Welcome back, Crimson Cask ale include a video here.
We are in day three of the interregnum.
As we evaluate the end of the Tom crean era and we wait to see
what the next era is going to be.
We've got a guest here on this part of the podcasts and by
seisen of the Hoosier.com, the Indiana rival site.
And a man who will in the future be referred to as a legendary IU
student media member right now. He's still technically in that
General sphere. So we can't yet give the
legendary tacked on. But it's coming in about a month
or two Sam. Welcome to the podcast.
How you doing? I'm fantastic.
I don't buy the legendary thing. I might be, I'll take we took,
we took an informal poll and they all agreed.
So I was that, I don't know who they are, but I'll stand by
this. I'm probably the only IU media
member who ever covered. Four consecutive seasons of
Indiana. Women's soccer that nobody will
take away from it. That's a fair.
I only covered one and I think the most I ever heard of anybody
doing was too so I'm willing to yeah you at the very least that
will be on your display in the Hall of Fame.
Yeah. As long as that goes on my
Tombstone at some point I'll be more than happy so I wanted to
talk with you. We've chatted on it off here
particularly during this season about what's been going on with
IU basketball and I First question.
And when I asked Zach, Osterman yesterday on the podcast, what
was your reaction when you heard the news that they had indeed
fired Tom crean as you men's basketball coach?
Yeah, I mean, I think everybody was genuinely surprised one that
the IU itself, broke it. I was really, really impressed
at the school, kept it under wraps, but yeah, I wasn't
expecting it to happen. I was at which, which about to
dive into a pepperoni pizza, which And it popped up my phone.
I have the a few you know, notification settings and right
away it popped up and I was just holy crap.
Tom crean got fired and it was it was just surreal.
So I didn't eat my sandwich. I went home and I was just
surprised. I didn't expect it because even
though people get upset, people got up.
So you know, the fire. Tom crean sign was hanging from
some kids room just off campus. I mean, there was a bunch of
noise or whatever surrounding it.
I didn't think they would actually fire him because for
whatever reason, I believe it was that until the day they told
us I wasn't gonna buy it because he's just survived.
You know, scare after scare after scare after season of just
bad basketball, he survived all of these things.
I didn't think that a year after winning the Big Ten and Big 10
coach tear you away. So I was just shocked.
I couldn't believe it. I still kind of a hard time
believing it. I sit there and I go yeah, Tom's
not going to be around anymore and that's It doesn't hit home
quite yet. Yeah.
I mean it's I honestly was not sure how I would feel about it
and when the news hit I was I was more stunned than anything
else. I mean, I I firmly believed that
they needed to make a change and I talked about that before it
happened but I was like you in that there seemed to have been
a, you know, a kind of a survival the gene in Tom crean
that right allowed him to sustain Through some things that
maybe other coaches might not of.
And so particularly the way that it happened, the way that the
week played out, and you almost got the sense that, you know, if
they let him Coach in the NIT, he's probably going to be back
and certainly if we go through, you know, 24 hours after an nit
loss and no news has come, he's probably going to be back and
yeah and then to have it drop at that particular time.
They know you were you were at which which I was in a parking
lot you know II just just come out of buying some chips and And
I just sit in my truck for 20 minutes.
It just like answer texts and tweets, and stuff like that.
So it's really, it was very kind of odd experience.
But yeah, I put it this way. I was, I mean, y-you talked
about surviving, I think Alice McCarthy an actual immedia.
Legend, student media Legend is put it best.
He called, Tom crean a cockroach because he survived everything,
you know, not in a negative way, but he was a cockroach in
survival. Is there a non- way?
You can, you know what I mean? He would die.
I was more surprised and we talk.
It's so funny coaching things we talked about coaches when they,
when they get fired or lead. As if this post-mortem, they
died and I think didn't I Tom's alive.
He's fine but it's he was like a cockroach who survived
everything and I'll put it this way.
