Tom Crean loves himself some press conference lateness. Almost as much as Tom Crean loves himself some nervously pacing around and excitingly clapping. The Indiana Hoosiers Coach has drawn the ire of both local and national media ever since he kept reporters waiting until nearly 2 a.m. last year, in order to have his players cut down the nets in Assembly Hall.
Of course, I’ll never forget the time IU was at Northwestern hours before the Indianapolis Colts would play in the Super Bowl, and Crean kept his own media waiting as long as possible, cutting it as close as possible until kickoff. Whether that was intentional and jerkish, or just inadvertent and clueless we’ll never know.
Nevertheless, Tom Crean has somehow outdone Bobby Knight in the unlikable Indiana coaches pantheon, so when he was late today to Big Ten Media Day the Twitterverse let ’em have it. The jokes about Tom Crean or “Clappy McBeltbuckle” as @GoodDrJim calls him were hilarious and plentiful. (By the way you know a parody Twitter account is hard core when it’s a fake Athletic Director account. Not just a fake A.D. account but a fake Northwestern A.D. account)
Anyways, there were jokes about belt buckles, lateness, net cutting, inability to solve the 2-3 zone and much more.
Take it away Hammer and Rails, the Purdue site of SB Nation
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the world; with regular weekly segments on NBC, CBS and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS