Okay, this isn’t a basketball blog, but I can’t let Tom Crean’s criticism after Saturday’s loss pass gently into the night without comment. In particular, this.
″…It’s all on me because I’m the one that decided to keep these guys,” said Crean. “It’s all on me, and I get it, because the last thing I can do with making decisions on keeping guys in the program in the spring is now get overly mad at them because I’m the one that made the decision.
“So I live with that every day, and it doesn’t mean that they’re not great kids, but very few programs when there’s a takeover, OK, when you have guys that haven’t done it at any point in time really in their career — those guys, they move on. That’s what happens in a job change, and I didn’t do that. And so I’m not going to complain, and we’ve just got to keep doing everything we can do to fix it and make it better.” [Emphasis added.]
That part in the bold is what happens when frustration makes a coach say the quiet part out loud. Greg McGarity made this absurd attempt to deflect from it.
“I think his comments were misinterpreted,” said McGarity. “From the very onset, if you look at the press conference in its entirety, he led off by taking full responsibility for everything. I think Tom cares deeply about these players and the perception that he was not caring or trying to shift blame to them was certainly not taken that way.
″…If you look at the whole press conference in its entirety, instead of maybe pulling a couple of graphs out and singling out those, it didn’t portray the whole story.”
Now, it’s easy to let the focus of the comment center on player criticism, as McGarity tried to do there, but what’s really telling is the admission that some players are led to move on when there’s a coaching change. Crean is merely stating the obvious: coaches are paid to win, and if you don’t think you’ve inherited kids who can contribute, business decisions are inevitable.
Just as obvious, though, is the question being begged here. If that’s reality from the coaches’ standpoint, why should players be held to a different standard when it comes to making similar business decisions? I expect Thomas Mars and others of his ilk will have Crean’s name on their lips going forward. Maybe you should, too.
Get The Picture 
There are times and places for brutal honesty.
This was not one of those times….
I hope this doesn’t adversely impact a big decision in about an hour.
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NARRATOR’S VOICE: It didn’t.
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Wow … I’m surprised just because we don’t do that in basketball.
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Funny, I always read the Senator’s posts in narrators voice…
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Good. I hope we can “blame” Crean for the kids success.
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Typical drama queen comment.
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Typical blubbering idiot.
If you want to defend the comments go for it. Greg wouldn’t be covering for him if it weren’t an objectively stupid thing to have said.
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That’s a bit harsh.
He misspoke after a bad loss on alumni weekend out of embarrassment. He also said several times it is his responsibility that the team is playing poorly.
Not sure I’d classify him as a “typical bumbling idiot”
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I wasn’t talking about Crean tho.
I thought ptc’s “drama queen” comment was directed towards me.
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Easily riled, that you are. Carry on.
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These guys are just not a good fit for his system. And he should play his system to help attrack the right players that will fit into it. It means that you are going to lose some games that these kids are capable of winning in someone else’s system.
If the kids do not like how they fit; then they should transfer. Now with that said, I still believe that if a coach is fired, that any kid on that team in any sport should have the right to transfer to any school in the country.
If the coach leaves for another school, then that is the one school that they cannot under any circumstances transfer to. (It prevents a coach from selling himself, his staff and players to the highest bidder).
It is as simple as that.
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Is the student committing to the Coach or the University? If they are committing to the Coach, then why restrict them? Shouldn’t they be able to follow the coach?
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“These guys are just not a good fit for his system. And he should play his system to help attrack the right players that will fit into it. It means that you are going to lose some games that these kids are capable of winning in someone else’s system”
Sounds like a blueprint of a throwaway season.
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He’s just trying to impose his will.
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I was there on Saturday afternoon. They hit shots early and then collapsed. Defense is about effort, and I stopped trying to count the number of times guys didn’t rotate to the shooter at the 3-point line or got caught on back door cuts to the basket. Ball security was bad, and guys were driving the lane out of control.
I imagine the losing (and the way we’re losing) boiled over after the game on Saturday afternoon.
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Yeah, it looked like they just about quit. That was a game they should have targeted to win, but instead they lost badly at home to a team that at best is an NIT team.
