Hello Marq Fan

[Brewtown Andy]

  As far as not bringing in bigs, IU has Tom Pritchard 6-9 returning and in 09 Bawa Muniru 7' monster w (offers from Lou, Okla, Okla St, Kentucky, and Auburn) D. Elston 6-8, Bobby Capobianco 6-8, and Christian Watford 6-8.............

Recruits that haven't arrived on campus can't be counted in that discussion.  And Pritchard would probably be in the top 5 6'8"+ guys Crean ever brought to Marquette.

[NCMUFan]

C&C toward the end of Creans coaching, there were two camps regarding Tom Crean.  The first who wanted to fire him, the second that defended him.  In the end, the firing camp was delighted he left.  I would say the defending camp split.  Some remained objective and saw the good he did for the program.  The others felt betrayed.  Hence, it is really hard to stereotype a Marquette fan on how they feel about Tom Crean.  Everything you read about Crean in this tread and others are true.  Just whose eyes do you want to look through.  You have your own rose colored sun glasses on.  In the end I think Crean was ready to move on from Marquette.  But also, I think Marquette was ready to move forward from Crean.  The BEAST is a brutal conference.  Crean did his best and I appreciate it.  But I think the great majority of Marquette fans are excited about our new coach and the players he is bringing in.  To us, Tom Crean is a memory but he is your future.  Good luck, GO MARQUETTE!

[muhoops1]

Joanie,

Hope everyone enjoys Indiana. It's Indiana.  Good to hear from you so soon.

[VegasWarrior77]

Joanie,

Hope everyone enjoys Indiana. It's Indiana.  Good to hear from you so soon.

Didn't you mean Abe?

[wadesworld]

TC is still a very young man, he can learn from his mistakes....  and I am sure he will.   As far as not bringing in bigs, IU has Tom Pritchard 6-9 returning and in 09 Bawa Muniru 7' monster w (offers from Lou, Okla, Okla St, Kentucky, and Auburn) D. Elston 6-8, Bobby Capobianco 6-8, and Christian Watford 6-8.............

Things are going to be OK at IU.  

When we land Irving and or Teague it is on once again in Hoosier land.  And I expect both will sign, however they may both be one and done's.....

CNC, I don't think you understand.  You're on an MU board, we don't care how Indiana does and whether or not things will be OK there.

Let's just say this about Tom Crean...I would not be at all surprised if you were Tom Crean, coming onto the MU board to defend yourself and make yourself look like a savior.  That is exactly why a lot of MU fans couldn't and can't stand Tanning Tom Crean.  (Also if you didn't notice he's always extremely tan, even in December in Wisconsin, and no, that is not his natural skin color...again, you can say "so what?" but it says more that he is more about his own appearance than he is about anything else)

[thatman32]

crimensonNCrean are you trying to be crimsonNd-bag because your doing a good job at it.  keep it up!!! 

You got a good summary as to why people don't like him.  Did I mention again that he has an inability to recruit quality big men.  This should once be emphasized because he never did it(1 year doesn't count because that is a statistical outlier, like D-Wade, - meaning an event that doesn't happen that often or RARELY EVER).  I don't know what lies he plans on spewing toward those big men but good god.

He had his chances and as Pat Riley would say "Coulda Woulda Shoulda"!!!

[77ncaachamps]

If you ignore the posters MR.HAYWARD,4everwarriors, & PuertoRicanNightmare you will see most of us are happy with the success TC brought, but fairly disappointed how he left (in the cover of darkness with ESPN telling his 4 starting seniors he left to IU).

Yes he is salesman, yes he is egotistical, and yes he knows how to recruit. His coaching is still fairly up in the air, seemed to over-coach at times.

After touting "family," the above bold statement was the biggie.

After years of being "classy," that move was classless.

[Markusquette]

Crean was a good coach here but definitely huge ego and overrated.  I also don't believe he was a GREAT recruiter as I still fully believe not even he knew Wade would be half as good as he is now.  It was just kind of a freak thing where Wade just became amazing.  I mean props for finding him and all which is impressive.  But people are just angry in the manner Crean left and realized how he only cares about himself.  Not even telling your team you are leaving is just pathetic.  I mean, IU is definitely a better job with the legacy and offers better recruiting but you would think he would leave in a respectable manner.

[warriormom]

TC is still a very young man, he can learn from his mistakes....  and I am sure he will.

