Timeline: Tom Crean's tenure at Indiana
Tom Crean's nine-year tenure at Indiana came to an end Thursday.
Crean took over a program mired in NCAA sanctions and the rebuild required patience before the Hoosiers returned to national prominence in 2012. IU won two Big Ten titles under Crean, but never advanced past the Sweet 16. And too often, good seasons were followed up by not-so-good seasons.
Here is a timeline of Tom Crean's tenure as IU men's basketball coach.
April 2, 2008 — Tom Crean is introduced as IU men's basketball coach and signs an eight-year contract. Former South Carolina coach Eddie Fogler reached out to Crean on behalf of Indiana.
"I listened and I thought, and I listened and I thought, and I still came back to what I thought at the beginning (of the conversation with Fogler)," Crean said. "If anybody asked me why, 'It's Indiana. It's Indiana.'''
THE NEWS: IU fires Tom Crean
WHO'S NEXT?: Looking at potential replacements
May 20, 2008 — Bloomington South standout and IndyStar Mr. Basketball Jordan Hulls commits to Crean's IU rebuild.
"He liked coach Crean's energy, and he loved the excitement of what Crean is trying to build there," said Hulls' dad, J.C. "I asked him if he was sure he didn't want to visit Duke or make another trip to Purdue and talk to coach (Matt) Painter, and he finally just said that his gut was telling him he wanted to play for Crean. He said he wanted to be part of something special and he was convinced that coach Crean is going to bring that to Indiana."
Feb. 4, 2009 — After dropping its first eight Big Ten games, the Hoosiers finally break through at home against Iowa.
Players went into the Assembly Hall stands afterward to celebrate with fans and fellow classmates, and Crean spoke to the crowd on the public address microphone.
"This is your win," he told the crowd of 14,247. "There is no way we could do it without the best fans in America, the Hoosier Nation."
It would be the Hoosiers' only conference win of the season.
March 12, 2009 — The Hoosiers lose to Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, finishing the season 6-25 — the program's worst-ever final record. The season, played shorthanded due to NCAA sanctions levied in the aftermath of Kelvin Sampson's tenure, included two 10-game losing streaks.
Nov. 12, 2010 — In perhaps the biggest recruiting coup of his tenure, Crean receives a commitment from Cody Zeller, who would go on to become a McDonald's All American and IndyStar Mr. Basketball. IU went 56-16 and advanced to two Sweet 16s in Zeller's two seasons in Bloomington.
Nov. 24, 2010 — Two weeks later, Zeller's AAU teammate and Park Tudor standout Yogi Ferrell commits to IU. A junior, Ferrell wouldn't arrive in Bloomington until the 2012 season. He played four seasons with IU and finished his career as the program's all-time leader in assists.
Jan. 27, 2011 — IU gets its first win over a ranked team under Crean when the Hoosiers knock off No. 20 Illinois, 52-49, in Assembly Hall. After the win Crean led a raucous celebration in Assembly Hall's south lobby.
Dec. 10, 2011 — You know it as the "Wat Shot." Christian Watford's buzzer-beater against No. 1 Kentucky sends Assembly Hall into a frenzy and signals the resurrection of IU's program. Then IndyStar columnist Bob Kravitz wrote:
On this night, Indiana University basketball dramatically, demonstrably announced its return. After all the crushing blows, after Kelvin Sampson destroyed the program, after Tom Crean struggled through three years of losing with under-manned rosters, the Hoosiers returned to national relevance with the kind of performance, the kind of finish, that will not be forgotten.
IU 73, No. 1 Kentucky 72.
Welcome back.
Dec. 12, 2011 — IU enters the Top 25 for the first time in Crean's tenure, landing at No. 18. The Hoosiers would remain ranked the rest of the season, reaching as high as No. 7 (Jan. 9).
March 15, 2012 — A four-seed in their first NCAA tournament under Crean, the Hoosiers defeat New Mexico State, 79-66, behind 22 points from Jordan Hulls.
March 23, 2012 — In IU's first Sweet 16 appearance since 2002, the Hoosiers fall to Kentucky in an entertaining, up-and-down contest. After winning 28 games total in Crean's first three seasons, IU finished the 2012 season with 27, two wins shy of a Final Four.
"The Indiana men — and quote me, the Indiana men, these mighty men — they gave it all. They left it all on that court. I'm proud of what we did," Crean said. "We don't take the moral victory in any sense, but when you give every ounce of fight you have, you can move forward."
