IUrocker

At this point I’m hoping someone with money is like guess what Mike, you’re not as cool as you think you are…and lay the money on the table to get him out, haha… …but then he may have the last laugh trying to shove all the money in his pockets…

Yeah I see that as another excuse in my opinion. I just don’t see any way he thought JHS wasn’t gonna be gone after one year. Like you said, even before he played a game for IU it seemed pretty known that the plan for him was to be gone. We spent a lot of time during the season talking about how we wish he wasn’t going to be. Shoot, I was blindsided by him saying he thought JHS was still gonna be around…

I wonder if we have any players on the roster who at this point would only want to return if Woodson was gone, and if so, whether they would cause Dolson to try to get the move done if he knows we can keep key pieces together with a new coach…..or if it’s quite the opposite and we have players who won’t want to come back if Woodson is let go.

well dang I guess I know my wife is on the same page…

This could just be me and taking it the wrong way, but he’s kinda starting to feel very “I call the shots and if Mike Woodson wants to stay then Mike Woodson is gonna stay”, and it’s starting to rub me the wrong way. You can tell he’s hearing the displeasure from people and he’s responding with a “welp, too bad, get over it” mentality.

So now at this point I wonder if there’s anything that could happen with this season that would make him be fine with just not taking the 4th year even though he knows he’d be able to have it if he wants it…..or if there’s no way he’d entertain that thought process and just want to try to prove this year was some sort of fluke.

Yeah he seems to be trying extra hard lately (even more so than normal) to make it look like things aren’t his fault. Saying players were awful, it’s not him out there shooting free throws and shooting threes, etc. Just not a good look.

Mike Woodson on his coaches show a few minutes ago “I’m a realist, man. I mean I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve seen good and bad teams, and it ain’t time to panic, you know, we’ve just got to continue to work and see where it leads us.”

Yep that’s what I’m afraid of.

I really hope Dolson and the administration are smart enough and have the mindset that this isn’t a matter of “well Coach Woodson just needs to bring in a new set of players in the portal to get this fixed.” I’m sure that’s what Woodson is obviously going to try to sell to Dolson if he wants to come back next year. Im seeing a lot more stuff on social media now of Woodson throwing players under the bus and how people are pointing out that it’s getting pretty ridiculous. Just a big ‘ol waste of time to me to build a whole new team with Woodson if we can get a new coach to do the exact same thing with better results. The feel around the games and the team really does seem to be odd lately. If I remember correctly, same thing kind of happened with Archie towards end of his last season. Wheels falling off, mood and demeanor of coaches/players seemed odd, people wanting Archie gone, yet word was he was getting another year and that we were gonna have to go through another season of it…then once season ended, boom, was announced we were moving on. Now I understand that getting rid of Archie when we did, and getting rid of Mike Woodson now are going to be different in the sense of who they are and whatnot (which I don’t think should matter…if Woodson is failing then who cares that he was a former player..nothing against who he is as a player and person), but yeah, just feels like the same thing kinda going on towards the end of Archie’s last season and this one. I could be misremembering though. Also, the whole apathy thing, I agree, as guilty of it myself, and it’s quite sad. I couldn’t WAIT til IU had a game. Family, friends, IU basketball. Now, I know when they have games, but don’t care if I miss it. I don’t want that.

I’m really hoping if Quinn, Woodson and Dolson sit down to talk it’s to say hey listen, we need to get this thing handed off to this guy waiting on the other side of this damn bridge, but I’ll do you a solid and we can come up with a way to make this look like you’ve done what we needed you to do for the program and are gracefully riding off into the sunset so the new guy can finish what your tried to start.

I guess I understand wanting to see Dusty get so far in the tournament and if he gets to like E8 or whatever then we should make a move…but are people really not gonna want him anymore if he doesn’t make it that far? I’m of the opinion that it’s really not gonna matter that much to me if he makes it that far in the tournament. Doesn’t that have nothing to do with what he’s able to do at IU with our resources that we are currently seeing Woodson not be able/willing to do? Like I said, I understand that it makes him look really good if he makes it far in the tournament and kinda gives a sense of reassurance to his abilities, but if he only happens to make it to the round of 32 this year it’s not gonna make me think he shouldn’t replace Mike Woodson.