Don't count on it.  His huge ego as mentioned by others gets in the way of him believing he makes mistakes.
Thanks Crean for turning our program around.....but now he's dead to me.  His true self couldn't help but come out in the manner in which he left. 

[tower912]

Crean ran a clean program and graduated his players.   He promoted the hell out of the MU program and himself.   He is a human being with flaws and a coach with weaknesses/blindspots.   I would give him a solid B/B+ for his time at MU.  I got over his departure in about a week.  And I think that being at IU will take care of his MU weakness of being unable to recruit quality bigs.   This weakness led to his fundamental coaching weakness of very poor in-game adjustments.   
     There is a better than 50/50 chance he will be more successful at IU than he was at Marquette.    So be it.   There is a better than 50/50 chance that Buzz Williams will do better at Marquette than Crean did.   And in the end, that is what I care about.

[avid1010]

I do a lot of interviewing in my job, and one thing we clearly focus on is behavior based questions, and when we look into a candidates past work experience we often see a different picture from what they are claiming their future will bring.  Many people have already pointed out his strengths and weaknesses.  The one thing any employer of TC's has to understand, from past behavior, is that he will act as an individual in deciding upon his future, and will do whatever he feels is best for him at any given moment.  If you see the success from TC that IU requires from its coach I'd be willing to bet he'll be entertaining offers from the NBA in no time.  While some feel IU is a better job than MU, and understand his move, you also need to understand there will always be jobs better than IU.  He runs an offense that is very NBA like, and while that plays well with recruits, you better believe he'll also use that to work towards his advantage if he sees success at IU.  If a man is willing to leave the 3 amigos, without consulting them, the university or his family I wouldn't ever feel comfortable with him as my coach if he is having success.

[Tugg Speedman]

C'mon now..  Indiana is all over Irving and Teague and should land them....  add Carlino in 2011 and IU WILL be back to a top 5 squad.

CNC  If you're top 5, tell me who you are going to be better than?  Which FIVE of the following programs will be worse than IU in three years?

Izzo at MSU
Matta at OSU (look at who he recruits!)
Williams at UNC
Self at KU
Calhourn at Uconn
Coach K at Duke
Howland at UCLA
Calipari at KU
Pitino at 'ville

In three years a typical IU season will end with you ranked 14th, finish second or third in the B10 (behind MSU and OSU) and exit in the second round ot the tourney.  Why do I say this?  Because this is what Crean did at MU.

Your statements are exactly why you've seen a few posters say "Crean was good for MU."  MU did not expect to be "top 5".  You do.  What I described above made MU happy.  You'll run him out of town for this kind of "failure?"

[GOMU1104]

Crean will be able to consistently recruit better players at IU, than he did at MU.  I doubt he will have the type of drop off in recruiting classes at IU than he did at MU.

[CrimsonNCrean]

Thanks for all of the opinions.......  I am hoping for the best for TC and Buzz.....

Time will tell, and IU fans have big expectations for the program....  not necessarily this coming season but definitely in the 10/11 campaign (at least a tourney bid ).  He took over a miserable situation that got even twice as bad once he arrived.  And look at what he left at MU to come to IU, I have a lot of respect for him for doing that...  not many coaches would leave a top 10 team for a train wreck.

If he can just land the big fish in state he will be fine, and it appears he is well on his way towards doing just that.  Teague, Ferguson, Patterson, Zeller, Plumlee, and DSV....

It appears that the move on TC's part was right for both sides.  He is exactly what IU needed at the exact time...   and it sounds like Buzz is exactly what MU needed at the exact time.  It is to bad James had to go and get hurt,  MU would have had a very strong chance at final 8 at least......

Good luck next season Eagle fans......

[TJ]

Crean will be able to consistently recruit better players at IU, than he did at MU.  I doubt he will have the type of drop off in recruiting classes at IU than he did at MU.

If you really look at it, Crean has never been able to bring in quality talent without ample playing time to offer.  Top 5 programs don't have that problem.  We'll see what happens in 2 years when Crean doesn't get to say to kids "there's no one else on the team.  You're the star I need to put this together.  You're looking at 40 minutes a game at Indiana."

Maybe he'll do better than he did here, but he hasn't proven an ability to recruit without some version of the above speech being true.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

You'll learn. Come back here in a few years and let us know how you feel about him. Anybody with any ounce of character judgement will learn quite quickly what a horse's ass he is.

