Jay Bee
2003-04-23, 10:18 AM
Jay Bee, Class of 1997.=======
And now for something completely different ... Tom Crean stays.
Stays? Stays at Marquette? Defies conventional wisdom, upsets the vaunted coaching dominoes, turns down one of those monster conference schools with big huge football stadiums that are supposed to be like the hottest cheerleader asking you to the prom?
Tom Crean changes a trend of taking the money and running. (Getty Images)
Heads are exploding all over the gossip grapevine. In a week when everyone is talking about loyalty but no one seems to understand the definition, here comes Crean, fresh off the Final Four and the hottest young coach in the country, and he says he is quite content at Marquette, of all places.
God bless him.
Undoubtedly there are some frustrated Illinois fans right now and certainly Illini athletic director Ron Guenther is off to plan B (Ben Braun? Jeff Van Gundy? Thad Matta? Bruce Weber?). But Illinois will get a great coach. The Illini will be fine.
For the rest of the college basketball, this is great. This is exactly what was needed -- a little patience, a little sanity, a little perspective to an offseason of greed-is-good coaching movements.
A coach finally figured out that the grass is pretty darn green on his own side of the fence, that doing something special right where you are would be pretty cool, and maybe you don't have to chase coaching rainbows to find that national championship pot of gold.
Crean is staying at Marquette. If you happened to listen to the buzz this week, that's one big upset. Loyalty beats opportunity. Contentment beats advancement. The way things have gone this spring that's a 16 over a 1.
Yes, Skip Prosser turned down Pitt a couple weeks ago but that is different. Prosser is 52, Wake is the defending ACC champion and with all due respect to the surging Panthers program, Pitt is not exactly considered a gold standard job. It would have been a lateral move (based on hometown ties) at best.
This is the young coach of the minute, the workaholic who in just four years took MU to the Final Four, broke Cincinnati's stranglehold on the Conference USA crown and restored the glory to a long-lost national power. This is talent, charisma and momentum. This is the guy who no one would blame for taking the Illinois job and settling in for the long haul.
Of all the moves of the game of spring coaching dominoes -- Roy Williams to North Carolina, Bill Self to Kansas -- this was the no-brainer. Why would he say no? How could he say no?
But he did.
Seashells and balloons, as Al McGuire would say.
Crean is one of the most competitive people you will ever meet. He spends his entire life trying to get better at every single endeavor. He is a thinker, a worker, a reader, a philosopher. Nothing escapes his attention. It is a rare minute that he is not working for the betterment of Marquette Basketball.
Which is why this tells you plenty. Crean would not be staying in Milwaukee unless he was certain he could improve the Golden Eagles program. Which can only mean that deep down he truly believes he can capture a national championship at Marquette. If he didn't, he'd be at Illinois, where everyone else thinks you can win it all.
This is a statement that should ring loudly to recruits throughout the Midwest. Crean said no to the Big Ten; you can too. Crean believes you can win the tourney at MU, and so should you. When Crean talks about catching a dream, he's dreaming right with you.
All coaches talk a good game. What Crean just did is called walking the walk.
Plenty of credit should go to the Marquette administration, too. They have done the necessary things to make this a destination job, to make Crean too comfortable to leave. Crean's salary will be over a million a year. The deal will run for darn near eternity.
The soon to be completed Al McGuire Center will provide all of the practice facility bells and whistles you could ask for. The Eagles already play in an NBA arena, have a powerful fan base and enjoy a school with a commitment to winning that runs deep.
Can you win a national title at Marquette? Why not? The Eagles made the Final Four this year, so early in Crean's tenure. As Crean builds the program up, as even better recruits take longer looks at the program, fortunes should improve.
The past five coaches to win a national title were at their respective schools for at least 12 seasons before cutting that final net. (Michigan State's Tom Izzo was in just his fifth season as head coach, but he had spent 12 years prior as a Spartans assistant.)
The storyline is simple. Stay, build and win. Chase more money and so-called better jobs and you get to scalp your Final Four tickets. This is the slow growth model and the quick rising 38-year-old is following it.
It isn't easy seeing him go anywhere now. If Crean didn't go this year, when would he? This isn't any job he turned down. This is Illinois currently firing on all cylinders. Assuming Dwyane Wade is turning pro, he would inherit a better team in Champaign than he is returning in Wisconsin. But he stayed anyway.
So unless the NBA, Kentucky or Michigan State come a-calling, take Crean off the list, pull his domino out of the line. Rival recruiters can stop asking out loud why someone would sign with a coach who was all but certainly to bolt.
Forget it. If Tom Crean was going anywhere he'd be gone.
