Tom Crean Is Reportedly Becoming Georgia's Next Head Coach

Well, this moved quickly. No surprise here as this was the rumor once it was reported that Thad Matta wasn’t taking the Georgia job. Yes, there were reports that Crean was meeting with Pittsburgh, but Georgia is 100x a better job than Pitt.

Now, I know what you’re likely going to say. Well, I know two things you’re likely going to say. Is Georgia really a better job than Pitt? The answer is yes. I talked about how tough it is to recruit at Pitt now that they are in the ACC. When they were in the Big East, Dixon/Howland were able to go to New York and sell kids at playing at the Garden and against Seton Hall, St. John’s, back home, etc. Now, you’re not able to do that. Throw in the fact that western Pennsylvania isn’t a hotbed for basketball recruiting it makes it tough. Georgia is the opposite. You just need to recruit the state and you’re already a step ahead than most places. There’s also job security at Georgia as the fans are worried about football first.

The second thing you’re likely thinking is, is Crean really that good of a coach? Yes, he is perfect at Georgia. He can recruit the DMV area still and then he should be able to build a pipeline with one of Georgia’s AAU programs or high school programs. That’s going to be key here. The other thing is Crean is actually strong at rebuilding programs. He was able to succeed at Marquette and he turned Indiana from the sanctions into the No. 1 overall seed. While you may rightfully question his X’s and O’s he is strong at rebuilding.

This is a great hire for the SEC too. Look around the conference and there are some big time names at every school. That’s why we saw such a jump this year in the SEC. While it’s just being reported, Woj is so close with Crean that it’s all but done at this point.

Now we wait to see what happens at UConn and Pitt (and likely Louisville).