Hoosierfan2017

Let’s be for real guys. Drew would be an absolute grand slam. He took Baylor over after a literal murder scandal. One of the harshest non-death penalty punishments ever issued. After his first four seasons, he’s won 70% of his games over the past 18 years in a P5 conference at a school that had four NCAA tournament appearances in its history before he got there. We should be over the moon at the possibility of landing him.

Zeller went to a basketball game so some leaped to the only reasonable explanation, I.e., that Brad Stevens is our new coach and Cody Zeller was scouting in his capacity as Brad’s soon to be GM.. Lol

The only person telling other people how to post is you. You tried policing the Fire Woodson thread for months because you didn’t like what people were saying, and now you’re trying to do the same thing here.

Wahhhh

Except not actually a pastor… Cant hire Drew because he’s too religious. Who does that leave?

Drew, McCasland, Pearl

Cronin would get IU back to a place it really hasn’t been in my 30 year lifetime. Hes not my top choice, but we can (and likely will, imo) do a whole lot worse.

I won’t pretend to be an ISU historian, but they were a solid program the decade before Otz got there. Between 2012 and 2019 they went to the tournament 7 of 8 years. Won the Big 12 conference tournament 4 times. ISU isn’t UCLA historically, but it’s not Siberia either. Not even saying that Cronin is the better candidate, just that I don’t understand why some view Otz as a grand slam while they view Cronin as a single at best.

Otz is 47 and Cronin is 53. The age gap isn’t huge. Otz is 4-5 in the NCAA tournament while Cronin is 15-14, including 8-3 at UCLA. Otz is winning 68.9% of his games and 57.1% of his conference games and ISU while Cronin is winning 68.7% and 69% of his conference games. How does this equal Otz “winning big” but Cronin “sorta doing ok”?

What makes Otz a better candidate than Cronin?

He’s talking about Pitino

Purdue has three Indiana kids averaging 30+ minutes and a couple more in their rotation. I’m not a “only recruit Indiana kids” guy, but it’s a lot easier to convince in-state kids to come to a struggling IU program than it is kids outside the state. It can also help build a culture as a program.

I’m not even saying McCollum can’t cut it at this level. All I’m saying is that he’s a huge risk at a time IU can’t afford to miss on the next coach. Maybe McCollum goes to Iowa and does well. That only matters if the guy we hire is a dud. Louisville fans aren’t moping about Dusty May. They’re happy with their guy who has them 21-6 and 14-2 in the ACC.

I don’t care if he’s won 40 D2 national titles. He’s never experienced anything like running a program like IU basketball and everything it entails. The Cignetti comparison completely falls apart when you compare their backgrounds. There’s no reason for IU basketball to need to take such a big risk.

Curt Cignetti was a quarterback at West Virginia, a graduate assistant there, a D1 assistant for 25 years, and a P5 assistant for nearly 20 years before his head coaching tenure. His P5 assistant experience included four years at an obscure school named the University of Alabama for some guy they call Nick Saban. Their backgrounds are vastly different. Cignetti had 2+ decades seeing the FBS apparatus and recruited some of the best players in the country during his time at Alabama. He coached Philip Rivers. He recruited Russell Wilson to NC State. And that’s before you get into the huge differences between IU basketball and IU football as programs.

1965-1971 college basketball isn’t remotely comparable to the current atmosphere. And Knight made the NIT four times in six years when the NIT actually meant something, making the semifinals 3 times.

You’re not wrong. But a guy who’s made the tournament fewer times over his 15 year Clemson career than mediocre IU over the same period isn’t going to inspire confidence in anyone. Coaching is the only thing holding the program back.

It’s completely illogical to say the 53 year old winning 69% of his games at UCLA with 3 sweet 16s and 1 final four in the past four season has “peaked at B tier” but the dude with less than 1 year of coaching experience in D1 basketball “could be the next A tier coach.” He has quite literally never experienced anything like the high stakes fishbowl that is IU basketball or even anything close to P5 basketball. This time last year he was coaching a D2 school in a 2,500 person gym.

Which realistic coaches have better bodies of work than Cronin?

Tom Crean - 56.8% career winning percentage Mick Cronin - 68.3% career winning percentage What is hard to understand about the fact that Crean’s highs weren’t what got him fired, if was his inconsistency/lows? If Tom Crean had 15 years at IU that Cronin has had at Cincy/UCLA he would absolutely still be the head coach. 13/14 (14/15 counting the covid year) tournaments, zero seasons with a losing conference record, 1 season with more than 12 losses versus 7 seasons with single-digit losses. The Crean comparison is lazy and frankly makes no sense.

Why would Cronin produce similar results to Crean when he hasn’t for the past 15 years? Crean’s last four years at IU he went 17-15, 20-14, 27-8, and 18-16. Cronin has lost more than 12 games in a season once in the last 15 seasons. I guess he’s Crean if you make Crean’s bad seasons better and his good seasons just as good or better.

The current iteration of UCLA is better than any iteration of IU this century. If we don’t think Cronin can win at IU when he’s done well at both Cincinnati and UCLA, why would we think a coach who’s a complete unknown at this level would do better? It makes zero sense to me.

Drake went 28-7 last year and 27-8 the year before. It’s not like he stepped into a wasteland of a program. He’s in his first year in D1. How many top 25 teams has he even played at this point? Isn’t his team also the slowest paced team in the entire country? Cronin has won 69% of his games overall as well as 69% of his conference games at UCLA. He’s been to the sweet 16 or better 3 of the last 4 years. Even if McCollum doesn’t flop at the P5 level, what are the odds he delivers better results than that? He’s an absolutely huge risk that IU shouldn’t have to take.

And how much will it cost to buy McCollum out four years from now if he can’t cut it in the Big 10? If we’re at the point where hiring a McCollum or a Brownell is even an option then IU should shut the basketball program down entirely and give everything to football.

If our goal is to be Purdue we have a looong way to go to get there.