Tom Crean to Indiana

[SleepyWhiteSox]

I believe you recall wrong. He called a press conference to say he wouldn't have any interest...though he was never even contacted for the joke.

 

Well, from what I remember, he was top choice by media and fans, many of which were apalled that he wasn't interested. Then he said he wasn't interested, hadn't been contacted yet, and reupped, all of which occurred very early during the time illinois was conducting its search.

 

Tough to say what the level of interest was, unless I'm missing something. Had the illinois AD contacted other coaches before crean said he wasn't interested and re-signed?

 

Anyways, moot point.

 

 

Funny thing about the possibility of weber going to marquette is that a lot of illinois fans think his situation at illinois is too good to leave for marquette while a lot of marquette fans would not even want him.

[farmteam]

This entire discussion about Crean>Weber is ridiculous. Crean has done nothing to warrant the god-like status people in this thread are giving him. Again, his one good year he had Dwayne Wade. Dwayne f'n Wade.

 

You mean kinda like how Weber's Final Four run came with Deron Williams and Luther Head?

 

And I haven't seen much in this thread in terms of Crean vs. Weber, the Weber stuff has been all Marquette vs. Illinois.

[CWSGuy406]

Heh... things keep getting worse. Trevor Mbakwe is going to transfer because of a family issue. Supposedly he was going to go regardless of Crean leaving. That would sort of explain why Mbakwe didn't play a lick during the tourney...

[Jenksismyhero]

You mean kinda like how Weber's Final Four run came with Deron Williams and Luther Head?

 

And I haven't seen much in this thread in terms of Crean vs. Weber, the Weber stuff has been all Marquette vs. Illinois.

 

That's called developing top 75 talent into lottery picks my friend, not being handed a sure bet.

 

And what do you mean? There are plenty of posts saying Marquette would never want Weber after Crean, it would be a downgrade, yadda yadda.

 

Edit: Ok, I don't know about the "sure bet." I can't find his ranking coming into college, but I remember everyone saying he was a star in the making but no one wanted to touch him because of his academic issues. Still, he was certainly more of a sure bet than Deron Williams and Luther Head, two good but not great players coming out of high school.

Edited April 3, 2008 by Jenksismybitch

[whitesoxfan99]

That's called developing top 75 talent into lottery picks my friend, not being handed a sure bet.

 

And what do you mean? There are plenty of posts saying Marquette would never want Weber after Crean, it would be a downgrade, yadda yadda.

 

Wade was not a big recruit coming out of HS. I don't think he was even a top 100 recruit.

[thedoctor]

That's called developing top 75 talent into lottery picks my friend, not being handed a sure bet.

 

i think dee, head, and deron have all been on record as crediting weber for helping them to develop their games. that said, i don't think weber is the only one who could have done that, and i think a fair amount of coaches could have taken that group to the title game. not to diminish what weber contributed, but those guys were really, really good.

 

[Jenksismyhero]

i think dee, head, and deron have all been on record as crediting weber for helping them to develop their games. that said, i don't think weber is the only one who could have done that, and i think a fair amount of coaches could have taken that group to the title game. not to diminish what weber contributed, but those guys were really, really good.

 

 

I'd actually disagree with that. I mean I probably give too much credit to Weber personally, but they all benefited from his system more than they would have anywhere else. Not a lot of programs run the motion offense as well as Weber. In fact when Weber came in Dee was ready to leave because he hated it so much. A season and a half later they were in the championship game.

 

And I disagree when Weber gets hit for taking good players to the NC game, as if everyone should do that. Well look at all the teams that have teams with 2 or more future NBA players on their roster that didn't do jack this year: Georgtown, Tennessee, Indiana, MSU, Duke, etc etc. Talent only gets you so far. Putting that talent in the right position to win is the key. I think Weber has done that. This year he obvioulsy lacked the key ingredient: talent.

[thedoctor]

I'd actually disagree with that. I mean I probably give too much credit to Weber personally, but they all benefited from his system more than they would have anywhere else. Not a lot of programs run the motion offense as well as Weber. In fact when Weber came in Dee was ready to leave because he hated it so much. A season and a half later they were in the championship game.

 

And I disagree when Weber gets hit for taking good players to the NC game, as if everyone should do that. Well look at all the teams that have teams with 2 or more future NBA players on their roster that didn't do jack this year: Georgtown, Tennessee, Indiana, MSU, Duke, etc etc. Talent only gets you so far. Putting that talent in the right position to win is the key. I think Weber has done that. This year he obvioulsy lacked the key ingredient: talent.

