It's not easy being Tom Crean

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,164]

I think the fan base needs to wake up and demand better.
Not arguing if he's a nice guy but he gets paid three million a year for better results.
We've only seen the sweet sixteens the past 9 years. Middle tier programs would be upset with that let alone blue bloods.
Nice guy withstanding, stop being ok with this. It's not personal or greedy to demand a little better.
I'm tired of these sympathetic articles. It serves only to lament expectations. I've been a fan for over thirty years and it hurts seeing these teams show no distinct improvement on defense and after all these years that's a reflection of coaching.
I hope he affords more time to teach defense and changes his in game tactics. But if he chooses not to that's on him and needs to be fired if he doesn't go to the dance.

i have a sympathetic side towards Crean but much of my thoughts are in line with this too. I know UK or Kansas or Duke wouldn't be OK with our results.

[mdn82 26,344]

I think the fan base needs to wake up and demand better.
Not arguing if he's a nice guy but he gets paid three million a year for better results.
We've only seen the sweet sixteens the past 9 years. Middle tier programs would be upset with that let alone blue bloods.
Nice guy withstanding, stop being ok with this. It's not personal or greedy to demand a little better.
I'm tired of these sympathetic articles. It serves only to lament expectations. I've been a fan for over thirty years and it hurts seeing these teams show no distinct improvement on defense and after all these years that's a reflection of coaching.
I hope he affords more time to teach defense and changes his in game tactics. But if he chooses not to that's on him and needs to be fired if he doesn't go to the dance.

I think this is pretty much the perception the article was trying to shine a spotlight on.

[mdn82 26,344]

i have a sympathetic side towards Crean but much of my thoughts are in line with this too. I know UK or Kansas or Duke wouldn't be OK with our results.

I definitely get this idea but we haven't been perceived as that in 25 years. Honestly at this point it's going to take a rockstar coach for both sides of the fan base to be happy. Not an up and comer. Cause many people over the age of 35 have the same opinion as you Doc. Those programs don't hire up and comers. They hire proven commodities from the time they became a blue blood. When they didn't they were fired. Right or wrong that's how a fraction of the fan base is.

[biteoftheapple 4,115]

Coach K, was no rockstar when hired at Duke.

[8bucks 7,492]

Is it cynical of me to believe that the two articles written this year by out of town press were invited in to do an articles like this.

I was a Crean guy for a long time and am so tired of the talk and self promotion we do.

[JSHoosier 22,198]

Coach K, was no rockstar when hired at Duke.

Duke was no blue blood either.

[JSHoosier 22,198]

I definitely get this idea but we haven't been perceived as that in 25 years. Honestly at this point it's going to take a rockstar coach for both sides of the fan base to be happy. Not an up and comer. Cause many people over the age of 35 have the same opinion as you Doc. Those programs don't hire up and comers. They hire proven commodities from the time they became a blue blood. When they didn't they were fired. Right or wrong that's how a fraction of the fan base is.

I'm still of the belief that we have to maintain those expectations, because if you lower then you will find an excuse to do it again. And I'm sorry but some in this fanbase have lowered expectations for the sake of Tom Crean (and I'll even include Glass here).

Having those expectations isn't the problem, the lowering of them is.

[Bittersince87 209]

I definitely get this idea but we haven't been perceived as that in 25 years. Honestly at this point it's going to take a rockstar coach for both sides of the fan base to be happy. Not an up and comer. Cause many people over the age of 35 have the same opinion as you Doc. Those programs don't hire up and comers. They hire proven commodities from the time they became a blue blood. When they didn't they were fired. Right or wrong that's how a fraction of the fan base is.

I disagree.
I just want to see quality coaching. For example how many times have we seen let Blackmon loose his man and fall for shot fakes. Good coaches should be able to fix that in course of a freshmen season.
Every fan base has their jerks there is no doubt about that, but I've been around the country and Indiana fans are very smart basketball fans. If we see good coaching, we will be more patient as a whole. Crean right now is simply sustaining mediocrity.

[HoosierTrav 8,299]

It's sad that we have fans and professors who are this cruel, and I get that Crean is a good guy. I think even most of the Crean critics realize and appreciate this. This article really highlights how hard Crean's time in Bloomington has become and I hate that his family has to be subjected to it. I do feel the criticism of his job performance is 100% warranted though. Every single coach in the country, including Crean, before he took the job, realizes what the expectations are at Indiana. This isn't because the fanbase is delusional and cruel. Its because those that came before them accomplished so much and built us into a national blueblood program and our fanbase, collectively, isn't going to sit idly by and accept mediocrity. Being a good person, alone,  buys you a lot of rewarding things in life, but it doesn't and never should buy you job security as the Head Coach of Indiana Basketball. I'm glad he got the opportunity to come back this year to coach this team, because I feel like he deserved one more season to prove once and for all if he can coach a capable team to elite levels of success.

