ADVERTISEMENT

Indiana basketball

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think recruiting was Crean's issue?

Maybe my memory is off but I swear I used to hear chatter all the time about the talent he was reeling in.
 
Last edited:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think recruiting was Crean's issue?

Maybe my memory is off but I swear I used to hear chatter all the time about the talent he was reeling in.

Yup, one thing Hoosiers could count on was Crean stockpiling talent. Why, the way he over-recruited it didn't surprise me in the least when I saw him on an episode of "Hoarders". They were pulling High School basketball players out of closets, stacked up floor to ceiling in bedrooms, even some in the freezer! The guy was an amazing recruiter. There are whole high schools in Indiana completely devoid of male athletes. Of course the good ones went to Michigan, Michigan State, etc, but dang if you could play 20 players at once Crean was ready.

Staples ran out of copier ink printing off LOI's. All found signed! Got names right out of the birth announcement pages of the newspaper.

Couple of decades and Crean would have gotten around to coaching that talent.
 
Yup, one thing Hoosiers could count on was Crean stockpiling talent. Why, the way he over-recruited it didn't surprise me in the least when I saw him on an episode of "Hoarders". They were pulling High School basketball players out of closets, stacked up floor to ceiling in bedrooms, even some in the freezer! The guy was an amazing recruiter. There are whole high schools in Indiana completely devoid of male athletes. Of course the good ones went to Michigan, Michigan State, etc, but dang if you could play 20 players at once Crean was ready.

Staples ran out of copier ink printing off LOI's. All found signed! Got names right out of the birth announcement pages of the newspaper.

Couple of decades and Crean would have gotten around to coaching that talent.

Lol. That's the funniest thing I've read in a long time.
 
Yep, Crean could recruit but couldn't coach. These aren't one-and-done recruits either. We'll be seeing their faces a lot the future.

I think that's the key right there (what I highlighted in bold). Programs like Kentucky and Duke can survive off of reeling in class after class of one-and-done players, but that isn't the case for most programs. Of course, even when Indiana was a blue blood program under Bob Knight they didn't have a bunch of players who left early for the draft (of course that was a different era when it was practically unheard of for freshmen and sophomores to bolt to the NBA).
 
Crean's recruiting was spotty. He had enough talent most years (last year a great example) and even got a few 5 star recruits, but as mentioned he constantly recruited and filled up the roster - sometimes taking in guys that had no business playing for Low D1 teams just to fill up the roster, e.g. bringing a guy with size just because post was a need, never mind if the kid could play at this level or not. There are probably 6 or 7 examples of this throughout his 9 year tenure. It was pretty frustrating as a fan. That plus not prioritizing some of the instate guys (Nic Moore, Bryant McIntosh come to mind) who did well or are currently performing at a high level else where were a couple chinks in his rep as a good recruiter.

Miller seems like he is much more measured in his recruiting than Crean was ad likely won't take a guy just to fill a roster spot. But time will tell.
 
Crean always found a way to do less with more.

Miller was a good hire and likely a guy OSU would have targeted had they moved on earlier from Matta.
 
Getting highly rated players was not Crean's problem. Miller is a really good coach. If he recruits even as well as Crean, IU will be back as a regular B1G championship contender in a couple of years. A lot of the top guys left, but IU will still be a decent team this year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: And1Hawk
ADVERTISEMENT