Very pleased.

Before this afternoon, I had not been online since just minutes after my "Tom Crean" post Tuesday evening. Of course, I'm trying to get up to speed, but I can see from the comments that my post may have made me seem ambivalent about Crean's hire. Since I said that Crean wasn't a "home run," I should make clear that I would reserve that term for a coach who has a history of building and maintaining a championship-caliber program--guys like Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan, and the like (those are just examples--I'm not suggesting that any of those guys was or would have been expected to be a candidate for the job). So, it's no knock on Crean to say that he doesn't have that sort of resume. IU fans won't consider a coach to be a true success unless he wins a NCAA title, and absent a title on the new coach's resume, there always will be some uncertainty.

Still, Crean would have been a good hire under any circumstances and is a very good hire given the current condition of IU's program. Maybe I should have said that Crean was a home run but wasn't a grand slam. After watching his press conference and reading the initial coverage I certainly believe that IU's program is in good hands. Crean has been a head coach long enough to have built a good resume, including a Final Four appearance, but is young enough to remain at IU for decades. He's from Michigan and grew up as a fan of the Big Ten and claims to have had a particular affection for Knight's IU program. Crean's mentor, Tom Izzo, is the most successful Big Ten coach in the years since Knight's program began to decline in the mid 1990s.

Tom Crean.

It's going to be said often, but this is a solid hire. Not an obvious home run, but not a stretch by any means. Crean is 42 years old and has a Final Four on his resume and eight years as a head coach (about a .650 winning percentage at Marquette). The biggest knocks: a hot temper (come on, we've seen worse) and a less-than-stellar NCAA Tournament record absent Dwayne Wade. Still, IU hired a successful coach from another power conference program despite NCAA issues hanging over the program. It could have been worse.

Here's a link to Crean's Marquette bio.

He's been subject to quite a bit of well-deserved criticism, but once again, Rick Greenspan managed to hire a coach without much media coverage of the process (although certainly the Bennett pursuit was an exception).

Quick thoughts on the chaos.

I don't think it's chaos, really. None of us really know what is happening on the inside. Still, I'm glad that I've not had much computer time since Thursday and that I am following the IU coaching search from afar, and typing this post with Gulf breezes blowing through the room. It makes it a little easier to stomach, and it also means that I have had time to read only the sources I trust and not the media chatter, which inevitably portrays anything more than a 24 hour coaching search as a fiasco. Briefly:

• Bennett? Damn. I guess it's something of a moral victory that IU quickly targeted the guy who I really thought was the obvious choice, and it's a disappointment that he said no. I think IU remains a top tier job, but it also presents some unusual challenges on a good day: intense fan interest, high expectations, instant celebrity status within the state, and among some of the fan base, certain narrow expectations about style of play. And the warmup pants. And of course, this isn't a good day. It's better for Bennett to have said no than to have taken the job with mixed emotions. But I'm still disappointed.
• There's lots of chatter, and the chatter that I trust makes me think that IU's worst case scenario is an extremely well-regarded young coach (I'm speaking generally). IU may have to pay a bit more in years and money given the situation, and that's fine. There's no cause for panic.
• There may be cause for panic in the short term. As most have read already, Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis have been thrown off the team. All evidence is that these guys are malcontents, but what frustrates me is that they don't play like malcontents. Both are steady, reliable players who don't stand out as bad guys on the court. Ellis, in particular, does nearly everything well. According to the Hoosier Scoop, these guys hope that they will be reinstated by the new coach and will remain enrolled. We shall see.

Coaching search and other housekeeping.

There isn't much well-sourced info out there on the coaching search. The less-than-credible New York Daily News reports that Scott Skiles will interview for the job. Skiles is unemployed, so it certainly is plausible that he would submit to a conventional interview, but what are the odds that a New York paper known for peddling gossip would scoop every Indiana reporter?

In any event, be sure to check out Inside the Hall, which is running profiles of the various rumored candidates. ITH already has profiled Tom Crean, Tony Bennett, Sean Miller, Bruce Pearl, and Scott Skiles (and perhaps more).

