Nearly one year to the day after being fired as the IU men's basketball coach, Tom Crean was announced as the next head coach of Georgia on Thursday night.
Crean spent nine seasons at the helm of the Hoosiers while leading the team to two Big Ten Conference regular season titles and three NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances. He was relieved of his duties March 16, 2017, after a loss in the first round of the 2017 National Invitational Tournament.
Georgia fired its former head coach, Mark Fox, last Saturday after the Bulldogs missed the NCAA Tournament for the third season in a row.
Though ESPN reported that Crean also met with officials at University of Pittsburgh earlier this week, other reports from Georgia in the past few days suggested the Bulldogs had made Crean their primary target.
Crean was praised for his work with ESPN during the 2017-18 college basketball season as both a color commentator for games and a studio analyst. He is expected to become one of college basketball's highest-paid coaches in his new deal with Georgia, which was reported to be for $3.2 million per year.
Interestingly, Crean's salary will actually be similar or equal to the average annual value of current IU Coach Archie Miller's deal. According to USA Today, Miller made $3.2 million this season, which was good for the 10th highest salary among Division I coaches.
IU was on the hook for a roughly $4 million buyout when Crean was let go last year, but most or all of the rest of that financial obligation will likely be offset with his new contract.
Jake Thomer
