Going in-depth with Tom Crean

It’s been a whirlwind of activity for Tom Crean since taking over as head coach of the Georgia basketball program almost one month ago.

Tuesday afternoon, he spent 30 minutes with Bulldog beat writers catching everyone up on what’s been going on.

There was a lot to discuss:

Once again, Crean said he’d have loved to have the former Bulldog and assistant under Mark Fox stay.

A lucrative offer was made, but ultimately Hayes decided to join the program at Xavier.

Although some Bulldog fans were disappointed that Hayes would not stay with his alma mater, Crean said he understood completely why he felt the need to branch out on his own.

Crean also praised Hayes for the work he did helping to get his program up and running.

“With Jonas Hayes, the first couple of weeks here, I’d never met him before that Friday and I only met him for three minutes when I got here. But from that Monday on, we were together an awful lot, including this morning. He has helped me IMMENSLY get acclimated in this area and for that I’ll always be grateful,” Crean said. “We hit the ground running with basketball, we hit the ground running in recruiting, and obviously, when you’re the Georgia head coach, doors are going to open, but Jonas really helped open those and build some of those gaps and relationships. We’d have loved to have had him stay, but I totally get where he is at in this and wanting to have something for his growth.”

Crean said Hayes’ future is bright.

“I think he’s going to be a head coach. Would I have loved to have helped him grow into that from here? Absolutely. But he’s going to be able to grow into that. That’s what his capabilities are,” Crean said. “As much as I’d have loved to have him stay, I totally understand him wanting to step into another area, another part of the country, another league to take those next steps. I’m going to be his biggest fan, and as we turn this program to where it can go, he’s going to deserve as much credit as anybody else.”

Crean was asked how quickly Hayes could achieve his goal of becoming a head coach.

“That remains to be seen. He made that choice so all you can do is support him. I know this, I’m always going to support him. We only got a couple of weeks working with him, but there’s no question I feel great about him,” he said. “This will give him an opportunity to broaden his scope, learn different things and I think being in a different region, I get it. I don’t think there’s any question he’s going to be a head coach.”

Crean denied that Hayes’ decision hampered recruiting, adding he’s never been in a hurry to fill out his staff.

“At the end of the day, I want to put together the very best staff that has the complete understanding of where we see Georgia coming,” he said. “I think that’s why we’ve got to make sure I’m taking the time to do that the right way.”

Basically, there are other more pressing needs.

“You don’t realize you’ve grown until you get in a situation, and I think for me being in here, the third time I’ve taken over a program, I think you start to learn about what’s urgent, what’s most important, what has to be done on a daily basis,” Crean said. “The plan, the vision … certainly, we’ll tweak it, but the most important thing for me was to get acclimated with this group on the court, get going in the recruiting, be at places I needed to be, meet the people.”

But hurt recruiting? No, that hasn’t happened at all, although there are areas Crean wants to address there, too.

“There’s people in the state who have been to Georgia, they’ve been recruited by Georgia, they know about Georgia. There’s probably more that know about Georgia than I do at this point when it comes to the campus,” he said. “We need to get people on campus. It’s not just seeing them in their places, we’ve got to get the visits, the unofficial visits, official visits, whatever, so they can come and see these workouts, see the film of how we’re going to play. I think that’s the most important thing. The bottom line is you want a staff that helps compliments you, that you can try to build them to be, that you can help become head coaches.

“You’ve got to get people to come in and see that. Until we get that part of it going where people can come in and feel it, feel the energy, see the work, be around the environment, see the players and then look at it at it and say, hey, because right now we don’t have a body of work.

“When you get the game film you have a body of work, well, right now we don’t have that and it’s always been the most important thing, wherever I’ve been, for players and families to see you practice, to see your individual workouts, to be in the film room with you, to sit down and really talk about that environment. We’ve got to get to that, and until we do, we’re going to be behind in those areas. But I don’t have any trepidation of where we’re heading with it and we’re trying to evaluate every aspect of it, whether it’s where we’re at or where we want to get.”

Crean does love what he’s seen with his one hire, new assistant coach Chad Dollar.

“I think he will be excellent on the court. I think he’s got a toughness, I think already he’s not afraid to give me ideas and he’s not afraid to tell me if something could be better. This is a basketball relationship that we hope is going to make us better and make our young people better, recruit people to join in and I feel really strong about that with him,” Crean said. “What you want more than anything else on the court, what you want anything else in recruiting, you want someone who will go deep into your players, that will not walk away when it gets tough, that will not be afraid be afraid to challenge and push them in the way they’ve got to go. I think he’s got a conviction of spirit, a conviction of what he believes in, and it’s going to mesh with us.”