Incidentally, Indiana used to be my second favorite team. 

[CrimsonNCrean]

You'll learn. Come back here in a few years and let us know how you feel about him. Anybody with any ounce of character judgement will learn quite quickly what a horse's ass he is.

Incidentally, Indiana used to be my second favorite team. 

Are all of you that are bringing up his "character flaws" basing this on the way he left?  What else did he do, you all make it sound like he beats children, and kicks puppies for fun, did he refuse to sign some autographs for sick kids?  .....  I grew up in Indiana during the Bob Knight era and I guarantee you TC cant be any more abrasive than the General was.....

Every one in the media likes him, his ex players like him, the IU ex players like him, and nobody nationally appears to have an axe to grind with him.  I am puzzled where all of this comes from.

that is why I made this post, to see if I could get some examples of his wrong doing...  but all I am getting is "opinions" on him.

But, seriously what did he do that was so offensive to everyone?

[warriorfred]

CnC,

I'll offer my opinion, but it is an opinion shared by a number of MU fans, Crean's last three years at Marquette were a tremendous disappointment.  One NCAA tournament win (against a badly undermanned Kentucky team, that probably should have been in the NIT), with consistent top 25 talent, showed the man was a horrible in-game coach.

If you're questioning some of the late game play now, let us know how you feel in the next two years when Indiana has top 10 talent and cannot get beyond the second round of the tourney.  The man is a sub-par game coach, and you will scratch your head at the lack of player development.

Crean did a lot of good things for Marquette, I will applaud his service, but he was not the coach to take the program to the next level. 

[GOMU1104]

If you really look at it, Crean has never been able to bring in quality talent without ample playing time to offer.  Top 5 programs don't have that problem.  We'll see what happens in 2 years when Crean doesn't get to say to kids "there's no one else on the team.  You're the star I need to put this together.  You're looking at 40 minutes a game at Indiana."

Maybe he'll do better than he did here, but he hasn't proven an ability to recruit without some version of the above speech being true.

Recruiting at Indiana will be different for TC than it was at MU.


Remember, "It's Indiana."  As dumb as it sounds, its very true.

[CrimsonNCrean]

CnC,

I'll offer my opinion, but it is an opinion shared by a number of MU fans, Crean's last three years at Marquette were a tremendous disappointment.  One NCAA tournament win (against a badly undermanned Kentucky team, that probably should have been in the NIT), with consistent top 25 talent, showed the man was a horrible in-game coach.

If you're questioning some of the late game play now, let us know how you feel in the next two years when Indiana has top 10 talent and cannot get beyond the second round of the tourney.  The man is a sub-par game coach, and you will scratch your head at the lack of player development.

Crean did a lot of good things for Marquette, I will applaud his service, but he was not the coach to take the program to the next level. 

Yes there were a couple of games in the Big 10 season that left me scratching my head thinking "wtf was he thinking"  hehe.....  but, the team was terribly out maned and we simply did not have a true point guard.  If Rivers had been eligible last season he would have gotten us into double digit wins.  But all in all the team did improve from beginning to end, and VJ3 really came on late in the season.  He was our best player by far the last 10 games...  and probably our worst the first 10 games.

Who knows.....  time will tell, at least he is all over the instate talent where Mike Davis let an All American team slip right through his hands at IU.....  Odon, Connelly, McRoberts, Teague, Carney, Harangody and on and on.....  so depressing....

By the way, Wisconsin has been producing some very good talent the last several years...  I bet MU and Wisc have had some nice recruiting battles lately......

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Are all of you that are bringing up his "character flaws" basing this on the way he left?  What else did he do, you all make it sound like he beats children, and kicks puppies for fun, did he refuse to sign some autographs for sick kids?  .....  I grew up in Indiana during the Bob Knight era and I guarantee you TC cant be any more abrasive than the General was.....

Every one in the media likes him, his ex players like him, the IU ex players like him, and nobody nationally appears to have an axe to grind with him.  I am puzzled where all of this comes from.

that is why I made this post, to see if I could get some examples of his wrong doing...  but all I am getting is "opinions" on him.

But, seriously what did he do that was so offensive to everyone?

I could care less how he left. I'm just glad he did.

