Magisterium

I suspect some of the Trustees care little about basketball and would vote whatever way their Chair "suggests"

it would be fascinating, in a masochistic kind of way, if May went to Ohio State and Drew went to Louisville. Yikes...the BOT might have to request a "waiver" from the state legislature so they can (at least temporarily) meet in private

almost seems like destiny, doesn’t it?

I wasn’t going to post this but I might as well now: my (imaginary) sources tell me Steve Kerr has grown tired of the NBA grind and may be thinking about coaching at the college level. I think we can all probably connect the (fake) dots here….vbg

I wonder what kind of house you can buy in central Pennsylvania with $15 million

So Brad and Billy have finally come to their senses? Awesome

Woodson’s original contract was 6 years @ $3 million a year. I don’t think the $1 million annual raise included an extension of the contract’s overall length, but iirc it did extend the length of the “100% guaranteed” term of the buyout by an additional year.

You can build up recruiting chops immediately by hiring the right assistants. Judging from the FAU roster, May’s staff already recruits all over the country and even internationally. And the addition of someone like a guy I previously mentioned (Matt Graves) could get May immediately up to speed in terms of in-state recruiting. Oh well. Still doubt any of it matters, at least in this postseason. Maybe the most we can realistically hope for is that guys like May and Schertz stay put for another year.

You may feel that way but I strongly suspect most recruits and their parents would disagree with you

I wonder if Bill Self stayed in touch with Liam after LM signed

It’s not a question of obligations, it’s a question of public relations. If IU were to lose out and then refuse to release McNeeley if he requested it, imo that would damage IU’s reputation even more than it already is. It would be a terrible look for a program that’s already struggling.

IIRC Woodson wanted the job when Glass fired Crean and hired Miller. If so, perhaps Woodson and Buckner saw in 2021 an opportunity to “fix” or “correct” what they feel was an oversight by Glass in 2017.

In this (unlikely) scenario my recommendation for the “last guy” might be Matt Graves, the Assoc. HC for Schertz at ISU. Formerly coached at Xavier and Evansville and was Assoc HC at Butler for Brad Stevens iirc. Former Head Coach at South Alabama and probably knows nearly every high school head coach in the state of Indiana. Between the FAU system and the ISU system, I think May and Graves could put together a modern, competitive offense. And May’s a big enough name in Florida that they might even be able to keep recruiting Monteverde.

He could probably do the same at IU but something tells me that he and the IU athletic director want nothing to do with each other-just a wild guess

I don’t know if it’s a “good” list but it’s a list of guys who imo could be realistic candidates. I don’t expect there would be a “splash hire” the next time around.

I’m not necessarily a fan of either English or Valentine but I see them as the kind of guys Dolson might actually interview. English is in his 1st year at Providence and has wins over Wisconsin, Marquette, Creighton, Butler and St John’s. Valentine was on Moser’s staff when Loyola went to the Final Four and ran their defense before taking over for Moser as head coach and has major recruiting ties in the Midwest. I don’t expect the Administration to have interest in Beard, Pearl or Drew (and vice versa may also be true). Ironically, it sounds like Billy D may actually be on the market at the end of the NBA season, but I think he might end up as an assistant on some other NBA staff.

-Dusty May -Josh Schertz -Joe Pasternack -Kim English -Drew Valentine assuming all 5 are still in their current jobs a year from now (unlikely imo) that’s a realistic list

If they hired Lewis they could possibly retain Bostad and get Leonhard, and a more flexible and potentially effective offense IMO than Chryst would likely try to install. Not to mention that Lewis brings more energy and charisma to the table than Chryst could provide. Candle and his former boss Matt Campbell would be reasonable choices. And Barry Odom could be promising, especially if he brought his OC Marion with him.

The real problem is not the buyout per se; Glass had already put a similar one in the 2019 contract that the buyout in the 2021 was modeled after. The real problem is that Dolson chose to change the guaranteed part of the contract from “1st 3 years 100% and last 4 years 50%” (in the 3019 contract) to “1st 4 years 100% and last 3 years 50%” (in the 2021 contract). If Dolson had kept the former buyout terms the same in the new contract, the current buyout would only be about half of what it actually is.

Believe he’s already interviewed with A&M

Dolson was legally required, accordiing to Allen’s previous contract, to give the one-year extension. What Dolson did NOT have to do, but chose to do anyway, was to also take the expensive buyout from the 2019 contract and make it even more expensive. ARE as head coach would probably be Cam Cameron 2.0. Pass. I think it may be more likely that IU would make a “safe” choice like Chryst or maybe even Fitzgerald, although that could cause some P.R. problems. Personally, I’d be more inclined to go for an up-and-coming G5 guy like Sumrall or even a successful FCS coach like Vigen or Chesney. EDIT: maybe more than any of the aforementioned guys, I might be interested in Sean Lewis, even more because of what he did as HC at Kent State than what he’s done as OC at Colorado.

maybe Dolson could start buying out some conference games too (dws)

I don’t remember much evidence of many big-time programs seriously looking at Allen for very long other than Florida State, and in that case it was when Norvell was on shaky ground. And even after the 2020 season not all of us were sold on Allen as a savior who should’ve been given whatever new contract he wanted. I am still convinced that Dolson didn’t need to be as generous as he was in order to reward and retain Allen. I suspect that it could’ve been accomplished with something like 6 years and $18-20 Million guaranteed, including a less expensive buyout structure. I doubt it needed to be the 7 year, $27 Million guaranteed package it turned out to be. That’s not to suggest there was something uniquely bad, or even unique period, about Dolson’s deal, On the contrary, it was fairly typical of a deal you’d see AT A FOOTBALL SCHOOL with boosters willing and able to pick up the tab for a buyout as soon as things went off the rails. The problem is that Dolson gave out that sweetheart deal at a basketball school that can apparently find $70 Million to offer Brad Stevens but can’t even come up with the funds to replace, or even just upgrade, its football team’s practice facility.

The raise and extension came after Allen’s 6-2 Covid season in which IU faced Ohio State in OSU’s first game without Chase Young (NFL) and faced Michigan without Aidan Hutchinson (injury). And faced Penn State without J. Oweh (Covid) in a game that was decided by an official’s decision (correct IMO) that historically 9 times out of 10 would have gone against IU and resulted in a loss. Dolson was justified in giving Allen a raise and extension, but the length and buyout terms of the one he gave him were fiscally irresponsible.

It would go up by a good deal more than 50% if Notre Dame would join but I guess they’re just too darned special for that