The Indiana Hoosiers Tom Crean proved me wrong today. I didn’t think people actually cared about player of the week awards, mostly because any time I’ve written or posted about them it’s equaled web traffic/social media death. But IU coach Tom Crean sure does. He was quite unhappy about the selection process, and he let the Big Ten office know it during the conference call today.
But before we get to Crean’s inflammatory exchange with Big Ten call moderator and assistant director of communications Dan Mihalik, a little history. The Michigan Wolverines Trey Burke was player of the week, Burke averaged 23.5 points, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals in a loss to MSU and a win over Penn State. He shot nearly 60%.
However, that loss to Michigan State was a doozy. UM got absolutely destroyed by about 30 points, and it could have been worse. Anyways, here’s the rant: (transcription courtesy of Detroit Free Press)
Crean: “Dan, I have a question for you. Can you give me the criteria, so I can understand this once and for all, what the criteria is for the player of the week, what you’re judging that on?”
Mihalik: “I can give that to you off line.”
Crean: “Just give me this: Where does winning fit into it?”
Mihalik: “It’s part of the criteria.”
TC: “Just part of the criteria? OK, that helps me. Thanks.”
Crean then brought it up again at the end of the call.
“Dan, when you send that to me, please put where winning is ranked when you guys do that, with your criteria, and I’ll look forward to reading that. OK, thanks. Bye.”
Shortly thereafter, Crean tweeted about the situation: “From the BT teleconfrence, let me be clear. I was not questioning a player. I was questioning the criteria for choosing an award.”
The freshman of the week, if you care was Michigan St.’s Gary Harris who averaged 15.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals and his team went 2-0.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, a Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Fox Sports, MSN, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Chicago Now
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