Right that definitely makes sense….would just rather you say “yeah, it means he’s gone after this season” haha

Does make me wonder though…would IU putting out these feelers mean their plan is to for sure make a move after this season, or would they still make this step planning to have Woodson another year?

So, this already obviously looking to be a very good point and is being acted upon.

Well after seeing his message, for me, that’s not the only thing moving lol

Singling out the great point of the bold part, and it’s how I see it as well. Those things rolled into one should seem like something that makes it even easier to transition to a new coach. Gonna need a new handful of players anyways, and only have ONE recruit onboard for the future, who a new coach could even talk into staying. There’s really not much set up for next year that we’re gonna be like “well crap, we’re gonna miss out on all that if we make a change”.

Yep for sure..at this point I guess we gotta sit around and hope Dolson isn’t too late making the move and have next year turn out like this one. My fear is he having the mindset of “let’s give him another year to turn this around before we let him go and hand it off to the next guy”…because I see NO point in that at all.

I hope Dolson sees no need to try to rebuild with a bridge coach. Go out and get your guy before someone else does and let HIM rebuild the thing. I just think it’s so pointless at this stage with how Woodson has done and how he’s done it to have him be the guy to try to piece back together a team for next year if we end up needing 5-7 guys in the portal. Get the new coach in here to do that and get the ball rolling for the long term.

I wonder if new President Whitten, knowing she’s really into sports and their success, would lean more towards making sure we tie up or next guy sooner than later if Dolson hints towards anything relating to making a move and not risking losing out on guys to other openings? I’d like to think she’s plugged into things such as Ohio State making the move, etc. Would she be someone more on Buckner side of things who wants to keep his buddy, or can having her now kind of give people who want the change more confidence that it could happen?

Haha, I’m like that too. Difference with this one is, Woodson’s not the guy long term to be getting us where we need to be and be set for a long period of time. It’d be different with a younger guy who acted like he gave a crap about what was going on. Knowing he was brought in to try to just kinda be a bridge guy anyways, it’s like so what if we we make the move “a year early” if we know who we want to replace him. What’s the point of giving him “one more year” if we have to make a change anyways? At this point I don’t care about giving Woodson a chance to right the ship, and that has nothing to do with him as a person. I think he’s great and appreciate everything he’s attempted to do for the program. If the new guy we need can get portal guys just as much as Woodson can then I don’t wanna have to delay the future. He says stuff like he shouldn’t have to answer to the fans but then has also said “I just hope the fans still love me”. I think him turning the keys over to the next guy will get the fans to love him a whole heck of a lot more than trying to put up with his stubborn ego of thinking it needs to be his way to get it turned around, because we’ve seen so far that it’s not gonna work.

Makes sense to me. I mentioned yesterday that I wouldn’t doubt if the move Ohio State made had to have somehow gotten the wheels spinning in Dolson’s head, or at least I’d hope it did. If he thinks there’s a chance Ohio State tries to get someone he wants to take Woodson’s spot then hopefully he’s ready to act on that. I could still see OSU going in a different direction than May because of the other names that have been mentioned though. If Dolson and May have already discussed the possibility of him taking over for Woodson, which, that’s a maybe/maybe not, then May could turn down Ohio State and then they obviously end up going with one of the others mentioned on the list of possibilities…and let’s say OSU does indeed go after May and he declines…they’d probably not even mention/admit that and just say that they got their #1 guy they went after.

Haha well shucks, I guess I’ll put it out there that it’s not true….maybe I just worded the text differently! lol

Dolson’s texts to Dusty May: Hey, so you’re telling Ohio State no and still on board with us right? Ok cool just making sure. I’ll let you know soon enough whether we need you this spring or not til next. Sit tight, thanks.