Indiana hit a home run.

Indiana needs Tom Crean as much as the Marquette coach needs the tradition-rich program in Bloomington.

Sure, IU is going to take a short-term hit. However, Crean is a relentless recruiter who can coach – and he’ll be ideal in the community as well.

The die-hard Hoosiers fans will love him – more than they would have loved Tony Bennett, Lon Kruger, Mike Montgomery or whoever else that Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan could have legitimately wooed.

Greenspan saved his job with this hire.

This is a young, dynamic 41-year-old coach who has made inroads with the state of Indiana. His best player, Dominic James, hails from the state.

He’s fearless, but he also knows how to do things the right way.

Case in point: He had his entire Marquette team come over and introduce themselves to me a couple years ago after a shootaround. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen that happen.

They say he eats, breathes and sleeps basketball. However, hours before a game last season, he asked me to join him and a couple of his assistants and we went to a bookstore. He said he tried to hit a bookstore in every city.

Crean may have made his share of enemies in the industry, but that’s usually the mark of someone who is fearless and successful.

It’s going to take a couple of years to get Indiana back to what it once was – or even what it was at the start of this season. Crean can sell – and now he’s got a Cadillac instead of a Toyota.

But it’ll happen.