What's next for Ex-Hoosier coach Tom Crean?

By Pete DiPrimio

What’s next for Tom Crean?

Let’s start with what’s now for him.

He’s going out in with class.

Crean and his family are putting Bloomington in the rear view mirror this weekend. They’re off to Florida. Sarasota, specifically to be close to son, Riley, who will attend IMG Academy in Bradenton. He’ll get an extra year of school and baseball in a post-grad environment before choosing a college.
Riley had been set to attend Indiana and play baseball (he’s a promising pitcher), but that changed after his father was fired as the head basketball coach in March.

As they left, the elder Crean posted a message thinking Hoosier fans for their support.

It wasn’t all Cream ‘n Crimson support, of course, as Hoosier Nation grew angrier and angrier as IU failed to reach national championship stature during Crean’s nine seasons, although the Hoosiers did win a pair of Big Ten titles and reached the NCAA tourney’s Sweet 16 round three times.

No matter. Fan message boards were not kind in the final seasons. The Assembly Hall crowd sometimes booed. IU has an extremely passionate fan base, and extreme passion has its dark side when you don’t win at an elite level.

The Hoosiers under Crean didn’t.

IU finished seventh or worse in the Big Ten three times in the last four years, failing to make the NCAA tourney twice in that span.

For a program that considers itself a traditional power in the manner of Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky, that just wasn’t going to work.

So it didn’t.

Now the pressure falls to Archie Miller, and excitement grows by the day.

For now, until the first loss is suffered, he can do not wrong.

Crean, of course, experienced plenty of wrong. He took an enormous amount of heat in recent years. Yes, it bothered him, and he could have lashed back, but he chose the public high road, instead. He’s a quality guy who has a lot to offer, whether it’s in coaching or broadcasting or more.

For the record, Crean won 190 games in nine seasons at Marquette, and 166 in nine years at IU. He resurrected the Hoosier program after the NCAA-sanctioned disaster it became from the Kelvin Sampson mess. He also turned around a struggling Marquette program.

He can continue to find coaching success if he gets to the right program. At this point, it looks like the earliest that could happen is next spring in he stays in the college game, although he has enough contacts that an NBA assistant coaching position could be in his near future if he is so inclined.

For now, Crean isn’t the only high-profile college basketball coach who isn’t coaching. Thad Matta (Ohio State), Lorenzo Lomar (Washington), Mark Gottfried (North Carolina State) and John Thompson III (Georgetown) also are on the sidelines, and not by their choice.

It’s a tough profession made tougher by all the millions of dollars coaches make these days.

Anyway, in case you missed it, here is Crean’s farewell to Bloomington and Hoosier Nation, as posted on his Twitter account.

We want to Thank you all for being a part of our last 9 years. We have been blessed to have spent 18 years at 2 tremendous schools and fan bases. We have raised our kids in Milwaukee and Bloomington. We want to thank all the support we have received the past 3 1/2 months via texts, letters, notes, emails and kind words wherever we have been! Thank you to all the fans of Hoosier Nation who have supported Indiana Basketball through your passion and commitment to your team. Thank you to our school families, church families, sports families and community friends! Thank you to our neighbors for your friendship and support. And a special thanks to all the players, parents, coaches, staff and our IU Basketball family. We look forward to following you all as you continue your journey!

Tom, Joani, Megan, Riley and Ainsley Crean