KYHoosier

McCasland is an impressive coach, but he's from TX, went to college in TX, and has coached all but 1 season in TX, who knows if he wouldve even come to IU if offered. No way Scott Drew was coming to IU no matter how much we offered him. IU was never going to touch a coach with baggage, but Will Wade or Beard would've been bigger hires (I personally would've liked Wade) and likely would've won a lot of games I feel our list of actual candidates was much smaller than we all realized..

Not that I disagree that the hire is a little underwhelming, but curious who you would've hired? I think 90% of the names that were mentioned on here were not actual candidates. Top coaches aren't leaving their establish programs anymore even if they aren't at "blueblood" programs. DeVries seems to be cut from the same mold as Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey's of the world. I think he can be successful here

Bringing back Woodson for a 4th year and not hiring Dusty May will go down as an all time bad move by this program. Completely inexcusable

If it is really down to Brownell, we should just hire Will Wade or Chris Beard and not worry about the optics.

Imagine if we would've just fired Woodson last year and hired Dusty May....

Sounds like to me Dolson may have a verbal agreement with someone already to be our next HC (which would be a great sign) If he were to have been rejected by multiple candidates, then he would be reaching out to multiple agents to gauge interest in if their client would have interest to become next HC at IU. There are too many people in that communication chain for nothing to be leaked out. We haven't really heard any official names or anyone turn the job down at this point. I don't see him waiting until the end of the season to starting lining up the succession plan. He will want the next HC to be announced as early as possible so they can start recruiting and preparing for the portal. To me this shows he has been working on this undercover and not involving too many people. If he has an agreement already, then we must have gotten one of our top targets , if not, the top target. Dolson is not dumb, I trust his ability to find the right fit for IU.

Not sure I understand the Scott Drew displeasure. Is he Brad Stevens, absolutely not. Would I rather have Dusty May? Probably. You can't argue the fact that he's won a NC, was the top 1-2 targets for both UofL and UK last cycle, and would provide us instant name recognition as HC. We could do way worse, and we have

Stevens to me is a pipe dream as much as I would love to have him. I was a little skeptical how Dusty would adjust to high D1 basketball, but he has done a great job and would be a home run hire. I hope we can still land him. I'm at the point that if we miss out on these two, that we can still land a coach that can be successful here. We have the resources. What we have endured the past 8 years with Archie and Woodson, I can't fathom we can do much worse than that. It is fun to talk about Banner 6, but the reality is that we are further away from a title as we have ever been. I wasn't a Crean guy, but I do miss watching teams that were fun to watch and were nationally relevant. I really don't care who we hire. I just want a coach that who has some fire to him, understands game management, values tough teams, can keep us consistently in the top 25, and someone who we believe has the opportunity to take us on a ran come March. Im tired of watching bad, disinterested teams. I'm ready to enjoy IU basketball again.

I hope you are right that he does not make it through the rest of the season. It would be nice to official close this era and start the process of rebuilding. I guess I don’t see us moving on from him. He should have been fired at the end of the last season but we brought him back. This season is another wasted year and this team isn’t going on a miracle run. He’s been protected by the administration his entire tenure. I guess I don’t see the purpose of moving on now when we have already wasted over 3+ years with him as HC. Like I said, I hope you are right that he is gone before the season is over

The entire basketball program needs to be overhauled. I like Hulls, Walsh, and Cliff, but everyone outside of Garl needs to be let go. We have to get rid of the losing culture and mediocrity that has been established by the last two head coaches. They will not fire Woody before the season is over, but I what they should do is announce soon that he will retire at the end of the season. That helps protect his image, ease the frustration of the fan base, and allow these players to go out and play loose. It seems obvious and I’m sure it is to Dolson, but Woody seems arrogant enough to fight against a plan like this. I truly believe he thinks he is doing a fine job. I’m glad his time as our coach is nearing an end.

Who cares who the interim HC would be. We suck, who cares if we suck the rest of the season. We’ve been a terrible program for a decade. We did the unthinkable when we hired Woodson, then doubled down and upped his contract after 1 season as if another program was going to poach him. No college bball program would hire him, what does that tell you about him as a coach? Firing Woodson sends a message to the fan base that a change is coming and that the administration agrees that the standard for IU basketball has not been met and the current performance is subpar. I think all fans would put their anger aside for the future of the program if he is let go mid season. If he isn’t, then things will continue to get uglier and uglier because resentment and anger will continue to worsen. Last night was just the tip of the iceberg if the season continues to head in this direction with him at the helm.