Oct. 26, 2012 — With the reclamation project complete and the core of its Sweet 16 team back, IU is the nation's preseason No. 1 in the AP Top 25. They stayed there five weeks into the season, dropped as low as No. 7 in January, but regained the top spot for four more weeks en route to earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
March 10, 2013 — IU defeats Michigan on the road, 72-71, to clinch the outright Big Ten title, its first conference title since 2002, and first outright in 20 years.
March 28, 2013 — The IndyStar headline said it all: "The group that revived Indiana basketball busted on biggest stage". In their second consecutive trip to the Sweet 16, top-seeded IU is knocked off by Syracuse, 61-50. Befuddled by Syracuse's 2-3 zone, the Hoosiers, who averaged 79.5 points a game during the season, could manage just 50 and committed 19 turnovers. Despite having a week to prepare for the Orange's famous defensive scheme, IU looked lost.
"Let's face facts, we haven't see a zone like that, and as much as you try to simulate it in practice, unless you've got five Hanner Mosquera-Perea's that you can put in the zone, then you've got (no) opportunity to see what it's like," Crean said afterward. "They're very good. They're not where they're at for no reason and (Jim Boeheim) is not in the Hall of Fame for any other reason than he's one of the best coaches that has ever coached the game.
"It's a different deal with that. We got tentative because we kept trying to put the ball in from places that it just wasn't going to come from; it had to come more from the wing."
It's a loss that Crean detractors would hold onto.
Feb. 14, 2014 — Hanner Mosquera-Perea was arrested on operating while intoxicated charges. In the heart of the Big Ten schedule, Crean suspended his forward for two games — a punishment viewed by many as too lenient.
Nov. 1, 2014 — Emmitt Holt accidentally strikes teammate Devin Davis with his car when Davis, according to a police report, jumped back into the roadway after Holt had dropped him off. The report indicates Davis, 19, had been drinking, but he was not cited. Holt, 18, was cited for illegal consumption of alcohol, a misdemeanor, and for operating under the influence of alcohol under the age of 21. Davis missed the entire 2014-15 season with a head injury and spent time in a rehabilitation hospital in Indianapolis. He was dismissed from the team in May 2015, along withMosquera-Perea, after being cited for illegal possession of marijuana. Holt was dismissed from the program in late August 2015 after an alcohol-related citation.
Aug. 26, 2015 — IU president Michael McRobbie makes public his frustrations about the off-court transgressions of the basketball program. "What I do not want to see is any more stories of repeated student misbehavior. They embarrass the university, they embarrass all of you in Athletics, and they are a complete distraction from our primary role as an educational institution," McRobbie said. "This misbehavior simply has to stop."
2015-16 season — The Hoosiers begin the season ranked 15th, spend 10 weeks in the Top 25 — reaching as high as No. 10 — and win the Big Ten title outright again. The Hoosiers finish the regular season 25-6 and 15-3 in conference play — their best Big Ten record since the 1992-93 season (17-1).
March 19, 2016 — IU knocks off Kentucky 73-67 in the second round of the NCAA tournament behind Thomas Bryant's 19 points and Yogi Ferrell's 18.
March 25, 2016 — The Hoosiers' season ends in the Sweet 16 — again — as top seed North Carolina overruns IU, 101-86.
Nov. 11, 2016 — IU opens the season ranked No. 11 and knocks off third-ranked Kansas in Hawaii, in a 103-99 overtime thriller.
Nov. 22, 2016 — Ranked No. 3 in the nation, IU travels to Fort Wayne and is beaten by the Mastodons, 71-68 in overtime.
March 4, 2017 — IU beats Ohio State on the road to finish 7-11 in conference play. The 10th place finish in the Big Ten is the Hoosiers' worst since Crean's third season in charge.
March 9, 2017 — Talking to IndyStar's Gregg Doyel, Tom Crean denies rumors that he has interest in leaving IU for the Missouri job.
"Normally, I don't comment on my job or any other open job, or on any speculation at all — and going forward, this is the only time I will do it, here to you — but I want to put that to rest," Crean told Doyel. "I'm coaching my team. I love coaching here."
March 14, 2017 — After declining to host a game in the NIT, the Hoosiers' season ends with a 12-point road loss to Georgia Tech.
March 16, 2017 — IU releases a statement announcing Crean has been fired.