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.


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