[ChicosBailBonds]

CnC,

I'll offer my opinion, but it is an opinion shared by a number of MU fans, Crean's last three years at Marquette were a tremendous disappointment.  One NCAA tournament win (against a badly undermanned Kentucky team, that probably should have been in the NIT), with consistent top 25 talent, showed the man was a horrible in-game coach.

If you're questioning some of the late game play now, let us know how you feel in the next two years when Indiana has top 10 talent and cannot get beyond the second round of the tourney.  The man is a sub-par game coach, and you will scratch your head at the lack of player development.

Crean did a lot of good things for Marquette, I will applaud his service, but he was not the coach to take the program to the next level. 

That first NCAA year we were picked 13th in the Big East, finished 4th and you were disappointed?  That team had 3 freshman starting.

The second NCAA team had our best player in a cast.

The third NCAA team won a NCAA game and lost to a top 10 team in the country on a miracle last second shot.

Your expectations were to do better?  Based on what considering the experience, injuries and who we were playing?

[Freeport Warrior]

I think we can all agree that the first few years of Crean ('99 - '04), most of us were pretty psyched to have the Tan Caveman as our coach, then lead us to the Final 4.  After that, he missed on a ton of recruiting (especially big men) and his lack of x and o's coaching skills were exposed. I can't tell you how many times I sat at the Bradley Center and watched Crean's zone offense consist of chucking it around the outside for 30 seconds then driving and taking a bad shot or 3. He is not a good strategic coach, and he is horrible at modifying his approach. Everyone in the world knew that Stanford was going to throw the ball inside to a Lopez in the NCAAs two years ago and there was Crean staying "man" D with a 6' 8" guy behind Lopez -- no double-team, no denying the ball, nothing.  So instead of forcing one of Stanford's guards to make an outside shot, Lopez gets it within 6 feet and makes the shot -- classic Crean.

But what I detest most about him is the way he left our cupboard bare.  In a sense, he had to leave.  He had not successfully recruited beyond guards for two/three years and because of it, he would have had the same team in '08-'09 with even less depth, and absolutely nothing coming in the pipeline (other than guards). I think last year's three seniors were also starting to tune him out. I would also say that the Tan Man destroyed Wesley Matthews.  You could see what Matthews was able to do once Crean left -- he was finally running free, in an offense that played to his and Jerel's strengths.  I don't necessarily think Buzz is a superior coach as he is much more ego-less and flexible.

And finally, Crean tried to ditch us after the Final Four and his ego got in the way of his "secret" U of Illinois interview.  Their AD recognized his out of control ego and limited track record.  I heard that he then came back to MU and leveraged us for more money saying IL had an offer -- and they did -- to Bruce Weber.  He was trying to leave MU the entire last half of the season he was coaching us.  A friend in the national sporting media told me in early February of that year, that Crean's dream job was Indiana and that he was waiting for all the chips to fall so he could go there. He was courting them. The chips fell perfectly with Sampson and wallah, he's gone.

Coaches get success and they leave.  I get it. But Crean was always about Crean.  I think Buzz will eventually leave us and go to a Texas or Oklahoma school to be back home. But I think Buzz's approach is more based on doing the right thing, and to a certain extent, his relationship with God (not to get religious).  I just feel like when he eventually does leave, he will do it right and we will all wish him well.

Enjoy your Crean euphoria while it lasts. Now, I actually root for Bucky to win two games a year!

[StillAWarrior]

Every one in the media likes him, his ex players like him, the IU ex players like him, and nobody nationally appears to have an axe to grind with him.  I am puzzled where all of this comes from.

If you have lurked on this board, you will know that a lot of us are puzzled where all of this comes from too.  He was a good (not great) coach for us, and he did a great job marketing the program (and, yes, marketing himself).  We got college Gameday, we had lots of good press, and he put us back on the map.  This was in addition to putting a competitive team on the court in a very tough conference.  I think most fans are fairly appreciative of what he accompished at Marquette, and those that absolutely hate him are in a small minority.

All in all, he set the stage pretty well for Buzz.  I hope Buzz takes full advantage.

[DomJamesToTheBasket]

Everyone was pissed at how TC left. Now that the dust has settled, the vast majority of fans have moved on......Buzz helps. After one season with Buzz, I can honestly say I am glad TC left. They are both great recruiters, but Buzz is totally dominant as far as game-coaching. TC is well below average in that department and that is a pretty critical area. Now that I think about it, he wasn't just well below average there.......he was downright awful.