IU Prof

I may have missed it, but I think they skipped the typical video board shot of coach walking out of the tunnel and onto the court with a couple minutes left before tip. If so, that suggests the administration knows the reception wouldn't have been friendly.

I don't get why a mid-season firing would jump start portal recruiting. You are still waiting for the next coach to be in place before any recruit is going to think about jumping to your school. Sure, you might have a handshake agreement in place with your next coach, and he might start quietly working back channels. But that could be true even if you haven't officially fired the current coach yet. So I'm not sure what the mid-season firing accomplishes, portal wise.

Also, while I understand why some want Woodson fired ASAP, IU is currently tied for 5th in the B1G, and just a half game out of 4th. Plus the overall record is 14-5. I totally get why the record doesn't tell the full story, but it would be VERY out of character to fire a HC (especially one who is a program legend) under those circumstances. And I also don't think the prospect of fans merely chanting to fire him is really as big a deal as some here believe. My best guess is that Dolson was getting a contingency in place, but at this point it would take a 3 or 4 game losing streak, with a couple more blowouts, to make a move.

Winning the following games would get IU to 11 conference wins, but I don't think they'd be in the Dance: @ NW, vs. MD, vs. UCLA, vs. PSU, @ Wash, vs. OSU. I know some of those will technically be Quad 1, but by the end of the year the only plausible NCAA teams we'll have defeated would be UCLA and Maryland. I really don't think that's anywhere close to good enough, absent a run to the B1G tourney finals.

This guy really lives rent free in the heads of a number of people here. I recommend stop giving him attention, as that's obviously all he wants.

User name no longer checks out...

That's just not true. Seth Davis raised it as a possibility just last spring: https://x.com/SethDavisHoops/status/1778858724360433687

Right. If there was some huge academic scandal or something, I could see that. Or even a Knight type scenario. But just a run of the mill, early termination for under performance probably wouldn't require faculty approval. I'm sure Dolson would eventually discuss it with the committee after the fact, though.

Yeah, I could be wrong, but I'd be surprised if that committee was charged with advising on the termination of an athletic coach as a general matter.

Apropos of nothing, in my experience high-level administrative players typically have better things to do than spend all day arguing with fans on a message board.

Good point. It's a totally selective argument. I mentioned Dabo above. Ryan Day was also interim as well in 2018. Some interims work out, many don't. But that would be expected, since most teams that fire a coach mid-season are operating at a talent deficiency. The question is what's best for the long term trajectory of the program. I do think that emotions can run high after back-to-back losses like that. But the only compelling argument I've heard for maintaining the status quo is to avoid a Diebler scenario, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of the current staff.

Are you talking about interim coaches who were appointed full time, or just those who turned a team's fortunes around the same season that the HC was fired? If the former, then Dabo Swinney. If the latter, then Diebler at OSU just last year. There's plenty of examples of the latter. But I don't think anyone is proposing that an interim be given the job beyond the rest of this season, so I'm not clear what point you are trying to make.

Kind of like going from Butler HC to the HC of the Boston Celtics?

Bonderman died last month, so I don't think he'll be getting an NBA franchise.

Roughly speaking, do you think it's a 5% chance Stevens comes, or more like a 50-50 chance? In other words, is this more of a theoretical, but still unlikely, possibility? Or is there is a real chance he comes home?

I like that your closest analogy is a case where the long-shot candidate did end up going back home, and won a championship to boot.

I meant more of a firm, "are you in or out" type conversation. There's no reason we couldn't pin down Stevens' status shortly after a decision on Woodson's future is made.

I wonder when IU would initiate discussions in earnest with Stevens. Unlike a sitting college coach, there really isn't anything stopping us from determining now whether Brad is interested or not. It's possible Dolson already knows, for that matter.

Those were mainly Woodson issues.

And it's home.

The optics of canning a coach with a 15-10 record would be pretty bad, justifiedly or not. And besides quenching some parts of the fan base's thirst for blood, I'm not sure what it would accomplish. Better to let Woody ride out the year, and make a move a couple days after we play our last game.

Do we know how long Reneau is out for? The longer he sits, the more games Woodson is forced to play 4 out, which increases the odds he stays, IMO.

Yes

I drove by SSAH yesterday. Main roads were fine, secondary roads more dicey. The K lot (Gate 11) looked like it had been plowed, but was still pretty snowy.