Posted on: October 22, 2009 8:03 am
You have to understand, rebuilding a college basketball program is different than rebuilding in ANY other sport.
1-2 quality players can completely change a team. Look when Sampson came in. 1-2 players, some JUCO's and WHAM, IU was in the top 10.
UK is the perfect example. They couldn't make the tourney last year and now they are Top 3.
The moral of the story is that I don't think it is going to take as long to rebuild as everyone thinks. Crean is smart enough and plays the kind of games these kids like, which will be lighting up the 3's and there have been a few Indiana Mr. Basketballs in the past that have come in and thrived in their first year, even under Knights system.
Crean is great for IU. He has a passion for the game and I think he has learned from his Marquette teams and he really knows the type of personality and player he wants. This recruiting class along with next years has a strong passion to be the class that brings IU back to glory.
Does that mean IU will win a title? That is a crapshoot. But they will be back in the Final 4 and my guess is you will see some seriously heated UK / IU matchups like the days of old.
This year, go .500 in the conference and sneak into the field of 64 and it will show the world how big of a motivator and coach Crean really is.
Level: Superstar
Since: Nov 17, 2008
Rebuilding
I think it is interesting that you compare UK currently to Sampson; because I personally believe that UK will be facing similar decisions with what to do with it's current head coach in the same manner that IU had to with Sampson- I guess you could say you took the words write (write, get it?) out of my head.
Any final four talk with IU right now is just being unrealistic. There just hasn't been enough time to turn this thing around to go down that road, and as your thread correctly is titled; with the emphasis on being patient with coach Crean; is how we need to realistically look at these first few years.
Level: Rookie
Since: Nov 5, 2009
Rebuilding