Indiana Hoosiers: Tom Crean Making Case For Coach Of Year

By Jacob Rude | Jan 21, 2015

After a tumultuous off-season and fielding a depleted squad, Indiana Hoosiers coach Tom Crean has IU positioned near the top of the Big Ten. Is that enough to warrant National Coach of the Year consideration?

Indiana entered the 2014-15 season with an already small roster. Only freshman Jeremiah April stood over 6’9″. The only upperclassmen over 6’7″ was Hanner Mosquera-Perea, a once highly-touted recruit loaded with potential who had done little to validate his ranking out of high school.

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Despite his roster limitations, head coach Tom Crean currently has the Hoosiers sitting at 14-4 with non-conference wins over SMU, Pittsburgh, and Butler. While many still held their doubts as Big Ten conference play started, Crean silenced them with a win over Ohio State.

The Hoosiers were dealt yet another blow after the game, losing Perea to a knee injury for at least a month. But after last weekend’s victory in Champaign, IL over the Fighting Illini, the Hoosiers are second in the conference with a 4-1 record and validating Crean’s Coach of the Year resume.

This is not a Hoosier squad that has feasted on weak competition (although Crean’s non-conference scheduling leaves much to be desired, still). Five of the Hoosier’s non-conference opponents were included in the tournament in our latest Bracketology – SMU, Eastern Washington, Louisville, Butler, and Georgetown.

Offensively, the Hoosiers are one of the best squads in the country. They thrive on spacing the court and creating driving lanes. If you cut off the path to the basket, then they’ll simply kick out to the perimeter and either knock down the open three or reverse the ball around the perimeter, moving the defense from side-to-side until they get opponents out of position.

The result is one of the more impressive offenses in the country. They scored the 14th most points in the country and are 11th in points per game. Their 8.7 three-pointers made a game are 21st in the nation while they shoot 39.1% from deep.

A deeper dig into the advanced statistics reveal much of the same. They’re 13th in the nation in offensive rating, 21st in true shooting percentage, and 22nd in effective field goal percentage. This isn’t simply a run-and-gun offense. They’re 38th in pace, averaging just 69.5 possessions per 40 minutes. They don’t just chuck up threes, either. Only 37.7% of their field goal attempts are three-pointers, showing how efficient the offense is.

Considering their lack of size, this is surprisingly not a team simply built on perimeter players shooting from deep. Instead, Crean has put together an offense that is versatile. They can get to the rim and finish as well as scoring from deep.

Maybe most impressively, the Hoosiers have had surprise impacts. Troy Williams’ development has been key for the Hoosiers. We talked deeper about his development in the past, but the point is that he’s played extremely well this year. On top of that, two of the top four scorers for Indiana re freshman in James Blackmon and Robert Johnson.

While Crean certainly isn’t leading the race for college basketball’s top coach, he’s more than made a case as one of the contenders, which is more than anyone could have expected out of him to start this year.

Next: Busting Bracketology: 1/21