For Crean, getting older was key

When the expected attrition hit Georgia’s basketball team, head coach Tom Crean had two choices to make.

No. 1, try to fill the vacancies with still undecided high school seniors, or No. 2, dive headfirst into what was shaping up to a be deep transfer pool.

The decision would be an easy one.

“We needed to get older, there was no question about that,” Crean said. “There was no way I wanted to come back as young as what we were now. We obviously knew guys would grow in age, obviously, and go up classes, but no way I wanted to start the season with no seniors. There was just absolutely no way.”

So Crean looked for answers.

With the additions of transfers Justin Kier (George Mason), Andrew Garcia (Stony Brook), P.J. Horne (Virginia Tech), and junior college transfer Ty McMillan (Kilgore Junior College), Crean feels he accomplished that goal.

Consider this.

When the Bulldogs begin their season, junior Tye Fagan will be the only scholarship player who will have been with Crean during his three years as the Georgia coach.

Although the team has some talented sophomores, led by Sahvir Wheeler and Toumani Camara, experience was something the Bulldogs weren’t going to have otherwise.

“Youthful inexperience hurt us many times last year, and there's a lot of energy to that. There's a lot of enthusiasm to that. But that (getting older) was really important,” Crean said. “And then I think we had to address it. I wanted to get people who had some success. I've said this to our staff 10,000 times: We've got to get compatibility in players so we can build a connection.

“We’ve got to get people who are going to be compatible on the court, because it's going to be a totally different environment now when you're recruiting this way.”

Crean and his staff had to hit the ground running.

Almost immediately after the moment COVID-19 shut down sports across the country, the transfer market virtually took off.

So when the team returned from Nashville, site of the SEC Tournament, Crean and his staff went to work trying to find not only players who would be the best fit, but who would help address one of the team’s two biggest weaknesses last year: perimeter shooting.

Despite finishing fourth in the SEC in scoring (75.9 points per game), the Bulldogs converted just 30 percent of their three-point attempts.

“Most of you've heard me say this before, but we were second in the country and points in transition. But we weren't even close to pushing the ball, after the made basket, as we need to be,” Crean said. “We were third in the country behind Stephen F. Austin again, and Gonzaga, in points at the rim, and yet our three-point shooting was 30 percent. We make one more three, and we're winning four more games, right like that. That's how I look at it. We’ve got to make a jump with the shooting. Well, the only way you address that is you keep getting people who can shoot the ball and who can run the break.”

Along with returnees such as Wheeler, Camara, Fagan, and Christian Brown, Crean hopes Kier, Garcia and Horne will help fill that void.

In nine games last year, Kier’s numbers were consistent, 46.4 from the field and 45.8 from three-point range, which equaled out to an average of 9.6 points per game after averaging 14.5 points the season before.

Horne, meanwhile, shot 44.7 percent (total) and 34.9 percent (three-point) from the field in 32 games last year for Virginia Tech for an average of 7.6 points, while Garcia shot 47.4 (total) and 32.1 (three-point) respectively.

Crean also hopes the trio will help tighten up a defense that finished next to last in the SEC, allowing 75.6 points per game.

“We want to bring more pressure to the game defensively. You know, whether it's fuller three-quarter court pressure, halfcourt pressure, whatever it is, we want to truly be able to have depth be real key for us,” Crean said. “We’ve got to get better with strength, physicality, the understanding of what it takes on the defensive end—especially guarding the ball, first and foremost, one pass away help, and then having a team of guys who are going to rebound the ball.”

Crean will get his first look at his team on Monday, the first day coaches are allowed to supervise on-campus workouts.

“I'm excited to get out there with them and build it over a period of time,” Crean said. “I think we've got a pretty good vision of how we want to play, and now it's just going to be a matter of people developing the skills and mentality to have the consistency we want to have.”