But he isn't.
Seashells and balloons.
And now for something completely different ... Tom Crean stays.
Stays? Stays at Marquette? Defies conventional wisdom, upsets the vaunted coaching dominoes, turns down one of those monster conference schools with big huge football stadiums that are supposed to be like the hottest cheerleader asking you to the prom?
Tom Crean changes a trend of taking the money and running. (Getty Images)
Heads are exploding all over the gossip grapevine. In a week when everyone is talking about loyalty but no one seems to understand the definition, here comes Crean, fresh off the Final Four and the hottest young coach in the country, and he says he is quite content at Marquette, of all places.
God bless him.
Undoubtedly there are some frustrated Illinois fans right now and certainly Illini athletic director Ron Guenther is off to plan B (Ben Braun? Jeff Van Gundy? Thad Matta? Bruce Weber?). But Illinois will get a great coach. The Illini will be fine.
For the rest of the college basketball, this is great. This is exactly what was needed -- a little patience, a little sanity, a little perspective to an offseason of greed-is-good coaching movements.
A coach finally figured out that the grass is pretty darn green on his own side of the fence, that doing something special right where you are would be pretty cool, and maybe you don't have to chase coaching rainbows to find that national championship pot of gold.
Crean is staying at Marquette. If you happened to listen to the buzz this week, that's one big upset. Loyalty beats opportunity. Contentment beats advancement. The way things have gone this spring that's a 16 over a 1.
Yes, Skip Prosser turned down Pitt a couple weeks ago but that is different. Prosser is 52, Wake is the defending ACC champion and with all due respect to the surging Panthers program, Pitt is not exactly considered a gold standard job. It would have been a lateral move (based on hometown ties) at best.
This is the young coach of the minute, the workaholic who in just four years took MU to the Final Four, broke Cincinnati's stranglehold on the Conference USA crown and restored the glory to a long-lost national power. This is talent, charisma and momentum. This is the guy who no one would blame for taking the Illinois job and settling in for the long haul.
Of all the moves of the game of spring coaching dominoes -- Roy Williams to North Carolina, Bill Self to Kansas -- this was the no-brainer. Why would he say no? How could he say no?
But he did.
Seashells and balloons, as Al McGuire would say.
Crean is one of the most competitive people you will ever meet. He spends his entire life trying to get better at every single endeavor. He is a thinker, a worker, a reader, a philosopher. Nothing escapes his attention. It is a rare minute that he is not working for the betterment of Marquette Basketball.
Which is why this tells you plenty. Crean would not be staying in Milwaukee unless he was certain he could improve the Golden Eagles program. Which can only mean that deep down he truly believes he can capture a national championship at Marquette. If he didn't, he'd be at Illinois, where everyone else thinks you can win it all.
This is a statement that should ring loudly to recruits throughout the Midwest. Crean said no to the Big Ten; you can too. Crean believes you can win the tourney at MU, and so should you. When Crean talks about catching a dream, he's dreaming right with you.
All coaches talk a good game. What Crean just did is called walking the walk.
Plenty of credit should go to the Marquette administration, too. They have done the necessary things to make this a destination job, to make Crean too comfortable to leave. Crean's salary will be over a million a year. The deal will run for darn near eternity.
The soon to be completed Al McGuire Center will provide all of the practice facility bells and whistles you could ask for. The Eagles already play in an NBA arena, have a powerful fan base and enjoy a school with a commitment to winning that runs deep.
Can you win a national title at Marquette? Why not? The Eagles made the Final Four this year, so early in Crean's tenure. As Crean builds the program up, as even better recruits take longer looks at the program, fortunes should improve.
The past five coaches to win a national title were at their respective schools for at least 12 seasons before cutting that final net. (Michigan State's Tom Izzo was in just his fifth season as head coach, but he had spent 12 years prior as a Spartans assistant.)
The storyline is simple. Stay, build and win. Chase more money and so-called better jobs and you get to scalp your Final Four tickets. This is the slow growth model and the quick rising 38-year-old is following it.
It isn't easy seeing him go anywhere now. If Crean didn't go this year, when would he? This isn't any job he turned down. This is Illinois currently firing on all cylinders. Assuming Dwyane Wade is turning pro, he would inherit a better team in Champaign than he is returning in Wisconsin. But he stayed anyway.
So unless the NBA, Kentucky or Michigan State come a-calling, take Crean off the list, pull his domino out of the line. Rival recruiters can stop asking out loud why someone would sign with a coach who was all but certainly to bolt.
Forget it. If Tom Crean was going anywhere he'd be gone.
But he isn't.
Seashells and balloons.