STARLIGHT — Tom Crean doesn’t mind when you say his program is in the toilet — he’s seen it firsthand.
“I saw Ned Pfau’s bathroom down here,” said the Indiana University coach in reference the Southern Indiana superfan’s lavatory that also serves as a historic shrine of sorts to his favorite basketball program. “You can get about 12 men into a bathroom there to talk and relive IU basketball.
“Sort of scary,” he joked. “Sort of special.”
Scary and special are about the best two ways Crean could describe his first few weeks as men’s hoops coach in Bloomington.
He knew it required a leap of faith to leave the friendly confines that he built at Marquette University to take a job in Bloomington that carried the cloud of NCAA sanctions.
“Indiana University basketball hasn’t met my expectations,” said Crean before taking the stage Wednesday at an IU Varsity Club event at Huber’s Winery. “Indiana has exceeded them.”
It’s nights like the one Crean spent at Huber’s that remind him why he left Milwaukee for a job that is ripe with player dismissals, academic question marks and recruiting handcuffs.
“It’s Indiana,” said Crean, reiterating the two-word sentence that has become almost his trademark since his introductory press conference. “It’s just Indiana.”
The annual IU Varsity Club dinner at Huber’s has become a date that most Hoosier fans have circled for an opportunity to glad hand with the IU staff. But as anticipated as it may be for folks in Southern Indiana, the folklore of the stop has begun spreading to the IU campus.
“The day I took the job, (athletic director) Rick Greenspan told me about coming down here,” Crean said. “He told me I’d never believe it until I see it — nothing stops surprising me though.”
Wednesday’s event drew an estimated 850 people —a modest number until local coordinator Les Wright reminds you they probably could have accepted around 400 or so more.
From the moment he stepped foot in the room, the coach seemingly failed to stop shaking hands, posing for photos and answering questions from every member of the Hoosier faithful he could find.
“We respect everything that IU is about because this is what IU basketball is about,” Crean said to reporters. “IU basketball is about these people. It means so much to them and that’s why they mean so much to us.”
Crean’s message to his fans was simple.
He’s looking forward. He’s building a program that he wants fans to be proud of. He’s taking his program in the same direction of its predecessors — Bob Knight and Branch McCracken — and only viewing the current problems has a hiccup along the way.
“This entire university, this athletic program has been built on moving forward,” said Crean. “What we’re facing right now is a speed bump. It may seem like a ditch and it may seem like something that could be impossible to get out of, but we’re moving forward.
“We can still sell Indiana University for what it is. People hate that and want to say something different but it is true. If you don’t believe what I’m saying, ask Nick Williams, ask Verdell Jones, ask Devan Dumes, ask Matt Roth’s family, ask Tom Pritchard.
“This program means so much to you and that’s why it will mean so much to them.”
OTHER TIDBITS FROM HUBER’S
• Hoosier football coach Bill Lynch drew perhaps the loudest ovation of the evening when he pulled out his favorite prop to use at Varsity Club functions — the Old Oaken Bucket.
“When we’ve been around the state the past few years, people have had a hard time getting their hands around what we play for,” Lynch said as he clutched the trophy awarded to the annual winner of IU’s game against Purdue. “Well now I can show you. This is what we play for”
• Crean addressed rumors regarding suggesting sophomore Jordan Crawford will not return to the program — saying the sophomore guard is not enrolled in first semester summer courses but that his status with the program has not changed.
“I will never take lightly or forget what the kids in this program have been through in the last few months,” Crean said. “It wasn’t easy on him or on anybody. Jordan felt it best to take a break, but he is still a part of our basketball program.”
• Crean expects each member of his recruiting class who has signed to be enrolled in the second summer session of classes.
• Even after signing six newcomers and inviting three preferred walk-ons to join the 2008-09 team, Crean has yet to close the book on the current recruiting class.
“You never are done recruiting,” Crean said. “Whenever you have a chance to add quality basketball players to a program, you never close the door on it.”
• Crean was presented with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat when he was introduced as a speaker.
“I could have used this when I had potted plants flying around my office about a month ago,” said the coach, a joking reference to the night freshman Eli Holman reportedly threw a plant after meeting with the coach to announce he was transferring.
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