ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The projection on the screen said it all: “Jim Crowley” in script, and, in all caps “WELCOME HOME.”
Not exactly what you normally see at a press conference introducing a college basketball coach.
But what happened yesterday morning at Doyle Hall, in no way, was “normal.”
Rarely does a coach return to his former school for a second stint.
Yet for Jim Crowley, he would have it no other way.
It was seven years ago, after an incredible eight-season run when he took the St. Bonaventure women’s program to a pair of NCAA Tournaments and four WNITs, Crowley left the school he loved to pursue a dream … coaching in the Big East.
But even as a stretch of mixed results unfolded, he realized “something was missing.”
The result was ultimately one of the most amicable divorces in college basketball history and a near-unprecedentedly brief period of unemployment.
With two years remaining on his contract at Providence College, and presumably welcome to return, Crowley sat down with the Friars’ athletic hierarchy and the two parties mutually agreed to part ways.
Less than 48 hours later, he returned as head coach where his reputation was made. The Bona job was open because Crowley’s former top assistant, Jesse Fleming, who succeeded him, had been dismissed in January.
“PROVIDENCE College is a great place but something was always missing and (wife) Monti and I talked about it from the get-go and couldn’t really identify it, but I knew it was missing,” Crowley recalled. “So this summer, I was fortunate to speak at the commencement of Keuka College (his alma mater) and Fr. Dan (Riley, founder of St. Bonaventure’s Mt. Irenaeus) was there. As we were going through the meal line, he put his hand on my shoulder and he blessed me. There it was … that’s what was missing. I was missing this community, I was missing the people, the Franciscan values, I was missing the feeling that was St. Bonaventure.
“So I made the decision at that time that if the chance came, I’m taking it. And it did start to happen and it was not at all a tough sell … this is home and this is where we want to be. My eyes are wide open, I know this place and I love this place … everything people want to say about it, and I’ve heard it all, they can stick it. This is an incredible university and a great community.”
Crowley admitted, “We’ve got a lot of work to do and I can’t wait to get going with it. I met with the team last night and one of the questions was, ‘What do you want?’ I want people to come back and watch us again because we play hard, we play together and we represent this great university and this great community the way it should be.
“There’s a lot of work to be done and that’s exciting. Obviously you get into this (coaching business) to have some level of success. But you also get into it to build relationships, to build teams, to have the opportunity to build young people and maximize who they are and that’s an exciting thing right now.”
OF COURSE, it’s not without coincidence that Crowley’s press conference came on the day that players can sign up for the NCAA’s transfer portal and he inherits a team that’s losing two seniors and has 11 others with uncertain futures.
“We’re working on that right now … it’s a lot for them; they’ve had a challenging year, a challenging time,” he said. “Now they have a new coach and, unfair to them, they’ve got to hear all about the past. But my focus is on them, and the future, what we can do and what we’re gonna do.
“The reason I’m here so quickly isn’t for the press conference, it was to get in front of the team last night … to get in front of them, one-on-one, the next couple of days, to get them on the court and be really honest and direct with them of where they’re at, what I see and what’s best for everybody moving forward.”
What’s Crowley looking for in new players?
“We’ve been recruiting for a while and we’re familiar with what we have to offer here,” he said, “… what it takes to get to a certain level here and, the hope is, we have a really good idea of exactly the people we want. Skill is important, but we’ve got to get the right people here … who will fit here, who will appreciate here, who will thrive here and who won’t.”
CROWLEY admitted, when he took the Providence job, that there were all manner of friends who said it was a mistake, including his brothers.
But were there any regrets?
“No,” he said. “It was the right time for me and my family to take the opportunity. It made me a better coach and I got to meet some incredible people out there and had some great, great opportunities. Now, thankfully, this opportunity came and it’s the right thing for our family.”
And clearly for St. Bonaventure.
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
