Georgia basketball coach Tom Crean and his family attended a football doubles weekend last week in September.
First, they watched Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan team beat Rutgers in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Then they saw John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens team win with a 66-yard field goal record in Detroit.
John and Jim are the older brothers of Tom’s wife, Joani.
John’s team leads the AFC North Division. Jim’s Michigan team crashed the college football playoffs, with the chance to win 13 games for the first time in the program’s 142-year history, but more importantly, a spot in the national championship game.
To do that, he has to get past the program that practices across from Crean.
It’s Georgia and Kirby Smart against Michigan and Harbaugh in a national semifinal at the Orange Bowl on December 31st.
“I’m really excited for Kirby and all of his staff, the entire program, really,” said Crean on Monday. “I see how hard you work every day. It’s very impressive. It’s very impressive, you all know that. But I’m also very happy for my brother-in-law and his program and for what they’re doing. He’s had a lot of adversity, negativity and the like over time and it’s so great to see the entire coaching staff and program overcome it and succeed. “
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Crean doesn’t yet know if he will make the 7:30 p.m. game in Miami Gardens, Florida, but Joani and her daughters Megan and Ainsley will likely leave. Her son Riley is a student assistant in UGA basketball.
Tom and Joani met when he was assistant basketball coach in Western Kentucky and their father Jack was the school’s senior football coach. She taught aerobics. You have been married for 28 years.
“If you were like a fly on the wall and listen to phone calls, you would think Tom Crean was the brother and I was the in-laws,” said Joani in January on the podcast “Married to the Game” with Maria Martin. “You talk a lot more than I talk to my brothers.”
Tom Crean said, “If I weren’t related and didn’t know them the way I do, I would still look up to them very, very much because they are great leaders, they are great parents and husbands. Obviously they are great to me. You are incredibly great for my three children. The three of them with Joani just have a great relationship, all of which stems from Joani’s mom and dad, Jack and Jackie. “
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They practice different sports, but Crean and Jim Harbaugh are both in stressful, long-hour jobs where recruiting never stops but is well paid for it.
When they met on Sunday night, Harbaugh was “in the middle of three separate recruitment stops,” Crean said. “We have talked about numerous things that are going on in our own programs. There is always a comparison of grades. He’s at championship level. I was at championship level. It doesn’t make a difference. Time always moves in such a way that you have to deal with things in real time. It is usually like that. It’s a constant learning process and I usually get better every time I visit, every time I see her, every text. The same goes for John, who suffered a heavy loss this morning. There is the coaching part, but even more important is the relationship part that arises from the bond. “
Crean’s Georgia team are 4-5 ahead of their home game on December 18 with George Mason after beating Memphis # 400 last Wednesday and # 401 against Jacksonville on Tuesday night.
“I always had a lot of respect for Jim when he played, and then of course I got to know him on a whole different level,” said Crean. “It’s family. It’s easy. There are so many discussions going on. Whether on the phone, SMS or occasionally in person. It runs. It’s constant. There are many things that are in it. I have a lot of respect for Jim, just as I do for John. “
In August, Crean spent two days with the Ravens when they spent two days with the Carolina Panthers in Spartanburg, SC. trained
“I felt like I was on the staff,” said Crean in October. “From the moment of the meetings, during the meetings, during the exercises, the walk-throughs, quarterback room meetings, offensive and defensive meetings, meetings with analytics. It was amazing what I saw and what I felt was even bigger. “
Jim Harbaugh said, “He certainly knows a lot more about football than I do about basketball. I thought I knew a lot about basketball too. I played basketball in high school, but near his meetings, sitting in the stands right behind him and watching him coach, you can tell I don’t know much about basketball. “
In the past, Harbaugh creaned Crean’s brain from what he saw from the most prominent program at the school.
“I spoke to him about what he thought of Georgia and the soccer team,” said Harbaugh. “He loves Georgia. He loves the staff there. Nothing but the ultimate respect. “
When Harbaugh and Michigan were playing the Peach Bowl in 2018, Harbaugh and his family were playing a basketball game in Georgia against UMass in Athens.
“I had the pleasure of going to the basketball game there, staying with Tom and Joni, and driving around campus,” said Harbaugh.
In Georgia, Crean said he and Smart have developed a friendship since Crean was hired in 2018.
“Tom and I have become good friends,” said Smart, who said he had “mutual respect for their family”.
Crean said, “We don’t see each other nearly as often at this time of year, of course, but I follow them daily and my brother-in-law is my brother” before the law. It is what it is and I am happy for both of them that they are at the championship level they are at. “
When asked which team Joani is rooting for, Crean was diplomatic.
“Well, Joani is very much like me,” he said. “I think when you have a family member in there, but she loves Georgia too, I guess you don’t really look at it from a fan perspective. I don’t look at either team as a fan, really not. I don’t watch the Ravens as a fan. I don’t watch some of my really close friends as a fan in coaching. I’m usually too stressed out. In all honesty, the Ohio State game was really, really tough for both of us because you want to see it so well. It’s just different when it comes to family. It’s different with friends. It’s just like that. “
