Crean's Energy A Powerful Force
July 13, 2018 | Men's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Ponder for a moment the exclamation point. Now consider new Georgia men's basketball coach Tom Crean. who in many ways has been a walking, talking, meeting, greeting and tweeting exclamation point since he got to Athens in March.
The exclamation point — or do you say mark? — indicates strong feelings, passion and excitement. It is the perfect symbol to sum up Crean and his first months on the job, which have included a lot of time spent sharing his enthusiasm for Georgia basketball, his new school and where he hopes to take the Bulldogs in the years to come, as well as what it takes to get there.
If you follow Crean on Twitter — https://twitter.com/TomCrean — you've probably noticed that he averages a couple of exclamation points a tweet. He seems fired up to send every single message. Of course he seems fired up about doing everything we see him do. If you put Crean and Jack Bauerle together in the same room, you might be able to power most of Athens with their combined energy and spirit.
Crean's Twitter feed is part celebration of Georgia basketball and the University of Georgia, part celebration of the great players he's coached, part chronicle of nearly everyone he meets on campus, and part coaching lesson and self-help seminar. He celebrates, he encourages, he wants you to be excited about what's happening the way he is.
If it seems like Crean spends much of his day meeting people or tweeting, he said that's only because of the power of social media.
"I'm in here [around the basketball offices and practice gym] the majority of the time and planning things out or watching film or with our players," he said, adding that he does "like to be out and around people," which is important to him and his program.
Feature on the new Assistant Coaches
It's important for three reasons, Crean said: One, because "you never take anything for granted" when it comes to building a fan base and growing attendance; two, when he learns something or is excited about something, he wants "to share it" with people; third, being out on campus meeting people or active on social media are great ways "to get your message across and have people get to know you, not just as a basketball coach or not just as this person that just moved here."
Crean and the Bulldogs, he said, need "every person possible to help us build this to where we want to take it, when it comes to that support, when it comes to people feeling connected to it and eventually connection hopefully turns into ownership."
To play for Tom Crean, to work with Tom Crean, to be around Tom Crean, you better bring some similar energy and enthusiasm. The enthusiasm you've seen in news conferences and on social media since he was hired in March, it's not an act just for public consumption.
Crean is like that "every day," said new assistant coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, who joined Crean's staff in May.
"I think more than anything he wants you to bring to the table what makes you good as an assistant, or what makes you good as a coach," said Abdur-Rahim, who spent the past four seasons at Texas A&M. "From there what he does is, he'll feed off of us and we'll feed of him. It is a good yin and yang, but when you get between the lines, now, you better match that enthusiasm, for sure."
One thing about how Crean that has struck Abdur-Rahim from the beginning is how the head coach's mind works and how he approaches everything he does.
"Sometimes as a coach you can get in there and it's the same thing every day," Abdur--Rahim said. "With him, it's really high level energy, really enthusiastic, but the creative thinking part of it is like, don't just be normal, let's think outside the box, whether it's recruiting, whether it's basketball, social media, whether it's camp.
"Everything has a high level of thought put into it, which I absolutely love."
For sophomore forward Nicolas Claxton, perhaps the most excitable, extroverted returning player on the team, Crean is something of a reflection of his own personality.
"Even in the weight room and on the court, most definitely we feel like we have to match that intensity, which is not hard for some of us. Like me, I'm pretty emotional and like to have a pretty good spirit," Claxton said.
You won't be surprised to know that Crean was excited about his recent trip to Las Vegas to see some of the NBA Summer League action. While there he saw Yante Maten, the SEC Player of the Year last season and certainly one of the greatest Bulldogs ever, as well as some of Crean's former players at Indiana.
Being around all that talent and all those dedicated players was an energy boost for the coach.
"It just keeps giving you a vision of, like every other day here: Where can we go with this? Where can we take it? What can we do, what can we do to get better right now? What can they [the players] do on their own and how can we keep getting the vision across of the way we want to play, so that they really form an identity, and what's that going to take?" he said.Â
"Right now it's the work ethic, it's the workouts that we have ... and it's the training that they're doing; it's the camaraderie and togetherness that they're building. It's a day-to-day process and it's the same thing for me getting adjusted to Athens."
Seems like that adjustment's going just fine, Coach!
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.
