Wisconsin-Marquette: Still don't care for Tom Crean

Back in this blog's very first post, so, so long ago (2-1/2 months), I declared that while I did not like Marquette basketball, I was working on developing a healthier attitude about the Golden Eagles or whatever they call themselves nowadays. It's hard work, and there are still slip-ups - like the end of the last sentence - but I'm making progress.

For instance, while watching Marquette blow out Oklahoma State in Maui a couple weeks ago, I sort of had an admiration for how well they were playing - a buzzsaw. Although I think Dominic James and Wes Matthews are a tad overrated, they are still very good players, and for my money Jerel McNeal is the best player on the team and may be the most underrated player in the country. I really admire how Ousmane Barro has worked to improve over his career, even though he seems to have regressed this year. That really just leaves Dan Fitzgerald as an obviously dislikeable player.

I still don't care for Tom Crean, though. Granted, this comes from a fan of Marquette's biggest rival, and I'm sure there are plenty of fans out there who don't care for Bo Ryan. But Crean just bugs me.

It's the seemingly fake tan he's often sporting, leading to the hilarious nickname Tan Cream. It's the way he or his press secretary, Todd Rosiak, usually doesn't go four sentences without mention Dwyane Wade or the 2003 Final Four fluke (there I go again). It's how he had about 25 kids transfer out of his program over three or four years. It's the fact that he wouldn't schedule UW-Milwaukee until the core players from their awesome run had exhausted their eligibility. It's how, according to the postgame sidebar in the Journal Sentinel, Crean kept his starters in pressing and chucking up 3-pointers at the end of a 40-point win over the Panthers.

And at the root of it all, he just seems phony. Again, I'm sure people think the same thing about Bo, but Bo is funny, a great sense of humor coupled with a healthy dose of self-deprecation - he doesn't take himself too seriously. I don't get the sense that Crean has that side to him. Everything seems calculated, even his warm moments. I Googled Kyle Singler last week and the first picture I saw of him was receiving an honor in Maui, and guess who was standing behind him? Tan Cream in a Hawaiian shirt looking like he was ready to hug Singler.

Being an open-minded man, I invite any Marquette fans or people who know Crean to vouch for him here, we're willing to listen. Or do MU fans feel roughly the same way I do, but don't care because the program is in better shape than it was under Mike Deane and Kevin O'Neill?

As for the game, I haven't watched the last two UW-MU matchups, bad for my blood pressure. Last year we listened for the score on our way to Chicago for Christmas, and Nick couldn't believe my anxiety level; it is pretty ridiculous, but I'm working on it. My gameday boycott stems from the 2004 game, where Travis Diener lit us up in a performance that gave me the dry heaves and had me throwing pillows in front of my mother-in-law.

On the court, I predict Marquette pulls out a close one. That was my inclination going into the season, and seeing our performance against Duke only reinforced it. Of course, Marquette doesn't have the shooters Duke does, and this one's in the Kohl Center.

But I don't like the individual matchups. Yes, we have height on them, but I see Joe Krabbenhoft and Marcus Landry struggling to mark McNeal and Matthews. On the other end, I'm not sure Krabby and Landry's height advantage is as big an advantage, both Marquette guys can probably deny the post well or body up, whichever way they choose to play it. This goes back to my thoughts in yesterday's post - with that fourth scholarship do you take a 7-footer or a 6-6 guy in the Matthews mold? I guess we'll see which approach wins out on Saturday.