Q&A with Tom Crean: Part 2

In Part 2 of our 1-on-1 interview with Tom Crean, Georgia’s new coach goes in depth about his offensive scheme and what it’s going to take to make it work.

Crean also talks about the role analytics will play in his program, and concludes with a message—and a plea—for Bulldog fans.

For those who missed Part 1 of our interview, you can check it out here.

Crean: Yeah, how are we going to play? You don’t get enough credit—and I get some of this —18 years as a head coach, $550,000,000 of pro money right now with 13 guys contracted to earn. People seem to know that nationally sometimes than locally or regionally, because they didn’t see it at Georgia.

We’re going to be able to do the same thing at Georgia. We’re going to develop the players we have, and recruit players that are going to develop at a high level. So, I think there’s some of that.

The negative recruiting aspects of people who have haven’t been paying attention to how my teams played at Indiana, and people want to scare people that it’s going to take a long time for us to win. So we have to work through that. That’s why they have to see us. As a coach, you want to have them see you work out at practice, as a player. They want to see what your games are like, to make sure we’re doing everything to make sure those crowds are not only helping our team win, but helping show recruits they want to go to school there.

Crean: We’re getting into that. He’s really good. We named him the Director of Basketball Strategy because he’s going to be wearing a lot of different hats. He was the head video coordinator for Stan Van Gundy for four years, he’s got a Brad Stevens background at Butler, so to me, he can wear a lot of different hats.

I want somebody who sees a game in the eyes of a coach, but can also break it down in other ways. So analytically it’s lineups, it’s combinations, it’s taking plus-minus to another level, you know, it’s having a feel for match-ups. It’s really looking at how other teams win, what causes them to lose, and how those numbers correlate.

The numbers are as much a part of the story as you want to make them be. They can’t be so much of the story that you get away from what you see and what you’re seeing, but they help validate. And I think looking at those different numbers and being able to dive into that research is important, especially when it comes to helping with lineups—matchups not so much, lineups and combinations more so.

Crean: The speed. In the Point systems, we ran seven in my nine years at Indiana. Really, for me, it’s part of your system. Joe (assistant coach Joe Scott) is really as good a teacher of it as there is, and Joe is a basketball coach. So, the Chin and the Point is part of what we do. They’re not just what we do. What it does is give us another element to our spacing, our cutting, and our ability to go to things to create match-ups—our ability to create space on the floor, our ability to try to put the defense not into a rotation but into indecision. You’ve got to have spacing and cutting. It’s another aspect of moving without the ball, getting shots at the rim, and creating open threes. So the more you have in your team with that, the better you’re going to have. We still want to be a team that's really running, pushing on misses and makes, keeping the court spaced, and playing other concepts more than plays.

When I was an younger coach, we ran a ton of plays. Now we run fewer plays. It doesn’t look like we do, but we have more concepts based into an action. So, when we run an action, it’s called one thing, but one, two, or three words might make it look completely different. That’s what we’re trying to teach right now.

What Chin and Point bring some of that to—you can add some words to that, and now it looks completely different. It all comes down to your recognition without the ball, being ready to shoot and your willingness to make that quick pass, but you have to cut, and you have to get to the glass for any of that to work.”

Crean: Monumental. Spacing is everything—it is. How do you keep creating space if you’re not making jump shots, how do you keep creating spacing if you’re not getting to the rim? Does your spacing help you continue to get wherever you want to go when something else is being taken away? I think that’s a huge thing.

Crean: “Mobile. Mobile can step out and shoot, can step out and pass. I think your best forwards, your best bigger guys, can you go to them. And can you play through them? Not everybody can be both. For us, it’s not just going to them and playing through them in the block area, the post area, the lane area. It’s also getting them to develop where we can do it on the perimeter, or behind the three-point line, because that’s where the NBA game is. Anybody who thinks they’re mobile, and can make it with one or two skills around that post, better be as good as there is of anybody in the country at those one or two skills—because not even height does it. You’ve got to have the mobility, you’ve got to have skill sets, you’ve got to be able to make reads. I think the thing that separates for us moving forward will be not only how good do they drive it, but how well do they pass it?

Crean: He’s got to get in better condition. Some if that is, it’s a long season, you’re not trying to have your team in the best possible shape by November 1. You’re trying to have them in shape for November 1, not the best shape the first day of the season. But he’s got to work through it. He’s got to work through fatigue much better than what he does. But I think his skills are gaining; he’s gaining confidence. We need him to be a better finisher, but we also need him to be a driver and be able to make quick, good passing decisions. I think where he can really, really get better, is what we can do with him defensively, especially the switching game.

Crean: Turtle has got to get a consistency level and understand the spacing; we want him to understand the spacing, and it’s really been an adjustment for him—how deep to get on the court, his footwork on his shot. He’s better than a mid-30, low-30 three-point shooter. He’s got to be better, and we’re trying to help him be better with that. But try to keep the game simple. There’s certain things that he goes to that he relies on, like a drive left, one dribble step back. He’s got to do more than that. We’re trying to get his game where he’s thinking and reacting to different things. But he played like a senior the other night. He plays fast, he plays with energy, but at the same time he’s got to make the game easier for his teammates.

Crean: I don’t think Jordan came out with the right mindset of attack on defense and on the rim. I think when you’re tentative, and some of that is, he didn’t play the last third of the season—we think there’s other gears in Jordan, and we’ve got to keep getting to that. Attack doesn’t mean to play recklessly. Attack doesn’t mean shoot. Sometimes in scoring elements, there’s some things with him, so he’s got to be and can be much better defensively than what he was in the first half the other night. He’s got to be a lock-down on the ball and a team leader off the ball.

Crean: Relentless energy. If a guy is not playing with it, we’ll find a substitute. We’re going to live and die with some mistakes. We’re trying to build a style of play, but there will be relentless energy and a style of play that reflects it, but at the same time we need our fans to help us win the game. We’re down eight, four minutes to go—don’t give up on us. We’re up eight with two minutes to go—it’s not over, help us close it. It’s a close game, help us get over the hump. We need to be picked up, pick us up. Those type of things. It’s all learning together, because again, I’ve never been here. It’s how do we help each other? We’re going to play with that energy, but we need the support to help that energy continue to grow.