8bucks

Could we get this thread back on topic. This is the criticize Crean thread not the criticize people who may or may not criticize Crean thread. We finally get a nice lovely Fire Crean thread so let's keep it on topic.

I think Crean can definitely win a championship here. If you look at the Vic/Cody year where we lost to Syracuse, we were dominant early in the year. We won at MSU, at OSU at PU and later at Michigan. We had a stretch before the MSU game where we were on a roll and had the tournament been in February I believe we could have won. He also took a team with Dwade to the FF. Gary Williams won a championship with Maryland. Mike Davis took us to a championship game. Nolan Richardson won one at Arkansas. I am sure there are many other examples of coaches who had one six game shinning moment and got the championship. Crean is just as capable. Now, the problem is Crean does not seem like a guy who will take a very good team to the tournament frequently. Bill Self is a great frequency guy - consistently getting a highly ranked team into the tournament with a chance to win it all. He just isn't a great tournament coach. Frequency guys need to get very good teams there a lot in order to find that championship. Crean also does not seem to have his teams peak at the right times. BS got very good at getting Butler to win and advance in the tourney. His teams peaked at the right time. Crean currently is not this type of coach either. I had hoped that Crean was turning into a frequency guy. Finding strong 3-4 star kids that stay and develop and compliment with a few 5 star kids so that each year you field a top 15 team that can get hot. His recruiting misses this year have me a little more concerned than our loss to Nebraska because that will hurt the frequency model.

That is what I thought. The feedback is good but sometimes players may not really see it until they get into the workouts.

I still think Glass knows what has to be done. If fans accept inconsistent play and feel pretty good with what Crean excels at and can live with his shortcomings then there will be little pressure or incentive to make a change. If, however, fans don't accept it and push back then Glass will feel that and that could cause a reaction. Sellouts, wining BT titles is pretty good overall and many may be fine with that. It really depends on what the other group does. If they feel things will not change then they get louder or they get complacent and stop caring.

I thought JBj's knee kept him from working out with teams. I know he talked but don't think he was able to do anything physical

Last year even the most ardent Crean supporters were saying elite 8 or make a change. Then the year starts bad and we lose Blackman and the expectations were lowered and most were happy with how the year went. This seems to be the cycle with Crean. Raise expectations - And when we don't meet them do Just enough to stay around.

No one knows how close things got. Just because they stayed the course does not mean things were not close to tipping the other way. When Mike Davis was going through his final years the admin did everything to keep him despite fan pressure but eventually empty seats and loud booing during games helped force their hand. I don't think it would get as bad as during the Davis years because will do enough but if this team or next years miss the tourney then I think that will be enough. Couple that with his contract. Soon you are going to have to extend or make a change. Not the day the contract expires but 1-2 years before that. A mediocre/underperforming year, like we may be seeing, will not help. That keeps things foggy and unclear.

I agree. The seat will get scalding hot quicker because many of us who started to feel good will turn quickly if we continue to stumble.

On a positive note: I had hoped Rob would start to look for his shot more and he has the last few games. Need less shots from Josh and unfortunately Morgan should be limited to put backs or layups. Dang even my positive note had two negatives.

As awkward as that was I think using that in your label for him completely distracts from any point you are trying to make. Don't mistake me for a supporter of his, I am not, but you can critique him without this.

Honestly I would play Diamont. He does not have the arm but is a better leader. Hard to make the switch now though if he did not get the snaps in practice

Could be. If so, Crean seems to have a history of getting stuck with guys who he feels have to play but who are not good for the team.

Football School!

Starting to think Chris Holtman is looking like a strong candidate. They have a strong recruiting class coming in (he can recruit). He is building his own strong team, BS sort of left a weak team entering a tough conference. Holtman took over after the other coach flamed out and has recruited, prepared and coached this group of guys and is having good results. Not there yet but one to watch.

I've noticed that when we turn it over other teams just drive straight to the bucket. They know we do not play transition D at all and a turnover often leads to a layup on the other end. Couple that with a lot of unforced TOs and you have a bad mix. Sadly no one is immune. Rob, OG, Bryant, JBj - our best players, are all careless

We will probably end up in the top four of the conference and the pressure will drop off. Despite how weak the conference is. If we continue to have more wins like this and Ft Wayne then I think they will negotiate an early exit

He was who I thought he was and I let him off the hook.

Sadly before the year I put the pitchforks away. Thinking Crean had turned the corner. Seems every time I am convinced he has to go we beat some folks and as soon as I think we are in a good spot, Ft Wane and Nebraska things happen

Did you really think he sounded definitive? Pretty sure he said he said he was not planning on any changes but also did not rule it out. Read this earlier and tend to agree. At the end of the year if he can find a better candidate there is a good chance they make a change. http://www.1070thefan.com/blogs/brunos-blog/what-did-irsays-words-really-mean

I am curious why you think that. I would estimate his return to be somewhere around 25% myself.

To be fair though, what do you expect him to say at this point. He probably still has some chance, even if that chance is very small, to be back next year.

I did not get a chance to watch our last game (RoJo shot very well) but I think he needs to be more aggressive offensively. Not crazy, but he can hit a lot of shots and as our 4th or 5th option on offense will often have other teams weaker defenders on him. I would like to see him in our top 3-4 scores consistently

Agree. This is a key year. Length of contract will start to be another hurdle for recruiting. Last year for many was the year we were supposed to be better than sweet sixteen or he had to go. Then we started off so poorly, Blackman gets hurt and suddenly they turn it around and we all put our pitchforks away. Now this year, again we have a good team capable of beating anyone but will we advance far enough to justify another 5+ years and an extension? Will FG have the guts to make a change if we get to a top 3 BT finish and a sweet sixteen? Soon FG will have to make this decision.

He had a ton of drives that led to 0 points. He must have been told to drive because he did it a lot. Too many empty possessions and his drives were part of that. There were a lot of culprits though and Josh and the decision for him to be a key offensive guy was questionable.

That guy many on here thought would be fired this year has UCLA playing very well.