I agree that the list sucks but we need to be realistic. Is May going to leave Michigan? I don’t think so. We had our chance to get him last offseason but Buckner decided to prove a point to our fan base by retaining Woody. Pearls not leaving Auburn so don’t get your hopes up. We haven’t been good in a decade, are we really expecting people are going to be lining up to come here to coach?

I’ve completely stopped watching IU basketball and won’t support the program for as long as Mike Woodson is the coach. He’s so pathetic and the fact we’ve had to put up with him for 4 years shows how unserious we are. I can’t wait for him to get fired. I am looking forward to the next hire and having someone new at the helm. Who would be our realistic candidates? Micah Shrewsberry, Mick Cronin, Chris Mack? Who else

Let it burn Feel bad for the fans wasting their money, year in and year out, traveling to these neutral site games to watch IU get their @$$ kicked.

Curt Cignetti is showing what happens when you hire the right guy at a place like IU. Glad they paid him. Wish they would make another strong move and hire a great college BBall coach

You aren't a serious program until you hire a serious coach. UK will spend whatever amount to ensure they are landing another rising, high-level coach. It's what good programs do. You can throw as much money into the NIL, facilities, etc. but that will only get you so far. That's what doesn't make sense to me about IU investing all this money into Woodson when he clearly isn't the right guy.

If he is such a bad coach, why do you think UK stuck with him for another year if there are so many better options out there? Don't tell me the 33 million dollar buyout as it was reported they could find the funds to do so if that's the direction they decided to go

Don't disagree he has underperformed in the tournament the last few years at UK and should have more titles than he has produced with the players he has had, but year in and year out he gives you the opportunity every year to win a national championship. Not many coaches give you that chance. Being a HC is about promoting your brand, recruiting, developing talent, and winning games. He's been pretty successful at all of those his whole career. Not sure Woody is good at any of them honestly. UK would never put up with Mike Woodson, but the bar has been lowered so much at IU, our admin doesn't seem to care.

There’s no way you actually believe this. I’m no UK fan but Calipari is 10x the coach Woody ever thought about being. It’s not even close honestly

This staff has no sense of direction in constructing a roster. They are just attempting to land the highest ranted recruits regardless of how they fit or what role they play for the team. This team desperately needs perimeter shooting but it doesn't appear we are targeting enough of these players, and I won't be surprised if we are still a poor 3 point shooting team next year. The reason why Purdue has been so successful, is that Painter has identified his style and recruits players who will fill certain roles. He targets a 7'0" big man and surrounds them with perimeter shooting. Constructing a roster and building a good team becomes much harder when there is 0 planning. IU shouldn't have this much trouble especially with all the NIL money they have.

Crazy to think what a competent coach at IU (Bruce Pearl) could do if they had that cash to spend… never will understand why boosters are willing to spend so much supporting a guy who is clearly not the answer instead of ponying that money up to go get a high level coach

Seems like if you are only targeting 3 coaches and 1 of them has said no multiple times that leaves you with 2 options (Pearl and May). Not moving on from Woodson this year will prevent you from getting May, if he is your guy. Not moving on from Woodson, is one less year that you could have Pearl. Next year will be a wasted year.

Any idea who the third person is? I agree that only identifying or targeting 3 candidates seems like we are not casting a wide enough net. This seems to be a recurring issue IU has when targeting new head coaches.

I supported the firing of Crean because he was too inconsistent and seemed to be burning bridges with the HS coaches in Indiana. I think majority of fans would agree that the Crean years were light years ahead from where we have been for the past 7 years and especially where we are now. Crean won 2 big ten titles in 4 years and was fired. We have not been remotely close to that level of success since he left. It seemed like when IU fired him, they were ready to take the next step at re-establishing themselves as an elite program. The Archie Miller hire made sense, and I thought Archie would have way more success than he did and was genuinely surprised how poorly his tenure was. However, when Archie was fired and IU hired Mike Woodson it was truly head scratching. After the past 3 years of Mike Woodson, it seems like the standard for success of IU basketball is now simply making the NCAA Tournament. Bringing Woodson back for another year seems like the university has given up on ever making IU basketball elite because everyone knows Woodson is not the answer. I cannot understand where there is not more urgency in doing what it takes to restore IU basketball. IU has the history, fan support, donor support for NIL, facilities, and the national exposure to be an elite program. It shouldn't be as hard as it has been for IU to find the right coach with all the resources they have at their disposal.

@KathywithaC I know there have been reports of Woodson getting another year. With Liam decommitting, if the last two games go poorly, and there is mass exodus of players that go into the portal, will there be any discussion or change in decision in bringing Woodson back? Or does the university simply not care and is ok with allowing next year to be a complete embarrassment?