Tom Crean’s whirlwind week got even crazier Monday.
Upon returning home from the Super Bowl, the Indiana coach found out he’s leading America’s No. 1 college basketball team. Again.
It was another crowning moment in a week full of big wins for the Crean clan. Indiana beat No. 13 Michigan State, archrival Purdue and No. 1 Michigan in a seven-day span, before Crean headed to New Orleans. There, he watched one brother-in-law beat his other brother-in-law for the Super Bowl title. Finally, he saw the Hoosiers reclaim the top spot in The Associated Press poll after seven weeks.
“Our guys appreciate winning. They appreciate the task that it is and I think because our older guys have been through so many hard times, they appreciate it that much more,” a weary-sounding Crean said during Monday’s weekly Big Ten conference call. “And I think our younger guys were raised on winning. Guys like Yogi (Ferrell), Cody (Zeller), Remy Abell, those guys were really raised on winning, and that helps.”
It’s the fifth straight week there is a new No. 1 team.
Duke started the current streak and was followed by Louisville, Duke again, Michigan and now Indiana. The last time there were five No. 1s in as many weeks was the last five polls of 2008-09, when it was Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Connecticut again, North Carolina and Louisville.
The Hoosiers, the preseason No. 1, held the top spot for the first five weeks of the regular season. They moved up two spots Monday after their win over the Wolverines and then-No. 2 Kansas’ loss to Oklahoma State. They received 58 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, while Florida, which jumped two spots to second, got the other seven.
Michigan, which made its first appearance atop the Top 25 in more than two decades last week, dropped two spots to No. 3 and was followed by Duke, Kansas, Gonzaga, Arizona, Miami, Syracuse and Ohio State.
The change at the top of the poll came as no surprise in Bloomington.
Even before Saturday’s game ended, fans were chanting “No. 1, No. 1.”
“We’ve been playing with a chip on our shoulder since the day I got here,” junior swingman Victor Oladipo said Saturday. “We’ve got to continue to play with that chip because it can be taken away at any time.”
Indiana found that out the hard way with an overtime loss to then-unranked Butler on Dec. 15.
For the next seven weeks, the Hoosiers were trying to get back to No. 1.
The only stumble was a home loss to Wisconsin. But last week, they played their best basketball all season, leading almost from start to finish in all three games and handing Purdue its worst home loss ever.
For Crean, that was just the start of the whirlwind weekend.
He flew on a private plane Sunday morning to New Orleans, where he watched the Super Bowl with his wife, Joani, the sister of John and Jim Harbaugh.
“It’s really hard certainly for Joani and her parents because you’ve got such great joy for one and such pride,” Crean said.
He received a text message Sunday from Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who has had three children play college sports, that Crean showed to his father-in-law late that night.
“He said as a parent, you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child, and I think it’s an amazing statement and one of the most profound things that I’ve ever heard, and it probably fits what Joani’s parents are going through,” Crean said. “But in a sense, it could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so there’s incredible joy in being able to be a part of it and see it.”
Crean was scheduled to return home Monday afternoon, in time for practice after a mostly sleepless night.
There were four newcomers to the poll this week: Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, all of whom were ranked at some point this season. They replaced Wichita State and Mississippi, which both lost two games last week and fell from 15th and 16th; North Carolina State, which was No. 6 in the preseason poll and also lost twice last week; and San Diego State.
Sports
IU moves back to No. 1 in college basketball poll
- Sports
-
-
PREP GIRLS SOFTBALL: Repeat Raiders
In a near repeat of the two regular season meetings, the No. 2 ranked Northridge Raiders and the unranked Concord Minutemen locked up in a close championship contest of the Class 4A high school girls softball sectional Friday night at Warsaw.
-
PREP BASEBALL: Raiders, Blue Blazers advance
Northridge and Elkhart Central notching victories was not surprising.
-
2013 INDY 500: Munoz, Daly take different paths to Indy
Carlos Munoz’s initiation to Indianapolis went relatively smoothly.
-
PREP BOYS TRACK AND FIELD: State tickets punched
The Goshen Redskins made the long trip to Kokomo on Thursday night for the IHSAA boys track and field regional and brought home a regional championship and a runner-up finish.
-
PREP SOFTBALL: Falcons win first sectional title
With two of the area’s top pitchers squaring off Thursday night in the championship game of the Class 3A Lakeland Sectional between Lakeland and Fairfield, the margin for error figured to be very small.
-
NBA PLAYOFFS: LeBron saves Heat at buzzer of Game 1
LeBron James made a layup as time expired in overtime, and the Miami Heat found a way to beat the Indiana Pacers 103-102 in a wild Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Wednesday night.
-
PREP SOFTBALL: Raiders, Minutemen in 4A final
Considering that all the teams in the Class 4A Warsaw sectional are members of the NLC, except for one, it’s not a great surprise that a pair of league teams will square off for the championship of the high school girls softball sectional.
-
PREP GIRLS TENNIS: Raiders dominate
The suspense at Wednesday’s Northridge Regional girls tennis finals didn’t last very long.
-
NFL: Bears LB Urlacher announces his retirement
Brian Urlacher wasn't sure how dominant he could be any longer, so he's calling it a career after 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears.
-
PREP GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD: On to the state meet
Concord, led by double winner junior Jessica O’Connell, finished fourth in the team standings in the IHSAA girls track and field regional Tuesday night at Warsaw.
- More Sports Headlines
-




