Last week, the IU Men’s basketball team ended a disappointing season with an embarrassing first round exit of the NIT tournament (effectively a tournament for teams that didn’t qualify for the main NCAA bracket). Two days after the loss on Thursday, March 16, head coach Tom Crean was fired.
Crean was hired on April 2, 2008. High points of his nearly 9 years coaching here include a sweet sixteen appearance in 2012 and being named ESPN.com National Coach of the Year that season as well.
According to senior Jackson Mahuron, the move to fire Crean was “definitely justified,” going on to point out, “how can a team be ranked so high at the beginning of the season and then lose in the first round of the NIT?” Mahuron’s incredulity is understandable, as IU came into the season ranked 11th in the country by the Associated Press and 12th by the Coaches Poll.
Senior Hank Ruff agrees, stating that “[Crean] didn’t have the team performing consistently enough for a high level job like Indiana.” Despite the lack of results, Ruff described the former head coach as “having better character than any other coach I have seen, which I know from experiencing his basketball camps.”
Both Mahuron and Ruff are excited to see the program’s new direction and eagerly await the next season of IU basketball.
