Crean: Goodbye and Good Luck

[Norm]

As a Marquette Alum ('91) I want to say I wish Tom Crean nothing but the best at Indiana or wherever else his basketball career takes him. I also want to thank him for the 9 years that he coached at Marquette and for all the hard work and long hours that he put into the job.

I attended Marquette during probably the worst 4-year span the basketball program went through in the last 60 years (1987/88 - 1990/91). MU had 3 losing seasons out of the 4 I was there. I used to eat breakfast now and then with Dukiet at McCormick. He was a good guy to talk to, but unfortunately he was a better piano player than coach. O'Neill arrived and shook things up, but he was having his own growing pains as a coach then. It wasn't until after I graduated that O'Neill's teams really found success and that was sustained for a couple years by Deane after Kevin left for Tennessee.

While I think Deane was probably the best game-day, bench coach of the 4 that have coached since I attended MU (Dukiet, O'Neill, Deane and Crean), his recruiting tailed off and his expectations of the program weren't high enough. Tom Crean arrived and has taken all of us along for a great ride, and I think that needs to be appreciated, even by his detractors in this forum.

Crean helped improve attendance, upgraded MU's recruitng (Merritt, Wade, Novak, Diener, Three Amigos, etc...) won 190 games, took us to 5 NCAAs, 3 NITs, helped get the Al built, helped land MU in the Big East and took us all along on the magical ride to the Final Four in 2003.

I really don't care if some people didn't like his personality or thought he was arrogant or even thought he was fake. Heck, some of his in-game adjustments and his substitution patterns drove me crazy. But guess what, I was able to watch MU on ESPN and even CBS from my house in Washington, DC and yell at him through the TV. 10 years ago I had to read the results of the games in the paper. MU was rarely on national TV and got almost no press coverage outside the Midwest. Regardless of your personal opinion of Crean as a person, you cannot deny he was beneficial in many ways to the MU basketball program as well as the University.

So, while he was not the perfect coach, and I got irritated with some of his coaching decisions, I absolutely respect the effort he put in at Marquette, I thank him for his service to the school and I wish him the best in the years ahead.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Do you need a towel to clean yourself up?

[Norm]

PRN, are there any clean towels left in your house after your mess? You're the happiest person in the world right now. Too bad you come off as the biggest jerk on MUSCOOP.

[classof70]

Well, said.  Disregard the silliness from that other person.  He seems unable to have a rational discussion on this.