8bucks

The question for me is this. Would he commit and sign (if even possible while somewhere else) now or does he want to wait till then to decide?

He is done my list as well but here are the positives. Started coaching at Manchester where and turned that program around right away. At that level it is not as much about recruiting success as coaching. He took them to a national championship game I think. Then moved up to SWMS and built them up as well getting to a sweet sixteen. This propelled him to Iowa. At Iowa things started well and he had some BTT tourney success early on but the wheels fell off. Coaches before and after him at Iowa have had more success than he did so the problems there had a lot to do with him. Add to that the PP situation and Iowa is a blemish. Then to the Lobos and once again he builds them up to a strong program. Even entered the tournament as a 3 seed only to fall short. Then once again he moves up, this time to UCLA and has not had blue blood success but has had 2 sweet sixteens in 3 years and are liking strong this year. If you discount Iowa (not easy to do) as being too much too early like Belchek at Cleveland then the rest of his time does show some things to consider. 4 rebuilds. Sweet sixteens at several schools. What hurts him is Iowa for sure and not staying somewhere long enough to build beyond a sweet sixteen run.

Does he get any rebuild years at UCLA and SWMS? If those are in your 22 years then there might be some need for that. The problem with looking at his record is, other than Iowa, he builds a program up and then moves up. I would have loved to have seen sustained success at some school. The lack of sustained success is my biggest gripe with Crean.

I know many are not big on second chances but I could get on board IF Alford legitimately talked about how he failed in handling that PP matter at Iowa. Not a fake apology but real and one that would have to convince this skeptic. Then if we miss on BD, SM and are down to the Marshall level I would at least consider him here.

It is not so much that he walks in the door and while the hallelujah chorus sings in the background kids fall down in awe. Rather, being a former Indiana HS all-star, being the son of Hall of fame HS coach and having played at an All American level at the state school he would likely prioritize and connect with kids much better here. Now, I don't think anyone locks down the state anymore but I have no doubt he would recruit the state better.

Pretty sure he was at Cincinnati. At IU he may be a preferred walk on. The Cincinnati offer suggests he has some skills.

So if these soft landing spots-how many have a reasonably good baseball team. I would focus on those

I think you'd be surprised. I bet he would say Davis and Crean were his favorites. I've heard him say this about Davis. He certainly likes to call games for a winning team but he values how he is treated much more. That impacts how he feels about coaches

Week?. Sounds so long.

Good idea on the box and 1. Terrible idea to have Blackman be the guy guarding Koenig. You have to deny him the ball which requires incredible effort.

I enjoyed it and I think it shows what we should have done all year. I think Crean was already leaving and this will make Mizzou or wherever he wants to go want him more.

I kind of wondered about the timing too. I did like what he had to say.

Makes you wonder if Doyle gets done with that and says well that should convince them.

Agree - did anyone notice the student manager in the background. When Crean said that the manager made two marks in his book. I could barely read the front but it looked like it said "deflections"

What did he say really? Doyle said hey are you interested in Mizzou. Crean said let me put that to rest - I am coaching my team and I like coaching here. Can't both be true? Did he put it to rest? Did I miss him saying I am not interested in Mizzou? Or did he just say "no" to that question and then sort of answered a different question

There is just so much smoke this time around I see no way a change is not made. Other than the national guys and Doyle all the momentum is pointing to a change.

It was around March 5th.

Who knows. 708 said as much when he posted. I still think he gets good info but being able to interpret what it means is difficult.

The blue ribbon committee was put together and one of the keys was to find someone who had been to a FF. However, Bennett and Few turned us down, they had no FF experience but were big names. Connecting dots, Kravitz said Izzo was very interested as was Pitino. The post Sampson era caused more than a few of the trustees to worry about Pitino. Connecting more dots that are further apart (guessing). Crean contacts IU and Izzo to put in a good word. Izzo decides to back out (maybe b/c of Crean, maybe he decided to stay) but he strongly recommends Crean to those ha had been talking to. Crean had been to a FF and suddey after some no's he looks pretty good. Dakich has said that when Crean came in to interview he had a presentation style approach and that really impressed everyone. Remember Dakich was interim and also interviewed but he says he pretty much just showed up and later heard about how Crean approached it. So with Izzos recommendation, having been to a FF and excelling in the interview Crean became the best candidate.

Thought there was a thread mods used that we all can't see where you discussed this.

Stu was this one of the first things you did as a mod? Go to that secret thread that identified you know who?

I told y'all we were just playing hard to get. He will be back. If timing is the only issue we can resolve it but that might take some negotiating first.

For those thinking that BDs people could have said no over the phone and thus no need for a meeting consider this. Maybe they gave their timing preferences on an earlier call but Glass wanting to put the full court press on set up an in person meeting to discuss our view of the timing issue. A lot of times I get a no during a phone meeting but can get close to a yes when I have a chance to sit down with a client. This is the same, a face to face meeting may have been that attempt. Lastly 708 did not say Billy said no but that he was a no go. Very easily could be that his people could not meet our timing desires and we are moving on.

Speaking of Mark Few this was an interesting little article about IU. Cowheard and DD talking and DD brought up Few and Gonzaga and how good he has it there. http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2015/06/01/dan-dakich-colin-cowherd-indiana-basketball-iu-hoosiers-elite-program/28300513/

Maybe if we chip in we can book him for our games next year.