I would bet good money Dwayne Wade will call EJ by the end of the week telling him to stay.

Since Gordon's announcement is supposed to come on Friday, I would hope that Wade calls a little sooner than that.

that would be so pro.. how could you argue with wade?

wade - "uhh yea ej i stayed 3 years and look what happened to me."
ej - "point taken, im staying"

He says he will visit with Ebanks and Holloway quickly....listening to this guys energy...I want him to recruit my son NOW....and he is 2. Damn when is midnight madness....

Thoughts from the press conference:
- Apparently Greenspan is in as deep poop with his wife as he is with the fans. He had to get her flowers too.
- They keep talking about the Bennett thing. IU is denying offering the job to anyone but Crean. Uh huh, yeah right.
- Greenspan looks like he's aged ten years in the last two. I almost feel bad for the guy.
- Crean has a shirt or something, and is wearing an IU colored tie. He shook a few hands, including Bill Mallory's. Nice touch.
- New shirt: Crean & Crimson. Ten to one the student section becomes the Crean & Crimson Crew
- Crean is thanking his family. Blah blah blah, we get it, you like your wife and kids. Here"s what he should have said: "I'd like to thank my wife for letting me take the best open basketball job ever."
- Talking about the 76 championship game. Loved watching Indiana. Yeah yeah, we get it.
- He keeps talking about growing up in Michigan. That's north, dude. Stop talking about Michigan.
- I keep waiting for him to go, "Why am I coming to Indiana? Because it's INDIANA, you morons!"
- Crean basically agrees with me. "It's Indiana. It's Indiana."
- He has an 8 year contract.
- He says he's going to learn about Indiana. Here's what you have to know: we like basketball. A lot. We like IU. We like winning. That's about it.
- He's setting the bar low by calling it a "challenging situation." I guess Crean is a coaching masochist.
- We don't care about Marquette. They're in Wisconsin. We're in Indiana. Tell us more about what an honor it is to be at Indiana. We liked that.
- What does a head coach tell his players as he's leaving? "Sorry boutcha, got a better offer. Have fun doing whatever. Peace."
- Praising IU, talking about his experience at Michigan State. This is the first time I've had that feeling like "He gets it."
- "The opponent will know that they are smack dab in the middle of Hoosier Nation." There it is again. Goosebumps.
- Someone find me a Crean & Crimson t-shirt. Stat!
- Q&A Time! First question: recruiting and the dismissed players. Seems like he's dodging the question, talking about the KS mess. Kinda iffy on his answer.
- He's certainly enthusiastic. I'll give him that.
- Crean just called IU anywhere from a top 10 to the #1 program in the country. Sounds about right.
- Bob Kravitz asking the technical questions. Offensive and defensive styles. Talking about conditioning. Mental toughness. Etc.
- Talking about competing against Izzo.
- Louisville guy asks about recruiting. How about "Everywhere from Chicago to Miami, from New York to LA?"

Okay, this is boring. All in all, I'm impressed. I think he'll be good for this program.

One interesting thing Crean just said was HE is responsible for player development...hear that EJ...Player development

He refrenced the candy striped pants...... he gets it. I'm cool with him now.

I'm rockn my candystriped warmups right now, all I need is my Crean and Crimson T-shirt

Got to give the guy a lot of credit. He knows how to conduct a press conference. Very charming and to the point.

This guy is a class act.

How did they get the "Crean and Crimson" so fast??

Anybody know if ESPN is carrying the news conference @ 11

It's going to be on www.bigtennetwork.com. I'm looking forward to hearing if he's going to make some of the same "promises" that KS made at Midnight Madness. I'm just hoping they're not open-ended and completely disregarded. I believe in Tom Crean. Seems like a quality guy. KS never did, right from the get-go.

Did anyone read the Pat Forde column on ESPN? Why does he seem so unbelievably shocked that Crean would go to IU. I know there's possible sanctions and some players might leave, but he seems ultra negative.

I heard him on ESPNews yesterday and it was the same thing. He seemed almost disappointed that IU made a good hire. He makes it sound we're going on probation for 10 years or something.

I think worst case is a 1-year postseason ban, although I think it's more likely that there's some minor recruiting restrictions. But, this is still IU and being the head coach here means something. Not sure why Forde is so shocked and painting such a bleak picture.

"Not sure why Forde is so shocked and painting such a bleak picture."

Because ESPN and sensationalism go hand-in-hand.

That's definitely true. It just blows my mind that Forde seems absolutely stunned that a coach from a top conference would even entertain Indiana.

It doesn't surprise me AT ALL!!! Forde and Wojo(wtf) hate IU and it goes back to the Bob Knight days. They are shocked because they are MORONS who don't know a basketball from the hole in their butt and there's no way retards like them should be working at ESPN. I used to respect ESPN but this year I started to frequent other sports sites and even went with another fantasy baseball league because ESPN is getting to be a joke!

Dude Pat and Gene are idiots.. just ignore what they write. They have such a stong bias it makes reading there columns pointless. No need to bash ESPN.. You can't go wrong with the sports guy, thats a must read everytime.

