Why Tom Crean Could Be the Perfect Candidate to Coach Louisville

Back in 2008, Indiana University’s men’s basketball program was in a dark place. Head Coach Kelvin Sampson had been forced to resign following massive NCAA violations, and the school had not been past the second round of March Madness since the Bob Knight era in 1994.

The once-famed Hoosiers had been dormant for decades, with a lengthy past and immediate future seemingly as sparse and bare as the state they inhabit. It seemed a rebuild from the ground up was all that was possible. Enter Tom Crean.

Crean had just completed a similar, if not smaller, task at Marquette University, taking over from Mike Deane in 1999 and delivering their first trip past the second round since 1994, going all the way to the Final Four in 2003. His reign set the tone that would see the program win at least 20 games in all but two seasons from 2001-13, their longest streak of such since the golden age of the 1970s. Indiana identified a similar effect he could have in Bloomington, hiring the 42-year-old.

Back in present day, and the University of Louisville is going through a similar experience, only far worse. Perhaps as bad as it’s ever been in the history of college basketball. It's gotten so bad, pundits are mentioning the prospect of the infamous “death penalty," which was last issued to a Division 1 athletic program in 1987 to the Southern Methodist University football team. This too crippled a once-proud school for almost 20 years, and the NCAA admitted they would be wrong to ever hand it out again at D1 level.

What the immediate and distant future holds for the Louisville Cardinals is unknown at present, but will almost certainly include the hauling down of the 2013 championship banner, arguably the darkest moment in the history of Kentucky sports. It is an extreme situation for any basketball coach of any ability to walk into, but not a situation Crean is foreign to. Could he be the savior of the three-time national champions?

After it became apparent Rick Pitino would not be returning, this situation was not lost on college hoops. Crean’s Wikipedia page was edited to name him the new head coach on September 27. Unfortunately for Louisville fans, Wiki-edits are not official.

The benefit of having Crean on board is clear. While he is not the only coach to ever dig a program out of insolvency, he is one of the more notable success stories in recent memory, and he did it with another blue blood school.

Given the propensity many of the Cardinals’ recruits may walk out of the school at the end of the season, Crean’s presence may also serve to keep them around. He is known as one of the best recruiters and talent evaluators in college basketball. Although he just took a position as a college basketball analyst for ESPN, it is unlikely he would ignore an approach to return to the coaching ranks.

Under normal circumstances, Louisville is a call any coach would take. Under these circumstances? To Crean, the position may be all the more attractive.