 

The salary is competitive with other top programs, the budget exceeds many other top programs, the facilities are great, the fan base is immense, the winning tradition is rich and spans generations.  It's time for the perfomance to match paygrade or give someone else the opportunity to deliver on what he was unable to deliver on....Building us into a program that can consistently compete for B1G Championships and Final Fours.

[HoosierTrav 8,299]

i have a sympathetic side towards Crean but much of my thoughts are in line with this too. I know UK or Kansas or Duke wouldn't be OK with our results.

They would act identical to much worse (in Kentucky's case) if they had our results. Look no further than Billy Gillespie days. Kansas on the other hand cant freaking miss with coaching hires. Nothing but legends right after one another.

[RBB89 3,497]

I think the fan base needs to wake up and demand better.
Not arguing if he's a nice guy but he gets paid three million a year for better results.
We've only seen the sweet sixteens the past 9 years. Middle tier programs would be upset with that let alone blue bloods.
Nice guy withstanding, stop being ok with this. It's not personal or greedy to demand a little better.
I'm tired of these sympathetic articles. It serves only to lament expectations. I've been a fan for over thirty years and it hurts seeing these teams show no distinct improvement on defense and after all these years that's a reflection of coaching.
I hope he affords more time to teach defense and changes his in game tactics. But if he chooses not to that's on him and needs to be fired if he doesn't go to the dance.

You're tired of sympathetic articles? Take it up with the author. Crean isn't begging for sympathy.

And anyway, all these posts about "demanding" this and that are just so stupid. Are you suggesting that we would've went to the Final Four last year if I had posted a little harder on here or started a FIRE CREAN rally? It's a game. Besides, Crean gets plenty of heat.

The point of the article is that people take things way too far. "Comes with the territory" is a statement uttered by morons. You can criticize without acting like a lunatic over college kids playing basketball. He could make $50 million a year and he wouldn't deserve some of the crap people say to him and his family. His salary doesn't give people the right to treat him like garbage.

[mdn82 26,344]

Coach K, was no rockstar when hired at Duke.

No, but they weren't a blueblood yet either.  Do you think they hire someone of Coach K background at Duke now?

[RBB89 3,497]

Is it cynical of me to believe that the two articles written this year by out of town press were invited in to do an articles like this.

I was a Crean guy for a long time and am so tired of the talk and self promotion we do.

Similar articles have been written the last few off seasons. If we have such an iconic brand, as our fans love to brag about, then people are going to write about the team. There's no conspiracy.

[biteoftheapple 4,115]

Its proof that a relative unknown can succeed, dragging a program to the top with him.

[mdn82 26,344]

I disagree.
I just want to see quality coaching. For example how many times have we seen let Blackmon loose his man and fall for shot fakes. Good coaches should be able to fix that in course of a freshmen season.
Every fan base has their jerks there is no doubt about that, but I've been around the country and Indiana fans are very smart basketball fans. If we see good coaching, we will be more patient as a whole. Crean right now is simply sustaining mediocrity.

We haven't seen good coaching for 25 years.  We are very smart about basketball, but we are not always good basketball fans.  We have a large group of people who sit behind a keyboard saying things they wouldn't say to his face.  Patient?  We will never be patient.  Because no matter what, unless a coach is undefeated and winning by 30 we will continue to nitpick where we went wrong.  I see you have 2 posts, but I doubt you are new.  But, I will say this.  Stick around for our first loss and tell me whether or not we seen good coaching.  Every game we lose people act like it was the worst coached game ever.  I have never seen people commend Crean after a loss.  So I must disagree.  We will never be patient.

[mdn82 26,344]

Its proof that a relative unknown can succeed, dragging a program to the top with him.

30 years ago that happens.  That does not happen at a top school.  That is what I was saying.  Would Coach K be hired at Duke today at the same age when he got hired?  Not even close. 

[biteoftheapple 4,115]

The question is, not as you propose, but if a not blue blood can achieve. I say yes to that, question.

[IUBB666 201]

I'm on Twitter and Facebook a lot. You can look through the comment sections on IU and the older people just complain about absolutely everything. From tom crean to jerseys designs. They hate everything that IU basketball does. They're still dreaming bob knight will come back. It's pretty annoying and sad.

[Striper 192]

i have a sympathetic side towards Crean but much of my thoughts are in line with this too. I know UK or Kansas or Duke wouldn't be OK with our results.

 

 

But I would generally take the quality of the men developed in our program over those at some others (ie UK or KU).  What Crean lacks in some aspects he makes up for, in my opinion, in developing quality men.  Obviously there have been some misses that were expelled from the program (just as RMK did in his later years) but look no further than the quality of Zeller, Oladipo, Hulls, Watford, Yogi, Verdell, Pritchard, or Elston.  Good players but better men.

[Alford Bailey 13,207]

The Final Four part or the part about me crying like a baby as I switch my profile from B-Rad to T. Crean?

Profile change