What took nearly six weeks to accomplish seemed more like 16. But Indiana University finally has itself a new men’s basketball coach. A pretty good one, too.

Tom Crean is by-the-book off the court and an established X’s and O’s guy on it. Despite having yet coached his first game in Bloomington, he’s got Indiana University written all over him.

Longtime season-ticket holders, persons who for years have forked over their hard-earned dollars to use IU hoops as their two-hour escape, will love this guy. Students will jump on board because there’s a lot more about Crean to like than to dislike.

Hmmm. How about "The Crean Monsters" as the new name for the rowdy student section during games at Assembly Hall.

Just a thought.

There is but one criticism in the hiring of Crean. What took so long?

The Michigan-born coach would have been the perfect choice two years ago after Indiana yanked the cord on the Mike Davis Era. Yet for some unfathomable reason Kelvin Sampson came off as the attractive choice, a mistake traced to dim thinking, not dim lighting.

Nonetheless, it's a blunder the university will regret for years to come.

Crean would be wise to pack a mop and some sponges when he moves to Bloomington so he can help clean up the mess left behind by Sampson and the ill-advised administrators who hired him.

During the 40 days that bridged Sampson’s unceremonious departure to Crean’s hiring, the IU program had been reduced to a punchline what with big-name recruits bolting and loyal supporters left embarrassed, confused and more than a little bit angered.

If there were new barrel bottoms to scrape, the Hoosiers scraped them. The dismissal of returning starters Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis being the latest shiner administered to a program working without a safety net.

A popular saying is that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. IU has touched its rock bottom. It’s not going lower. From here it’s upward and onward.

Crean is being paid big dollars to not only slap jumper cables on Indiana University's me n’s basketball program, but return it to national prominence, and in time he will.

But it won't be next season unless Eric Gordon elects to bypass millions of dollars and stay for his sophomore season. An unlikely scenario, to say the least. And if Ellis and the sweet-shooting Bassett are indeed history, the Hoosiers will struggle to be a sixth-place team in next year's Big Ten race.

From that foundation the program grows back into what it was, which is what's expected when the name "Indiana" is slapped across the front of the jersey and the back is void of a player's surname.

An emphasis on fundamentals. Victories. Yearly contention for a conference title. Players representing their university with pride and placing graduation as the highest priority.

Those who strongly dislike the IU program got a good chuckle at the Hoosiers' expense during the topsy-turvy 2007-08 basketball season, which, fittingly, concluded with a one-and-done in the NCAA Tournament.

Now, finally, there's a new sheriff in town. The one Indiana should have employed two years ago.

One gets the feeling Hoosiers fans will be the ones laughing last.

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