IU Coach Tom Crean spoke publicly Tuesday for the second time this summer when he joined ESPN’s Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg on the ESPNU College Basketball podcast. Crean touched on a variety of topics ranging from Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan’s success in Madison, Jordan Hulls’ recent wedding and the landscape of the Big Ten entering next season.
Here are some of the highlights of Crean’s appearance on the podcast:
On finding out Bo Ryan will retire after next season: “Yesterday, actually, I was kind of bummed out. I was – I don’t want to say, sad is maybe not the right word, but it’s like, he’s such a great coach and you don’t see it ending for him because of all the things that he’s done. I mean, the last four years he’s averaging 29 wins overall and 13 wins in the league, and arguably the league over the last four years has been one or two in the country as far as top teams from top to bottom, so to speak and so as a competitor, (he’s an) incredible competitor because you know you’ve got to have so many things going because there’s a lot of great coaches out there, but where he might be as good as any is that that team is not going to beat themselves.”
On how IU’s 2015-16 team can learn from the 2012-13 Hoosiers: “Something that hit me the other night: Jordan Hulls got married, and he had a bunch of teammates in his wedding, which was just incredible to see. I thought they were coming down the aisle with the candy stripes but they waited until they got to the reception with the candy stripes. You had a lot of people fulfilling their bucket list wedding with the candy stripes on, but some of them were probably used in their game-used candy stripes, but you had all the different guys in the wedding and at one point I thought about it. We have a picture from our 2013 (team) that had four thousand-point scorers in it. It had Jordan Hulls, Victor Oladipo, Christian Watford, Cody Zeller. They all got the points different ways, but they all really made each other better. Well, what’s funny, all four of those guys are in the wedding, you know, along with Will Sheehey and Derek Elston, and it’s like, when you’ve got guys that will truly, truly make each other better and they do it different ways, then you’ve got a chance to have great success and that’s what our team’s got to learn.”
On Thomas Bryant: “Thomas Bryant certainly helps bring that because we’ve had four different individual workouts with him now and every time I walk out of there, there’s something I really didn’t realize he has.”
On the type of team he hopes IU becomes next season: “We’ve got to get a team that you’ve got to guard us in the paint, you’ve got to guard us at the three-point line and everywhere in between, especially in transition. We’ve got to be a lot harder to score against because we haven’t been, so if we can improve the defensive aspects, get to the foul line even more, go through the post even more, I think it’s going to enhance our ability to shoot the ball even better.”
On Troy Williams’ potential: “When Troy develops a ‘day-in, day-out, I’m gonna do extra and build on these weaknesses’ mindset, he’s gonna play for a decade-plus.”
On the depth IU needs to develop: “I think you’ve got to be two-deep at every position. If you can be two-deep at every position, meaning not just another guy comes in to back up somebody but where you’re not going to really take a formidable hit when you sub based on the way that you play. That’s why the three-guard offense this year could be a lot more of a weapon than a necessity because we’ve got to get bigger, we’ve got to be more physical, we’ve got to defend better.”
On Maryland: “Well Maryland’s ridiculous with the talent level that they have in there right now and guys that have proven it.”
On the Big Ten: “This league is ridiculously talented and the thing that I see in it is it’s not just great bigs and not just these great guards, but there’s tremendous skill at those positions, so it’s not like it’s a plodding big man that can get you eight and eight or a point guard that just comes down and doesn’t make mistakes and makes a couple threes. No, we’re talking about game-breakers at (the) one through five positions in the league, and I think there’s a lot of star power in the league, and then you add that with the experience factor and the coaching that’s in this league. It’s gonna be as good as there is.”
