Tom Crean was the second best coach in the history of the program...and frankly third isn't even in his rear view mirror.
Kevin O'Neill is not a distant second to Tom Crean. Crean did not do an appreciably better job here than O'Neill. Compare what O'Neill walked into to what Crean walked into. Compare how O'Neill left the program with how Crean has left it. O'Neill raised the program a much greater distance than did Crean. He left the cupboard stocked with better players while toiling in the Great Midwest Conference.
This is not to diminish Crean, who did a very, very good job while here. But pease remember that in the seven years prior to his arrival, Marquette had been in the NCAAs 4 times, won a game in two of those NCAAs including a sweet 16 run, and made an NIT final in another of those years. We won 20 games in 6 of the 7 years before Crean got here. We were not in dire shape, though the momentum was certainly going the wrong way under Deane.
The only truly disastrous period we've had in the last 45 years was the Dukiet years. We are usually a very good but not great program. I understand the Final Four, but if Holy Cross or Missouri pulled off the upset that they were so close to getting, how great are the Crean years compared to Raymonds or O'Neill or even Deane (I'll give you that Deane did it with O'Neill's players)?
I don't blame Crean for leaving us, I don't feel betrayed. There is never a good time to leave. You'd have to be the most ardent MU backer to think Indiana isn't a big step up. He could've handled it better. That's the only fault I find.