I was more surprised that Kevin Wilson was fired.
Then Tom crean we have a Wilson got fire.
When Tim Wilson parted ways with the school.
I shouldn't say fired because technically it wasn't firing but
whatever fired with Kevin Wilson.
Got fired. I was like, whoa, why would you
do that? This is a bad idea.
I don't like that. Like, this is bad.
I was shocked. I didn't, I didn't.
I was up. I was almost upset, like,
cabbage do. I didn't think he had done in
the moment, anything wrong? I thought he was fine.
I was more surprised than that. I was gonna was now.
And that's that to me, seems weird.
I don't know. I mean, I think obviously the
circumstances were different. I mean, you come off of beating
Purdue and you got the old Oaken Bucket.
You're going to a bowl game. It seems so out of left field.
You could say that you were surprised.
You? I mean, just the Royal you you
could say that you were surprised about Tom, crean
getting fired, but you certainly couldn't claim that it came out
of left field. I mean, the what the way that
the season ended and just the general tenor around the
basketball program and in the fan base, I mean it I wouldn't
have been shocked either way. I would have been.
I think disappointed from an observers and Fan's perspective,
if they hadn't made a change, but I don't think anybody could
have said my God, I can't believe that they fired, Tom
crean unless you're in the National media, right?
Because apparently, they they think everything is fine
everything. So let's bet the different
podcast. What's?
Yeah, well know. What might it might be this
podcast, if we could get a little bit the first off, I
guess it's, you know, nine years some ups and some Downs.
Can you give me kind of a a like recap?
The Tom crean are alike. Give me.
Give me the the wrap up from your point cuz you were here for
almost half of it, basically. Yeah, I came in, I mean, I did
not really care for Indiana basketball, you know, when Tom
crean was hired because that would have been when I was like
a freshman in high school, I didn't really care about.
But I knew Tom crean was, I know who Indiana basketball the The
Entity was so when I got hired, of course, I followed it.
I didn't really care about it, but I followed it.
I mean, if I'm trying to sum up Tom, Green's Legacy is history
in as brief as possible. The guy inherited a complete
mess where the program was teetering on.
I mean, you talk about is it a blue blood or is it not a
Blueblood? It was teetering around the fact
that can this program sustain itself with the NCAA sanctions
that were kind of levied against it just a state of the program.
What he had it was on the verge of collapsing.
It could have gone. One of two ways, Either grow it
or your broken for a really, really long time and he grew the
program rather quickly. I mean, you talk about three or
four years and suddenly it was it was back to where it was
respectable and that I think that takes a special kind of
person to take this, this terrible situation.
The Indiana basketball is in and say, let's commit to, to
building this with the right people, you know, the
stereotypical cliche, you know they're good, guys, they do
things right. Go to class.
They're happy to be around. They respect the program.
He built that very quickly out of absolutely nothing, but then
when he got good, when he got to that next step of, okay.
Tom Indiana. Basketball is, is okay, now it's
in a good spot. Now, make it great, make it what
we want it to be. I think he's struggled to
maintain those two, I guess different ideas of Indiana
basketball. Does things the right way and
they Indiana, basketball is Elite it because it's hard to
measure. Okay, these kids, I'll do the
right things and they're really, really, really good at
basketball, Cody. Zeller was one of those guys
Victor Oladipo is one of those guys.
Jordan, holes is one of those guys, but it's hard to find
those guys consistently and I think Tom just struggled.
And that's where you ended up getting kids like a hunter
muscare. Aprea Stanford Robinson who you
know did themselves in with off the court things or whatever,
whatever you did wrong and that whole Devin Davis, all these
things and that's kind of where things started to go off track.
So Tom went from okay. You built this program of good
guys into a program where you're teetering on greatness.
You're okay. Now you have to get these really
talented players, picked allow the wrong ones that set him back
and he could never find that next jump.
That next, that next step in the ladder of, okay?
