Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Crean to Indiana...doesn't look like April Fools either

There are several reports, including this one, this one, and this one, that say Marquette coach Tom Crean is set to take the Indiana coaching job. I have to say I was surprised at this. I don't think Indiana is the elite job it used to be, and Crean pretty much had it made at MU. You can't be certain that this is a big step up. However, Indiana is a legacy program, so I guess I can see why Crean would take it, if in fact he is. And, there is a lot to be said for taking on new challenges...and Indiana is certainly going to be a challenge.

The question here is, what's next for Marquette? This coaching search will be very interesting. Marquette is a pretty good job for someone coming up or trying to come back. So far, I haven't seen any names, but this is not a surprise just yet. On the JSOnline link, a lot of people seem to think bringing Bob Knight or Rick Majerus into the fold would be a good idea. Others think Tony Bennett might want to come back to the state of Wisconsin and coach at MU. Frankly, I don't see any of these scenarios happening. But, I wonder if Marquette won't try to get a name coach, to essentially do what Indiana did. I also wonder if they can pull it off. I guess we'll see.

I forgot to mention the other aspect of this for Marquette...does this mean that Dominic James and Jerel McNeal are pretty much gone? I wonder if this will make MU try to get a coach more quickly.

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