JSHoosier

Now he makes 4m since he got an extra mil for what should be bare minimum expectations.

This is true, but it'd still be a far better hire than Woodson was. Stevens showed he was a great coach, Woodson's coaching led to zero demand for him before IU called.

Yeah I'm in the camp that says when you know a new coach is needed then you don't root for wins, all that can do is delay the inevitable, especially as poorly run as this program has been. A new coach is needed. He's not getting carried to an Elite 8 or anything; I've said it before an "I did my job" banner is the only banner Woodson would ever put in the rafters.

Pope would be underwhelming for sure but at least he has college experience; Woodson's HC career was over for almost a decade until IU called because no one else wanted him, if he didn't play here 40 years ago it'd be a completely laughable hire and no one would've been excited. I don't expect Stevens, but that doesn't mean you stick with a lousy coach and stop trying. Or we could give him another unearned raise and hang a "I did my job" banner since that's only banner he'll ever hang.

He doesn’t really need a Kansas or Arizona on the schedule because there will be plenty of coaches in conference make him look foolish.

No but they can be misleading. In this case his competition includes the likes of Mike Davis and Archie Miller. It's more an indictment of how incompetently run IU is than anything.

Get ready for the excuses when they under achieve.

A part of me wonders if IU hired ADs that aren't qualified so there's a reason to not let them do their job; at this point it wouldn't be shocking. The last 25 years have been a masterclass in how to mishandle and possibly ruin a once great program; putting aside fandom, the level of incompetence has been astounding.

Yep. Not about the program now, if it ever was, it's about protecting Woodson's feelings.

Exactly what I feared when IU wouldn't sack up and get rid of him.

Nolan Ryan is still alive too. Best living, I'd say it's probably between him and Maddux.

Since RMK was fired IU has done a horrible job of hiring coaches; they fired the one genuinely good coach they had in that time. Even complete imbeciles could've lucked into one good hire in that span, the ineptitude would be kind of impressive if it wasn't so sad.

Exactly. Considering Indiana's record of coaching hires in the last 25 years that's like being the smartest person in special ed.

Hurley? Laughable. Let's set the fact that Hurley won at least 23 games (Woodson's high mark at IU) in 3 of his last 4 years at Rhode Island with a conference win (Woodson hasn't done that). Let's also set aside that he had college experience and his HC career wasn't over like Woodson's was. It's more than results. It's the fact despite being a so called defensive coach the defense has gotten worse every year with him. It's the fact we've continued to see the same problems that got him fired from the Knicks. It's the fact that he was supposed to be a bridge guy but has to rebuild the bridge he himself wrecked. Oh, we just missed another free throw. And gave up another offensive rebound. There's another wide open 3 allowed; but if you look closely you might be able to see an IU player in the same zip code, so progress.

Woodson's head coaching career was over before IU called; there was no demand because he showed he was a crappy coach and they believed it. IU is in the position they're in because of IU. We fired the only good coach we've had in the last 25 years and drag our feet to fire the bad ones. We let standards go and replaced expectations with excuses. We haven't examined the hiring process that's led to lousy coach after lousy coach. We want to get back? Ditch the excuses and set and hold expectations, refuse to lower the standards; it's the coach's job to meet them not lower them to the point he can't fail. And change the hiring process because it clearly doesn't work. If we want to compete with the big boys we have to act like them.