Crean: “We have to keep getting better at every position”
(Editor’s Note: Video from Crean’s press conference discussing Michigan State is available after the jump.)
It’s not often that a coach is asked about recruiting the day prior to a game against a top 15 team, but that was the case earlier today when Tom Crean met with the media at Assembly Hall.
Terry Hutchens, the IU beat writer for the Indianapolis Star, asked the following question:
“In these next two classes, there’s lots of guards that have been committed, is there a need to really target some big men?”
And here, for those of you longing for a big man, was Crean’s answer:
“I think we are. Again, going back to trying to do this program, we had to get a team on the court. We had to fill scholarships. We didn’t apply for a year off. We didn’t apply for a sabbatical. So we had to get a team to be on the court which we had to use scholarships to do.”
“We get the class, we answer a lot of needs, we try to cover every position, knowing that we need to get size in that last class. This class, with the couple that we had, we knew we needed to improve the wing position.”
“We have to keep getting better at every position. We have to keep upgrading all of the time and develop the guys that we have. And every time that we have a scholarship make sure that we’ve done a really good job of trying to build towards it.”
“We’re not going to stop recruiting guards. Just like we’re not going to stop recruiting big men. We’ve got to keep building up a really good program. And there’s trial and error in this, like I said. But I don’t think there’s any question that even in the class we’re trying to recruit for now, that we’re trying to recruit size.”
“I can’t get a lot more specific than that with the other classes, but I think there’s a good gamut of a lot of different kinds of players in the classes the next couple years, but I can promise you we’re not shutting the door on anybody that can come in here and really elevate the program.”
The size that Crean speaks of for the current class seems to be Will Yeguete, a 6-7 power forward from France that plays at the Florida Air Academy. We’ll try to get more on Yeguete in the near future.
Beyond that, I think it goes without saying that IU really needs to land a player like Cody Zeller or Marshall Plumlee in 2011 or A.J. Hammons or Peter Jurkin in 2012.
But to follow up on Crean’s comments, I think he’s absolutely right to say he’s not going to stop recruiting guards. He shouldn’t. The situation is such that the roster, as it currently stands, is not what I’d call complete at any position. And that means you target the best talent available, regardless of position.
Filed to: Tom Crean