Indiana head basketball coach Tom Crean has often said he has the best coaching staff in college basketball and that he understands his assistants are going to get picked up elsewhere.
Bennie Seltzer is the first of the Crean era at Indiana.
After four seasons in Bloomington — coming with Crean from Marquette — Seltzer has landed his first head coaching gig at Samford University. He will be introduced at a 10:30 a.m. EST news conference Thursday.
“Believe me, Bennie Seltzer has seen it all and there is no task at Samford University that will not be ready to attack with integrity, energy, and unyielding attitude for success,” Crean said in a statement released by Samford. “He will be thoroughly missed at Indiana, but will never be forgotten for the work that he put in with us.
“After six years of working with Coach Seltzer, I know he is an outstanding coach. He helped take us to high levels at Marquette and after four years at Indiana, helped us endure the greatest professional hardships we had ever faced to get to a point where our program is nationally relevant again.”
Good for Coach Seltzer. He was always a pleasure to deal with and will be a great addition to Samford. The move also allows him to return home to Birmingham, Alabama.
I’ve connected with two coaches in Indianapolis and they reiterated that he will be missed. Seltzer, like Crean, is a tireless recruiter and a relationship guy.
This may not be the only coach leaving this offseason. Steve McClain has been mentioned for the SMU vacancy and Tim Buckley has received many looks lately. For the sake of consistency at IU, I’m sure they are hoping Seltzer is it.
So what’s next for Indiana?
The obvious decision is to have Calbert Cheaney change roles, and move down a seat from director of basketball operations. He hasn’t been allowed to coach in his current position and I’m sure he’d like to.
It isn’t known for sure whether Cheaney would like the position. The time commitment would be much greater and he would be away from his family more often. His home resides up in Fishers, about 90 minutes from Bloomington. Becoming an assistant coach would require him to work more hours in the office and on the road for recruiting purposes. But I think he would like and embrace that.
From a recruit perspective, it would be very special to have the Big Ten’s all time leading scorer watch him play or come into their home. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if Crean would in a different direction.
If Cheaney did slide into the assistant coach slot, it would then open the director of operations position which I will believe would stay in the IU basketball family.
Who do you think Crean should add to the IU staff? Cheaney, somebody in his coaching tree, or go elsewhere?
[Photo via IDS]