Your get all these kids that do basketball the right way, the
way the Indiana fans want. And they're really good at
basketball and now you're great again.
He could never find Next step and he got awful close to it and
we need to give them credit for that but it just wasn't, it
wasn't there, he couldn't, he couldn't do it.
Yeah, something that we talked about on the podcast yesterday
or two days ago where you know there's there's a certain
intangible that allows you to coach at this particular level.
And, you know, I mean, one of the big conflicts that we've
been seeing and we saw this before cream, got fired, was the
idea of where is I You basketball in the pecking order.
And, you know, whether you want to argue, it's still like, you
know, you know, top five or six job like right outside the, you
know, kind of the Holy four teams of UNC and Duke and
Kentucky and Kansas. Whether you want to argue, it's
further down the list. The, you know, there's, there's
a certain consistency in that in the types of players that you
can get and this in the way that you're playing and all of those
things, and it just seemed like after that initial push.
He was never quite able to And it together enough and you know,
we've talked about this a little bit off off the podcast but even
even last year's team the the Big Ten Champion team.
I mean that that was an interesting mix of players that
really needed a couple of like late transfers in to have the
team chemistry that was needed to do what they needed to do to
win the title. You know I mean if you don't
have Zeiss loft or Beale felt on that team, I don't think they
win the Big Ten. Tournament.
There would be the Big Ten regular season title that Year
and no chance, that's not. And that's obviously cream
deserves credit for bringing those guys in.
But by the same token, they weren't part of the original
plan. And, you know, so it's it is
interesting watching the way that the team has developed over
the course of the last four or five years and you know, how
different the trajectory seems to have gone from where it
seemed to be. I mean, you know, when you when,
when everybody's sitting there, you know, on on April 1st. 1013,
yeah, there's disappointment after the Syracuse laws but I
don't know that anybody expects that in April or March of 2017,
four years later were sitting in the spot that we're in right
now. Like, it didn't seem conceivable
know it. Because you, didn't you thought
that they were there, like, it's basketball.
We forget how hard it is, especially at the college level,
where kids come in and out, especially basketball, where
kids can literally come in and out in a year.
That the turnover is so massive. It puts a lot of pressure on
these coaches to keep on recreating the Greek creating
themselves in the same way. I mean, you forget just how much
a team can change from year to year.
So when they were sitting there in that wonderful 2013 team, you
had to know that at some point the music was going to stop and
and you had to hope that these next kids coming in.
We're going to carry on whatever the banner was the, the might
the mindset, just the attitude, the Swagger of that.
This neck, these next guys had to do it and they never did.
And I don't exactly understand why, you know, what creates
that. Because when you look at, and
we've talked about last year's team a lot, and you look at the
guys that they brought in the next life soft, my Maxfield
belts, they came in and they were kind of tough.
They were hard guys, you weren't going to mess with them and they
backed Yogi Ferrell so they had like the Superstar of the team
was backed by these guys. Who did everything very firmly?
Lee very affirmative. Dave, Lee very hard-nosed and it
worked. It worked so beautifully.
Well because everybody bought into it, I think that these
other teams this year's team and this year's team a lot just they
didn't buy into one particular goal.
They were going into these different directions all at once
and that hurt them. When you got a group of five got
five guys, who want to win a big time.
Maybe two or three guys who want to just go.
The NBA three or four guys to just want to go to school a
couple guys to just Play on Indiana basketball.
You don't have a single, you're not a single entity anymore.
You're just a group of guys playing basketball together and
Tom was, it's not as necessarily his direct fault, that it didn't
develop that, it didn't cultivate that way, but he's the
one that's supposed to be doing it.
And he's the one that supposed to be bringing the players to do
it. And it's just surreal, it's hard
to put direct blame on him for that, not developing, because it
is up to the player. Layers, but it's a good thing.
He's the leader and he's the one you kind of fall back on and
say, why didn't it work, why didn't you do this?
And now he's got to go figure it out somewhere else.
