Buzz Williams has big shoes to fill, but Marquette athletic director Steve Cottingham was most comfortable naming Tom Crean's right-hand man as his replacement.

Crean returned to his Big Ten roots and bounced to Indiana, grabbing the job vacated by Kelvin Sampson. Crean was introduced holding a shirt scripted "Crean and Crimson" and asked the media throng in Bloomington, Ind., to have patience. Marquette fans, who watched as Crean averaged 20 wins per season and went to the 2003 Final Four, can attest to the rewards possible when Crean is given time to produce a turnaroud.

Williams was a recruiting lynchpin for Crean and a favorite of the current talent assembled with the Golden Eagles. That's why Cottingham could take a pass on the all-star list including Sean Miller of Xavier and Tony Bennett, who was born in Green Bay and stayed there through his college playing days at UW-Green Bay.

Williams isn't Crean -- but he should be able to make something of what Crean, Marquette coach since 1999, left behind. Marquette posted a third season in succession of double-digit victories in the Big East; school-record 11 Big East victories; first appearance in the Big East Tournament semifinals; third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance; first NCAA Tournament victory since 2003.

All positive signs of growth. If the team remains intact, a dropoff isn't expected -- good news, considering the ultra-competitive Big East will boast a bunch of talented teams again in 2008-09.

Crean, having notched his third 25-win season in his nine-year tenure at Marquette, left for IU when his talented guard trio -- Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews -- is a year away from graduation. McNeal indicated he would test the draft waters just as James did last spring, but already has said he's coming back to Milwaukee.

And while the Golden Eagles graduate two of their most experienced and biggest players in C Ousmane Barro and F Dan Fitzgerald, a four-man recruiting class might help soften that blow.

Those players would help balance out a guard-heavy team that just didn't have the size and bulk needed to compete with the best teams in the Big East during the season and Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. But with news of Crean's departure, any or all of the expected arrivals could reverse field and even end up at Indiana.

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