Fire Up The Crean Machine

A proven coach with multiple trips to the NCAA Tournament in addition to the Final Four is next in line as Georgia’s head basketball coach.

UGA announced on Thursday night that Tom Crean, most recently the head coach at Indiana, is the new head coach of the Bulldogs men’s basketball program.

The hiring comes a day after the Bulldogs were turned down by another former Big Ten coach, ex-Ohio State head coach Thad Matta.

This time, Georgia got its man.

In years with the Hoosiers, Crean’s teams advanced to the Big Dance four times, winning a pair of Big Ten titles. Before that, Crean’s nine-year tenure at Marquette was marked by five tournament berths and a Final Four berth.

In Crean, Georgia has a coach not only with a proven ability to win, to having done so on some pretty big stages. The fact that one of those was in the basketball fishbowl that is Indiana basketball doesn’t hurt, either.

More to come...