Crean's contract and other basketball notes.

I'll get back to football as soon as possible, but there has been some basketball news recently. First, Tom Crean now has signed his 10-year contract. Here's the .pdf from the Indianapolis Star. It might be fun to do a line-by-line comparison with Sampson's contract, but here are a few highlights:

• Lots of NCAA compliance language throughout.
• The language on page 4, in paragraph 2.02, is interesting. It allows discipline, up to and including termination, if Crean is involved in any act or omission that "may give rise" to a finding that he or his staff violated any NCAA rules. Nice hindsight language that would have saved IU some money had it been in Sampson's contract.
• IU agreed to pay up to $650,000 of his liquidated damages (i.e. buyout) owed to Marquette. Maybe this had been reported previously, but I don't remember it.
• Crean's base salary is $600,000 for the entire term of the contract, and his guaranteed compensation ranges from $1.4 million in year 1 to $2.1 million in year 10.
• The employment termination provisions begin on page 11. Obviously, I hope that these never see the light of day again, but considering what we have gone through recently, I can't help but compare this contract to Sampson's contract. In the case of Crean's resignation, he would owe $3 million in years 1-3, $2 million in years 4-5, and $1 million in years 6-10. In the "for cause" section, the "may give rise" language mentioned above appears again. I always thought IU was in a better position with Sampson than Ohio State was with O'Brien, but this language is much better: it leaves little doubt that IU could fire Crean based on a mere notice of violation by the NCAA.
• The procedures for termination for cause, which begin on page 14, include provisions for suspension with or without pay. The cliche about fighting the last war comes to mind. Now that we have a coach with a reputation for integrity, we have the sort of contractual provisions that would have been helpful in dealing with the Sampson situation.
• If Michael McRobbie resigns or is terminated as IU's president, Crean has the right to renegotiate the appeal process of the "termination for just cause" provisions. Interesting.
• If IU wants to fire Crean without cause (i.e., if he does a bad job), IU will owe the lesser of $3 million or the base salary for the years remaining. That amounts to $3 million if he's fired in the first five years, $2.4 million if fired after year 6, and so on.

Lots of interesting stuff, but again, I hope I never have to look at this contract again.

In other news, this is way late, but IU hired Roshown McLeod to fill its last assistant coaching position. McLeod graduated from Duke, but played his first two years of college basketball at St. John's. Perhaps most significantly, McLeod is a product of Bob Hurley's Jersey City St. Anthony's program. This suggests that recruiting metro New York will be a high priority for Crean.