Indiana head coach Tom Crean appeared Tuesday night in Jeffersonville (IN) at a fund raising event for the Greater Clark County Schools.
The event, “Coaches Raising the Bar for Kids,” also featured former Louisville head coach Denny Crum and current Louisville women’s coach Jeff Walz and raised over $36,000 that will go towards helping students prepare to take the ACT.
A couple of quick highlights:
- During the Q & A portion of the event, Crum told Crean he’d love to come watch a game at Assembly Hall. Crean countered that he’d let him sit in his seat since he rarely uses it during the game. Crum then said, “I’ve noticed,” which drew a smile from Crean and a few laughs from the crowd. No word yet on whether the Hall of Fame coach will take in a game at Assembly Hall.
- Crean re-iterated that he consumes news on conference expansion and re-alignment just as the fans do: television, the Internet and the newspaper. He also stated that he hopes those in decision-making positions will do what’s best for the schools and the conferences involved.
- Crean said he is open to a series with Louisville in the future.
Here’s video of Crean speaking to the media prior to the event:
As the recruiting game continues to place an emphasis on identifying talent at an early age, the Indiana staff is hitting the ground running with the class of 2013.
After missing time earlier this spring with a stress fracture in his back, Austin Etherington returned to the court at last month’s Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions. And while he’s not yet back to full strength, the 2011 Hamilton Heights guard is feeling better each day.
A few thoughts on recruiting the state of Indiana
In Tuesday’s edition of The Indianapolis Star, Bob Kravitz penned a column (link) expressing concern over Tom Crean’s ability to recruit the state of Indiana. The headline: “Crean needs to start getting in-state talent.”
The overall tone of the column was hardly vicious, but there was quite a bit of discussion surrounding the 2010 class and the lack of IU flavor on the Indiana All-Star team.
If you’ve been following the program since Crean took over in the spring of 2008, he’s been transparent about the tremendous ground the program needed to make up in the 2010 recruiting class. And after landing a top 10 class in 2009, the Hoosiers will welcome a less-heralded three-man class this fall.
But back to the Indiana All-Star team. Kravitz mentioned three Purdue recruits — Terone Johnson, Donnie Hale and Travis Carroll — as well as Butler’s Erik Fromm and Chrishawn Hopkins and Ohio State’s Deshaun Thomas. I’ve watched all six players and two stood out as clear-cut Big Ten level guys: Thomas, Mr. Basketball and a McDonald’s All-American and Johnson, who will be a high level player in West Lafayette.
And while it’s easy to type a line like, “Take a quick look at the roster for the Indiana All-Stars boys basketball team. On second thought, if you’re an Indiana University fan, don’t bother. It’s too depressing,” that statement is also a little misleading.
The reality, as Kravitz mentions, is the recruiting work on Thomas and Johnson was all but completed before Crean ever stepped foot in Bloomington. The other four — Carroll, Fromm, Hale and Hopkins — could potentially fill roles at their respective schools, but are not worth losing much, if any, sleep over.
The real litmus test on IU’s ability to recruit Indiana talent will come in the next three classes.
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