OKHOOSIER

I think what’s most infuriating is assuming there isn’t a handshake deal with Dusty (spoiler alert: there isn’t) we may have just passed up on Bruce F****** Pearl and will watch Dusty go somewhere else. All to watch a team full of new players lose basketball games. I wonder what the NIL looks like. Maybe QB and MW really think it’s like free agency.

Considering he and woody are good friends you might not have to hope, KP might be on the staff.

It’s the only reason we still get national coverage and prime time games. Ever notice not all B1G teams play an early season game aired on BTN+ but we always have a couple? There’s a reason for that. The program doesn’t deserve the fan base. Any other team and a tweet about Woody getting another year would be literally not be published. Woody getting another year as tweeted was the lead on the BTN halftime show of MSU NW.

Maybe Tuesday is another raise and contract extension? I’m mostly kidding.

The fact that Osterman has to tweet something like that with 2 games left runs counter to that. It wasn’t just this board. Regardless, his seat is going to be nuclear from game 1. I feel bad for the players.

Thanks for the explanation. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted him treated that way, it seems deliberately cruel. That said, and I mentioned this like 200 pages ago before you joined lol— I cannot wrap my head around QB or anyone else who genuinely cares for Woody on a deeply personal level thinking it is a good idea. Thats the main confusion for me. Anyone with two eyeballs can see next year will almost certainly be a train wreck. They have not begun to see “toxic fan base” if we have a similar record, much less worse. Unless, of course, Woody knows this and really believes his own excuses, in which case, so be it.. I simply don’t understand it, but I am moron, so there’s that.

Gonna laugh when all the wide open offense we saw the last two games when the seat was “hot” disappears. Foul trouble aside I’m guessing we play two centers again for 25+ minutes. We are not a blue blood, we are not serious, mediocre is the new normal. Get excited every so often making the tournament. I’m disgusted.

Team Mercenary better win a boatload of games. Next year is going to set us back for four if this is true.

When you say screwed, what do you mean? I’ll be honest I don’t remember Woody being even whispered last time, and he wouldn’t have been anywhere on my radar. When the “hire an IU guy” crowd got loud before Archie I assumed the only logical option was Alford if that was what people wanted. In the resident under 40 crowd really my only thoughts about Woody before he was head coach were he took the Hawks to the playoffs and coached Carmelo. Genuinely curious, because as someone who didn’t see when Woody played his hiring felt sooooo far out of left field I didn’t really know what to think, and I am a huge NBA fan as well. Apologies for the stream of consciousness.

While that would suck, it doesn’t move the needle for me the way a B1G team does. And WVU is not a school that scares me if he’s good and we want him. Dusty pummeling us at say Ohio Statr or Michigan is my nightmare.

For me, all that aside, it’s future outlook and recruiting. So I suppose you could file me under roster construction. If we hand landed Boogie, Queen and McNeeley, this entire thread would not exist regardless of the product on the court this year. CMW would 1000% be coming back if we had a top 5 recruiting class with all top-25 recruits. We could overlook the other warts. Instead, we didn’t, and that magnifies them.

I completely agree, I am just saying it doesn’t sound like the pitchforks are out internally in the same way they are externally. And if that’s the case I would imagine it would also be qualified with some extremely stringent regulations. I.E. lower buyout, make tournament at minimum etc to even consider year five. Because for the absolute life of me, I can’t understand why you give home 4 with zero intention of 5. That’s simply not how college recruiting works anymore.

My completely uninformed opinion of whatever meeting they have next week and its theme is going to be the administration encouraging Woody to bow out gracefully and to make him understand how incredibly toxic the job will be for him if they are not immediately improved and winning games. Reading all the tea leaves my guess is they try to talk him out of it, but aren’t willing to fire before a 4th year. Hope I’m wrong but who knows.

We are in agreement on this. I was all in on Pearl last time, but figured our squeaky clean administration would not consider it. I understand Archie had his warts we should have vetted, but on paper it was lauded. No one thought he would fail. I thought Woodson would probably fail from the jump.

Archie was 139-63 with four straight NCAA tournaments and four straight seasons of 24+ wins to include the EE run when we hired him. He was hardly “flavor of the month.” I didn’t like Archie as coach either but this is revisionist history. He was at least talked about in connection to almost every major opening from about 2014 on.

It’s definitely a crazy take. However I think it’s also crazy to believe a random internet stranger has intimate knowledge of the relationship between the Indiana University athletic director and chairman of the board. And is willing to post at all no matter who they are. A BOT member is as good a guess as any lol

“Of course I said no.” I needed that lol, bravo. I nearly choked on my coffee laughing.

It’s so sad I find myself concerned that beating 9-9 Minnesota might have real consequences on whether someone continues coaching basketball at IU. It is Indiana and I am internally struggling with actually rooting for losses to mediocre teams. I want to believe we are not crazy and still a blue blood. I want to believe the banners aren’t too dusty. And yet, we are what we are. And we have to root for losses. I hate it.

I am not going to respond to all your points, but thanks for the reply. That said, my opinion still stands despite the arguments you made. All of the folks you mentioned have treated potential firings at arms length and never this quickly. That was my main point. And some were against the firings right up to the end.

This has always been a weird narrative to me. My thought was always as simple as Woody was a non starter because why would a guy who had no college experience and couldn’t get another HC job in the NBA even be considered for a program like IU.

I don’t disagree, but at the time, I don’t think Archie’s personality was considered a downside. I remember it being “this guy is all basketball and doesn’t suffer the media”. If anything it was painted as a positive trait. Also, and don’t forget, at the time Bennet had UVA absolutely dominating the ACC running pack line defense. It was en vogue. But I agree with you overall.

Archie was almost universally (IU media and nationally) considered a slam dunk hire, he could have gone to a major P5 before the year we hired him. It’s too bad it didn’t work out, but that was not some off the wall swing in the dark. His record at Dayton was elite.

As far as Liam goes I don’t worry about committed recruits as much in the NIL era. Kansas I am sure could make a good offer but this late in the cycle my guess is it wouldn’t be in the ballpark of what the LONE IU recruit is getting. I am sure he would wait to see how the hire went before making a decision. A recruit of his ilk will still have his choice of programs even late. Just my opinion.

If you are close enough to the situation to know the interpersonal relationship between Buckner and Dolson (and I will take you at your word despite this being anonymous internet land), what is your general opinion or knowledge on the narrative that Buckner is protecting Woody, his friend, from getting fired regardless of how bleak next season looks? This has always been a hard one for me being that seemingly Buckner cares/should care about the program first and his friend second. Does he really believe Woody can and should get to rebuild the roster through the portal in year 4? Thanks and welcome!

Yea simply not organic for us (IU media/national). People were calling the fan base insane for wanting to move on from Crean, I remember it vividly. Archie had defenders. To have the entire narrative shift in 48 hours was not a bunch of folks just changing a position they held a week before. We hadn’t won back to back games since cupcakes in December. It wasn’t just some bad late season losses— we’ve had them every season under woody.