Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Red
Oh it was an impressive run, no doubt about that. They got that Final Four at UK's expense, by destroying us in the Elite Eight. That was a bigtime Marquette team. But that "Crean's guys" argument works both ways. The Seniors on that FF team weren't recruited by Crean, just as Buzz Williams has won with a lot of Crean's recruits. I don't buy into that argument though. It's like when people discredit Tubby Smith's championship at UK because he "won with Pitino's players". I don't care whose recruits they were, it was a great coaching job, as Crean's was when he took Marquette to the Final Four.
|
No, that FF team was Crean's 4th year there. I will agree to a point on the coaching aspect. But it is a heckuva lot easier for a new coach to win when the talent is already there or ya got something to work with. Crean took an IU job that should have been easier had he not decided to clean house. He kicked off Armon Bassett, Jordan Crawford, and JeMarcus Ellis(all three starters). Several others tranferred including Eli Holman(who followed Ray McCallum to Detroit). His leading returning scorer was a walk-on that averaged around 2 points a game. The cupboard was completely bare. I do think that Maurice Creek's injuries up until last year hampered the team from improving in his 2nd and 3rd years.