It’s been a rough week for the Indiana men’s basketball team, with back-to-back 25-point losses to Iowa and Illinois. In coach Mike Woodson’s fourth season, the Hoosiers fell to 13-5 overall and 4-3 in Big Ten play, and they face an upcoming stretch of eight Quad 1 games in the next nine.
On Thursday, former Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean joined Indianapolis radio show The Wake Up Call With KB and Andy to discuss the current state of the Hoosiers and much more.
Crean coached Indiana to two Big Ten regular season championships, three Sweet 16 appearances and a 166-135 overall record from 2008-17. He went on to coach Georgia from 2018-2022 and now works for ESPN as a college basketball analyst.
Crean’s first comment during the radio appearance addressed how Woodson and the Hoosiers can turn things around moving forward.
“They’ve got to get an identity of rebounding,” Crean said. “It’s not even close when they don’t play well on the offensive glass. And it comes down to effort, it comes down to – and by effort, I mean going. I don’t mean getting it, I mean going and like going for real. Not running into a back and stopping. Not watching. There’s way too much of that, because most of the games I watch for television, I also chart them like I coach, right. I think that’s one of the things that I’ve enjoyed most about television is when I watch the game, it’s like game planning.”
“So the offensive rebounding and the defensive rebounding and the lack of hitting and physicality, awareness, those things all play into it,” he continued. “And I think big picture, that’s gotta be key. But to me, when teams struggle against teams that really spread it out like an Illinois, like an Iowa, it’s not necessarily how they spread it out, it’s how quick they get it up the court. And in charting the game the other night, the 60 points in the first half that Illinois scored, 34 of them came in the first 10 seconds of the [shot] clock. And Iowa, I don’t know the exact numbers, but watching that game, it was much the same.”
“Teams are attacking early, and I think they’ve got to get the ball stopped early. They’ve got to get communication picked up early. They’ve got to be more ready defensively early on, whether it’s a pick and roll, whether it’s a quick three, whatever it is. Illinois does that to teams, that’s how they buried Oregon so early a couple weeks ago at Oregon. Those things have to be taken.”
To listen to the whole radio show with Crean,
Later in the episode, Crean went into detail about what he’s seen from Indiana center Oumar Ballo and how much the Hoosiers have missed Malik Reneau due to injury. He praised Luke Goode and Anthony Leal for creating the most energy for their teammates, and noted how that style of play was key for the Indiana teams he coached.
Crean discussed how Indiana’s success or failure has relied greatly on guard play and ball movement. He also shared thoughts on how NIL and the transfer portal has changed recruiting, roster building and day-to-day coaching.
In addition to his comments on the current Hoosiers, the radio appearance included Crean offering condolences to Aaron Etherington, who died Tuesday and was the younger brother of Austin, who played for Crean at Indiana from 2011-14. Crean also talked about coaching Thomas Bryant, who now plays for the Indiana Pacers, and much more.
