In the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, their Inside the NBA section focused on European big men dominating this year’s NBA draft, due to college players not leaving early this year (See Below). I did notice one Center from Europe that IU Fans saw in sweats this year, Enes Kanter from Kentucky. My question is, where is Guy-Marc Michel?
Did you review the page? Did I miss Guy-Marc Michel somewhere?
Now you might be asking yourself why does this bother me. The reason is that all season we were forced to hear from Coach Crean how much of a difference Guy-Marc Michel would have made on this year’s IU team. It was so ingrained in the hardcore Crean fan base, that many callers to our podcast continued to mention Guy-Marc Michel as one of the reasons we weren’t winning more games.
This was all capped off by the farce at Senior Night, when Coach Tom Crean not only had a jersey framed for Guy-Marc Michel (He wore 52, who knew?) but Crean said this of Guy-Marc Michel:
“It’s with great disappointment and dismay that we have to bring Guy to you this way because there’s a lot of things we wish but there are not a lot that we would wish more than if you had gotten to see Guy play with us every day and every night. For reasons that are still shocking to me we never had an opportunity for him to play with us. But there’s not many people in this world his age that would have stayed with us, did all the things that it would have taken, but never got the opportunity to play on this court. Because when we signed him and when we watched him on tape, and then when we got him in practice, we knew we had a guy who was going to play in the NBA some day. We have absolutely zero doubts that if he continues to work, and it will probably take just a little bit longer than the two years he would have had with us but he’ll end up playing for someone like a Doc Rivers, or the Indiana Pacers or the Chicago Bulls some day. So get his autograph now because you’ll want it down the road.”
That is the direct transcript from Tom Crean on Senior Night 2011.
Understand that I am fine with giving some recognition to Guy-Marc Michel during Senior Night. But having a jersey framed for someone who never put one on? That is a bit absurd.
The reason that Crean’s comments bothered me is there are only two ways to comprehend his statements and neither are good.
- If Crean truly believes that Guy is going to be a star in the NBA, then his ability to evaluate talent needs to be brought into question. If Guy was truly this NBA diamond in the rough, wouldn’t he have made this short list of big men from Europe that SI put together?
- Crean does not believe that Guy is this good, but is using this as a crutch to justify the losses this year.
This reminds me of the phrase that Adam Carolla uses during his podcast when someone makes a public comment like this. “You are either stupid or your are lying”. His point is that people always refuse to admit they are lying, but in actuality it is worse because then you are admitting that you are stupid. I feel that we have a similar case here. I would much rather Coach Crean come out and tell us that Guy wasn’t really that great, ala’ Jobe, and Guy was never really going to be a huge asset to this team. I wouldn’t be happy that Crean pulled the wool over our eyes, but it is better than the alternative. The alternative being that Crean is not the best judge of talent and honestly believed that Guy had NBA talent. This would put into question ALL future recruits that Crean believes has NBA talent.
Maybe I will be proved wrong, and I would love for that to be the case. But given this article, I don’t think it’s going to be in this NBA draft, or in the 2011-2012 NBA season.
April 18th, 2011 on 10:12 am
You really need to find a new soap box to stand on, because the anti-Crean group you’re leading the charge for has about as much appeal as the “birther” movement. I really doubt Crean honestly believes Guy is NBA-level talent, and the senior night spectacle was just a nice thing to do for a player that spent all season on the bench in sweats when he could’ve been at his junior college still playing ball. And to say that because Crean missed on a couple of guys we now have to question “ALL future recruits” is just stupid. To paraphrase Adam Carolla, you are either stupid or you are lying.
So here’s the deal. Tom Crean is the coach of IU basketball. Not you, not me, not anybody else. And he will be for the foreseeable future. So either follow another team until he’s not the coach, or find something else to critique, because nothing in regards to the IU basketball head coaching job is going to change because of what one overly critical person says on a blog.
April 18th, 2011 on 11:51 am
Now that you mentioned the “birther” movement, I’m sure our hits from right wing blogs will spike. So maybe we should ask Crean for his birth cert?
I agree that doing something nice for Guy on Senior night is fine. So I have no problem with giving him some recognition.
And you said you doubt that Crean believes that Guy is NBA talent. So then why did he say it? Nobody asked Crean a Guy/NBA question. If Crean doesn’t think Guy has NBA talent, why not just say he’s a good kid. Why go on and on about how he will play in the NBA.
I totally disagree however that just because I’m not a fan of what Crean does, I can’t follow IU basketball. As fans we need to be critical of things we don’t like.
Using your logic, you always approve of everything the coach does? So you approved of Davis and Sampson when they were coaching, up until the point they were fired?
We can be fans of IU Athletics but also be critical of things we do not agree with. It does not have to be one or the other.
April 18th, 2011 on 12:10 pm
“We have absolutely zero doubts that if he continues to work, and it will probably take just a little bit longer than the two years he would have had with us but he’ll end up playing for someone like a Doc Rivers, or the Indiana Pacers or the Chicago Bulls some day. So get his autograph now because you’ll want it down the road.”
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Did you conveniently miss the direct quote of “it will probably take just a little bit LONGER than the 2 yrs he would have had with us”?Does that sound like TC thought GMM would be ready to step in and be a player in this year’s NBA draft?
He would have been a junior (in experience) if he had played this season,and it seems pretty obvious to me Crean is talking about him playing at IU 2 seasons and going to the draft after playing 2 years of Big10 ball.
So why would you expect him to be listed in the “hot prospects” for this year?
Are you another “expert” that didn’t see Guy play on the court at Haunted Hall and base your opinion solely on JUCO stats?Or equate GMM with Bawa and Jobe and somehow feel your opinion holds more validity than those of us who actually SAW his skills on display?TC has put about 5 players in the League,so I’m pretty sure he is a fairly astute judge of talent.Doubt I’m going too far out on a ledge to guess you have FAR less expertise on the matter…
April 18th, 2011 on 12:21 pm
IUBOSSFAN :
Fair point about the time line.
And you are 100% right, Crean has more expertise in the matter of coaching and identifying NBA talent. Which is why I found the comments during Senior night so odd.
If GMM makes the NBA, I would be trilled for him and I will gladly admit to everyone that will listen that I was wrong. It won’t be the first time and sure won’t be the last.
I just don’t think that will be the case. So in 5 years, let’s revisit this post and see who is right and who is eating crow. That’s the beauty of sports.
I’m just interested why GMM is such a touchy subject and why people are getting bent out of shape about someone who never even played a minute on the court. VJ3 should be pissed that he is a 1,000 point scorer, yet no one ever comes to his defense!
April 18th, 2011 on 6:46 pm
>he could’ve been at his junior college still playing ball.
I don’t think so.