Of course, there are plenty of suspected IU candidates in action this weekend. Xavier and Sean Miller play West Virginia tonight in one of the early games, and Tony Bennett's Washington State team tries to shut down another potent offense, that of top-ranked North Carolina. One of the late games features Bruce Pearl of Tennessee against Rick Pitino of Louisville, either, both, or neither of whom may be in the mix, depending on the source. Certainly, the outcome of these games could affect the pace of IU's search.

As for me, my presence here for the next ten days is likely to be sporadic. I'll certainly try to get online if IU hires a coach next week, but no guarantees.

Random tournament and coaching thoughts.

Now that all of Indiana's teams have been eliminated, IU fans will be focused on the performance of Big Ten survivors Wisconsin and Michigan State and on IU coaching targets, not necessarily in that order. Again, with the caveat that we have no idea who actually is under consideration, here are the remaining coaches who have been "mentioned" in media reports:

• I would guess that any IU fan who watched Washington State's demolition of Notre Dame's potent and fast-paced offense came away impressed with Bennett. I've been high on Bennett from the beginning and came away from that game completely impressed. His Cougars play top-ranked North Carolina.
• The other game in the East features two guys, Rick Pitino and Bruce Pearl, who have been mentioned as possible candidates. Clearly, Pearl would seem to be the more realistic candidate.
• In the Midwest, 12 seed Villanova and Jay Wright will play Kansas. I don't know that Wright would be interested in or a good fit at IU, but he seems to be drawing some mention.
• In the West, Sean Miller, whose Xavier team beat Purdue on Saturday, will face the 7 seed West Virginia with a chance to play the winner of UCLA-Western Kentucky.

The Chicago Sun-Times steps to the plate and other miscellany.

This search has been short on idiocy, but the Chicago Sun-Times is trying to make up for lost time. Here's what the S-T (via Inside the Hall) says:

Indiana University is expected to contact former Bulls coach Scott Skiles as it launches its coaching search, according to a source. Skiles was born in LaPorte, Ind. and led Plymouth High School to the 1982 Indiana state championship.

He’s maintained a house in Bloomington, Ind., where he is now and lives during the NBA’s offseason. The Bulls fired Skiles on Dec. 24. He went 165-172 and helped turn around a laughingstock of an organization into a playoff team that advanced to the second round last year. Skiles would not comment on the possibility of coaching Indiana.

Who says? "A source." Not "a source close to the search," not "a source with knowledge of the Indiana athletic department," just "a source." If the S-T had any more information on this source that would explain why we should believe him or her, the S-T would give us that information.

Skiles, like Randy Wittman and Steve Alford the last time around, strikes me as a "conventional wisdom candidate." He's from Indiana, he lives in Bloomington, so of course he is the subject of rumors. During the last search, I heard from superficially credible, connected people that Steve Alford had been given the job and it was just a matter of time. I heard the exact same thing about Randy Wittman. Now, I realize that I may end up being the idiot. Perhaps Scott Skiles will be the coach. If I were running IU's athletic department, I would have grave reservations about hiring a coach who never has had a professional reason to crack open the NCAA rulebook to lead a program that will be on probation, but anything can happen. Again, I may be wrong, and did not foresee Sampson last time, but I will be surprised if Skiles is the pick, and even more surprised if there is anything to this report.

In other news, I have heard through the grapevine that on ESPN Radio this morning, Mike & Mike declared that if IU beats North Carolina, "how can Indiana not hire Dakich," etc. I hope, first of all, that IU doesn't get run off the court by Arkansas. But suppose that IU and North Carolina do play in the second round. IU, until this week, was ranked all season long and spent some time in the top 10. Even after last week's losses to Penn State and Minnesota, IU is ranked between 16 and 23 by the major computer rankings. ESPN "Bracketologist" Joe Lunardi still expected IU to be a 5 seed. IU has two of the best players in the country (DJ White and Eric Gordon) and two other guards (Armon Bassett and Jordan Crawford) who are capable of taking over games when they are shooting well. If those four guys play well and if Tyler Hansbrough gets in foul trouble, it's not at all difficult to imagine IU beating UNC, and it wouldn't be among the top 50 upsets in NCAA Tournament history.

