Tom Crean studying old Louisville teams
Miller | Jul 09, 2012 | Comments 0
Indiana’s Tom Crean knows he has a loaded team coming back in 2012-13. He also knows last year’s Hoosier squad was not particularly stout defensively. For IU to take the next step and compete at the elite level of college basketball, they will need to improve their defense, which ranked 64th overall according to Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency metrics. WDRB’s Rick Bozich (still sounds odd saying that) spoke with Crean about this issue and within the interview, Crean revealed an interesting piece of information.
Crean is reviewing tapes of Denny Crum’s 1980 and 1986 Louisville Cardinals. He explained.
“We’ve got a chance to have more depth. We have a chance to pressure the ball more. We definitely have more length. We can do more switching. That’s why I’m so interested in looking at the old Louisville teams of Denny Crum and how they did that. There’s so many more opportunities we have defensively right now because of our length and versatility. That’s how we have tried to recruit it. Get versatile, multi-dimensional, multi-positional guys. And try not to get too many people that can’t shoot the ball.”
For those who don’t remember, some of Denny’s best teams at UofL always seemed to have a bunch of athletic guys who were in the 6-4 to 6-8 range, and could guard multiple positions. By doing that, the players could just strait switch every screen and not have to worry about a 6-11 center guarding a 6-2 point guard, or vice versa. I know a lot of Louisville fans don’t like Crean, and quite frankly, he’s not my favorite guy either, but he has a great deal of respect for Denny and has long admired him.
It’s a pretty interesting read from Rick Bozich, and ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan has also posted a story on this issue as well. Check them out.
Bozich: Crean’s non-traditional approach includes Denny Crum
Filed Under: Basketball
