Did you know that MU only went to the NCAAs 1 time in 16 years prior to Crean?

[ChicosBailBonds]

Chicos, in an article Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune wrote last week, he said:

"Again, it's somewhat familiar ground. The summer after Marquette hired Crean, the basketball program tried to burn off a fog of apathy with an event called "Coffee, Crean and Donuts." Seventeen people showed up.

Tuesday night, outside the Hilton Garden Inn in Bloomington, a group of Indiana students serenaded their new basketball coach with the school fight song. The challenge is the same. The place is oh-so-different."

I emailed Hamilton about it (I didn't think it was an apples to apples comparison), and he said Crean gave him the exact story.

I'd love a link to that story.  I was in the room....was it 500 people...no.  Was it 17 people...hell no.  He had just been hired March 30th I believe and was off campus for quite some time.  He came back during finals and we cooked up this "Coffee, Crean and Donuts" as a quick way to meet the coach, have some beverages and donuts while you're studying for finals.  We gave out stress balls in the form of little basketballs to help them out during finals.

Since we bought several hundred stress balls and gave away almost all of them, not sure how the number 17 ever came into being.   It certainly wasn't a fantastic crowd, but then again this was targeted at students during finals so you get what you get.


Now, one caveat.  I believe Blue and Gold fund did a similar initiative not much after ours since ours went pretty well.  Theirs might have bombed but I don't know.  That could be what he was referencing, but certainly 17 was not the number we had based on the volume of stress balls we gave out and the amount of food we catered.

[The Lens]

Chicos, in an article Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune wrote last week, he said:

"Again, it's somewhat familiar ground. The summer after Marquette hired Crean, the basketball program tried to burn off a fog of apathy with an event called "Coffee, Crean and Donuts." Seventeen people showed up.

Tuesday night, outside the Hilton Garden Inn in Bloomington, a group of Indiana students serenaded their new basketball coach with the school fight song. The challenge is the same. The place is oh-so-different."

I emailed Hamilton about it (I didn't think it was an apples to apples comparison), and he said Crean gave him the exact story.

I'd love a link to that story.  I was in the room....was it 500 people...no.  Was it 17 people...hell no.  He had just been hired March 30th I believe and was off campus for quite some time.  He came back during finals and we cooked up this "Coffee, Crean and Donuts" as a quick way to meet the coach, have some beverages and donuts while you're studying for finals.  We gave out stress balls in the form of little basketballs to help them out during finals.

Since we bought several hundred stress balls and gave away almost all of them, not sure how the number 17 ever came into being.    It certainly wasn't a fantastic crowd, but then again this was targeted at students during finals so you get what you get.


Now, one caveat.  I believe Blue and Gold fund did a similar initiative not much after ours since ours went pretty well.  Theirs might have bombed but I don't know.  That could be what he was referencing, but certainly 17 was not the number we had based on the volume of stress balls we gave out and the amount of food we catered.

Isn't it interesting how every stat when TC talks about the early days has been wrong?  But remember, it's the fault of the reporter, the editor, the columnist, the radio guy.  Never Tom.  Never Tom.

It's Crean...It's Crean

[Dish]

Here's the link to the story:

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/cs-080402-tom-crean-indiana-basketball,1,4871728.story

As mentioned, I wrote Hamilton, I said I didn't think it was a fair comparison based on the size of the schools involved and the time of year each event happened. Here was Hamilton's exact response:

"It was Crean's first few months at Marquette, and I'm analogizing it to what his first few months at Indiana might be like.  And frankly, Crean himself was using that anecdote to demonstrate how limited the interest was when he first arrived.

So I'm not sure I'm the one you should be emailing.  Maybe get in touch with Tom and ask him to rescind the anecdotes he's using to make a point.

BH"

[MUWarrior06]

It was definitely Crean who told him that. Do you think the guy looked that up and came to that conclusion? Just as it was Crean who told Howard at the Journal that we averaged 7,200 fans before he arrived. I know this for a fact. And it was Crean who told somebody (Bilas?) that we'd been ranked under him more than anytime in our history. He's been doing that for a long time.

Crean is an ass. He lies to make himself look better.

Tom Crean also lied about having sexual relations with that woman

[ChicosBailBonds]

Like I said Damon, I believe there were two events...ours and B&G.  Very possible that the B&G event is what he's talking about, but I don't know for certain.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Dish

I'll email Hamilton...thanks