Crean settling in with Georgia basketball

Published 4:38 pm Friday, June 29, 2018

Several months in as Georgia men’s basketball coach, Tom Crean is at a point where he is starting to gain a sense of comfort with Georgia’s program.

The Bulldogs are in week four of an eight-week summer offseason program, and Crean is working to establish a foundation that will reap success in the upcoming season.

“A whirlwind is an understatement, but it’s been a fantastic time,” Crean said. “You learn about your team, you learn about your school. You get a lot of energy from that, I do personally.”

Crean said his first priority when being introduced as head coach was to get to know the players. He came in when the players were on spring break, and when they returned on March 19, Crean held a meeting with a players at 2:45 p.m. They didn’t hit the court until 3:45 p.m.

He used that hour as an opportunity to establish relationships with his players and ensure the standards of how they want to run the program together.

Although they haven’t played a single game yet together as a team, Crean said he finds that he is learning more about his players through the offseason program more than anything.

“You’ve got to try to create as many adverse situations for your team inside of that training,” Crean said. “You start to see what they could do to execute, what triggers stress.”

The program has established the “Dawg of the Week” award that goes to the player that stood out the most during that specific week of the offseason. Winners have included sophomore center Nicolas Claxton, junior guard Tyree Crump and senior guard William “Turtle” Jackson II.

As Crean put it, the players are not only getting to know him as a coach, but also the freshman that have joined the team this summer, including the likes of guard Tye Fagan, forward Amanze Ngumezi and forward JoJo Toppin.

Having talented freshman come in annually is a priority to Crean. Part of that has to do with in-state recruiting, in which Crean believes is paramount.

“I’ve already had a great respect for this state,” Crean said. “We’ve already spent time in this state recruiting. But it’s nothing like living in this state.”

Crean made necessary hires to help with that process. He hired Chad Dollar, an Atlanta native who spent last season as assistant at South Florida as well as former Texas A&M assistant Amir Abdur-Rahim.

Both Dollar and Abdur-Rahim are successful coaches in the eyes of Crean, who also have experience recruiting the state of Georgia.

With that being said, recruiting is an ongoing process. What helps with that is the on-court success, which Crean is quickly preparing for with the upcoming 2018-2019 season.

“We’ve got some really really good young people on this team,” Crean said. “The foundation with them is really strong and we just want to keep improving.”

Printed with permission from The Red & Black independent student media organization based in Athens, Ga.; redandblack.com/sports.