To be clear, I don't expect it to happen. I wouldn't even take even odds for the Arkansas game. But even if the NCAA selection committee is correct, IU is the #32 team in the country. If IU plays like it did for most of the season, IU is probably more like a #10-#15 team. Top-ranked teams lose to teams like this IU team multiple times every single year. There are bigger upsets in the NCAA Tournament every year. The idea that the outcome of one 40-minute game between two talented teams should be the only consideration in a search for a long-term leader for the IU basketball program is batshit. It's absurd and insane, and having been through this interim garbage before, I'm really sick of it. Why do media members so love every single interim coach? In 2000-01, two Big Ten programs were led by interim coaches: IU by Mike Davis and Wisconsin by Brad Soderberg. IU caved to media pressure and hired a guy who isn't fit to be a head coach anywhere, and despite the improbable run in 2002 the program still hasn't recovered. Wisconsin, despite a nice season and NCAA Tournament bid, conducted a thoughtful search and came up with a guy who has turned Wisconsin (Wisconsin!) into one of the best programs in the country. The idea that one upset win entitles an interim coach to a long-term contract worth millions of dollars just makes my blood boil.

Other miscellaneous items:

• Yes, IU appointed a committee this week. I haven't commented because I don't think it's a big deal. I would guess that Greenspan still be be doing the legwork on the candidates and that the committee will be in more of a strategic, thumbs-up-thumbs-down position rather than watching game film and breaking down statistics.
• This has nothing to do with IU or with basketball (and it's about Northwestern, so it certainly has nothing to do with the NCAA Tournament), but Lake the Posts, an excellent blog that covers with good humor the Big Ten's least prestigious athletic department, has committed acts of journalism. In 2005, before the LTP blog existed, its author conducted an in-depth video interview of former Northwestern football coach Gary Barnett, and LTP is rolling out the video in a multi-part series this week. Even if you don't care a bit about Northwestern, it's no exaggeration to say that Barnett's turnaround of the NU football program is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of American sport. Check it out. Part one is here.

Surprising lack of idiocy.

Other than the Kravitz article I discussed a while back, I haven't stumbled across much coaching search idiocy. Perhaps reporters were chastened by IU's out-of-nowhere selection of Kelvin Sampson last time, but most of the speculation seems to be acknwoeldged as exactly that. No pronouncements that Steve Alford is 90 percent certain to take the job or anything of the sort. My unscientific impression is that most of the talk, for what that is worth (absolutely nothing), centers on Washington State's Tony Bennett. A Google news search for "'Tony Bennett' Indiana coach" yields 70 hits. Similar searches for other guys being mentioned: Steve Alford: 59 (mostly relating to Pat Knight's endorsement); Kevin Stallings (ugh): 56; Sean Miller: 44; Brad Brownell: 26; Mike Montgomery: 16. Again, I'm not suggesting that any or all of these guys are candidates, but the Google news search gives us some idea of where the talk is.

At New Mexico's senior night, Alford gave what the New Mexico folks are interpreting as a a definite no: "Let's keep the focus on the seniors," Alford said after the Lobos beat UNLV 59-45 on Tuesday night. "This coaching staff isn't going anywhere." I'm not sure that's as definitive as interpreted, but I also don't expect Alford to be a candidate.

While not much is going on now, I would expect the chatter to heat up within a couple of weeks. It's hard to believe that 11 days from now, the field will be winnowed down to 16 teams, and most or all of IU's targets (whomever they might be) could be out of the tournament. It should be interesting.

Bob Kravitz: Indeed, as dumb as he looks.

A few weeks back, during the football coaching search, I pondered whether Bob Kravitz is intellectually dishonest, or just as dumb as he looks. I am leaning toward the latter.

