Make wishtv.com your home page

IU playing in Sweet 16 on Crean’s 50th birthday

PHILADELPHIA (WISH) — Tom Crean and his Hoosiers arrived to Philadelphia around 7:30 on Wednesday night. They’re all about business and ready to knock off top seed North Carolina in the Sweet 16.

What is the mindset of the team?

“Oh, I think it’s excellent,” Crean said in a conversation with 24-Hour News 8’s Anthony Calhoun, “they’re very focused. I wouldn’t call them loose I’d say confident but edgy, I mean we’ve got an edgy group and that’s good because we’ve got an edgy coach, coaches. And we’ve had a couple good days of work, we haven’t overworked.”

The Hoosiers are back in the Sweet Sixteen for the third time in the past five years.

“You don’t want to beat down the obvious, they know they’re in the Sweet Sixteen, and really it becomes more and more for us about ‘Are we locking in even more so to the details?’ you just got to be better every game.”

Crean is turning 50 on Friday, the same day his Hoosiers are taking on UNC. One of his birthday wishes was to be working on that day.

“I’m working on Friday, you know what, I’m not just working in the office, you know, I get to do what I love,” he said, “with the people I love. I mean so that is absolutely great. I mean Lional Anderson already got me some gifts, so like I was excited for that, it was like Christmas when he brought them in but it’s not about the gifts, especially when you hit that number, it’s about, are you doing what you love? Are you confident in what you’re doing? Do you love the people you’re doing it with? And I feel great about that.”

A win Friday would be the ideal birthday gift for the Hoosier coach.