AH1971

I have not seen one person opposed to Brad Stevens, just people who understand Brad Stevens isn’t going to return after a decade absence, snap his fingers, and magically have IU as a national title contender in a year or two. That and it’s completely pointless to speculate because he has zero interest in this job. There’s nearly 1000 pages worth of speculation on a candidate that has a better chance of retiring and moving to the moon tomorrow than he does coaching Indiana. It’s so freaking silly that Brad Stevens continues to dominate the general candidate thread.

There’s still a better chance of hiring somebody who wants to coach college basketball vs somebody who has zero interest.

How is Pearl less realistic than Stevens, who has turned the job down now at least twice? Pearl is a sitting head coach at the collegiate level and a college basketball lifer. Stevens is the sitting President of the Celtics who hasn’t coached collegiately in over a decade.

I’m one of them. If we want to dream about somebody who isn’t coming, dream about Bruce Pearl or Nate Oats. Those two clear Stevens today easily.

What a shame

Cronin has had three top 20 KenPom offenses in 6 years at UCLA. Could be better but obviously a lot worse. But his teams for the most part excel on the defensive end. And more importantly, his teams are tough. I can't tell you the last time Indiana has had a tough-minded team. Give me a coach who emphasizes toughness with IU's resources and you'll produce a consistent winner.

lol

So you can dismiss other people that have shared supposed inside information from Steven's front that say he isn't coming but can't share a level of confidence that he is in fact coming? Odd

Has a single person other than you suggested Michael Lewis?

Then at the very worst he would be considered for the job although no chance he takes it.

Has Few ever laid hands on a woman before? Generally asking as I haven't heard that. If he has, yes absolute non-starter.

Calm down Doug

Well he did threaten to deport a former Indiana Elite player if he didn't commit several years back so there's that. I'm not sure how much he recruits Indiana if at all. Don't seem to recall any Indiana born players on his Baylor teams.

Blasphemy

Bingo

Why? He's a staunch, conservative 20+ year Texas transplant with deep religious views. Not that there is anything wrong with that but that is polar opposite to the values of Indiana University.

I'm not advocating Cronin over Drew, would take either in a heartbeat. I think it's wild that one person can be so dismissive of one coach over the other despite having almost identical pros and cons with nearly identical records.

That's exactly what I'm arguing. The knock against Cronin is that he can't get past the S16. That was the knock on Crean.... Scott Drew has a long reputation of shitting the bed in March. That isn't a secret at all.

14 and 16 years ago. Who cares? With the exception of the COVID year, Scott Drew teams flame out early every year which is exactly the knock @Certified Sunshine Pumper is using against Cronin (can't get past S16).

You're right. Cronin has a superior winning % and a vastly superior conference winning %.

Cronin has made it past the first weekend three times in the last four seasons. Drew's made it twice in the last ten seasons. Drew has a higher overall achievement than Cronin (national title vs F4) but the rest of their resumes are nearly identical.

There really isn't. Drew's best season is better than Cronin's best season but using a nearly 20 year data set, they're very comparable.

Scott Drew had an exceptional season during COVID and hasn't duplicated anything close to that while at Baylor the last 20+ years. We call these outliers.

Isn't the majority of this board against hiring Tony Bennett? Didn't he win a national title?

So style of play trumps results lol? Ok.