Yeah, and I mean, I go back and forth on that because you're
right, I mean, you know, there is a certain culture that has to
develop and the players have to be the ones that lead the way,
but you also have to pick the right guys?
Yeah. And I think that if I was
talking with, with somebody who you were going back and forth
about, you know, why didn't this work?
And one of the things She said that I, that is stuck with me,
is, you know, cream seems to really understand the game of
basketball. But, but really struggled the
last four years to understand people.
And the people that he was bringing into the program and
it's not to say that all the people he brought in, you know,
didn't fit and, you know, and I think, you know, sometimes it's
more of a personality interface with the coach or maybe the
personally personality interface with the other people on the
team. But there's really no denying
that three out of the last four. For years, this team, there was
something off about the way that they played basketball together
and it seem to mesh last year. I think, for a lot of the
reasons that you just elucidated that you had, you know, tough
guys, who understood what it took to win, and, you know
happened to fit well with the personality that was needed on
that team. And once that went away, it was
back to the problems that you had.
When you had a relatively young team full of personalities that
it mesh together well, in Teen in 2015.
So it's a really it's interesting.
I mean and and you know how much blame gets put on one individual
is always a prickly proposition but the that is at the end of
the day your job as as a head basketball coach, particularly
one that you know where the you're getting, you're getting
the money, you're getting the focus.
There's a lot of good things that go with that, but then, the
bad thing is that, if you're not getting the results, this is
what ends up happening. And I've had just because you
You mentioned this the the basketball part of it, Tom crean
knowing basketball, he does, he's a basketball genius.
I mean that I believe that he just works harder than everybody
and there's something to be said for studying and knowing what
you're doing, but I've had to, I guess one current player one
former player. Give me the same variation of
the same description of time crane where he makes basketball
rocket science. And that works, I think I've
told you this before, but that works very, very well for
players like Yogi Ferrell. And it works very, very well for
for guy even like Troy Williams that can just get it and latch
onto it and like be studies it and he Embraces it but then some
people turn that away and they just go I just trying to play
basketball. Let's not overcomplicate things
by switching up a defense in the middle of a in the middle of a
possession. A guy like Stanford Robinson was
very open and saying I don't like this out, I can't
understand that I don't want to have to make decisions on the
Fly. I want to play basketball and
that I think It was one of times greatest strengths was just how
much he knew the game but it was also one of his weaknesses and
not everybody knows the game quite like you and you have to
be able to relate it to a very fastly different group of guys.
And I think that hurt him a lot more often than we get credit
for. It's just guys not understanding
exactly what they were supposed to do.
Yeah. See that's what that stuff.
This connects to something that I said yesterday that I'm
interested in getting your take on it you know I don't know if
you read that piece were Bruiser.
Flint, the former coach at Drexel and UMass who took a year
off and like, went around with at times when around with Larry
Brown and like, you know, they went to practices, they went and
saw coaches and teams and he got asked in this piece of all, the
the coaches you saw and all the practices.
You saw who impressed you the most and I said, oh, Tom, crean
and Indiana. No question and Larry Brown
agreed. I mean, you know, Larry Brown.
That's a be that guy's a basketball.
Genius and Ledges. And you know, you heard anybody
that talks about crean in the basketball firmament, whether
it's in the media or whether it's in the coaching profession,
they all have, all these wonderful things to say about
Tom crean, the basketball coach like you know, like you said, he
prepares so hard for everything. And his practices are so
detailed. And so there's a just like,
every eventuality D is covered. And that's what you hear in the
broadcast is what you hear. Whenever people get asked about
Tom crean and foremost National people, you know, the Jay bilas
is of the world and and you know the Seth Greenberg is the world.
That's all, they really know of Tom crean is like, here's here's
what we've seen in practices and here's what we know from talking
to our other people in the coaching profession.
