Pagoda

Too bad, I wanted to see this top-5 NIL roster with Kenya. That would at least give us a chance… but nope, more Woody.

If there are donors complaining now who supported keeping Woody after last season, it would be pretty sweet for Scott to say, "This is what you wanted. I wanted to make a change, but you wanted to keep him. Enjoy it."

He is a smart kid, into academics, family seems great. It’s harsh, but I’m surprised he came here. Most recruits like him sniff out our problems and go elsewhere. I suppose the short recruitment window didn’t help them and they just made a mistake. It what it is, just an interesting topic.

I need an update on the February action items! Is Mike Woodson even on the AD's radar? That picture of Scott behind the bench suggest he may be thinking about Woody. Where are we in the stakeholders' deliberate process?

Yea. If Kenya is the coach do we beat Maryland? Probably.

Yea. He’s got to fill the power void as Quinn steps back and get the trustees/donors to stop meddling. Tough ask. Pam needs to help with this too and get people off his back and provide cover.

It would be fun to have an interim coach that could maybe get a performance out of our $6M roster. This team can be better (duh!). If we stick with Woody we're toast. Interesting the donors that probably backed Woody after last season now want a change. Our donors are idiots, they need to stop meddling because they have no idea what they're doing. Just send the checks and shut up.

My $0.02: Buckner leaving his Chairman/Trustee role does matter. He can lurk, but he has no formal power, and that matters. His last recommendation failed, who wants to listen to him again? Does he even have another crony pal he would want to push really hard for? Once Woody is gone, I doubt he cares enough about another coach candidate to meddle again. Same donors are around, but they look stupid after ignoring Scott's plan to move on last year and instead backing Woody another year with more money. Lesson learned? Hopefully. Everyone saw what Scott and Pam did when left alone with FB. I've got pretty good intel Scott was on an island last year. This year, I don't have much unique insight beyond what we all read in the FMW thread, Doyel's article, etc. -- basically Woody is done and Scott has more power. We'll see. Even if Scott gets autonomy, he has to get this hire right. I'm more concerned about this. I think he can do it, but the whole program is riding on him getting it right. I defend Scott some in this thread because: who else do we have to make a bball coaching change? The trustees and donors are incompetent with respect to the bball program. This isn't Pam's area of expertise. No one else in the athletic dept has hired a coach before. If Scott were replaced, his replacement would be weaker than he is, Pam/trustees won't hire an AD that Day 1 turns around and bulldozes them. It continues to look like Scott is our best shot to get a good coach.

Keep vs fire. AP says no which is good.

Is there a donor tug of war? Woody’s pals vs ones that care about results?

I can’t know for sure. But IUBB has been a political shitstorm for 25 years, and it’s very hard to deal with. It sounded like Scott was one of the few who wanted a new coach last year. If he moved on Woody, there is a good chance he angers our two biggest donors, and that’s risky, they could easily pull back on NIL and donations, and that would have a serious negative impact on IU. I also heard Pam was not on board for a change yet, which doesn’t help, that’s his boss and he needs her for the candidate search. And then there is Quinn, worst Chairman imaginable. Scott seemed to be on an island and it’s hard to do much from there. The whole thing absolutely sucks. In the end, Scott seems to get it and I don’t see anyone else around who has a better chance to get this next hire right. And at this point, it is on Scott to take control and make a change and importantly, get the next hire right. Tough task.

Then you may as well give up. We're screwed.

Getting one "no" isn't a failure. We all just saw UK's coaching search. They went to Scott Drew, spent a few days with him, got a no. They went to Billy Donovan, got a no. They went to Dan Hurley, spent a few days with him, got a no. Then they went to Mark Pope, spent a few days, got a yes. What UK didn't do is freak out after Scott Drew was a no and say you failed Mitch we're hiring our pal from the NBA.

The good news is out of all the morons that influence IUBB, Scott was apparently the only one who wanted to make a change after last season. He's one of the good guys. We'll find out in two months. If Woody isn't fired after this season then it's fair to question Scott and I would join in with the criticism.

It's not a failure to go after Stevens and get a "no." The two people are two of the most powerful people around IUBB. There are people more powerful than the AD at IU, it's just how it is.

Well he’s about to have control. What was he supposed to do one year into getting hired as AD? Go against the Chairman of the Board and our biggest donors? They would have crushed him and he wouldn’t be around to make the Cig hire or this next basketball hire. Be realistic good grief.

Doyel is so scummy

Yea well Greg Doyel just wrote about it in the IndyStar. Two very powerful people made the Woody hire happen. Quinn Buckner, Chairman of the IU Board of Trustees, and Woody’s best friend. And Steve Ferguson, Chairman of our largest donor, and Woody’s long time mentor. It’s pretty obvious what happened. Scott wouldn’t hire some crappy NBA assistant with no college bball experience. But you can believe whatever you want.

I’m talking athletic dept revenue with the $10-20M annual increases. The $6M is NIL, and a lot of that comes from Woody’s pals and we want it to keep coming, so I’m empathetic to what Scott has to navigate to get rid of Woody. Scott needs to do a good job on this bball hire. It’s a big one. If he screws it up then the blame is on him. His hands have been tied to date though, I’d give him a chance to make this next hire. But, that’s just my opinion.

He got a raise and extension in May 2024. He’s not going anywhere. And who would replace him? Someone who built up a broken program? Scott just did that here.

It’s just one part of it. He is increasing athletic dept revenue significantly — $10M per year probably going to $20M+. Like it or not it’s impressive and important as we try to compete with bigger P2 schools.

I doubt he was the catalyst for the raise. He has to manage all the politics behind the scenes with Quinn and the donors. Can’t have angry donors. He is figuring that out and Woody will almost certainly be fired by end of year. And going forward Scott will likely have much more control over bball. Got to give him credit on FB, it’s by far the most important sport and thanks to what he did athletic dept revenues are going to increase significantly by tens of millions of dollars. The exposure IU got from Big Noon, GameDay, and being good was valued at $7.5M. It’s been very impressive, no one has done this at IU before.

He didn’t hire Woody.

IMO also nice Dolson was vindicated in wanting to get rid of him. Everyone needs to stfu and listen to Scott. He’s our best shot.