The IUMBB HC's Standard of Success and CTC's track record

[Magnanimous 4,812]

I'll be the first to admit that I had jumped off the Crean bandwagon the latter part of last year/beginning of this season. Going into this year I did think that IU had the talent to finish top 3 in the Big10, but after the Duke game, like many others, thought this would be it for Coach Crean (especially with all of the arrests as well). He did a great job turning this team around and winning the conference title, and the current group of players we have are as good a group as any (character and talent wise) as we have had in Bloomington in a while.

 

While the 2010-11 season was underwhelming, I never considered that his first year to be judged under the normal circumstances of being IU's head coach. There were still missing pieces and the ones we had were very inexperienced with no senior leadership to learn from. The 09 class was on their own. So while some here may disagree, for me Coach Crean had a pass until Zeller came, and even then we weren't completely out of the woods given the large classes Crean initially had to assemble to field his earlier teams, which resulted in depleted rosters mainly starting over again in 2013-14.

 

While the tournament is where he has been lacking so far, many here (including myself) have stated that the standard IU should be aiming for is to be competing for Big10 championships on a near annual basis, since fielding a team capable of winning the conference was indicative of fielding a team capable of making a deep NCAAT run. So here we are at the end of Crean's 5th real season. In those 5 years, he has fielded three teams capable of winning the Big 10. Next year will likely make it 4/6 if certain players aren't stupid enough to prematurely jump to the league.

 

While the 2011-12 team finished 5th, their final place in the standings wasn't indicative of how competitive they actually were. They were only two games out of first, beat all three teams who tied for the conference championship (MSU, OSU, and UM) as well as the eventual national champion. We have no idea how far that team was capable of going in the NCAAT since they were in the same region as Kentucky. If they had played UK in the first round they would have won zero tournament games, and if it had been in the FF they could have won more. To me that team was a Big10 championship caliber team, and 2012-13 and this year's squad speak for themselves.

 

So objectively, is the program now where it should be? I don't see roster rebuilding in our future nearly as much as roster reloading, and if we're fielding Big10 championship caliber teams as we should be, the NCAAT runs should take care of themselves.

 

I know fans still have reserved optimism for this team come tourney time, but outside of a select few coaches, I think Tom Crean is becoming a better choice than many to be leading this team, especially with the changes in coaching philosophy he has shown this season (less grueling practices down the stretch, more game tape review, preaching defense). I've watched a fair amount of CBB over the years, and I can say there are times that his teams play absolutely flawlessly, at a level most coaches are incapable of ever getting their teams to play at, let alone on a near consistent basis. Has Tom Crean shown he deserves to be IU's coach for the long-haul? Not yet, but the pieces may have started to fall into place for this program to be consistently relevant again, whether the fans like it or not.

[Uspshoosier 51,084]

the year iu finished 5th, iu was 3-6 on the road and still finished 2 games back with a loss @ a 4-14 Nebraska team and a home loss to a 6-12 Minnesota team so in my opinion that was definitely competing for a big 10 title. I would much rather finish 5th and 2 games out instead of finishing tied for 2nd and 6 games back like in 1998-99

[Magnanimous 4,812]

the year iu finished 5th, iu was 3-6 on the road and still finished 2 games back with a loss @ a 4-14 Nebraska team and a home loss to a 6-12 Minnesota team so in my opinion that was definitely competing for a big 10 title. I would much rather finish 5th and 2 games out instead of finishing tied for 2nd and 6 games back like in 1998-99

And of the four Big 10 teams that finished higher than IU, only one went farther in the NCAAT than us (OSU). MSU and Wiscy also got bounced in the SW16 (to teams worse than UK), and Michigan didn't even win a game.