And yet you couldn't possibly have watched neiu game this year
and looked at the team as they played and said, wow, this is a
really well prepared team. It was almost as if at times,
they didn't know what they were supposed to do with in
possessions, let alone who session to possession.
And so I have this theory that you know cream Mary you know may
very well be a basketball genius.
He really understands the game he certainly is a really
insightful offensive mind but he seems to struggle to translate
what he knows about the game. Into the players in practices
and those practices may be great.
They may be so detailed but like you said at the end of it
there's just there's things that are missing in the translation
of what he knows versus what the players need to process in the
game, to be able to go out there and do what they need to do.
It's very simplistic and, you know, in this day, it doesn't
matter. This is basketball.
If this is anything but the greatest teacher isn't the one
that knows the most. It's the one that teaches the
best. It's the a person that can take
their knowledge and related and it's relating to people is so
hard and try as we might, it's not as simple as just listening
and talking you genuinely have to to get on this wavelength for
you think like the other person where you can that you can
empathize, you can sympathize. You can anything that ends in
eyes, I guess you have to be a people person and I don't think
that just Tom's personality was a people person necessarily
Really, I think that you just wanted to coach basketball and
he wanted to win games and he wanted to rely on these papers
in front of them that we're all. I mean, you make fun of his
papers that he holds and games. Not you again, Royal you but
like that, that maybe you too. But you know, it, you make fun
of it but it's like no genuinely.
That's what he thinks will help him win the games because that's
the number say, and that's what the data says, and that's what
you know, Trend say, but I don't think Think you ever got that
human element? I really don't where he went
from being a teacher, that knows everything to a teacher that can
teach and that slowed him down and some players got it.
And some players can understand I'm just like some, you know,
some kids sitting in finite mathematics right now is going,
this is great. It's awesome.
This teacher so smart and understand it and the kid next
to him is going, I'm totally lost because they are not the
same wavelength. I just don't think that Tom
could universally recruit people there on the same way.
Flying through the so hard to see a 17 year old kid sometimes
as early as 16 year old kids and go.
Yeah, he's gonna understand exactly what I'm saying to him
all the time. There's a lot of risk in that
and I just don't think it had enough but I could totally
wrong. We're speculating, but just, I
mean that's that's what we left with and the.
But that's I look I think it's a fair thing to do and I think
that we will certainly see as we move forward and we get a little
bit of distance between us and the Tom crean are, I Think we'll
see things a lot more clearly because we'll have more to
compare. I'm actually quite fascinating
to see where he lands in his next coaching, job to get a
sense of how those teams play and see if it's the same things.
Or if there's Lessons Learned, let's talk about the IU job.
Sure. So we've heard a lot of people
weighing in on this and I know you guys have been doing a lot
of good work over at the Hoosier in trying to cover this job
search. Like what are you expecting?
Moving forward with this job? Search, are you expecting?
I you to shoot for the moon and hit it?
Are you expecting them to go in a direction?
Nobody's thinking of, is there a way that you're leaning right
now? I'm sort of leaning towards just
because I do think that Fred glass wants to appease people
want to make must make people happy.
I don't think we're gonna get a surprise name, like, I don't
think we're going to get Tom crane again, you know, where
it's like really awkward, you know that box.
He's going under a different Alias, he's Thomas Crane and we
in he looks a little but trust me he's new there but they're
not they're not going to go to a Marquette.
I don't think and just grab some bud buddy that that's hot and
that seems to be doing well I don't think they're going to do
that. I think that they're going to
want to get a name that makes everybody say.
Yeah. Like Billy Donovan like he knows
what he's doing like that's that's Be clear?
I mean whether or not they can hit that, I don't know.
But I think that's going to be their first and foremost goal of
hiring a home run type Guy where everybody happy everybody sees
it and goes that makes sense. Like they're not going to do
what football did and just get Tom Allen and, you know, this is
your first head coaching job, go for it.
I don't think they're gonna do that.
I think they're going to go try to get a name that is got some
element of sexiness to it. And I think I take their time, I
really people keep asking Sam where You lean.
