Tom Crean joins the search for the Lauren Spierer

Tom Crean's tenure at Indiana has not exactly gone well.

In his three seasons in Bloomington, Crean has won a grand total of 28 games. He is just 8-46 in Big Ten play, finishing in last place in two of his three years. Part of that has been the result of injuries to key players, part of it is due to the massive hole that Kelvin Sampson left the program in. And while Crean has been cleaning up on the recruiting trail -- especially for future classes -- its worth noting that an ESPN investigation into the Indiana Elite AAU program may dry up the pipeline that Crean has established.

Despite all of that, you don't really hear Indiana fans, who are as die-hard as any hoops fan base in the country, calling for Crean's head. The good folks of the Hoosier State generally seem to like Crean, and its not just because he's landed commitments from a couple of talented Indianans from the class of 2014.

If you haven't been following the news, the most heartbreaking story this week is of IU student Lauren Spierer, a 20 year old from upstate New York that went missing at 4:30 am on Friday morning. There have been massive searches throughout the town and the neighboring areas looking for the girl, and Crean has taken part in those searches.


You see, Crean gets it.

He's not just a coach in Bloomington, he's a member of the community. He's a neighbor that happens to coach basketball, not a basketball coach that happens to live in town. And he's not just tweeting about Spierer. He's not just posting the fliers on his website. He's actually out there, digging through trash and walking through fields trying to help Spierer's parents find out what happened to their daughter.

I can't imagine what the Spierer family is going through. I doubt that Crean can, either. But the fact that he is actually out there helping search -- and doing it with little to no fanfare -- is why he has a longer leash than most coaches that win eight league games in three years.


If you know anything, please call the number listed.
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Indiana lands another local recruit

The most important recruiting weekend in Tom Crean's tenure at Indiana is already netting profits.

Just not how Hoosier fans expected.

Cody Zeller, Tyler and Luke's younger brother and a top 25 prospect in the class of 2011, did not commit to the Hoosiers this weekend, but another Indiana native did. Hanner Perea, a 6'8" forward with all the measureables that make scouts drool, committed to Indiana after visiting the campus over the weekend. Perea has a 7'4" wing span, is very athletic, and can run the floor. While he can knock down a mid-range jump shot, Perea is quite raw offensively, but there is enough potential for Rivals to rank him in the top 10 in the class of 2012.

The rest of this post can be read at Beyond the Arc. Continue reading...

Indiana gets another commitment from a high school freshmen

For the second time this month, Indiana head coach Tom Crean was able to secure a commitment from one of the top players in the state of Indiana.

The problem?

Neither of those kids have even set foot on the court for a high school game yet.

Trey Lyles is a 6'9", 14 year old freshman at Arsenal Tech High School in Indianapolis. Over the weekend, after an unofficial visit to the Bloomington campus, Lyles told his parents and IU head coach Tom Crean that he had made the decision to commit to the Hoosiers. This comes just three weeks after James Blackmon, a 6'2" freshman at Fort Wayne Leurs High School, committed to Indiana after the Hoosiers season opening football game.

A lot of people are going to rip this decision, and they aren't wrong (more on that in a minute). But before you lump Crean in with the cretins that take advantage of precocious 14 year old athletes, think about this a bit harder. Blackmon and Lyles are both Indiana natives, and if you know anything about Indiana natives, you know they live and breath Hoosier basketball. Now pretend you are a 14 year old kid from Indiana, and the Hoosier basketball coach invites you to campus to talk, get a tour, see a football game, meet the players, etc. Would this not be a dream come true you?

"The Hoosiers?!?! And they want me?!?!" What do you expect to happen?

James Blackmon, above, committed to Indiana earlier this month.

(photo credit: Indy Star)

Anyone watching this process can bitch and moan and rip Crean all they want, but the bottom line is that he is trying to rebuild the Indiana program. The best way to do that is to recruit the hell out of Indiana. There is a lot of basketball talent produced in that state. Like it or not, recruitment can be a four year process, and sometimes the best way to land a kid down the road is to be the first to contact him.

And that is exactly what Crean did here. He invited some of the best young talent in Indiana to visit the school. Was he expecting them to commit? That, I don't know. But when Blackmon and Lyles to Crean they had made a decision and wanted to commit to his program, what is he supposed to say? No?

Would you? Would you risk offending these families? Would you risk ticking off the Indiana High School basketball scene?

Believe me, I understand the risks involved here. There are so many question marks when it comes to the development of players at that age. How much more is he going to grow? Is he successful at this age because he happened to hit his growth spurt first? Will he develop the work ethic he needs to reach his full potential when everything at this age comes so easily? Will committing as a high school freshman make him lackadaisacal, convincing him he has already "made it"? Can a high school freshman handle the mental pressure that comes from being committed to a school like Indiana? What kind of long term emotional damage will be done if that kid never ends up going to Indiana? At this point, its not even a guarantee that Crean will still be at Indiana in 2014.

14 year olds are still children. They are still very much works in progress, both mentally and physically. No matter how much natural talent a player has at that age, it is developing the ability to work hard that will determine how close a player will come to reaching their potential.

