but our only post presence will be Hanner or Jurkin.  That opens a completely different can of worms.  Remember how much adding Cody helped?  He was the only real difference between 2011-2012 and 2010-2011, the rest of the real contributors were the same.   My issue with just saying Crean is a good coach, is that it's not backed by much.  We can hope and dream all we want, but it doesn't make it true.  His track record says he's closer to being Mike Davis, and Davis, I think we can all agree, is not a good coach.  Let's look at their careers at the same point, 13 years.   Crean:  1 conference title, 2 Sweet 16s, 1 Elite 8, 1 Final Four, 60.4 winning %  Davis:  2 conference titles, 1 Sweet 16, 1 Elite 8, 1 Final Four, 60.6 winning %   Both coaches have the one run as an exception, and as each year passes it looks more and more like a fluke.  Crean has one more Sweet 16, but Davis has one more conference title and their winning percentages are nearly identical.  Davis isn't a good coach, but Crean is with practically the same track record?  I don't see how that works.  Crean has been coaching for 2 more years, in those 2 years he's added 1 conference title and another Sweet 16 which is the only real difference between their records and it's not a big difference.

Yeah, if there was a way to separate the coach from the slime I'd trade Crean for Cal.  I'd sign up for that trade yesterday if it were possible, but the slime is part of the package with Cal and I'd steer clear because of it.

Calipari as a "coach", sure.  I don't want all the other crap that follows him, WWW and all the controversy.  Unfortunately, the "coach" is a package deal with the slime.

Make no mistake, I would never want Cal as a coach.  Where there's smoke there's fire, just with Cal there's so much smoke you can't see the fire.   I'm just pointing out that he is a pretty good coach in his own right, and his track record was superior to Crean's when they took over historically elite programs.  Not that I'd want him as coach, I don't want the controversy that will inevitably follow him.

The more I pay attention to him (and I can't stand the sleaze ball), the more I think he's actually a pretty good coach (ughh).  His track record was definitely superior to Crean's when he got the UK job.

Bozich article hits the nail on the head.  The team panicked and when they needed him most Crean had no answer.   If you didn't expect at least a Final Four, you were in the minority.

This year's team at least has enough talent to make the tournament, that won't happen.  Last year's team had 2 lottery picks and 4 1,000 point scorers, they were capable of more than a measly Sweet 16.  They peaked @MSU and faded down the stretch.  As a #1 seed, a Final Four is expected.  Accomplishing less than you are capable of is the very definition of underachieving.

Did I say fire him?  No.  I have said, and still feel though that if he is going to take us where we should expect to be he has to improve as a coach.  Improve a lot.  Right now, he's a better spoken Mike Davis.   He cannot be overlooked for culpability though just because the players turn it over and miss shots.  His job is to put them in the best position to succeed, and we can't really say he's doing that IMO.  This will also be 3 of the last 4 teams that have underachieved.

It sounds like I'm putting everything on Crean, but really I'm okay with placing some blame on players.  I will not excuse Crean for certain things though, like once again having Evan Gordon in the game with the game on the line.  As I said, at the end of the day though he is the coach and ultimately responsible.   I guarantee you Vic and Cody talked with Crean at the end of the season.  Vic was ready to go, he should've gone.  Cody wasn't ready, and Crean said he wants players to be "NBA ready not just draftable".  If he told Cody he was ready, he told him wrong.  So yes, that would be on Crean at least partially.   I utterly despise the oversign.  I think it only causes problems.  Most teams don't run 13 players deep and it's not unusual for certain programs to not have all 13 scholarships taken up.  If I had my way about it the B1G would completely do away with the stupid thing.

He also took Remy Abell with the scholarship that should've been saved for Harris.  Yeah, that really worked out.  Oh, and Harris is shooting 32% from 3 and 41% from the field.  Those aren't that good for shooting numbers.   I've seen UK play, but their players move without the ball.  They feed the post.  Something Tom Crean's offense hasn't done in 6 and 3 years respectively.  Those things don't require talent.   March is when it matters most.  The B1G title is nice (even Mike Davis won one though), but it does get over shadowed when your team is lucky to even get to the Sweet 16.

Kentucky's best player went down with an injury too.  If he's healthy they still make the tournament.   People want to say "if we're not in the same bracket as Syracuse we're in the Final Four" as a way to defend Crean, it works there too.   I've said it before, I'll say it again.  Youth is only part of the problem, this team is poorly coached and constructed (which is part of recruiting, so it's on Crean completely).

At the end of the day, Crean is the head coach and he is responsible.  Jeremy didn't get the inbounds pass in, Crean could've called a timeout just as easily as Jeremy did so you could say he's just as responsible   People say we have no shooters, well that means Crean went 3 years without recruiting one.  That is recruiting, it is 100% on Crean.  Although, we have players that were supposed to be able to shoot (Etherington, Hartman).  So it means he went 3 years without recruiting a player that fits his "I can't draw up a play to save my life so you have to create it yourself" street ball offense.  Which is again recruiting so 100% on Crean.  It's a poorly constructed team, recruiting is about more than getting kids to sign it's about building the team and so again that is 100% on Crean.   The offense consistently has 3 or 4 players standing around doing nothing but watching the ball handler.  Movement without the ball is basketball 101, you don't have to be talented or experienced to know how to do that and besides these players have been taught that their entire lives.  We're now in year 6 of seeing the same thing, which tells me the offensive scheme is to have multiple players standing around.  Which is again on Crean, it is his awful system in the first place.  We're in year 3 of not being able to feed the post and utilize a talented big, again it's a flaw of Crean's offensive system ('offensive' meant both ways).   He is the head coach, he is ultimately responsible for everything.  Saying "he's not turning it over" or "he's not missing the shots" is a short sighted cop out to avoid criticizing him.

If I was him I'd leave just to get out of this clusterf*** of an offense. 

It's been 27 years since we won a title, yes, but we still saw more success in Bob Knight's last 10 years here than Tom Crean has seen in his 15 year head coaching career.   RMK's last 10 IU years:  2 conference titles, 4 Sweet 16s, 2 Elite 8s, 1 Final Four, assembled the 2002 team when he started recruiting again Crean in 15 years:  2 conference titles, 3 Sweet 16s, 1 Elite 8, 1 Final Four   Mike Davis was a moron, and Samsung was a good in game coach that couldn't run a program.  One of those two actually has a career record very similar to Crean's.

Tony Bennett was the first option.  I heard recently, don't know if it's true or not, that Crean wasn't an option at all until Izzo called the athletic department.

I just posted a link with the buyouts.  Holy crap, Crean's coaching prowess aside, Glass must have been on something.

I'm not surprised either, last season was lost because of injuries.  I'm still not over Mariano retiring, this feels like someone poured salt in a fresh would.   I'm already dreading what ceremony Boston has.  They'd better not ruin it like they did Mo's with their "Boston celebrating the Red Sox with a guest appearance by Mariano Rivera" self fellating.

AJ Burnett, man I do not miss having him in the rotation.  Good AJ is a borderline ace, bad AJ can give up 10 runs in 3 innings.   Also, Derek Jeter formally announced that 2014 will be his last season.  Not surprising, but damn I feel old now because I've watched most of his career.

Watch OneRepublic on Guitar Center Sessions, and honestly I'm starting to like that bad more the more I hear them.

Uh, Coach Miller, having the team stay on the court to mingle with fans is a good thought especially for the kids, but does it really matter when there are like 10 fans?   Holy crap, that's an embarrassing turnout by the fans.