Marquette University Athletics
Tom Crean Speaks At Media Day
10/5/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 5, 1999
(On the role that players have in recruiting)
I think we have a group of guys who have really worked hard and I think that anytime that you are building something, all the players have to feel like they are a part of it. Right now, our most important recruiters are our players. Because if a young man comes to this campus and doesn't feel good about the guys he is going to play with, that's not going to help us sign players. Our players have to understand that we're trying to set a standard here and they are part of that standard. And with that means that we are trying to build the right kind of team and bring in people here that they're going to be excited to play with as well as the recruits being excited to play with.
At the same time, I think that the more we get into it, I believe our kids feel good about the way they are interacting with the recruits and the way they're getting a chance to get involved.
 Guard Brian Wardle. |
(What is there about Marquette that you tell recruits to get them to come)
First of all, you look at the tradition. I think that's one thing that I've really learned in the short period of time here is that we have to re-awaken people on, especially locally. It's so important the young people understand some of the greats who have played here and understand and that Marquette has won a lot of games and really stands well in the nation when it comes to all-time wins. But, at the same time, it's a new era and a new time. We want to give them an opportunity to come in here and be a part of that. We have a great campus to sell, I think it's one that even some of the local people don't understand how nice it is when they walk through here.
We obviously have a great city in Milwaukee and a great arena where we play in the Bradley Center. I also sell the conference. I think that it is in just its fifth year of existence, but I think this conference is real good. I mean you've got a team in the league that is ranked No. 1 in the nation in some pre-season polls. Those are some of the things that we hit. We try to hit quite a bit -- we've got a lot to sell here.
 Guard John Cliff. |
(Who have you leaned mostly on to learn about the tradition)
I don't know if it has been any particular one person. I've had a chance to come in contact with former players, and I think that Bill Cords (MU's athletic director), along with some other people in the department, do a great job in getting that across. It's just coming in contact with people but, as I've said before, some of my first memories were sitting in my mom's living room in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, and watching the 1977 national championship game. I remember a lot of that and was a enough of a basketball fan to know some of those names.
(You talked about filling the Bradley Center. How are you planning to do that?)
I think that is one of the things that we have to be concerned about right now. I think that it would be foolish to stand up here and say, okay, we're expecting a certain number of wins. We can't talk like that. We have to be in a position where we are trying to build a program up. But as we do that, and as we try to build a more competitive schedule all the time, we have to find a way to get the people here to get behind the team. When you are trying to build up your schedule, television becomes a big part of that. And television doesn't want to come when you are not winning or when there is not going to be anybody in the seats. So, I think that it's important that the fans get behind the fact that Marquette is playing and not whom we are playing. We've got a great arena to do this in -- the Bradley Center is state-of-the-art. I've been in there a few times and see what it can be like when the place gets jumping and there aren't any seats. We have to aspire to that. I know that it may not happen immediately, but we have to shoot for that and work towards that. We have to get the students involved -- we could talk for hours about that -- but we have to get the students here more involved in what we are trying to do and get them excited about taking a couple of extra steps and walking a few extra yards to get down there and be a part of things -- faces painted, the wigs, the cheese heads and all that stuff.
I think that you have to find a way to be visible. I think that we have done some of that, I think that we need to do more in that area. We need to get across to all the various classes, the freshmen upward, that these are their classmates out there. If you really want to have some fun and if you really want to have a couple of fun two-hour segments each week or turn it into a four-hour segment based on the way you prepare to come to a game, it's a great way to do it. Everywhere I've been, I've had the chance to see the students, where maybe at the beginning they didn't get behind it the way that they could have, but, as they went on, they started to have some fun with it and it became an expected norm.
(Goals)
Right now, I would just like to see us get more competitive with everybody as we go on. At the same time, these kids do have experience winning. It's not like they've never won before. I think that every veteran on our team has beaten Cincinnati at least once a year. To me, that's kind of nice because Cincinnati is the school who everybody is measured by in this league. I think that our guys have been hungry and our whole thing now is got to be based on getting things across that we are going to play a certain way. We're going to play with a certain level of intensity, and we're going to come out everyday with the attitude of giving great effort. Your jump shot may be off, but your effort better not be.
