NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2008 offseason

3. Tom Crean (Indiana)

After what had just transpired with the program, Indiana really needed a hero. Kelvin Sampson’s brief tenure with the program exploded, leaving the Hoosiers on probation and dealing with the after effects of recruiting violations. The program was not expected to compete very well in the Big Ten in the coming years but still needed a new face to get things back on track.

That man was Tom Crean, who had already been making a name for himself in the coaching world. He had spent time as an assistant on staffs like Western Kentucky and Pittsburgh before being one of Tom Izzo’s first assistants at Michigan State. Crean also recruited Dwyane Wade during his nine seasons as head coach at Marquette, leading that program to the Final Four back in 2003.

As expected, Indiana’s first three years were rough as they recovered from those violations. But Crean led this team back towards the elite, winning a pair of Big Ten titles and making three Sweet Sixteens. Heck, he won just 28 games in his first three seasons and surpassed that total in 2013, with one of Indiana’s best teams of the century. Unfortunately, success stalled and Indiana grew impatient with Crean, though the state of the program today seems to dictate this was a bad move.