Better Newspaper Contest

Page 61 Best Sports Commentary/Category 13 First Gregg Doyel The Indianapolis Star Great voice and pace, along with noticing details and tying them into the fabric of the story without seeming forced. First and third entries pull off the slow reveal well. Second Mike Vorel South Bend Tribune Love how detail is worked through his stories. Generally does a good job of taking a stance, though his recruiting article feels like it straddles the fence. Third Steve Hanlon The Times (Munster) Passionate commentary. Best entry so far on stirring up emotion. Division 6 Gregg Doyel The Indianapolis Star INDIANAPOLIS – This is a Tom Crean story, but like so many Tom Crean stories, it's not about him. It's about somebody else. Meet Gary Parrish. Writes about college basketball for CBSSports.com. As such, Gary was in Bloomington in the fall of 2015 — he was there to write this story about Tom Crean — when his phone rang. It was Gary's wife, Kelly, calling with the glorious news: They were having another baby, their third. Gary's in Bloomington, mind you. He's spending time with Tom and Joani Crean for a story. So he tells them the good news. Everybody's happy. Now it's February 2016. Back home in Mississippi, Gary and Kelly get the horrible news: Their baby, the one in Kelly's womb, has died. They will have a stillborn delivery. I'll let Gary pick it up here. "When we lost the baby," Gary was telling me this week, "I reached out to Tom by text: 'Hey, before you hear about it another way, I want to let you know.' Well, the phone rings. I mean, right away. It's Tom. "He kept checking in. He checked in on us and checked in on Kelly more than almost anybody that isn't related to us, and in some cases more than some people who are related to us. There's never been a four-day period since February 2016 that Tom Crean didn't call. Not to ask me what I think about a job. Not to ask if I think OG (Anunoby) is going to turn pro. Just to ask how Kelly's doing. "Here's the thing: I think a whole lot of people have stories like that." Yeah, Gary. I have a story like that. There's a reason you're reading this story now. Well, two reasons. One, it's not the kind of story a sportswriter should or even can write about a coach he covers for the newspaper. But Crean isn't the IU coach anymore, is he? Two, the "Dan Dakich Show." Dakich interviewed Crean earlier this week and it was amazing. What was scheduled to fill a 15-minute segment of a midday hour instead filled almost the whole hour. Crean was talking and Dakich was listening and listeners were loving — and you don't end something like this just because the clock says otherwise. The listeners' reaction to that interview was telling. Some people had no idea how nice, how likable, Tom Crean is. They see him on the sideline and he's intense almost in a cartoonish way, pacing and clapping and hitching up his pants as they're sagging. Imagine having a beer with that guy? No thanks. But away from the action, Crean is what people heard on that radio interview. Did I know that when I took this job in October 2014? Not really. I'd known Tom casually for 10 years, so I was no expert, but people who knew him better would tell you what I'm telling you now: He has mellowed, softened. His faith has become the core of his being. He's still intense on the sideline, you can't turn something like that off, but it's not who he is when the game ends. Coach Tom Crean now gives way, completely, to Dad Tom Crean and Husband Tom Crean and Friend Tom Crean. I could tell you about the prayer or the phone conversation with a 94-year-old man, but first you need to know about — or be reminded of, perhaps — the story I wrote in 2014 about Tom Crean, a story that was about Tom Crean: He needed to be fired. That's what I wrote on Nov. 3, 2014, barely two weeks onto the job here. In hindsight, that story shouldn't have been written. Not by me, anyway. Two weeks into the job — two weeks in the state, and I hadn't even moved here yet from Cincinnati — was not enough time for mine to be a credible voice on a topic this passionate in Indiana. Honestly, I hadn't earned the right to write that story. Didn't see it then. Do see it now. Crean was fine about that story, or as fine as he could be. Kept returning my calls when I asked for a quote. Kept answering my texts when I asked for information. Professional, always professional. One time, Crean returned my call when I was visiting a friend, a Greenwood retiree who went to IU medical school in the 1940s. Not wanting the basketball coach at IU to go to voicemail, I took the call, asked Crean my question and then told him I needed to go; I was visiting a 94-year-old friend. "Who is he?" Crean wanted to know. A retired anesthesiologist, I said. Cantankerous old coot we call Grumps. An IU alum, as it turns out. "Put him on," Crean said. Remember Crean for his compassion For the complete story, visit hspa.com.

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