Crean probably shouldn’t have said what he did, but I can’t blame him. I do think he might have a few on the team that have quit. Claxton seems more intent on running his mouth. He’s obviously frustrated since other teams seem to have figured out how to stop him.
Sure would be nice to land Edwards today. The team could use a shot of good news.
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Claxton needs to understand that he has teammates, and even if they’re crappy teammates passing the ball to one of them occasionally might get him in a better position to score than just being a coast-to-coast point center.
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I haven’t watched a college basketball game in at least 10 years. It’s a gross, broken system.
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Fascinating.
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But college football is exactly as you remember it every year right.
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But college football is as pure as the wind driven snow.
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Mars Hill. Probably never heard of it. Small, private liberal arts school tucked in between Asheville and Johnson City.
They had a coach who recruited 9 – yes, 9 – freshman basketball payers one cycle. Wanted to change his approach, and he needed different types of players. And then he got fired at the end of their first season. And then the new coach encouraged all 9 – yes, 9 – players to move on. One of them made a stink about it, and he still ended up gone.
Think about the guys the 9 freshman replaced and then the 9 guys who ended up wasting their freshman year at a school that hired a coach who then didn’t want them anymore.
This is why universities should be required to honor the academic side of a scholarship. If a new coach wants new players, cool. But the players he doesn’t want as counters on his scholarship limit should have the option of staying – on scholarship – if they’re meeting academic and other university requirements. They’re a part of that community. They were recruited to be a part of that community. And they should have the option of staying – on scholarship – if they’ve reached a point where that community is more important to them than minutes on the floor in some new location.
It’s not going to dent the budget of a Georgia, but it would make hundreds of smaller schools like Mars Hill think twice about what they’re doing. Because as bad as the athletic administration is at elite athletic programs, it’s 100x worse down stream.
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Strikes me as a good idea. Probably never happen.
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Having attended Brevard College, I know Mars Hill very well.
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Small world- I’m from Brevard.
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And I’ve passed thru Brevard — and was mightily impressed. They’re embracing this micro brew deal lately.
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Living over the mountain in johnson city, Ive been to mars hill. Would go there for team basketball camp back in the day. If we didnt play well, the coach would make players run some steep ass hill next to the dorms, across the road from the FB field. Wouldnt even say anything other than boys, lets go the hill. Did John Richt ever do anything of any count as QB there?
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Maybe I’m wrong.. but it seemed kind of a dickish thing to say to me. YMMV..
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Yep. Couldn’t blame them if they completely abandon him now…why play for someone that speaks of you in such a humiliating way in front of the press?
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Once again, McGarity finds himself painting a turd.
An open admission that these college kids are seen as expendable business assets for millionaire coaches and AD’s to exploit.
If that’s the way it is, then that’s the way it is. But the school should have to pay these kids to transfer to wherever they qualify and pay their tuition there if they can’t land a scholarship.
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Player, meet bus.
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The underside.
I get the frustration but you’ve got to have better control. If you admire Bob Knight maybe that’s not high on your list of priorities.
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Crean is rapidly on his way to a gig at something like Elon or Emory. And he knows it. And he wants the world to know it’s not because he’s a bad basketball coach but because he’s too nice.
What. A. Jerk.
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He’ll be ok. He tried to crab walk it back. I’m thinking this will be old news soon.
He got mad and frustrated and said something a bit too honest.
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Really dumb thing to say on Crean’s part – even if he’s being honest – but that’s not a huge surprise given Crean LOVES to talk. And when you’re a big talker, your mouth occasionally is going to get you in trouble.Either way, it was dumb to admit out loud, as you really can’t blame his players if they aren’t exactly motivated to play for Crean from this point forward. After all, their coach basically just said he screwed up by keeping them on the team in the first place. Nice.
Regardless of how frustrated Crean is, all he had to say is something like, “well, we knew this was going to be a multi-year challenge to get UGA basketball to where we all think it can be. In the meantime, I love my players and appreciate their hard work, and all I ask of them is to keep grinding as we aim to improve things moving forward.”
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Oddly enough Crean keeps playing a couple of seniors who are turnover machines.
