Tom Crean And Yogi Ferrell Find Redemption, Validation In Big Ten Title

Tom Crean was done. His time as Indiana’s head basketball coach looked be entering its final chapter and winding to a disappointing conclusion. Fans, pundits and opponents had written off Crean’s Hoosiers as an afterthought following a December 2nd loss at Duke. He was the only person in the country who believed in his team as that night came to a close.

On Tuesday night, that same team and that same coach clinched their second outright Big Ten title in four years.

The fact that Crean and his players turned this season around is absolutely mind-boggling. To go from where they were in early December to where they are now is insane. We’re talking about a team that turned in the worst defensive performance statistically in nearly five seasons of college basketball in Durham that night. Now they’ve evolved to be one of the best defensive teams in the Big Ten and a force to be reckoned with nationally.

The Hoosiers didn’t just survive adversity all year, they dove head-first into it and came out the other side better each time they faced it. They thrived as a result of things that would have brought down lesser teams.

Stud guard James Blackmon Jr. and his 15.8 points per game were lost for the season with a knee injury in December. The team improved dramatically on defense, found room to rotate in surprising freshmen OG Anunoby and Juwan Morgan and moved on.

They suffered an awful loss at Penn State on February 6th. No matter, they bounced back by beating No. 4 Iowa five days later.

They got crushed at East Lansing by No. 8 Michigan State 88-69 on February 14. It was the kind of defeat that could take a few weeks to recover from. The Hoosiers are 4-0 since then, with a win over No. 17 Purdue and road victories over Illinois and No. 16 Iowa (both road wins came without starting guard Robert Johnson).

Amazingly, despite all the obstacles Indiana faced, the team will finish the regular season without having a losing streak. The Hoosiers never lost back-to-back games this year, which is a testament to their ability to turn the page and focus on the next task after every contest.

You can argue that Crean isn’t an “elite” basketball coach, but there is no question he has done an elite job this season. He should easily win Big Ten Coach of the Year and be a strong candidate for the national award.

More than anyone, senior point guard Yogi Ferrell’s career symbolized the Tom Crean era at Indiana. He came in with enormous hype, had a great freshman year in 2013 then saw the team he was leading mired in mediocrity and become a massive disappointment during his sophomore and junior seasons. While he put up great numbers, Ferrell had never had the kind of moment that defines a special career. Sure he had a ton of great games, but he hadn’t put his stamp on Indiana basketball before his senior season. Much like Crean, he appeared to be headed to a noteworthy, but not spectacular tenure as a Hoosier.

After three players were booted from the team in the offseason, Crean called out his upperclassmen for a lack of leadership. Ferrell obviously took that to heart because his determination, focus and pure fight has kept the Hoosiers together when they could have fallen apart so many times this season. He and Crean worked together to build this team into what it is right now.

During the year as Ferrell ticked off career milestones he had yet to have a career-defining performance. He became Indiana’s career leader in assists (603) and games started (132), is second in 3-pointers made (261) and seventh on the school’s all-time scoring list (1,892). He is also just the second player in Big Ten history to record 1,800 points, 600 assists and 400 rebounds (Dee Brown of Illinois is the other). While the numbers are spectacular, the most impressive development in Ferrell’s game has been his growth as a leader.

Nowhere was Ferrell’s leadership and new-found bulldog “follow me” mentality more apparent than on Tuesday night in Iowa City. The Hoosiers led by as many as 14 in the second half, but the Hawkeyes fought their way back into the game and even took the lead 75-74 with 3:59 to go. The Hoosiers could have wilted. They were on the road in an extremely tough environment and faced a home matchup with Maryland to finish the season this coming Sunday. They could have packed it in and decided to try and win the outright Big Ten title at home. In the past, maybe a Crean team would have done just that, but this team is different. This team fought back.

After wresting the lead back and taking a 77-75 advantage, Indiana had the ball and a chance to ice the game. Ferrell demanded the ball and took on the challenge. With 38 seconds left, he dribbled to the left wing, jabbed in, stepped back about five feet behind the 3-point line, rose up and buried it over Mike Gesell. It was a gorgeous move and a perfect shot that hit nothing but twine.

Yogi Ferrell finally had his moment.

The snapshot of his Indiana career is now set, unless he can somehow top it over the next few weeks. That shot gave Indiana an 80-75 lead, and despite a few late hiccups, and a last second shot at a tie from Iowa, the Hoosiers took down the Hawkeyes 81-78 and had their title. Ferrell had bookended his career with outright Big Ten championships. He has officially etched his name into Indiana lore as one of the greatest players in program history.

Ferrell has absolutely been the Big Ten’s MVP this year and fully deserves to win Big Ten Player of the Year. While Denzel Valentine is the league’s “best” player and will probably win the award, without Ferrell Indiana doesn’t sniff the title they just locked up. Given that Valentine missed four conference games, my vote goes to Ferrell.

Crean too had his “Indiana moment,” but it didn’t come during the game, it was afterwards in the visiting locker room at Carver-Hawkeye Arena when he addressed his players.

That speech was so good I’ll pull a few quotes below:

"You guys have earned this memory. You’ve earned this memory. You really have. You’ve earned this memory. (In your life) you’ll be somewhere where you’ll have people that don’t believe in you. You’ll have people that leave you on the side of the road, you’ll have people that tell you that you can’t do it, and then you’ll have that group of people that will tell you how good you are, they’ll tell you how much you’re capable of, they’ll tell you what you should be doing, and at the end of the day, you go back to this year and understand that all that matters is your faith, your belief, your family and looking around at each other and absolutely understanding that together you’re capable of so much. Everything that was left as fact about you coming up through the season, all it was was a myth. That’s all it was, because every day you worked to build the facts the right way. The facts are this is a resilient, tough minded, highly disciplined, love each other group that is absolutely committed to greatness, and it’s unbelievable. It’s an absolute honor to be your coach. It really is. Don’t ever – ever – let anybody take away your nerve, take away your spirit, put doubts into your minds and heads that you can’t do things. Don’t ever look at anything in life like, “Oh, that’s easy. That won’t take a lot of work.” I heard Rob say it tonight: “You want something great? We gotta work for it.” It’s not gonna be easy. That is how you’re a champion."

It’s obvious in that speech that Crean is not only talking about the things outsiders said about his players, but himself as well.

Ferrell and Crean have both proven they belong at Indiana. They have more than shown that they are worthy of a place in the program’s history and are now fully a part of the lore associated with basketball in the Hoosier state. Those who have questioned Crean’s place as Indiana’s head coach should now be silent, as the 49-year-old has finally matured and shown an ability to adjust and keep his team focused. He and Ferrell worked together to fix what was once broken and turned it into something special.

I watched Indiana in person at the Maui Invitational and I saw a team and a coach that looked completely lost. ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla saw the same thing.

After the “Debacle in Durham,” Crean was widely mocked for saying, “It’ll be December 3rd here in about 30 seconds. It’s early in the season.” Indiana fans were in desperation mode that night and many ripped him and called for his head. Still others laughed at the absurdity of Crean’s words and the fact that he genuinely believed his team could turn things around.

Three months later Crean, Ferrell and this unlikely Indiana team are the ones laughing. They’re celebrating too. The Hoosiers are on top of the Big Ten for the second time in four years.

They are the only ones who even believed it was possible.