Magnanimous

During our last few coaching searches I have casually, half-heartedly, and with some curiosity, thrown this guy’s name around as someone to consider as a wildcard coaching candidate. He was incredibly dominant at the D-2 level with a .800 winning percentage and won four national championships. He’s also young, only being 43. Naturally, most people on this board scoffed at the idea. Division 1, let alone Indiana, is a whole other animal than coaching D-2; he needs to prove himself elsewhere first; if we’re going with a lower-level coach then it needs to be Michael Lewis because “he gets Indiana basketball”; etc. It made sense to be dismissive at the time, but I remained intrigued. Anyway, Drake finally pried him away this season, so we’re now getting a chance to see him coach in the Missouri Valley Conference, but with this still being pre-conference basketball he hasn’t been coaching against MVC teams. Instead he’s 6-0 already and racked up double digit wins over Miami and Vanderbilt. I know our season is just getting going, but assuming we continue to see the results we’re expecting out of Woodson, I hope that we seriously keep an eye on this guy as an actual coaching candidate. He’s going to get his chance at a P5 program very soon at this rate, and if Cig’s success at football shows us anything it’s that maybe it’s the unconventional guy from a smaller school who consistently wins that we’re looking for. Here’s his wiki page if you want to see his resume. That head coaching record section is something else - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_McCollum

Random thought, if McCollum retired from coaching this season would he make the Basketball Hall of Fame (as a coach)? There are several D2 coaches who have been inducted, Herb Magee and Clarence Gaines, for example. McCollum’s D2 success surpasses both of theirs.

Gene Hackman, and unfortunately his wife and dog, were just found deceased in their New Mexico home. The circumstances of that obviously raise some eyebrows, possibly carbon monoxide poisoning, but he also was 95 years old. One of the best actors from the late 60s through the 90s, we all know him as coach Norman Dale in Hoosiers. A movie made by one of our own, Angelo Pizzo, Hoosiers was the perfect complement to Bobby Knight’s glory days and was a national treasure among sports enthusiasts at the time. It’s an annual tradition of mine to watch this movie the night before our season begins, gets me excited more than any Hoosier Hysteria ever could. Thanks for the great career of movies, Gene, and for your personal contribution to the Indiana basketball mythos.

I agree that our roster is a mess. We still may win a NC with them this year, but we’re probably looking at a big turnover this offseason.

(Close enough)

I was about to respond to this sarcastically with “But has he ever beaten Henry Iba?” Then I looked up Henry Iba’s biography, and coincidentally he too coached at NW Missouri State, coached one year at D1 (Colorado) before going to Oklahoma State. Interesting…

But which in my top 10 should they replace?

Open Range is borderline “and others.” Ox Bow Incident was mentioned, and that’s a great one. Have not seen The Great Silence yet but it’s been on my list for some time.

Let’s debate something we can actually resolve before the NCAAT, since no one on this board, the interwebs, or the outer sphere has a “con-flabbin” clue who the next coach will be or has an actual say in any of this. So…top 10 Westerns: 1) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 2) The Searchers 3) Once Upon a Time in the West 4) Stagecoach 5) Django Unchained 6) Shane 7) The Outlaw Josey Wales 8) Rio Bravo 9) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 10) The Magnificent Seven Now tell me why Unforgiven, either True Grit, the rest of the Dollars trilogy, Tombstone, The Wild Bunch, Ben McCollum and the Sundance Kid, High Noon, Blazing Saddles (or others) should replace anything on this list.

Because they locked the Ben McCollum thread I created four years ago. That could’ve lived on as a Ben McCollum watch party, fan club, and central clearing house for custom Ben McCollum t-shirts and coffee mugs, awareness for when he is in town for book signings and starting his own tequila brand, etc.

How far would McCollum have to go in the NCAAT this year to assuage the concerns of those who think he can’t hack it?

Pitino stunk in the Big Ten? IU shouldn’t be hiring guys that washed out at Minnesota just a few years ago? I get you don’t like the idea of hiring McCollum right now, and logically there are other guys with D2 and/or MVC success you could both make an argument for and against, but continuing to throw Pitino Jr’s name out there really hurts your argument in these discussions. The guy wouldn’t be a candidate at most Big Ten schools right now, so why should he be for IU?

All the great (“big name”) coaches have left college basketball or are about to croak.

The hypo was with our current roster. Since we don’t even have a system this season I find it hard to believe we’d by significantly worse if these players had to run one.

What do folks think our record would be if McCollum was coaching us this year?

Mark Few isn’t coming here…

Dunkin’ over Tim Hortons! LFG!

Can I hijack this thread to talk about overtime in the Four Nation Faceoff championship? It’ll kill a few minutes until the next rumor.

I think the biggest question mark was him being compelled to go after Romeo Langford, who wasn’t a fit anywhere…

Tried to take a picture of 1975 IUBB vs Illinois. For a moment I thought this was K, but other shots indicated it was someone else. I don’t know if K was on the sideline right next to Knight during games…

They’re both wearing red, but I’m not sure of the context or caption…

His initials are “B. McC.”