Where do you want to go? Where do you want them to go?
I don't really know enough to care.
Like I don't know what's going on in Fred glasses head cuz I
didn't know that he's gonna fire the guy until yesterday or two
days ago, whatever day around a 3, it's been such a world.
I can't pretend to know what he's even thinking at this
point, but I do think they're going to try to hit the Home Run
higher and I do think that makes sense because it will make
people happy. I think it'll help with
recruiting especially on a national level.
I don't care if they're Indiana kids or Missouri kids or
California, kids, or from Hawaii as not kids, that can play
basketball. If I'm an Indiana fan and that's
not what people tend to think, but that's what I want.
Is just a coach that can just put things together very quickly
and rebuild because you're inheriting an okay situation we
think depending on who leaves for the NBA.
Yeah, I would shoot for I keep going back to the name, Billy
Donovan but I would I would shoot for a name that that
people are going to go. That makes a lot of sense.
So you seem to be of the opinion that IU is still a job that
would attract a name like that. I am because I wasn't like five
days ago but what I started doing is through like the four
years of covering college sports as a student journalist, I've
become friends with a lot of student journalists naturally
from around the big toe. I'm from around the really.
I mean, the country. I've got like eight different
variations of the same group chat, that turns into, like we
met on Twitter or we met at that.
One thing in Omaha and I basically just went through the
other day and I texted what ends up being think about 45
different student people or just recently graduated people that
do not have ties to Indiana and said, hey like is it Cindy a job
worth getting and a lot of people dispersed coming every
All the like two or three guys said, yes, that's still a
high-profile job. That's like one of the best in
the country from people that are at Illinois, Ohio, State,
Michigan, whatever, and everybody kept on saying, and I
agree with this wholeheartedly, it's Hoosiers not necessarily
the, you know, the show, the movie Hoosiers which I did not
have any ties to Indiana University, but at this school
in this state in Indiana University, basketball is very
transcending. It is the culture.
It is what you are when you come to student orientation.
And maybe this is because I had student orientation with Troy
Williams, and they were there trying to, like, kiss up to him.
I don't know. But they said, this is a
basketball school, and this is what we do.
We are, we are a basketball school.
The football team is okay, but we are a basketball school, and
that will be part of your identity.
You will go to these games. You will do this.
You will be happy. I mean, it could transcend 's
just what you are. It's a powerful.
Awful feeling to to have an identity and this schools
identity is basketball. And I think that attracts people
that's what attracted Tom crane with this whole like this
Indiana thing. And I guess like the short
version of what I just said is it's a good job because the
culture is so long-standing, it doesn't have to rebuild from
scratch. There's donors who support it.
There's a fan base that's going to support it.
No matter what mean, the stand base would have gone to an IT
game. It was here.
It will always be. Good job because of the history
and I think that for as long as people record history, which I
assume is gonna be forever. People will remember that.
Hey, Indiana basketball! The chance for you to do
something special in front people, who really, really
obsess over it. And I think there's an element
to that that's going to attract a lot of high-profile coaches.
I do. I'll get you out with this
question. When do you think we're going to
hear something definitive on the coaching search?
Lets I might do a game where like people are gonna think I
have the scoop April 23rd. You think that late, huh?
Yeah, I think it's going to be a while I genuinely do.
I was able to write their little 5, that'd be terrible.
Yeah. It might be having to cover that
during little five. I wouldn't.
I would just add be my retirement, I'd say whatever.
I don't care. We'll be at the bicycle race.
Yeah, I think it's going to be a while because I think, I think
Fred glass is going to treat this.
Like he's operating with a live bomb, like he is going to make
sure he does all of his groundwork, interviewing anybody
and everybody who will show interest, he's going to ask
anybody and everybody for their opinion, he respects obviously,
for for who they should have. Are I don't think he's gonna
leave any stone unturned because he knows that this is is the
most important decision he'll have made as an Indiana.
