Men's Basketball Focus
Q&A with Coach Crean
Since Men’s Basketball Head Coach Tom Crean came to Marquette, he's turned the Fanatics season-ticket package into a critical school supply, led the Golden Eagles to the Final Four, and brought Marquette into the Big East Conference.
So what’s so big about that?
1. What’s the best thing about the Big East?
It’s as good a basketball league as has ever been created. There is so much national interest, and because of that we’ll have an opportunity to expose entirely different parts of the country to Marquette basketball.
2. What 10 words describe your team?
Young, athletic, exciting, enthusiastic, dedicated, hard-working, committed, eager, competitive, humble.
3. It’s a young team, does that change your game plan?
No, the plan is the same, we’ll just have to exercise a lot of patience. I’ve got that count-to-10 theory. You know, when you’re getting mad, count to 10 and settle down.
4. What's the biggest challenge?
Young personnel in some key spots because the Big East is going to have an NCAA tournament feel every night. The quality and depth of the Big East is remarkable. The thing I keep telling our team is West Virginia finished eighth in the league and 12th in the country last season. They were a couple of baskets away from going to the Final Four. You can’t show that on film to these players. They have to go through it.
5. How do you prepare?
We did extensive statistical and video research on each team. We started with some of the upper-level teams and continued to move on and develop a book as to how these teams play offensively, defensively, their key people, their philosophies personnel-wise.
6. Some big names are coming here, how do you help them get comfortable?
Hopefully, they won’t get too comfortable. Marquette fans have made the Bradley Center one of the toughest environments for visiting teams and provided our program with an incredible home court advantage.
|
