It has been nearly three weeks since Saint Louis’ 2012-13 season came to an abrupt end in San Jose, but Saint Louis University officially named Jim Crews its full time men’s basketball coach Friday afternoon, making him the program’s 25th full-time coach in the program’s history and the third since 2002.
Prior to joining the SLU staff in 2011, Crews, 59, served as head coach at Evansville (1985-2002) and Army (2002-2009). He has a record of 382-355 over his 25 seasons as head coach with a total of 15 NCAA Tournament berths as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
“Jim Crews is the perfect fit to lead the Billiken men’s basketball program,” Director of Athletics Chris May said. “Jim embraces the goals of our department that we focus on daily – to educate, compete and build community. He showed all the skills necessary to succeed at SLU. He led the program with great class to the best season in school history, and he has a vision and plan to lead it successfully into the future. I am thrilled to announce Jim as the head coach as we move the men’s basketball program forward.”
“I have said from day one that it is about the people – the players, staff, administration and fans – and the people here are 100 percent committed to this team and this program,” Crews said. “I’ve seen first hand the values that Saint Louis University possesses, and I believe strongly in those same values. They are paramount in the college experience.”
Crews originally joined the SLU staff as a favor to Majerus. Al Jensen, who had been an assistant coach at SLU for four years, had just accepted a head coaching position with an NBA Developmental League team in Canton, leaving Majerus just a few days before practice to fill the vacancy.
He reluctantly accepted and had so much fun in year one—he signed on for another season. Just a few months later, Crews found himself filling in for the ailing Majerus as interim head coach.
“When Rick called me two years ago, one of the things he really emphasized was, ‘I think you’re really going to enjoy the people here at Saint Louis,’ ” he said. “People trump everything… All across the campus, the way people treat each other is incredible.”
Hampered by injuries to Kwamain Mitchell, Keith Carter and Grandy Glaze, the Bills stumbled to a 3-3 start before they were dealt another blow with the death of Majerus.
Majerus, who had been battling various health issues over the past few years, passed away on Dec. 1. Less than 24 hours later, the team took to the court against Valparaiso and kicked off a historic run that featured wins in 21 of its final 24 regular season games (four against ranked opponents) and culminated in the school’s first outright conference title since 1957 as well as its highest AP ranking (13) since Dec. 1964.
“In the midst of uncertainty, they did the next right thing,” a misty-eyed Crews explained with a faint smile. “When tragedy hit, they did the next right thing. When we got bad breaks, they just did the next right thing and when success came, they did the next right thing. That was something—I can’t thank you guys enough for making us coaches a part of your team and a part of your program.”
The Billikens continued their domination of the Atlantic 10 at the conference tournament in Brooklyn, powering past Charlotte, Butler and No. 25 VCU to clinch the program’s second-ever conference tournament title.
Placed in the Midwest Region as the four-seed, SLU cruised past New Mexico State in round two, before being denied its first ever trip to the Sweet 16 by the No. 12-seeded Oregon Ducks, who dismantled the Bills 74-57.
“I’ve always thought that the best success is shared success.” Crews said. “I’m very, very humbled and honored that these guys were willing to accept and let us share their team, their program, their season with me and the other guys on the staff… They accepted us in a very non-judgmental way. They knew the system better than us and they taught us, which I thought was pretty cool.”
This is the third full-time head coaching position for Crews, who spent 12 seasons under legendary coach Bob Knight, four as a player and eight as an assistant. He won two National Championships at IU—first as a player in 1976 and again as an assistant in 1981.
In 1985, he was chosen to replace Dick Walters at Evansville. Crews posted a record of 294-209 over his 17-year tenure with four Conference Coach of the Year awards. He guided the Purple Aces to six postseason appearances, including four trips to the NCAA Tournament, and still stands as the only coach in school history to record nine consecutive non-losing seasons.
“It’s always good to see good things happen to great people,” one of his former players, Evansville coach Marty Simmons said. “He did so much for the basketball program at Evansville. We’re all appreciative of what he’s done here and we’re really, really happy and excited for him to be named head coach at Saint Louis University.”
In 2002, Crews left Evansville for West Point.
After winning just 19 games over his first four seasons, Crews appeared to have the Black Knights on track, posting an 11-19 record in 2008-’09, good for fourth in the Patriot League (Army had finished no higher than fifth since joining the conference in 1990). His tenure at Army came to a tumultuous end in the summer of 2009.
Crews is best known for his ability to graduate players. 52 of the 53 players who spent four years with the Purple Aces earned a degree, including every senior over his final 12 years. He graduated all 30 of his four-year players at Army.
“Moving forward, nothing changes,” Crews explained. “As a staff, our philosophy is to continue to get better each and every day, on the court and off the court, and we continue to do that.”