Two-way Stardom

When you look at the impact Isaiah Crawford is having for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, labeling him a two-way star is a good start.

He’s averaging a career-best 15.9 points – second best in Conference USA – on 51% shooting on offense, averaging nearly six ( 5.7) rebounds, while ranking second in Conference USA in steals (41) and blocks (31) – the latter already his career best for a single season.

In an age of oneon- one basketball and players specializing in one or two parts of the game, with a dwindling few daring to show up on both offense and defense on a given night, Crawford diverges from the crowd.

He was touted by Conference USA coaches as the league’s Preseason Player of the Year with his ability to score, rebound, block shots, and take the ball away – all attributes coaches would take in two or three players.

But Crawford? He does it all.

Tech head coach Talvin Hester can’t get enough of him. Although, his view of Crawford isn’t that of the “two-way” label given to him, he recognizes that many players in the country are matching or coming close to the overall production of his fifth-year senior.

For Hester, Crawford is exactly what star basketball players should be – complete and consistent, not flashes in the pan for 30 points here and there and nothing else to show for it.

“It’s sad that we’ve come to say ‘two-way players’ in basketball. I thought you had to play both sides of the court,” Hester said. “That was a football thing for years with Deion. He does play both ends and his ability to affect the game on both ends of the floor is unbelievable. I know everybody thinks the good players are supposed to score the ball but in the Liberty game I think he effected it more with his seven blocks more so than his 22 points. He’s shown the ability to lift us in other ways and I think that’s what makes him so dynamic. His versatility is who Isaiah really is.”

That versatility has Crawford in one of the best stretches of his career, and it’s coming at the perfect time as he’s helped Tech (13-6, 3-1 CUSA) sit tied for first in the league standings.

In the Bulldogs’ 74-57 win at Jacksonville State on Saturday, Crawford scored a career-high 30 points on 12-of-16 shooting to go with 5 steals, just six days after setting a career- high with 7 blocks in Tech’s 80-76 win over Liberty.

Through four conference games, Crawford is averaging 19.5 points per game on 55% shooting. Think it’s just him tearing through inferior talent? Think again. Crawford is the only player in the country with 40-plus steals and 30-plus blocks.

And he’s doing it while leading the CUSAcontending Bulldogs at close to 16 points per game.

He’s the only player in CUSA who ranks top five in scoring, steals, and blocks.

His versatility on both ends already put him in the Tech record books back on Jan. 3 when he became the first Bulldog to put up at 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists, 100 steals, and 50 blocks in a career.

Months before Crawford hit that milestone, Tech point guard Sean Newman was confident he was going to spend the next four months with an unmatched talent – one that would elevate his own game to help the Bulldogs on their quest to win a league title.

Nineteen games in, Newman’s hunch was right. He’s playing with a two-way talent that most of, if not the whole, country doesn’t have.

Newman has benefited, leading CUSA with 4.9 assists per game.

“He’s the best player I’ve ever played with,” Newman said on Oct. 16 at CUSA Media Day. “I texted him I’m confident in every game we go into because I know I have the best player on the floor on my team.”

How Crawford will follow up his last two outings remains to be seen, but he’ll have to do it against a physical UTEP Miners (11-8, 2- 2 CUSA) squad on Thursday that gets to the free-throw line at a high rate and wants to slow pace of play down.

The Miners held Crawford in relative check last season in the two meetings to 19 total points, 12 total rebounds, and 5 total steals.

Hester expects his star to come ready to produce, in whatever task he’s called, on Thursday to continue the Bulldogs’ undefeated home record going.

“When it clicks with him, it clicks,” Hester said. “I’ve learned to sometimes leave him alone because he’s his own worst critic. Just telling him what we need and sometimes I’ll design something to get him the ball early to see if we can get him going. That was all Isaiah [Saturday]. Everybody thinks it was all offense, but he turned defense into offense too. He had five steals and a lot of those steals he took down for layups. He was just really good.”

Tech hosts UTEP Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.