It's not easy being Tom Crean

[mdn82 25,510]

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

Ok.  I can agree with that but that wasn't what we were talking about when I originally said what I said.  Wayne compared us to Duke, UK, and Kansas.  I said we had to hire a rockstar to get this fanbase together.  If we hired someone with Coach K pedigree before he was at Duke we would have people going nuts.  This fanbase wants a "name" coach.  That is exactly where you came in saying Duke was a blueblood.  Then I said, not when they hired K.  Here we are.

[Alford Bailey 12,384]

Kansas kept it to a phone interview. LOL.

[biteoftheapple 4,115]

Duke was no blue blood, true. But they did have a history competing nationally. They had been to a few final fours, and the desire to beat Carolina was what gave then drive. We are not blue bloods any longer, correct? We need to find that man with drive and desire. We have the amenities to sustain that.

[HoosierTrav 7,886]

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.

Indiana under Crean has had an equal share of good kids and bad kids that UK and Kansas has. Yes we've graduated more but is due to the fact that we've had far less NBA ready talent. We can all sit here on our high horses and lump all of Cal's players in with the Aaron Harrison's, and pretend we haven't had the Hanner Perea's, Devin Davis', Emmit Holt's, Stan Robinson's, Troy Williams', Devin Dumas', etc. We've had some really good young men wear the stripes under Crean and our fair share of boneheads. 

[mdn82 25,510]

Duke was no blue blood, true. But they did have a history competing nationally. They had been to a few final fours, and the desire to beat Carolina was what gave then drive. We are not blue bloods any longer, correct? We need to find that man with drive and desire. We have the amenities to sustain that.

 

Ha, I don't think drive and desire is Tom Crean's issue.

[HoosierTrav 7,886]

Kansas kept it to a phone interview. LOL.

I wonder who called who.

[biteoftheapple 4,115]

Ha, I don't think drive and desire is Tom Crean's issue.

I am not the one who went in that direction.

[VO5 8,272]

I'm tired of articles like this. Just WIN. It's that simple.

[HoosierTrav 7,886]

Coach K, was no rockstar when hired at Duke.

I bet he had at least one VERY strong reference that helped persuade them.

[HoosierTrav 7,886]

I'm tired of articles like this. Just WIN. It's that simple.

Couldn't have said it any better. Totally agree. I dont want to bash the guy and I'm not going to be won over by any more sympathy articles.

[mdn82 25,510]

I am not the one who went in that direction.

"We need to find that man with drive and desire."

[mdn82 25,510]

I bet he had at least one VERY strong reference that helped persuade them.

 

Unfortunately, so does Crean.

[HoosierTrav 7,886]

Unfortunately, so does Crean.

Except in this case it was a tactically advantageous for Izzo to recommend Crean. Controlling your competition.

[Alford Bailey 12,384]

Bottom line is the fan base is divided ( a ff wont change that) and the program is stuck in neutral. We aren't going anywhere consistently with Crean. Time to go get the guy who unites the fan base and gets to a place where we can play in the Champions Classic. Whats the point of still being an average program 10 years from now?

[BlueDevil 8,687]

Coach K, was no rockstar when hired at Duke.

Actually when he was hired a Duke writer was quoted at the time saying I hope he doesn't last so I don't have to learn to spell this guys name

[Miller'sTheMan 1,652]

Bottom line is the fan base is divided ( a ff wont change that) and the program is stuck in neutral. We aren't going anywhere consistently with Crean. Time to go get the guy who unites the fan base and gets to a place where we can play in the Champions Classic. Whats the point of still being an average program 10 years from now?

 

If we go to a final 4 say this season then Crean absolutely should stay. I am higher on Crean than most (hence the name) but I think this is the prove it year for Crean but the idea that Crean can't take us anywhere regardless of what he accomplishes this season is simply false to me.  

[MartintheMopMan 7,765]

Duke was no blue blood, true. But they did have a history competing nationally. They had been to a few final fours, and the desire to beat Carolina was what gave then drive. We are not blue bloods any longer, correct? We need to find that man with drive and desire. We have the amenities to sustain that.

Well, we are still blue bloods. I don't think you can really stop. They're just a grouping of basketball teams with tradition and a dominant history. Proof we're still blue bloods can be seen in recruiting over the last... 20 years. We stopped winning, but we didn't stop drawing the big name guys on name alone. You think a non-blue blood is grabbing Davis after the last two seasons we had? Plus, blue blood is generally a historical marker so it's not like we can really lose it.

 

The historical hierarchy of college basketball.

Teams: Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, UCLA

Since 1965 (last 50 years) there have only been four Final Fours that did not include one of those six teams; 2013, 1985, 1983, 1979.

 

But, to your overall point? I don't know that "Blue blood" was a way people thought back then. Blue bloods got their designations when college basketball started to really take off in the 80s. By then, Coach K was already at Duke.

 

Duke was already a basketball powerhouse for the area, that much is definitely true. And Coach K was an extremely risky hire. He took a truly horrible Army team and made them less horrible and Butters recognized what an incredible coaching mind he had. From there it's history. I don't think it would be an exaggeration (though dangerous in this particular forum) to say he will one day be recognized as possibly the greatest coach of all time.

 

So, yeah, there was one time that hiring a lesser known coach worked out really really well.

 

I totally forgot what my point was. Or even what you said. I just searched Butters because I forgot his first name and found this great article about Coach K's hiring. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ncaa-tournament-mike-krzyzewski-the-one-who-almost-got-away-at-duke/2014/03/20/5394f36e-b066-11e3-9627-c65021d6d572_story.html

[Defenserocks28 393]

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.

Personally, I thought Sampson was a fantastic coach on the court.  Everything off of it...not so much.  

[BlueDevil 8,687]

Personally, I thought Sampson was a fantastic coach on the court. Everything off of it...not so much.

Sampson is an outstanding on the court coach it's just too bad he's a turd everywhere else.

[KingPG21 6,584]

 

If we go to a final 4 say this season then Crean absolutely should stay. I am higher on Crean than most (hence the name) but I think this is the prove it year for Crean but the idea that Crean can't take us anywhere regardless of what he accomplishes this season is simply false to me.  

 

So if he doesn't make it past the sweet sixteen this year what does he have to do to make you think he isn't good enough to take us anywhere. Cause that would be 8 years with 3 sweet sixteen appearances being the best he could do, and only one big ten championship. At some point he has to do better than a sweet sixteen every other year, or at best two years in a row. And we shouldn't ever have to reload, but with his shotgun style of recruiting we do way too often.