OPINION

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 5:28 p.m. ET April 19, 2008

Mike DeCourcy

On a chilly Friday night in early February, 6-8 junior forward Bobby Capobianco of Loveland High School in suburban Cincinnati put on an impressive basketball show for Marquette coach Tom Crean and other members of the Golden Eagles staff. A lot has changed in the short time since.

Crean still values Capobianco's talent, though, and Capobianco still is attracted to Crean's dynamic personality. So their basketball careers still will intersect in the future — at Indiana University.

This is one of the many decisions Crean has had to make since accepting the IU job earlier this month. He needed to decide if Capobianco, a powerful forward who can handle the ball and shoot, would fit as well with the Hoosiers. Obviously, given Capobianco's commitment this week, Crean decided it would work. He also needed to get started with building a coaching staff. That began with officially bringing Tim Buckley and Bennie Seltzer from Marquette and will continue as Crean works to fill other positions.

Crean needs to meet people, greet people, figure out who will be left on the Hoosiers roster, determine whether guard Armon Bassett and forward Jamarcus Ellis will be welcomed back into the program, conduct skill workouts while school remains in session and, most important, start repairing IU's recruiting operation while being unable to go on the road for the time being. That's because of sanctions imposed not against him personally, but whoever is occupying the position of Hoosiers head coach. Oh, and one other thing: "Everybody says, 'recruit, recruit, recruit,' " Crean said. "But the academics have got to get in order fast."

Crean volunteered for this scramble. Actually, he didn't volunteer. He will be paid a lot of money to sort it all out, but when he does, it will have happened more quickly than anyone might have imagined and Indiana basketball will be in the best shape it has seen for nearly two decades.

"It's exciting," he said.

The Indiana job is one of the best in college basketball, but right now it's in the worst shape. The roster is depleted, the recruiting class has dwindled and Crean explains that the academic situation must be repaired. When he sat down for breakfast during the Final Four with a handful of reporters, that was foremost on his to-do list.

Once he sorts out who will be left on his roster and who, if anyone, he can add for 2008-09, Crean will have to determine what style of basketball the Hoosiers can play. It's interesting that some Kentucky fans identified him as a "slowdown" coach they didn't really want when their head coaching position was open a year ago. Crean has used many different approaches, depending on personnel, since he was hired at Marquette in 1999.

"I thought Bob Huggins did an incredible job," Crean said of West Virginia's blending elements of the John Beilein offense with Huggins' emphasis on toughness in rebounding and defense. "Just awesome."

Crean's approach has varied from slow to fast, from set plays to free flowing. At the core, though, has been the essential intensity and selflessness he demands. If guys aren't playing hard and together, they're not going to be playing for long. Mixed into his other duties in the two weeks since he was hired has been watching DVDs of last year's games to see how the players who remain will need to be structured as a team.

Mike Miller's college hoops blog Five things to watch this week

"You're going to recruit and build your team based on how you've coached and how you want to play," he said. "At the same time, I have no idea how we're going to play now because you adjust to what you have."

The biggest difference between taking over at Marquette in the spring of 1999 and becoming Indiana coach now is that he's done this before. He was a first-time head coach with the Golden Eagles. Now he is a Final Four veteran taking over one of the elite programs.

He will believe in his instincts. "You've got to be able to trust your own leadership decisions," he said. So he offered a scholarship to Bobby Capobianco. The rebuilding of Indiana basketball has its first piece in place.

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