I just wish ESPN still reported sports instead of having all of these guys who try to predict the future and spend so much time on their agendas. For instance, I got so sick and tired of listening to the crap about the Pac-10 during this basketball season and how they were the best or second best conference in the country. As it turns out, the two good teams (UCLA and Stanford) that we all could identify were the only two teams to do anything in the tournament while the rest of them were worthless (perfect example being Arizona who shouldn't have been in the tournament in the first place!)!!! I really felt like ESPN helped the Pac-10 and influenced the selection committee because that's all we heard about all year long. Right before the tournament I listened to an ESPN analyst predict upsets over Wisc and Mich St. in the first round because of how week he thought the Big-10 was this year and you see how that turned out!

Don't forget that the ACC was the BEST conference EVER by the numbers this year.

I guess it helps when you have three teams beat up on Davidson while Steph Curry is injured. And then run the circuit of beating D-1 newcomers NCCU and Presbyterian.

But, they are the BEST!

And, isn't "The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons? I think I'd rather have testicular torsion than read anything written by that hack.

Especially if you consider a couple of years ago he was glowing about how the Indiana job was one of the best in the country, but that Indiana hoops from high school up to the Pacers were in dire straits.

I guess it doesn't matter. So long as you can paint a grim picture, it will get people reading and commenting.

Maybe we can get Jim Harbaugh to coach the football team and make basketball adn football a family affair

Was Tony Bennit our first choice? I have a hard time believing that Tony Bennit would have been a better hire than Coach Crean. I think we should be very happy he said no.

I'm very happy with the Crean hire and after learning more about him I think he'll be a great fit. I love his Izzo roots, experience recruiting in Indiana, his age (only about 2-3 years older than Bennett and his graduation rates.

He wasn't in my top 3 either, but probably in the top 5-8. I kind of feel like we were down two with a runners on second and third in the bottom of the 9th and we hit a game-tying double off the wall. It was almost a homerun, but we still have a guy in scoring position with a chance to win the game.

Crean was not in my top 3 choices but after reading most of these articles I am very impressed now. I like the graduation rates especially . I think he will get the kids back , peer pressure on Holman adn McGee will keep them too

From ESPN's Pat Forde... (Here's a potential conference switcheroo to consider: Crean leaves the Big East for the Big Ten, freeing a space for Milwaukee native and Wisconsin-Milwaukee grad Bruce Weber -- perhaps feeling unappreciated at Illinois -- to return home. Marquette would be wise to at least inquire with Weber.)

I love it!! We get a coach and screw Illinois at the same time!!!

That's what you call Christmas in April, it would be even better if Gordon stayed one more year and hits a 30 footer @ the buzzer @ illini, then he goes for 30 @ home and crush Illinois by 20

If I were the kids I would look at Crean's top 10 graduation rates for black - student atheletes at 86% and then say to myself.

" WIth this coach I might just BE somebody someday ............not just a ball player "

I believe they will stay and new recruits will come in.

Not a prediction but Gordon I think should stay and develop 1) team passing game, 2) mid range game, 3) dribble drive judgement and then he can get much bigger bucks next year than he is worth this year. Of ocurse this depends on who comes out ...Curry, Rose, Collison, Chalmers, Bayless, Lee, Mayo all in the backcourt not to mention Love, Beasley, Hansbrough, Lopez twins, DJ taking other slots

I really hope EJ stays..

Why can't we get players like Stephan Curry? He's staying another year and I wouldn't be suprised if he stays all four..

Don't forget that all of the ACC teams whiffed on Curry. The only team to give him a sniff was Va Tech (?!?!?!?!?!?) who told him he could be an invited walk-on (?!?!?!?!?!?!?).

Crean was able to pick Wade out of an AAU line-up (with help, I know), and he's also done a pretty good job developing some of the talent that he's recruited into NBA caliber talent, which will look good with the recruits.

Oh, and Jerry, don't count on Hansbrough leaving after this year.

What the hell is going on here...GOOD NEWS out of Bloomington???

Things I want to know......
1. Will the Dak be gone?
2. Will Armon, EJ, Jamarcus, Devin, Holloway stay???
3. WIll we continue to boo Greeny...YES
4. Will Crean pursue "Knight Court" like Dicky V wants us too?
5. Will the NCAA come down on us or KS.
6. Will Armon and Jamarcus right DD on their shoes?

I am only giving my opinion...nothing factual...

1...I like Dakich...but I think it will be tough to keep him
2...I think Armon/Jamarcus should be given a 2nd chance...unless this is in fact they have already been given multiple chances...Basset, in my opionion, never quit after KS was let go...some others appeared to have quit...or at least not given the effort that we had seen throughout the yr...IE Crawford/Ellis
3...I think Greenspan had little to do with KS being hired...Pres Herbert was the driving force...I think Greenspan gets a 2nd chance
4...I feel like IU...when it builds or upgrades Assembly Hall...should rename the building after Coach Knight...the court is already named Branch McCracken Court...that should remain that way
5...I hope that the NCAA sees that the real problem was KS and sees that IU did what it thought proper in handling the situation and made a great move by dismissing KS...should have probably been done last Oct
7...I doubt seriously that any of the players are going to write DD on their shoes

write....not right....