The embattled Indiana head coach will lose top assistant Steve McClain to Illinois-Chicago.
Indiana assistant coach Steve McClain will be leaving the program to take the head coaching job at Illinois-Chicago, according to a report from Brian Hamilton of Sports Illustrated.
McClain spent five seasons at Indiana as one of head coach Tom Crean’s top aides. He was previously the head coach at Wyoming from 1998-2007, compiling a record of 157-115 while appearing in one NCAA Tournament.
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Crean’s future at Indiana is in doubt after the Hoosiers were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Friday by Wichita State. He has done an excellent job of recruiting since arriving at Indiana in 2008, but losing a top assistant coach will hurt in that regard.
The Hoosiers have gone 121-111 during Crean’s seven-year tenure after being left in a state of disarray by previous head coach Kelvin Sampson. Indiana has not advanced past the Sweet Sixteen with Crean at the helm despite some very talented teams in 2011 and 2012.
Crean does deserve credit for building Indiana back into a tournament contender after it was at one of the lowest points in its history. The 15 win improvement between 2010 and 2011 ranked as the largest in all of college basketball that season.
The expectations at Indiana are much higher than what Crean has provided, but it seems likely that Crean will get at least one more season, as previous top targets like Brad Stevens and Gregg Marshall will be extremely difficult to attain at this point. Crean also has a $12.5 million buyout until July 1, at which point it falls to $7.5 million.
Crean will have to improve next season without McClain, who has a lot of work to do at Illinois-Chicago to catch up to programs like Valparaiso and UW-Green Bay in the Horizon League.
Illinois-Chicago fired head coach Howard Moore on March 10 after a 47-111 record in five seasons.
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