University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Tom Crean
March 29, 2018 | Men's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Other than a few books, the shelves in Tom Crean's office are still bare. On his desk, at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, are a lot of papers and notes, and a full cup of coffee in a "G" mug.
Georgia's new men's basketball coach has been busy, to say the least, since he was hired to replace Mark Fox on March 15. He's recruiting and he's spending a lot of time getting to know his players and letting them get to know him. Those are the priorities, he said.
From the looks of it, he couldn't be happier or having more fun. After a year out of coaching following his dismissal at Indiana, Crean is back doing what he loves, back doing what he was meant to do, back doing what he's essentially been doing since he was a teenager.
Crean, who turned 52 on Sunday, sat down for a Quick Chat in his Stegeman Coliseum Training Facility office Thursday. He talked a lot about his start in coaching and much, much more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: I went looking for your stats as a player at Central Michigan the other day and was surprised to find there weren't any, that you didn't play in college.
Crean: I was a college coach while guys were college players. I played in high school, but by far the most important thing was, I knew what I wanted to do.
The only other thing I thought about, and I actually got to do it this year, was I thought I might go into TV and broadcasting, because I really enjoyed it in high school. ...
I got a chance to start coaching at my old high school (Mount Pleasant) right after high school, which is what I really wanted to do, and I got a chance to start coaching at a Division III school (Alma College) at the age of 20. I did that for three years and made a grand total of $700 dollars.
Frierson: What kind of player were you in high school?
Crean: I wasn't that good; I moved the ball, worked hard — it's been so long — but it was more of that type of thing. I tried to do the right thing and I loved the game. I enjoyed sports, I enjoyed competing in it and I never wanted to give up competing.
As you get into coaching, you don't have to give up the competing, you're just helping others compete better.
Frierson: How did somebody so young know that he had something to contribute as a coach or staff member? Where did that confidence come from?
Crean: People believed in me. My old high school coaches, Denny Kuiper and Ted McIntyre; the guy that gave me the job at Alma College, Ralph Pim; I was around other coaches. At Central Michigan, Charlie Coles, who was the coach at the time; Dave Ginsberg, who was an assistant.
Then I started to meet other people and started to meet guys like Mike Deane, at Michigan State; Tom Izzo, Kevin O'Neal — Fran Fraschilla was a big one — Paul Brazeau, who's now in the ACC, I started to make friendships.
The thing to me is, I loved being out on the court to help guys improve. I started to try to build more of a creativity with that and the routines, and I loved it. I loved watching the improvement.
At a really young age, I knew that if I was going to be a coach and was going to do this, my passion had to be in watching others get better. And the passion had to be in being able to recruit and evaluate, and that's why my experiences at Alma College and Mount Pleasant — I did both for three years and it was fantastic. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Frierson: When you were young, when did basketball first really hit you and who were some of the players that stood out to you.
Crean: I think it was Central Michigan and growing up right there. I think my first favorite player was a guard named Leonard Drake, who was a great player, Guys like Ben Poquette, who played in the NBA.
I remember 1976 was a huge time for me. I went home on a Monday night and we were supposed to cheer for Michigan because they were in the national championship game and I kind of got enthralled with Indiana (which beat Michigan to camp an undefeated season). Scott May and Kent Benson, guys like that became guys I really got into.
Those early stages, I don't remember as much about the early (season) basketball, but I do remember the national championships. By '79, when Michigan State won it, I was fully hooked.
Frierson: One of the things I read online about you was a long feature on USA Today's website. In it was a quote from your old high school coach, Denny Kuiper: "Tom has a unique ability to dream pretty big." I find that a powerful statement.
How big were you dreaming and how have you been able to realize those dreams?
Crean: I think my original goal when I was growing up was to coach at Central Michigan some day. That's all I really wanted. But as I continued to expand and get out and start working camps and be in different environments and get around other coaches, your eyes start to open.
Central Michigan will always be home for me, where I went to school, but I grew to a place where I was like, I really want to do this (coaching). Then I went to Michigan State and I'm only an hour-and-a-half away from home, but then I went to Western Kentucky, in Bowling Green, by myself, and that's a different deal.
I think once I got into that world, it all kind of expanded for me. I didn't really have dream schools; I got to work early on at two schools that were right there when I was starting to love basketball, which were Marquette and Indiana.
Also at that time, when I'm starting to follow basketball, and I said this in the (March 16) press conference, I was reading Street & Smiths or the College Basketball Handbook, and there's the Bulldogs. There's Vern Fleming, there's Dominique Wilkins.
I started to follow basketball at a higher level and Georgia was one of those schools — obviously I didn't grow up in the area — but Georgia was one of those schools when I'm coming up the ladder in the late '70s and early '80s, that was a national name to me.
That's why it's so important for (Georgia) to be a national name, because there's going to be kids like me but have better jump shots and can dunk and can play, that are going to be looking at it, too.
Frierson: For a guy as passionate about all this as you are, what have these last few weeks been like? For a year you were all around the game, working at ESPN and traveling and talking to people, but now you're back, neck deep in it.
Crean: I was around other sports, too, I was around football a lot, around baseball, and certainly with ESPN. It was a huge thing to me, having a place that's got Georgia football. That's a two-word thing right there. Georgia football, everybody knows, and that to me, that's a big thing. I was excited to be in an environment like this, because you know there's an unbelievable amount of passion.
I worked at Michigan State when Nick (Saban) was building it and I saw that firsthand, but I haven't been in an environment where the tailgates start on Wednesday night. I'm looking forward to that kind of life, because we're going to tap into it. I'm going to the (UGA Coaches Clinic) tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to that part of it.
To me, the past two weeks, the keys have been: I have got to prioritize getting to know this team, have to, and prioritizing recruiting. Making this team better, spending time with them, getting to know them. Numerous times, probably four times in the last week, it's been 11 o'clock at night and somebody's either sitting where you're sitting or we're sitting over there (on the sofa) or they're standing there talking to me.
I love that; I'm not out there (in the practice gym) with them right now. You know, I get my two hours, but I love that (conversation). That's how we build it.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