There are so many stories out there about the hyped middle schoolers that never quite make it. Andre Allen went from being the best eighth grader in the country to being Derrick Rose's back up as a senior at Memphis and getting suspended from the Final Four. Demetrius Walker had an SI article written about him, labeling him the next LeBron James, in 2005, and just transferred out of Arizona State. Taylor King committed to UCLA as a freshman in high school, and now is playing at Concordia, an NAIA school in California. Hell, even Derrick Caracter, who was recently taken in the second round by the Lakers, needed to get kicked out of Louisville to figure out that he needed to a work ethic if he wanted to make it.

Accepting a commitment from a player this age feels wrong. In fact, I would agree with anyone that argued against this practice.

And while it may seem like I am justifying the practice, I find it difficult to fault Crean in this situation. Blame the rules, not the man taking advantage of them.
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Tom Crean scolds Indiana fans

Last night, Maryland and Indiana did battle in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, and despite a valiant effort from the still-rebuilding Hoosiers, Maryland pulled away late, winning 80-68.

While Crean was likely upset with the way that his team finished the game, he was livid with the way the IU fans finished the game. Rick Bozich explains:

But late in the game, the IU students sitting on the East side of Assembly Hall started chanting a vulgarity at Maryland senior guard Greivis Vazquez. The vulgarity concerned a female body part, not the one in the Seinfeld episode.

That, rightfully, annoyed Crean. He tried to grab the Assembly Hall microphone to lecture the crowd to knock it off, but the game officials would not let him.

He apologized to Maryland coach Gary Williams, as well as Vazquez.

Then came his press conference:



This is a good move by Crean, especially form a PR standpoint. College basketball games are a family event, and as such, chanting "vulgarities" should not be tolerated. It becomes even more important to prevent such things when you are the head coach at a university with stuffy, old school, set-in-their-way boosters with deep pockets.

Having said that, this is college, these are college kids, and chanting vulgarities are just one of the things that college kids do. Eamonn Brennan at the Dagger says it best:

on one hand, Crean is doing the upstanding thing. Good sportsmanship precludes chanting profanities at opposing players, no matter how much you may hate them. (I have a feeling Maryland's Greivis Vasquez was a prime target; he was jawing in his typical Greivis way for much of the night.) And he's also doing the smart thing; acting huffy about naughty words -- asserting Indian's superiority in this regard -- is exactly the sort of thing his aging, good-old-days, money-puking booster base wants to hear.

On the other hand, though ... it happens. They're college kids. They swear sometimes. After the game is over and the swearing subsides, many of them will return to their dorms and illicitly consume alcohol and other substances. This is what college kids do. And it happens all over: It was just a few years ago that Maryland's own fan base resorted to chants of "F**k you, J.J." almost anytime Duke All-American J.J. Redick touched the ball.

In a way, Crean ends up looking like an out of touch scold. Which, again, might be exactly what he's going for.

Whatever you believe, the bottom line is that its not a good thing when your coach says that the fans brought more energy than the team did for a nationally televised game.

Crean has a lot bigger fish to fry than editing IU's student section.

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9/18 - Some Link, Some News

-I thought that it would take Tom Crean three or four years to rebuild the Indiana Hoosiers basketball program, but after Crean signed Christan Watford, a 6'7" combo forward from Alabama and a consensus top 40 recruit, it looks like Indiana may be able to compete before that. Watford joins Maurice Creek (Rivals No. 59), Derek Elston (98), Jordan Hulls (106), and Bobby Capobianco (as well as Georgetown transfer Jeremiah Rivers, who will become eligible for the 2009-2010 season), giving Indiana what is just about guaranteed to be a top 10 recruiting class in 2009. The best news? Crean can recruit Indiana. Elston (Tipton) and Hulls (Bloomington) are two of the best local products. Crean also has 10 new faces coming into Bloomington (eight freshman and two JuCo transfers) this season, led by 6'4" guards Verdall Jones and Nick Williams.

-Yesterday we wrote about the newest trouble arising in Tuscon, Lute Olson's alleged recruiting violation. GoAZCats.com is probably the best place to get up to date news on all Arizona Wildcat athletics, but they have yet to report on the possible violation (although they were the ones to break the story about Abdul Gaddy re-committing). Gary Parrish tells us why. Jim Storey, the man whose AAU Tournament was the destination for the illegal funds Olson was trying to get from donors, also just happens to be the creator and principal of GoAZCats. Interesting.

-Last year, Duke Crews was the starting power forward for Tennessee before an injury, a suspension, and a heart condition combined to end his season. This year, Crews will be the starting power forward for DII Bowie State. Crews was kicked off the team at Tennessee, along with fellow sophomore Ramar Smith, for failing drug tests and decided to go to a DII school so he wouldn't have to sit out a year.

-Alex Stephenson still has not been cleared to play for USC this year, as he is awaiting word on whether he will get a waiver (aka the Tyler Smith waiver) because of the health of his father.

-Luke Harangody vs. Tyler Hansbrough. Both put up similar numbers, but one has much more star power than the other.

-Seth Davis of SI.com wrote an interesting piece looking at five teams that took trips abroad to play exhibitions during the summer.

-ESPN's Dana O'Neil catches up with John Chaney.

-Which state has the best overall college basketball? Storming the Floor tries to find out.

-Former Illinois guard Jamar Smith has received 18 months probation for violating a court order after his 2007 DUI, where he crashed into a tree and left teammate Brian Carlswell severely injured in the car.

-I don't like getting into recruiting too much, but there were some big signings yesterday - Tyler Honeycutt to UCLA and Avery Bradley to Texas. Continue reading...