I will throw a link up, but don't feel obligated to click on it. Such activity only encourages him. Today, Kravitz wrote a smarmy column about IU's coaching search. Again, I don't want to honor this guy's work by pretending that he has anything interesting to say (at least not interesting in the sense of, "wow, what a thoughtful, well-reasoned column, Kravitz!"). I simply want to take issue with two paragraphs of the column:

I would also give a call to Louisville's Rick Pitino, to Michigan State's Tom Izzo, to Memphis' John Calipari and to Texas' Rick Barnes. It's unlikely Pitino, Izzo and Barnes would leave, and with deeper study, Calipari's slickness might not be a fit in Bloomington, but you must go for it. (And while we're working the phones, why not try Ohio State's Thad Matta, just for giggles. What's the worst he can say? No?)

Kravitz was all over Sampson from day one. And ultimately, Kravitz was vindicated on that point (insert your blind pig/stopped clock metaphor here). Sampson's program ended up in much the same predicament it was in at Oklahoma. And while I realize that John Calipari wasn't personally implicated in the Marcus Camby improper pay allegations, I have a hard time reconciling his candidacy with Kravitz's statement that "If he has so much as one impermissible phone call, or if he has any other skeletons in his closet, tell him buh-bye."

But more troubling is this from Kravitz:

Drop a call on Paul Hewitt of Georgia Tech, who once took the Yellow Jackets to the Final Four. The sad reality is, IU is unlikely to hire another man of color -- why, I don't know -- but Hewitt would be an extraordinary candidate.

Wha? IU's last two basketball coaches, Mike Davis (African-American) and Sampson (Native American) were "men of color." IU's women's basketball coach, Felicia Leggette-Jack, is African-American. IU's immediate past president, Adam Herbert, is African-American. There are two possibilities here: 1) someone in a position of authority has told Kravitz that the basketball coaching search will be limited to whites only or 2) Kravitz is talking out of his ass. I'm voting for the latter.

And by the way, Paul Hewitt is in his eighth season at Georgia Tech. In 2004, the year that GT advanced to the championship game, GT was 9-7 in the ACC. That is the only time Hewitt has been above .500 in the conference. Absent a remarkable turnaround, Georgia Tech (11-15/4-8) will end up with an overall losing record for the second time in the four years since the NCAA title game appearance. It appears to be that outside of that one tournament run, Hewitt's performance at GT has been utterly unremarkable. I must be a racist, although if I were a racist, I might not tell you that as far as ACC coaches go, Boston College's Al Skinner, who hasn't been to the Final Four but has had some sustained success outside of one tournament run, would be a much better candidate for IU.

In any event, Kravitz either made a ridiculous, slanderous allegation against IU, or he is sitting on the story of the century. He owes his readers some clarification.

Bennett seems to be the talking heads' choice.

I haven't had much luck finding Seth Davis-style prognostication thus far in the coaching search. While not claiming any insight into the process, Andy Katz of ESPN (on TV but also even before Sampson was let go) and Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News are promoting Bennett. DeCourcy is downright apocalyptic about it:

Indiana can tap-dance all it wants until its team ends the 2007-08 season (and WSU finishes up, as well). When all that is done, though, if Bennett is not wearing his open collars on the IU sideline next year then the Hoosiers will have committed another costly turnover.

That seems a bit much. The Hoosiers are doomed if Sean Miller of Xavier or Brad Brownell of Wright State is hired?

The Washington State folks are getting defensive about it. Jack Evans of WSU's Scout site says Bennett isn't going anywhere, most because he recruited a kid from Oklahoma with a hardscrabble past. Yep. No coach would ever leave a recruit who placed his trust in the coach. This is college basketball, for goodness sake!

Coaching search hilarity.

No, not too much yet, but much to come, I'm sure. Seth Davis, who covered himself in glory during IU's last coaching search (telling an Iowa reporter that Steve Alford to IU was 90 percent likely), suggested on CBS over the weekend that IU officials have significant interest in Notre Dame's Mike Brey. True or not (Brey is a solid-at-minimum coach and is squeaky clean, so the idea isn't crazy), it seems unlikely that Rick Greenspan has targeted anyone, let alone that word would have filtered down to Seth Davis. I'm going to try to keep track of these prognostications as the search transpires, and mock the confidently wrong after IU actually does hire a coach. While I will try to stay on top of it, please feel free to e-mail me or note in comments concerning any particularly interesting projections.