Indiana Coach receiving false praise?

[greghammel]

I have never been amused with Coach Crean... the most amusing thing about him is his brothers in law are both head coaches of the Super Bowl!
But... at Marquette, he was a .500 coach until Dwayne Wade showed up on campus. At Indiana he was not even a .500 coach until Cody Zeller arrived. He gets so much credit for developing players... yet, the vast majority of his players get worse under his coaching.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Indiana if Zeller goes NBA.

 

[sportstalent]

With the way he can recruit at Indiana, there will be a drop off, but he is starting to get Top 30 players at every position, not just one.

Actually, I think Zeller gets more false praise than Crean. When you look at last year's freshman, Burke had far more impact than Zeller.

 

[greghammel]

A player like Dwayne Wade can make any college coach look smart!

 

[1hawkeye1]

A player like Dwayne Wade can make any college coach look smart!

Tempted to post pic of certain B1G football coach, but moderated myself.

 

[greghammel]

Dean Smith was billed as a great coach because he was winning championships with a team with players like Worthy, Perkins, Jordan. Sign me up!

 

[greghammel]

Which Big Ten coach?

 

[Section136]

Phil Jackson received soooooo much false praise.

 

[Seth53]

Phil Jackson received soooooo much false praise.

Really?

Have you seen their record this year?

 

[Section136]

Really?

Have you seen their record this year?

Who's record?

Edit- And my post was dripping in sarcasm. Teh OP made it sound like anybody who lands talented players can win.

 

[dave3912]

Crean didn't "develop" Zeller, anyone who gives Crean props for that is an idiot. I could see giving him praise for being able to keep in him his home state but that is it.

 

[Hawkstrat]

Collecting talent is a huge part of coaching. He has done that very well at Indiana.

 

[dave3912]

Collecting talent is a huge part of coaching. He has done that very well at Indiana.

Especially with the strictions he had to deal with when he got there.

 

[iahawks912]

I think he is a fine coach and a good guy, I personally have no problem with him like I do with Bo Ryan

 

[Foval21]

I think of crean about like I think of calipari...great recruiter but not the greatest x & o guy. But as long as you can recruit you can win. I wouldn't put him in the same league as calipari because cal probably cheats but crean seems to get good talent without the extracurricular reasons.

With the restrictions they had when he started they needed a salesmen to bring in talent and that is what he is doing.

 

[Clowns]

I'm not a fan of Crean but all you have to do is bring in talent. Do you really think Roy Williams is an exceptional coach? He has said himself he's not sure how good of an in game coach he really is and that he is glad he has never had to find that out. His resume says he's great but really most of it is the talent he could bring in at KU and UNC. Probably why he has years like this year where they fall off the map, doesn't know how to get top guys to mesh and just hopes they do.

 

[theboat]

College b-ball isn't about the x's and o's, its about the Jimmys and Joes

 

[busabus114]

DERP

Recruiting in college is more important than coaching ability. Crean can do both by the way but give me a guy who can get top level talent any day of the week

 

[dmackindm]

Recruiting in college is more important than coaching ability. Crean can do both by the way but give me a guy who can get top level talent any day of the week

Time will tell if he is a coach or a recruiter.

 

[RocknRollface]

Being a great recruiter is more important than being a great coach.

The thing with Crean is he hasn't been that great at either. Hes getting good players now though.

 

[kmajhawk]

Phil Jackson received soooooo much false praise.

Disagree. Not sure how Jackson is as an X's and O's coach or as a developer of talent, and I would expect that in a head-to-head comparison Fran would be a better recruiter and developer of players at the college level. But Jackson's major strengths seemed to be taking great talent and making it better, fitting over-sized egos into a team effort, and finding a way to direct and motivate players who were making millions of dollars more than him.