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I have no problem with Crean being honest.
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Crean may end up winning more games than Fox (I have my doubts), but he’s oilier, for sure.
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I have no problem with Crean’s candor. When Kirbs speaks the gospel concerning football players, we praise him for “telling it like it is”.
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Give us a Kirby quote that approaches this one.
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He said pretty much this several times in 2016, how he didn’t have the players he needed.
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That’s a bit different isn’t it?
I remember when CMR rated our roster a “7” when he was hired. Dooley told him the correct answer was “4.”
He easily could have said we won’t get as good as we’d like in the gym until we recruit better. Nothing wrong with that.
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Exactly. Kirby questioned his roster, but it was more general, and more importantly, it was heading into spring ball. To focus development.
After a loss, deep into the season? Day late, dollar short, Tom. Kirby knows that’s not the time to complain that he went into the season with players he knew were likely to get their butts handed to them but chose to do nothing about it.
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Said it a year ago at this time. Fox was doing lousy and deserved to be fired. We should’ve dumped Fox mid-season and promoted Hayes to HC – just to see what he could do.
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When is basketball signing day?
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I believe it is in April..
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Well, it obviously didn’t hurt his recruiting. Just landed the #1 player in the country and a guard, to boot. Let’s see if Crean makes better use of Edwards than Fox did of his top recruits.
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I wondering if this is a critique of ability or desire?
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Definitely desire. We have some decent players but they haven’t figured out how to play Crean’s style. Obviously frustration is hampering them at this point as well.
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If Mr. Mars mentions Tom Crean’s comments, I would welcome that because it would be the first time Mars mentioned something real when trying to justify a transfer waiver.
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Curious — how do you know what Mars has mentioned? He’s made no specific public comments.
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Much ado about nothing.
Frustrated coach says something too honest; people get angry; coach walks back harsh truth he shouldn’t have shared; Coach signs best recruit in the state; people move onto the next bit of outrage.
Anyone here claiming Crean isn’t a good coach or can’t do better than Fox is delusional. He took a program that was nuked by the NCAA and at end of his six years there, won two league titles and went to a few Sweet Sixteens. Yeah, that’s not good enough for IU, but were he to replicate that success here, he’d be literally the best coach we ever had.
Seriously people. PATIENCE. Or as A. A. Ron. Rod-Gers might say, “R-E-L-A-X.”
Crean is going to do great things in Athens. Take that to the bank.
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This was said to clean house. He knew Edwards was picking the Dawgs today. Edwards will bring three or four other top recruits with him.
Now that is nice roster management.
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It was a little over-the-top. It was a little harsh. But it was also truth. we’ve had absolute terrible players for the last year’s minus a few Stars. No depth. The upperclassmen have a ton of bad habits. And they’re not leaders and they give up.
We need a wholesale roster change and that’s about to happen.
We’ve also scored over 90 points multiple times this year. Which might have been once a year under Fox maybe.
I believe Crean to be a good man and I’m sure he regrets what he said. I’m not in love with the statement but I get it. I’ve been saying it every the season for years.
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BOOM! Senator for the win. I kept asking folks that were against kids being free to transfer without sitting out if they are also against processing? Most of what I got back in reply was crickets. Till kids have a LOT more protections and are treated as students should be treated, they deserve to be able to negotiate their own deal.
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Attended my first UGA basketball game since I was in school (that ’95/’96 KY team was the last one I saw). My wife and three daughters were with me, we had a great time. The cheerleaders, dance team, t-shirt cannons, emojii-cam on the big screen were all fun. The concessions experience was smooth and moved quickly during halftime. Easy parking pre-game in the deck, hit the bookstore for a few goodies and pictures on Sanford Bridge. Oh, the game, you ask? We stunk on ice after the first ten minutes. I quit looking at the stats after 17 turnovers and giving up 10 steals. One of our big men had sparklies on the back heel of his shoes, the nice older ladies behind us were debating whether they were reflectors or battery-powered. One of them remarked, “They don’t help him”. Indeed.
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Or maybe he promised antman a starting spot if he signed…and proved it by moving his lips in public.
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