Tom Crean '89

Tom is a Mt. Pleasant, MI native. He was an assistant coach at Alma College, Michigan State, Western Kentucky, Pittsburgh, and MSU again before spending time as head coach at Indiana, Marquette, and Georgia. 

At Marquette, he made a number of changes.  His first recruiting class was considered by experts to be among the top twenty in the country, Marquette’s first in a long time.  In his nine years there, his teams earned five NCAA Tournament bids.  He recruited, developed, and coached a number of skilled players who made significant contributions in both the NCAA and NBA, including Dwyane Wade, Dominic James, Steve Novak, and Travis Diener. 

When Tom came to Indiana, he had inherited a depleted team.  His roster consisted of two walk-ons who had scored a combined 36 points in their careers.  His first years saw losing records, but his recruiting classes progressively improved.  In 2011-2012, the team made a Sweet 16 appearance.  Tom was the first coach to knock off the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the same season and the first Indiana squad ever to defeat three programs ranked in the top five in a single season.  As a result of the team’s vast improvement, Tom was named the mid-season Jim Phelan national Coach of the Year, the Sporting News Big Ten Coach of the Year, and the ESPN.com national Coach of the Year. 

Tom is known as an excellent recruiter and one of college basketball’s best talent evaluators.  He excels in public relations, charming alumni, and press.  During his tenure at Marquette, they saw a 70% overall increase in attendance, three total attendance records broken, and 1.5 million fans passing through the turnstiles.

In 2001, he was selected as one of eight coaches for the USA Basketball men’s national team trials in Colorado Springs.  In 2004, he served as an assistant coach for USA Basketball’s under-20 team in the FIBA Americas World Championship. 

Other awards include 2003 Conference USA Coach of the Year, 2003 Clair Bee Coach of the Year, and 2004 Conference USA Coach of the Year.