When it comes to using their one available scholarship to sign a player later this month, Crean said all options are open.

He hinted graduate transfers might also be considered.

“There’s no number on the target, there’s a lot of evaluation on it, and some of it’s going to be timing. I don’t want to, and this would be really easy, but we need to get better shooting the ball,” Crean said. “These guys are going to get better shooting the ball but we need to keeping looking at what adds to us. Maybe for a one-year situation, maybe over a longer haul, it’s what becomes the best fit. So, I’m not married to anything in there.”

Former Middle Tennessee signee Tye Fagan is scheduled to visit this weekend and could be an option.

“There’s been a lot of evaluation and a lot of film. We start to hear about people, we get a call, start to read, start to learn about somebody, there’s so much film in there,” Crean said. “Our guys are working overtime. Our managers, grad managers … Matt Bucklin, they’re in here with me. Last night it was 12:30 before we left here. They’re in here, they’re putting the work together so we can study and evaluate it. I try to cover as much bases as I can in here as I can before we cover the bases out there.”

Crean said that Jordan Harris remains on the team.

“He’s on the team, and it’s like everything else like I told the team at the very beginning: No assumptions,” Crean said. “There’s going to be no judgments. At the end of the day, things that have been done in the past, it’s not like you can wipe them out. It’s not like you can take things and say, that didn’t happen. But the bottom line is I’m not trying to judge that. I’m trying to evaluate. And I’m evaluating on a consistent, daily basis.”

For those who forgot, Harris was suspended twice last season, missing Georgia’s exhibition game with Valdosta State and the first two games of the regular season.

He returned to action, seeing significant playing time before being suspended indefinitely by former head coach Mark Fox back on Feb. 3.

Crean was asked whether or not the suspension was a school issue, or if he had the authority to make the final call.

“That’s a good question. I guess I don’t know. I know it was no issue for me to bring him back, to put him back on the team. That’s a good question, because I don’t know if there was anything with competition or anything like that,” Crean said. “I just knew that he hadn’t been a part of the team. But we’re definitely checking on things on a consistent basis. The most important thing is I’m getting to know him, and him me, just like everybody else.”

There’s one area of Georgia’s play that Crean is determined to improve – three-point shooting.

Last year, the Bulldogs ranked dead last in the SEC, converting just 31 percent (201 of 632 attempts).

“No question, the percentage has to go up,” Crean said. “You can look at a lot of different statistics. A lot has to change, that’s just the way that it is, but the percentages have to go up.”

He’s in the process of implementing steps to make that happen.

“Right now, we can’t do much about the percentages but we can do more about the technique, the footwork, the follow through, the spacing, all those different things. They’re learning new things and we’re looking at every player,” Crean said. “There are certain ways that have really worked for us, leading the BCS schools over those nine years at Indiana in three-point percentage, there’s certain things that really work.

“Leading the Big Ten for six years in scoring, there’s things that really work, but it’s also got to be individually tailored to the player. We’re trying to figure that out now, get the footwork down, get their balance right, get our passing right. Ninety percent of the workouts we’ve had – the first 10 minutes – there’s been a passing element, like really, really conducive to understanding how to deliver the ball, all the different passes that go in, all the different angles, stretching from right to left, all the footwork in passing, because everything, whether it’s the passing, the footwork and the shooting, whether it’s the spacing, that increase every other part of the game.”

No player is exempted.

That includes rising senior Derek Ogbeide.

Don’t laugh. Yes, Ogbeide, a 6-foot-8, 245-pound power forward attempted only one three-point shot last year, but Crean said he’s dead serious about adding that kind of versatility to the Atlanta native’s game.

“I told Derek, we’ve hardly worked on any post moves with him. That’s a guy who’s got to get better finishing,” Crean said. “What we’re working on with his finishing is being away from the basket, working on his footwork with the ball, working on his footwork for the 3, working on his footwork for a drive and kick, all those things are going to add to him being better around the basket as we go.”

But can Ogbeide really become a three-point threat?

“I said it with a straight face. Does that mean if we were playing a game today he’d be shooting that 3? No, but we don’t play a game today and I remind him of that,” Crean said. “This is April. I have no trouble reminding him of that because A, we’ve got a long way to go, a long time to get there, but every day has to be maxed out the right way and we’re trying to develop that. I didn’t say he’s shooting 3's right now in a game, but we’re working on the footwork.”