Why Indiana’s Tom Crean needs tonight’s game against Michigan State
By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor
“To be the man, you gotta beat the man. Woooo!”
Ric Flair coined that famous phrase years ago, and Tom Crean, that message is for you. To be the man in the Hoosier State, to be the man in the Big Ten, you’ve got to beat Tom Izzo, and you’ve got to do it in his house.
Yes, Crean coaches Indiana, the top ranked team in the country. He has three versatile NBA-caliber players in his starting lineup in Cody Zeller, Christian Watford and Victor Oladipo. His best player off the bench, Will Sheehey, would be the leading scorer on most of the nation’s teams.
It doesn’t matter. Crean also is the underdog heading into tonight’s showdown with No. 4 Michigan State, and he will be in such matchups until proven otherwise. You see, Izzo is college basketball’s version of Flair. He’s won more belts than you, he’s always a contender for another belt, and you don’t win the belt unless you go through him.
Indiana is a worthy No. 1 contender. The Hoosiers are tied with Michigan State for the conference lead with an 11-2 record and they share a two-game lead on the rest of the league with five games to go. Both teams are fighting for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. This is as big as a regular-season game could be, with the exception of it being the final game of the regular season with a tie at the top of the standings.
For years, no one has been better than Izzo late in the season with big things on the line. He’s been to six Final Fours since 1999 and won a national title in 2000. The Spartans have at least tied for the regular-season Big Ten title three of the past four years. They get it done.
Crean and his Hoosiers haven’t reached that level yet. I give him credit for talking over a horrible situation and making Indiana basketball look like Indiana basketball again. But for all that Crean and the Hoosiers have done this season, the honest truth is they’ve simply proven they’re almost there, and that they’re talented enough that you can feel free to be disappointed in them when they don’t get over the hump. They’ve proven that they’re almost in Michigan State’s class. And Crean has proven that he’s almost in Izzo’s class.
Crean also is looking up at Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan in the Big Ten pecking order, as evidenced by Wisconsin’s win in Bloomington last month. If you include the full body of work, he’s looking up at Minnesota’s Tubby Smith, too. At best, Crean is looking across at Thad Matta, and Matt Painter, and he needs to beware of emerging John Beilein at Michigan and John Groce at Illinois.
Crean needs this win tonight. Even during this impressive season, there’s an underlying question about his ability to win chess matches against the best of the best. The perception, fair or not, is that he was outcoached by Brad Stevens in the loss to Butler in December and by Ryan on Jan. 15.
But because he has put his team in position to win something, he has a golden opportunity to rise up on a national stage, change perception and get closer to claiming some gold, or in this case, a banner.
Ah, yes. Banners.
Indiana has not won a Big Ten regular-season title since sharing it with two other teams in 2002, and that is its only title since 1993. Indiana has never won the Big Ten tournament and has only reached the finals once.
Purdue and Butler have hung their share in recent years. Purdue won the Big Ten Tournament in 2009 and shared for the regular-season title in 2010. Butler won the regular-season or tournament title in the Horizon League nine times since Indiana last hung a banner and played in the national final twice in that span.
Crean, though known as a great recruiter, can make headway in turning into the talent into marquee wins with a victory tonight. Winning at Michigan State in late February with something on the line turns heads. It makes recruits do double takes. It gives Purdue fans nightmares (which might be the most important aspect).
Crean’s Hoosiers get credit for beating Michigan State on Jan. 27, and knocking off No. 1-ranked Michigan on Feb. 2 was huge. But both of those games were at home. The Ohio State win was the one that probably started to turn skeptics a bit — a dominant performance on the road against a very talented Buckeyes team. But the Ohio State win was not a defining victory.
Tonight is the night for Crean to come into his own, to break away from the pack and get that win that strikes fear and doubt into the hearts of future opponents. This is the night for Crean to become the man.
