Georgia basketball: What Tom Crean will bring to Athens

The University of Georgia has hired Tom Crean as the new head coach of Georgia basketball. The contract is for six years and 3.2 million dollars.

Georgia basketball has their man. After Thad Matta turned down the head coaching job Wednesday, the school amped up their pursuit of no. 2 target Tom Crean. And Crean apparently wanted the job. Dawgnation reports that the school and Crean have agreed on a deal.

Crean brings 18 years of coaching experience at Marquette and Indiana to Georgia basketball. His résumé is not as impressive as Matta’s, but it does include nine NCAA Tournament appearances, four Sweet 16’s and one Final Four. He also doesn’t have the medical issues that caused Matta to leave Ohio State.

From probation to success at Indiana

The nine tournament appearances seems measly compared to the pipe dream hire Georgia fans had in mind. But when he took over as head coach of Indiana in 2008, the Hoosiers entered three years of probation, and played with nine freshman, two sophomores and just one senior.

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The Hoosiers went 6-25 in the 2008-09 season. However, Crean did a fantastic job getting Indiana through the probation years. His first recruiting class featured four four-star prospects. Indiana improved to 10-21 in 2010 and 12-20 in 2011. He also signed five-star Cody Zeller in 2011.

By the time the probation ended, Crean had developed Indiana into a winner. They finished 27-9 and went to the Sweet 16 in 2012. They returned to the Sweet 16 in 2013 with a 29-7 team. The program went into rebuilding mode in 2014, but they returned to the tournament in 2015 and finished in the Sweet 16 in 2016.

But the Hoosier’s missed the NCAA Tournament last season and Indiana decided to part ways with Crean a year ago. Indiana missed the NCAA Tournament again this season despite having five seniors, two juniors and three four-star freshmen.

Crean spent the last year working in television. However, coaching is his passion and he’s been touring the country studying other successful coaches.

Returning Marquette to prominence

Before Crean led Indiana through probation to the Sweet 16, he took a frustrated Marquette program back to the Final Four. The Golden Eagles were a powerhouse from the mid 1960’s to the early 1980’s. They won a National Championship in 1977 and finished at least in the Sweet 16 nine times.

Their 21-year streak of postseason appearances ended with a 10-18 season in 1988. Over the next 12 years, Marquette only made the NCAA Tournament four times with one Sweet 16. Crean took over in 1999 and Marquette improved every year.

That culminated in a Final Four in 2003 to go with a 27-6 record and the programs first Conference USA Championship. It was also their first conference title since they won the Great Midwest title in 1994. Marquette joined the Big East in 2005 and Crean continued to produce NCAA Tournament teams until he accepted the head coaching job at Indiana.

Coaching skills

Clearly, Crean is a program builder, which is what Georgia basketball needs. But he’s more than a program builder, he turns programs into consistent NCAA Tournament teams and wins games in the tournament.

But he’s yet to have the chance to take a program to the next step. Marquette joined a much tougher conference during his watch and Indiana got nervous and fired him after a rebuilding year. You can discount his first three years at Indiana because the program was under probation and in a terrible place.

Recruiting

A big reason why Crean has been able to rebuild programs is his ability to recruit. Signing multiple four stars and five-star Zeller made the Hoosiers a contender immediately after probation ended. The four and five stars didn’t stop coming either.

Noah Vonleh and James Blackmon Jr. are a small sample of the great players he brought to Indiana. At Marquette, he developed and signed Dwayne Wade, Steve Novak and Travis Diener. Those top recruits Mark Fox couldn’t sign during his nine seasons at Georgia, Crean can finish the deal.

On the court

Crean fits right in at Georgia as he is very much a “Kirby Smart” on the court. He lives and breathes coaching basketball the same way Smart does football. That shows with an intensity on the sidelines and his studying of other great coaches.

His on court strategy both meshes well with the talent he inherits and provides a lot of value for the players to learn. Such as an emphasis on shot selection. Georgia was a terrible three-point shooting team these past two years, yet players continued to throw up bad shots.

His penetration and kick-out style should work well with Rayshaun Hammonds, Nicholas Claxton and Tyree Crump. And he’ll be happy to know he has a rebounder on the team already with Derick Ogbeide.

Next: Georgia baseball opens SEC play this weekend at Alabama

Summary

This is as close to a home run hire you could expect from Georgia basketball. For the first time in the program’s history, the school has hired a head coach with a strong resume instead of someone looking to build their résumé. Besides, of course, Jim Harrick. He is the big name the program has craved since 2003. His record is 356-231. he has an 11-9 record in the NCAA Tournament.