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Crean’s strength shows as Thomas Bryant picks Hoosiers

By Pierre Wilson

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The Indiana Hoosiers fan-base have had their highs and lows with head coach Tom Crean. The most recent being a high, when five-star big man Thomas Bryant verbally committed to the Hoosiers. The McDonald’s All-American chose Indiana over the likes of Syracuse, Kentucky and Missouri.

Though a verbal commit isn’t locked in stone (see Trey Lyles and Kentucky), Bryant would fill a big hole in the paint for the Hoosiers, and really bring to light one of Tom Crean’s major strengths……recruiting.

Bryant will mark the fifth consecutive year that Crean has landed a McDonald’s All-American for the Hoosiers (Cody Zeller 2011, Yogi Ferrell 2012, Noah Vonleh 2013, and James Blackmon 2014).

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Crean recruits so well, that he tends to over-sign players. Even with Stanford Robinson and Max Hoetzel transferring, the Hoosiers are over committed by one player (Juwan Morgan and OG Anunoby are in the 2015 class). Signing too many is a nice backup plan when you’re unsure if certain players will turn pro, but it also leads to the transfer of players that want playing time.

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Though you hope players take the Frank Kaminsky route of sticking it out, working on your game, and earning that playing time, that’s often not the case. Robinson and Hoetzel joined the likes of Remy Abell, Luke Fischer and Austin Etherington that have left IU in recent years.

Those guys aren’t the Zeller’s, Oladipo’s, or Ferrell’s of the world, but that’s still experience you lose coming off the bench. When you’re only getting 1 McDonald’s All-American, and they’re leaving after a year or two, you really have to find a way to strike with that talent. Though Crean recruits well, IU needs him to produce with these recruits.

I like Tom Crean, I think he’s a good person, a great leader, and obviously a nice recruiter. However, I also need Crean to be a coach. I think Crean makes poor game adjustments and decisions. Though his leadership and faith in his players are good for a win or two, his lack of in-game adjustments are good for a few losses.

If Yogi Ferrell and Troy Williams come back, pair them with big man Thomas Bryant, and a returning Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr, and Crean has himself a nice starting five. He also has some experience off the bench with Nick Zeisloft, Collin Hartman, Hanner Mosquera-Perea, Emmitt Holt, and hopefully a healthy Devin Davis.

Tom Crean will potentially have a really good team on his hands, and IU fans should be thrilled how he has been able to recruit…but they won’t be…at least not until he proves he can coach as well as he recruits.

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