Hoosierfan2017

Pearl’s age is the only concern I have with him, but I don’t have too big of a concern about it. Our last five coaches have coached for: Davis - 6 years Sampson - 2 years Crean - 9 years Miller - 4 years Woodson - 3 years Average of 4.8 years. If you take Sampson out since he was fired for reasons unrelated to on-court performance, it’s 5.5 years. Pearl could definitely give us at least that long. Ideally you want to find a long-term option, but I think the likelihood of doing that is higher after a successful Pearl stint than it would be after this year when the program is in disarray.

Winners win. The best predictor of future success is past results. Bruce Pearl is a winner. He’s coached 29 seasons. Won 72% of his games during that span. He’s coached at four schools and won all at four of them, leveling up in difficulty as he’s advanced. D2 national championship at USI, and at least 1 sweet 16 appearance at each of his other three schools. Nothing in life is guaranteed. But Bruce Pearl succeeding at IU is as close to a guarantee as you can get when picking a coach. If he can’t win at IU when he’s won everywhere else, we’d really need to question if anyone can.

He also had a winning conference record in each of his first 18 seasons before going 8-8 in his last year at Tennessee. In 29 years as a head coach, he’s only had 4 losing conference records. 3 of those were his first three years at Auburn. Advancing in the tournament is important obviously, but it’s just one part of being a successful program.

What? You’re the one who brought up “first five years” when you said “Nothing beyond the Sweet 16 until year 5 at his P5 stops is “killing it?” after I demonstrated that he won immediately at USI, Milwaukee, and Tennessee. The only school he didn’t win immediately at was auburn, and they’re a terrible basketball school historically. 8 appearances in school history before Pearl came. This is what he did at his first 3 stops in his first two seasons (is that immediate enough for you?) USI: Year 1: 22-7, 14-4, D2 regional third place Year 2: 28-4, 16-2, D2 runner up Milwaukee: Year 1: 16-13, 11-5 Year 2: 24-8, 13-3, first tournament appearance in school history Tennessee: Year 1: 22-8, 12-4, round of 32 Year 2: 24-11, 10-6, sweet 16 In his third season at these schools, he (a) won a D2 national championship; (b) won his school’s first Horizon League regular season title; and (c) went 31-5, won the SEC, and made the sweet 16. IU hasn’t won 31 games in a season since 1993. If folks want to take a risk on a mid-major guy at a time when the program is on life support, that’s their prerogative. I’m going with Bruce Pearl every day of the week. 7-8 years of Bruce Pearl at IU with NIL and the transfer portal would have IU exactly where the fanbase wants it to be.

Now you’re moving the goal posts because your initial take was dead wrong. Compared to what IU has done? Hell yeah it’s killing it. We’ve gone to 4 sweet 16s in the past 30 years. And there’s still zero comparison to Dusty May. He’s gone to 1 tournament in his life. You really going to sit there and say IU fans wouldn’t consider a coach to be killing it if he came to IU and went: 22-8; 12-4 (round of 32) 24-11; 10-6 (sweet 16) 31-5; 14-2 (sweet 16) 21-13; 10-6 (round of 64) 28-9; 11-5 (elite 8) in his first 5 seasons? Let’s be for real here.

The chances are near zero, but that’s still much higher than the chances of Mike Woodson being the answer.

I mean, that just isn’t true at all, lol. He started out at USI. D2 runner up in year 2. D2 champions in year 3. For all the talk about how Dusty “built a program out of nothing, Milwaukee had zero tournament appearances in school history before Pearl took over. Goes 11-5 in the conference his first year ( better than any of Dusty’s first four seasons ). Makes the tournament his second season. Wins his conference in years 3 and 4. Goes to the sweet 16 in year 4. Follows that up by killing it immediately at Tennessee. 12-4 in the SEC in year 1. Sweet 16 in year 2. 31 wins in year 3 and another sweet 16. 3 sweet 16s in his first 5 years, an elite 8 and 6 straight tournament appearances. There is absolutely zero comparison between Peal and May. Pearl has won and won big everywhere he’s been for 25+ years.

I’d much rather watch Pearl come win immediately than wait 3-4 years for Dusty May to figure things out at a P5 school.

From the effort they play with, it seems they care more about literally anything than they do basketball.

Our basketball program is the only pathetic thing here.

The people who paid for this year’s team certainly didn’t spend their money wisely. That's for sure. And yes, most. Just go back and look at the reactions when he was hired. It was one big collective WTF. You had some sunshine pumpers who tried telling us that hiring a 63 year with zero college basketball experience and no head coaching experience in nearly a decade was a great idea, but most people weren’t buying it. Take a look for yourself:

Mike Woodson definitely didn’t look good on paper and most expected him to crap his pants

Everyone involved with the Mike Woodson hire should be fired. Idk how anyone in their right ever thought it would work out.

Social media is 100% more effective than emails Dolson will neither see nor read.

There’s no way you can bring him back next season.

Crean had lots of good guards. Hulls, Blackmon, Rojo, Maurice Creek (before the injuries), Zeisloft. All those guys were 40% or higher from 3.

Penn State with 4 straight wins against IU lmao.

Disgraceful. Team deserves to play in front of covid crowds the rest of the season.

This made me look them up online and it made me nostalgic for Bloomington lol. Have they always closed at 8:00 on weekdays and 9:00 on weekends? I could’ve sworn they were open later then that.

I cannot stand this guy. I never want to hear the name Mike Woodson again after this season.

Nothing iubb-related pisses me off more and makes me want to support the team less than the ‘blame the fans’ take. The fanbase is the only good thing this pathetic program has left.

He’s already there actually lol. 27-28

This would be the worst case scenario because it would ensure another season of Mike Woodson ‘basketball.’

If you need nuance to sell a coaching hire, you’re fighting an uphill battle.

It’s already mostly gone, imo. Fans are pretty sick of him. But it could be fixed with time. If he comes back for another year though, he will completely destroy his IU legacy.