 

well, we'll have to disagree on the first point. i don't believe the only system they could have succeeded in was motion. those guys were recruited for the high-low, so i'd imagine they all (augie added in) had skill sets that would fit in that system as well. and to me, the engine that drove that group was dee and deron's chemistry. those guys played together for so long (with the illini and two years with the u.s.a basketball juniors) that their chemistry could have made just about any system work.

 

i do agree on the second point. weber should not be dinged for taking a talented group that he did not recruit to the title game. there is a long, long list of supremely talented teams that didn't do squat because they were poorly coached. i just don't think weber is the only guy who could have done it. i think self could have, among others.

[fathom]

I read today that Taylor absolutely will not stay with Marquette. Him and Hurley are livid that Crean still hasn't contacted him. VT might have the lead for him now.

[Brian]

Marquette better stop calling C-Lo

[pierard]

I read today that Taylor absolutely will not stay with Marquette. Him and Hurley are livid that Crean still hasn't contacted him. VT might have the lead for him now.

 

Whoever gets Taylor is very lucky. The guy is a stud.

[hitlesswonder]

 

You can easily argue that overall UIUC is in a tie for 5th best university in the Big 10 with a bunch of other schools. But "overall" is probably pretty meaningless; some programs at UIUC (e.g. civil engineering) really are world-class. And also have virtually zero impact on recruiting. We should go back to talking about basketball...

 

I wonder who Marquette is going after....

Edited April 4, 2008 by knightni

[Rowand44]

I wonder who Marquette is going after....

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=735103

[Rex Hudler]

Nice discussion on the topic of Crean taking the IU job. Not sure how this discussion became about Illinois, but I was just thrilled to read it. Thanks for staying on topic!

[hitlesswonder]

Nice discussion on the topic of Crean taking the IU job. Not sure how this discussion became about Illinois, but I was just thrilled to read it. Thanks for staying on topic!

 

I could blame ESPN & Forde, but I'm at least partly responsible. On topic, I actually think Indiana's demise is greatly exaggerated, depending on what the NCAA does. If Ellis and Bassett are back next season I think they'll be middle of the back in the Big Ten. And they'll miss White much more than Gordon.

 

The interesting thing now is who Marquette will hire. They have the money and facilities to make a big splash.

 

 

[thedoctor]

I could blame ESPN & Forde, but I'm at least partly responsible. On topic, I actually think Indiana's demise is greatly exaggerated, depending on what the NCAA does. If Ellis and Bassett are back next season I think they'll be middle of the back in the Big Ten. And they'll miss White much more than Gordon.

 

agree on white. i also do think that crean should at least consider giving those kids another shot. based only on what i've read reported and not rumors, it's easy to see that the turbulence of the past few months would have negatively impacted those kids, their attitude, and their ability to mesh with dakich. admittedly, part of that stems from the fact that i've heard from numerous people at bowling green that dakich is a major douche, so it doesn't surprise me that kids would have issues with him.

[CWSGuy406]

Finally some names!*

 

The two major names on the list include Bob McKillop of Davidson and MU assistant Buzz Williams, a former head coach at New Orleans. Wright State's Brad Brownell and Chris Lowery of Southern Illinois also stand on Marquette's list, according to Allan.

 

Without -- and I'll say this right up-front -- knowing a heckuva lot about any of these four guys (I know Buzz can recruit Texas... I have no idea about his coaching abilities, other than the fact that he bailed on New Orleans), I'd rank them as such (shield your eyes, SIU fans!):

 

Lowery

McKillop

Williams

Brownell

 

Thoughts?

 

*As far as Rex, I think I'm reading your comment correctly and... Frankly, Indiana talk dominates a relatively decent amount of this board. I can understand your objection to the U of I talk (even though that was somewhat sparked by me), but I'd say that my talking about Marquette and who the hell they're going to hire to fill the void is perfectly acceptable for this thread.

 

EDIT: I should also add that, to the dismay of many Marquette fans, it appears both Bennett and Miller aren't viable options. It's what I expected, so it's not that big of a hit to me.

Edited April 6, 2008 by CWSGuy406

[Rowand44]

Stay away from CLo.

[Brian]

Stay away from CLo.