Finishing school: with instruction and inspiration, coach Tom Crean gives Marquette final four polish

Sporting News, The, April 7, 2003 by Mike DeCourcy

In a moment, the lights will dim and the screen will be illuminated with the featured attraction: Kentucky vs. Michigan State, which is a must-see film only if you are a Spartans fan or a basketball team searching for a means of ending UK's three-month winning streak. Before that show commences, though, Tom Crean warms up the audience of Marquette players with a monologue designed to simultaneously put them on edge and put them at ease.

In less than 19 hours, the Golden Eagles will face Kentucky, the No. 1 team in the polls and the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, and a berth in the Final Four will be at stake. Crean, in his fourth season as coach, is far ahead of schedule in getting Marquette to this point, but he will not use that as an excuse for failing to prepare his squad.

"They are a great basketball team," Crean says. "When you play a great team, it all comes down to the simple things. You can't miss blockouts, can't miss help assignments. Value the basketball; value each possession. Don't let anybody get you away from what we do.

"You started this weekend sixth in the nation in winning percentage over the past two years. Now you're fifth. You're ahead of Duke. Who would have ever thought that? If you're as competitive as I think you are, you'll have trouble sleeping tonight."

It seems, on the surface, like an innocuous little speech. In fact, it is filled with elements--respect for the opponent, reinforcement of lessons taught, encouragement--vital to the stunningly complete, 83-69 victory over Kentucky that will make Marquette the first member of the 2003 Final Four and Crean the youngest Final Four coach of the 64-team era. Even the last part has a design, to assure those players who struggled to rest on the night before their biggest game that they are not anxious, but eager.

Crean, 37, spent nearly 20 years building toward this moment, since he was a young college student at Central Michigan working as a high school assistant.

Marquette hired Crean in April 1999, after he helped Michigan State coach Tom Izzo construct the program that reached three consecutive Final Fours and helped Ralph Willard build a Sweet 16 team at Western Kentucky. In his first two seasons at Marquette, Crean coached like a wizard just to finish over .500--15-14 each season.

He consumed every book he could find about coaching and coaches. He learned to leave little to chance, to always search for ways to challenge and motivate his team. His attention to detail is such that when student fans in the end zone begin chanting "overrated" at Kentucky, he strolls down the bench and motions a request for them to stop.

How could the Golden Eagles possibly come this far in such a short time under Crean? Spend a little time with him, and you might come to wonder how they could not.

Although the nation's No. 1 team stands between the Golden Eagles and the Final Four, there is a sense of confident assurance in this seventh-floor meeting room at the Minneapolis Crowne Plaza. The players arrived early, with freshman guard Joe Chapman a full dozen minutes ahead of the 9 p.m. start. They are carrying notepads to record the key points the coach will make. But the mood is not so serious they can't laugh at the occasional joke, such as Crean's request that freshman guard Karon Bradley "get some Wheaties tomorrow" after the team views a clip of him short-arming a 4-foot jumper during the previous day's victory over Pittsburgh.

When March began, Marquette had a full week to prepare for its final regular-season game. It was too much time to concentrate solely on the last opponent, Cincinnati, so Crean conceived an idea to stimulate his players: He had the scout team run some of Kentucky's plays and the regulars learn to defend them.

The Wildcats were rolling, a game away from completing an unbeaten season in the Southeastern Conference. Crean wanted his players to believe they eventually might find use for such knowledge.

So what the Marquette players see on the screen is familiar. The night before at the Metrodome, they watched Kentucky's victory over Wisconsin, in which Wildcats center Marquis Estill exploited single-coverage the entire game. That's the first message delivered as the MSU-UK tape rolls. Crean and his extended staff of assistant coaches and administrators--Darrin Horn, Dwayne Stephens, Jeff Strohm, Trey Schwab and Steven Giles--watched hours of Kentucky games but quickly decided to drop defenders toward the lane and dig at the ball when Estill catches it in the post.

Power forward Robert Jackson is instructed to force Estill as far away from the lane as possible and to work at denying him the opportunity to turn into his left shoulder when making a move. But Jackson knows he will have help in bothering Estill on nearly every occasion. Estill winds up scoring 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting.

"I thought Wisconsin let him get easy catches," Jackson says. "That was something I wasn't going to do whether I got two points or 20 points."