2nd time Crean has been forced to play a mentor . . .

[Marquette84]

. . . in an NCAA tournament game.

He was an assistant under Ralph Willard at WKU and Pittsburgh.  Willard was coach at Holy Cross in the 2003 NCAA tournament.

I can't think of another situation where a former assistant was forced to play his former employer in the first round, no less having it happen twice to the same guy.

[NYWarrior]

lets hope lightning strikes twice.

cuby -- defend the hell outta neitzel, please

[Rocco]

LMAO!!!! I sure hope you are kidding, if it comes down to that we wont get a chance to get our a$$es beat by Carolina

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

. . . in an NCAA tournament game.

He was an assistant under Ralph Willard at WKU and Pittsburgh.  Willard was coach at Holy Cross in the 2003 NCAA tournament.

I can't think of another situation where a former assistant was forced to play his former employer in the first round, no less having it happen twice to the same guy.

Big deal. This crap about mentors vs. students is the single most overblown storyline thrown out by CBS every single year. It's total nonsense.

Would you be tortured to match up with a person you last worked beside 8 years ago?

[msuwins]

Izzo is King.   And you will get beat by 10

[Marquette84]

Big deal. This crap about mentors vs. students is the single most overblown storyline thrown out by CBS every single year. It's total nonsense.

Would you be tortured to match up with a person you last worked beside 8 years ago?

I'm not surprised that you don't have any remaining friendly relationships with people you've previously worked with as recently as 8 years ago.  Your attitude seems to preclude people wanting to remain friendly with you. 

But just beacuse you maintain a policy of burning bridges behind you doesn't mean that everyone forgets who they've worked with. 

Perahps you can share the storylines that are you referring to?  Besides Crean, what overblown storylines are you referring to.  Should be easy, because you recall them happening every single year.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

I can think of three off the top of my head:

Pitino vs. Donovan
Knight vs. Coach K
Coach K vs. Q. Snyder

As overblown as those were, they at least involved players who PLAYED for the "mentor" in the game.

As for your other very hurtful comments, I only wish my former co-workers liked me as much as yours seem to like you.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

As for your other very hurtful comments, I only wish my former co-workers liked me as much as yours seem to like you.

Dun dun duhhhhh..... Meet at the bike racks at 3pm.... there's going to be a rumble.

As far as the mentor stuff... I think most stories get over-hyped (alando tucker came from a tough neighborhood, Bo Ryan coached his way up through DIII, those are just a couple that I have seen in the past 2 days).

Crean and Izzo do talk on a regular basis... just listen to Izzo's interview on Mike and Mike. So, I do think the story could be overhyped, but it is interesting to watch these 2 coach against each other.

[SoCalwarrior]

Izzo attended Northern Michigan University located in.....  Marquette, MI.  We own him.

[SoCalwarrior]

Izzo, Crean finally get to play one-on-one

Old friends facing each other for the first time

By TODD ROSIAK
trosiak@journalsentinel.com

Posted: March 12, 2007

It has been nearly eight years since Tom Crean left Tom Izzo and Michigan State for Marquette, yet not once during that time did the two fast friends ever discuss scheduling each other.

On Sunday, though, the decision was made for them by an NCAA tournament selection committee that no doubt realized the national interest that the pupil-vs.-mentor storyline would generate.

So on Thursday night at Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C., Crean and Izzo will finally square off in a first-round game, the reality of which both coaches are still trying to grasp.

"I don't think it's anything either one of us had any interest in doing. So we let the committee do it," Izzo said. "I think if there's one big negative (it's that) the tournament is a time for the players.

"All of those things are neat, but it's not like the NCAA tournament needs something to sell. I think it sells itself no problem. If it happens down the road, it happens because of the way it is."

Now that it's just days away from becoming reality, both coaches are already in full preparation mode, just as they would be for any other game.

What should make it interesting is that each was already well-versed in what the other does long before the matchup was made. In fact, despite the objections of Crean's wife, Joani, the two exchanged plays over the phone as recently as three weeks ago.

"But I don't know how much that's going to matter because our programs are so similar," said Izzo, who spoke with Crean again later Sunday night after the bids were announced. "For the most part, the staples of the programs are very similar, the styles are very similar, but the personnel is a little different.

"We just talked about some different things, zone and man, and he saw some things I ran that he liked and I saw some things that he ran that I liked."

The familiarity between Crean and Izzo, of course, stems from Crean's four-year stint on Izzo's staff, the last two of which were spent as associate head coach.

While at Michigan State, Crean developed a reputation not only as a recruiter but also as a master motivator; Izzo used the example of Crean putting a milk carton in Morris Peterson's locker to remind him he'd been missing on the glass for a few games.

Crean had a hand in virtually every other facet of the basketball program as well, and all of that served as a blueprint for what he hoped to build at MU when he arrived in the spring of 1999.

The similarities aren't lost on Izzo, who to this day continues to give Crean credit for the remarkable run of success the Spartans have had, beginning in 2000 when they won the national championship.

"When I said (Sunday) that we built this together, I meant that. I really do," Izzo said. "We spent a lot of time at nights talking about what we wanted this program to be from the academic structure to the recruiting to the facilities to the crowds to the - I mean, you know what? We just kind of took every aspect of a program and he was extremely helpful.

"So I never think that I built this and he's building Marquette. I look at it as we built this, and I guess in some ways then I can say we built Marquette, because I think there were a lot of things that were taken from here and what we learned together. And that's kind of neat in a way."

Crean, to no one's surprise, echoed Izzo's sentiments.

"He had an impact on the Al McGuire Center. He was in town one time and put on the hard hat and glasses and we took a tour of the infrastructure of the building, and made some adjustments based on things that he saw," Crean said.

"There's no question he's always had an impact on me. I would want nothing more than for him to have an impact on our program. Our relationship has a lot of basketball in it but it certainly transcended that many, many years ago."

[Virginia Warrior 77]

So what.  The media loves this human interest stuff - they made a big deal about Al and Dean Smith being such good friends that they went motorcycle riding together on the eve of the 1977 Final Four.  The fact that Crean and Izzo are friends or worked together before won't make a difference.

[MU0003]

Regardless of the quality of the story - and I do think it IS noteworthy that it is happening in the first round - is there a possibility that having this first matchup will open the gates to future in-season matchups?

It seems to me like neither coaches were itching for this to happen the first time, but once it has happened - does it lose its taboo and just become a possible non-con matchup?

[mugoose]

they will NEVER schedule games with each other. quote me on that.