Marquette University Athletics
Crean Not In Dark Over Job That Lies Ahead
10/11/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 11, 1999
By Dale Hofmann
One week from now while many of you are asleep, Tom Crean will bring something called Midnight Madness to Marquette University, a development that can be taken a number of ways.
Is the new basketball coach saying his team is best viewed in the dark, or is he admitting he was crazy to take the job? Crean will tell you it's nothing of the sort, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt at least until he plays at Minnesota.
Midnight on Oct. 15 is merely the first time a college team can legally practice, and the Golden Eagles will use the occasion to open the doors for free. A program that starts a season with a new staff and the remnants of a last place finisher can never have enough friends or time.
Crean was in Kevin O'Neill's wedding, and now he's in his shoes. Mike Deane did leave a little more in the pantry than O'Neill inherited from Bob Dukiet, but 6-10 in conference play is 6-10 in conference play.
"We're on the bottom. That's not me saying it. It's just the way it is," Crean acknowledged the other day, demonstrating that he knows which way is up. He added that he was talking about the standings, not the program, an important distinction.
Still, there's a vein of realism running through most of what the man says, and never mind that he used the adjective "outstanding" 41 times in his media day speech this week. This is important.
O'Neill was the same way, but he never found a polite means of expressing it while he was here.
Like his friend, Crean brings a national reputation for recruiting, and he began that process by luring a couple of in-state players whom somebody else actually wanted. And like O'Neill, he comes here with first-hand knowledge of what it takes to build a highly successful major program.
Minimum requirements include excellent players, thousands and thousands of over-the-top fans, and a challenging schedule.
Crean says he's pleasantly surprised to see Marquette ranked among the published collegiate attendance leaders, but he does understand that many of these people were indistinguishable from vacant chairs.
"We have to get the students here excited about walking a few extra yards and becoming part of things, with their faces painted and their wigs and cheeseheads and all of that," he says.
This betrays a certain unfamiliarity with the average Bradley Center crowd. Cardiologists and oral surgeons aren't into paint, and many of the local attorneys and architects are still sullen over the passing of a nickname, to say nothing of gooey, non-conference schedules.
It would help a lot to recapture the raucous undergraduates that Al McGuire's teams fed from, while an infusion of their elders would help pay the bills.
Speaking of the latter group, Crean said: "I try not to base anything we're dong on what was done or what wasn't done. It's so important if people did have those feelings, they find a way to put them aside and see what we have to offer."
He's hoping for no less from recruits. Living rooms were more accessible when he was at Michigan State, but Crean says, "We have not put ourselves in a position where we're going to settle for recruits."
Does that mean he shoots for the same players he did with his previous employer? "Shoot for, but at the same time you have to be realistic," he said. "Some of that comes down to not spreading yourself too thin."
In other words, he'll stay close to home most of the time, which means the Greater Midwest. That's also where he's looking for competition.
Minnesota's back on the schedule. So is Xavier. If Notre Dame isn't, Crean says it's not because he hasn't called. "As we try to build this back up, we're trying to get some of those rivalries that were here before," he said.
He'll need them. He'll need lots of things. But he knows it, and that's the first step.
