Crean To Be Honored By Alma Mater
9/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Mt. Pleasant, Michigan - Indiana University men's basketball coach Tom Crean will be honored Friday, September 12 when Central Michigan University presents him with their Distinguished Alumni Award.
A native of Mount Pleasant, Crean earned his bachelor's degree in parks and recreation with a minor in psychology from Central Michigan in 1989. While pursuing his degree, Crean coached basketball at Alma College and Mount Pleasant High School.
Prior to coming to IU, Crean was the head coach at Marquette University where he led them to the 2003 Final Four. He also was an assistant coach at Michigan State, Pittsburgh and Western Kentucky.
Among his lighlights at IU:
• Leading the Hoosiers to a 73-31 record the last three years, two NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances and its first outright Big Ten title in 2013, the first for IU since 1993.
• Recruited a McDonald's All-American each of the last four years with Cody Zeller (2011), Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell (2012), Noah Vonleh (2013) and James Blackmon, Jr. (2014). In addition, Vonleh and Troy Williams played in the 2013 Jordan Classic as did Blackmon, Jr. in 2014.
• Defeated a national best 10 programs ranked in the top 10 in the last three years. IU also leads the Big Ten with 15 regular season wins against the Top 25 in that same span.
• Crean is the only Big Ten coach to mentor an NBA lottery pick, a National Player of the Year, a first team All-American, a first team Academic All-American and a Senior Class Award winner this decade.
• Mentored his fourth NBA lottery pick when Noah Vonleh was selected ninth in the 2014 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets.
• In 2013, he saw Victor Oladipo selected second in the NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic and Cody Zeller picked fourth by the Charlotte Bobcats making them the highest two IU players have been selected in an NBA Draft in a single season. In addition, Verdell Jones III, Derek Elston, Jordan Hulls, Maurice Creek, Will Sheehey and Christian Watford are also enjoying professional careers.
• He inherited a program that faced the loss of two scholarships with an APR score of 866. The Hoosiers received an APR Public Recognition Award each of the last two years and had the top score nationally and among all Big Ten teams with a perfect four-year mark of 1,000.
• In addition, every senior who has played for him at IU has earned his degree. Six earned their bachelor's degree in less than four years. Twenty one have earned bachelor's degrees and five have earned their masters. In 15 years as a head coach, 47 of his seniors have graduated.
• Since 2010, IU players have been honored a league-high 27 times on the Academic All-Big Ten team.