Thought of director, this will Define.
It was either he wants to wait, you had to find your legacy
either as being forever. Tied with Tom cream if you
extended. And when Tom goes quite frankly
I thought Fred would have gone or you make the most important
decision of your life in terms of your job by hiring the next
coach of Indiana basketball. And Brad is going to feel a lot
of pressure. I mean I feel Pressure Forum.
I can just, you know, it's a big deal and I do not think he's
going to rush into this. He'll take his time and he
doesn't care. We're waiting, it'll it's great
for our content because we'll have weeks of, you know, doing
podcasts, like this and saying, who should it be?
And when is it going to happen? I don't think I can do for a
very long time because I said, April 23rd.
I'm gonna go with April 23rd. I truly think it'll be after the
NBA seasons over, and I'm gonna get you guys in any rush and
it'll make for a fun mom. Thor.
So, definitely on the Crimson cast and everywhere else, it
certainly will. And it's, it's going to be it's
going to be fascinating, just to watch the whole process unfold.
We're getting a lot of of, you know, predictions and National
people flying in, with their takes and, and they're, you
know, ideas on who's going to get the offers and who's going
to get interviews and nobody really knows anything at this
point. Last question.
Yeah, I'm gonna flip it on. Is this anything like anything
you have been a part of this, this next Watching circus for
it's just for me it seems like it's next level.
Like, oh man, this is such a huge decision in sports but
that's because I haven't been around as many things is this as
big a deal. As I think it is, it's a huge
deal. And I think you know going back
and I mean I've been part in one from one way or another of the
last three coaching searches in terms of covering them you know
the first the first one we weren't even sure if there was a
coaching search going on the athletic.
Aunt and the administration were kind of locked in like
internecine Warfare. And what ended up happening was
they just ended up retaining. Mike Davis for reasons.
I think that didn't have a lot to do with basketball.
Certainly, the one in 06 was a big deal and that one, you know,
probably should have been the big one that that really reset
the direction of IU basketball. But again, you know, that one,
we found out later. Was interfered with, by the
president of the University, right?
You know, who, you know, instead of taking the athletic
directors, decision decided to intervene.
And that was how we got K Samson, and then the third one
was, you know, it was what, produced, Tom crane, but it was
hardly a normal search. And at that point, it was like,
I guess we'll just take, whoever has a decently good resume and
is still willing to come here and fix things.
This is really, I think the first Hiring process that we've
seen at IU. That as I've been under duress,
we're all of the major players seem to be in place where you
don't have a meddlesome president.
Really since 1971, you know, when they hired bob Knight, you
know, that that process worked pretty much the way that it was
supposed to. I feel like there's an
opportunity for IU to be able to do that here as well.
And so it's the this is huge. Like this, you know if we've
talked a lot about is Indiana, still amazed.
National name. Is it still a top-10 program?
Could it be a top-five program? I think the answer to all of
those things is yes and I've been, I've been arguing for a
while. It's like, you know, even going
back to the last six or seven years of the bob Knight era.
You know, you had a Hall of Fame coach a legendary coach who, you
know, for a variety of reasons was not as effective during that
time period, as he should have been.
And from that point forward, you've had just a series of
people in the position that for whatever various reasons there
were, and then they varied from person to person.
We're able to keep, I you up at the levels that it can be at.
Now, I guess, we'll see with this.
If my hypothesis is correct that the program is fine.
The program's got the resources, the program's got the recruiting
footprint, all of the things that make, you know, basketball
programs, great. And it's just the matter of
having the right person in this coach, you know, this is, this
is the one that's going to decide.
To a large degree. So they really gotta, you know,
glasses really got to do his homework.
It's going to be interesting watching.
I think the other thing to keep in mind with this Sam is because
this is the first kind of, you know, a not under duress
coaching search that we've had since the early 70s.
