A Bat Idea

There are times when I still wish Tom Crean was the coach of the IU men’s basketball team.

After Kelvin Sampson destroyed and sullied IU basketball with his brazen disregard for NCAA rules, Crean appeared to be the perfect hire. He worked wonders at Marquette, inherited a total mess in Bloomington, didn’t complain and simply got to work.

A few seasons later – cue the music from the movie Hoosiers – Christian Watford hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat No. 1 ranked Kentucky and I'm not sure Assembly Hall has ever been louder. The following year, the 2012-13 season, IU won an outright Big Ten Championship and Watford, Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo and company advanced to the Sweet 16.

Somehow, though, despite all that talent, the Hoosiers looked like they had never seen a zone defense and scored 50 points against Syracuse. It was a bitter end to a season that should have resulted in at minimum a Final Four appearance.

The next few years were inconsistent. Crean and the Hoosiers struggled before surging to a Big Ten title in 2016 and another trip to the Sweet 16. The next year, though, they missed the tournament and Crean was fired after nine seasons.

Enter Archie Miller,  regarded as one of the top young coaches in the country. It hasn’t gone as planned and his first three years, at best, can be characterized as rocky. His overall record is 56-43, he's under .500 in the Big Ten and there have been no trips to the NCAA Tournament.

So you can see why with the benefit of hindsight some Hoosier fans miss Crean.

Of course, than you come across a bat-sh()t crazy story this week and you don’t know what to think.

On The Titus & Tate podcast, Zeller recounted the time that Crean asked his brother-in-laws, Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh, to address the team. At the time, Jim Harbaugh was coach of the San Francisco 49ers; John Harbaugh still coaches the Baltimore Ravens.

Zeller talks about how one Harbaugh told the players they should be mean and nasty like rabies filled blood sucking bats. The other talked about playing like a serial killer because serial killers, unlike murderers, know what they’re going to do with the body; they have a plan and execute the plan.

Paraphrasing does not do it full justice, however.

You can listen to the interview, and the part about the bats begins at 11:16.While this was the first time many of us had heard this story, Mark Titus actually got Crean to talk about it on his previous podcast. The part where Titus and Crean discuss bats starts at 33:33.

In that interview, Crean said that he looked into bringing a live bat in the locker room.

“We knew we couldn’t handle it ourselves; we’d need a bat trainer,” Crean said.

Phew, nice to see cooler heads prevail!

Unfortunately/fortunately, the live bats didn’t happen. Instead Crean bought plastic bats and threw them around the locker room to motivate the Hoosiers to play like vampire bats.

No confirmation whether the Hoosiers simply played like vampire bats or vampire bats that played with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind

They could have used some of that enthusiasm against that Syracuse zone, but I digress.

Can’t end on that blasted Syracuse zone, though, so let’s let Zeller walk us off.