BleedCubbieBlue

I guess it really doesn't matter if anyone believed it. It would be a way to save face for a bad hire, not embarrass Woody, and not completely alienate the chair of the Board of Trustees. As long as everyone sticks to the story it is a way to move forward.

I would love to have Pearl as our coach, but I don't know how the AD can sell that. I think it is very easy to sell May. You can go back to Woody's introductory press conference where he said, "we going to bridge the gap between old and new." You can say that it was always the plan for Woody to step aside when we have identified the right candidate to usher in a new era for Indiana basketball. Who better to do that than a young coach who grew up in Indiana, went to IU, and worked under Bob Knight and Mike Davis. That is an easy story to sell that allows Woody and the administration to save face. If they bring in Pearl, I don't know how you sell that as anything other than Woody didn't get the job done and Indiana is willing to eat their own.

Ok, I have to do it. If FAU makes it to the E8...

Between Mike Woodson and Armond Hill this already looks like a bad stage version of Weekend at Bernie's. If we roll with this crew for another 7 years it is going to look more like The Walking Dead.

Come on Chris. Everybody knows that only Dusty's "terrible losses" are valid "data". Everybody also knows that the greatest predictor of future Div. 1 NCAA Basketball success is prior Div. 2 NCAA Basketball success.

I see multiple comments from you that there are better options and that we should wait for those better options, but I haven't found a post where you articulate what those better options are or why we should wait on them.

There you go again. Wait for what? Brad Stevens? Billy Donovan? Jay Wright?

I wonder if Purdue wins the tourney this year (I know, I vomited in my mouth just typing that), would that give IU the kick in the pants needed to try and turn our basketball program around?

If you have explained it I have not seen it. So I will ask again. Who are these "better options" and why do we have to wait for them?

Who are these "better options" and why do we have to wait for them?

I can't think of anything more stable than A TEAM of mercenaries.

I agree. I would argue that we actually have a better chance of rebuilding through the portal with a new coach that actually plays a modern style of basketball than we do bringing back Lobby McPosterson.

VCU (Shaka Smart)

By that logic, we should hire OJ Simpson as our football coach.

There is a far cry from being involved in some basketball recruiting dirt and laying hands on a woman. People need to stop acting like they are equivalent.

Breaking the rules and beating the **** out of your wife are two different things. Hire Sampson, Self, Pearl, Calipari, Pitino, or any other shady-@$$ coach who broke the rules of basketball, but hiring Beard is a different thing and we have to stop pretending like it isn’t.

I don’t care if it is Tommy Lloyd or any other winning coach. You admitted that Lloyd would come here if we offered $10M a year and I suspect that other top coaches would do the same. So offer top money and get a top coach.

I am going to use the fact that they tried to pay top money to Stevens as proof that they actually want to win. I will admit hiring Woodson was a terrible pivot from an otherwise good strategy, but they have the opportunity to rectify that situation with the next hire.

You don’t know who will and won’t come here. Paying top money for a coach demonstrates that you are serious about winning. Holding that coach accountable for the results on the court reinforces that message.

You don’t know that IU doesn’t have $10M a year to offer, but thank you for proving my point. If we are serious about winning, we offer big money and expect results commiserate with the money we are offering. I know the idea of paying for performance is a crazy idea, but it just might be crazy enough to work.

Are you Tommy Lloyd? If the answer is “no”, then you don’t really know what he would do.

Everybody seems to know where every coach in college basketball will and won’t go. How is that? I have said it before and I will say it again. Offer $10M a year, demand excellence.

I think there is probably a middle ground here. Maybe we hire a proven coach that doesn’t have Beard’s baggage.

I don’t know why we make this harder than it needs to be. If we are serious about winning throw out a salary of $10M a year. Demand that the basketball program pisses excellence and tell everyone to grab a cup. If you can’t deliver, you are gone. Pay for excellence, demand excellence, settle for nothing else. This isn’t a fu€king charity, it is a meritocracy.

Do we have a thread for IU in-game betting strategy? This team is so predictable they are printing money.