I do worry about, you know, factions within the donor base
or the trustee base or the fan base, you know, looking at this
and saying this is our time like we need to get Our guys kind of
Game of Thrones like, right, we gotta get our guy on the throne
here, you know, we're already seeing that playing out a little
bit, my hope, is that what we're seeing in the media?
And I'm talking with the local media here, more than anything
else isn't going to bleed over into the actual process of who
makes the decision. I thought it was very
interesting that Fred glass not only said, you know, I'm not
forming a search committee, but also said, you know, I'm not
going to Source this out to an external committee.
I'm going to do So a myself, right?
I actually look at that as a good thing because I think the
more people you get involved in this process.
The the more chances there are that something's going to go
wrong and you're going to have you.
No problems with people trying to exert influence this or that
like I think having having a single inflection point with
this. As long as you trust the person
that's making the higher I think is a good thing and I you know I
think at this point I think glass has earned at least some
degree. Free of latitude with this, you
know, everybody was concerned about how he was going to deal
with the Korean situation, in the basketball situation,
leading into this offseason and have to say.
I mean, not just in the fact that he made a move, but in the
statements that he made in the, in the post firing press
conference, I was pretty impressed with the direction
that he wanted to take things. So I'm on board with where this
is going at this point. It feels like there's a single
voice and that's that's what I like.
And that's that's just discontinuity because whoever
the Indiana basketball Well coach is will have everything
Tom crean had, which is everything, maybe you have
thoroughly everything, you have every resource.
If you want to bring your team to a Ravens game for reasons
that I still don't understand. You can do it if you want to go
to New York, just because you can do it.
If you want to practice all the way up until like 75 minutes
before a home, women's basketball game at Assembly
Hall, when you have cook Hall down the hall, All literally you
can do it because you're allowed to do whatever you want to win.
12 over the next coach is, will have that power.
There's, there's no excuses. You should, you should be able
to make Indiana basketball pretty, darn good.
And that's the fun of it. All it is, it's fun.
And, you know, I think it's a really attractive job for a lot
of people. And I think the, you know, the,
the idea that IU basketball is a fallen star at this point.
I think this is the thing that Hated me.
The most about the media coverage over the last few days.
Is this idea that I, you was an average basketball program?
And Tom crean was like, holding it up, like like Atlas, you
know, like, you know, right. Look at this burden that I'm
having to carry and only only the basketball Genius of this
man is able to keep it afloat, and I'm just like, I think
that's backwards. Let's do it that completely, I
mean, right? Well, it's but, I mean, I almost
feel and I felt this way with Mike Davis, that, you know, Oh,
there's certain functional elements of being the basketball
coach at a program of this caliber that.
You, if you don't have them, it makes the job much harder.
And I always felt like whether it was recruiting or whether it
was, you know, style of play, or whether it was, you know, just
kind of the way that he interfaced with the media,
creating almost always made this job harder than it needed to be
given the resource advantages that he had.
Yes, and multiple ways. I mean, you talk about just the
way he interacted with them. I mean for somebody who cared as
much of us is on him as he did. Rightfully, I mean, I would too,
you know, you have things that he handles and you go.
Why, why did you do that to yourself?
You know, why didn't you just be a little cheerier a little
nicer? Look, whatever.
So, I want to say you did himself, and that's again, it's
different conversation, but you have everything you need.
Again, you have everything you need to succeed here.
Nobody's holding anybody down. It's it's primed for success.
For whoever this is Well, it'll be an interesting process and we
will look forward to catching you on Twitter and on the
Hoosier at what is it? Indiana dot rivals.com.
Or is it just the Hoosier? Yeah, that sounds right.
You can do either that's the beauty of the internet.
These days you can enter two different things and it'll come
up the same way. It's fantastic.
I appreciate you coming on man. Always always a pleasure to chat
with you and good luck moving forward.
Now this is fun. It all had fun with us.
Absolutely Sam by size of Darkness here on Crimson cast,
folks.