General Coach Candidate News

[Asha’man 397]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Sounds like a guy in contention for the IU job to me. 

[IUguy77 365]

10 minutes ago, Silat Player said:

Painter has proven that.

And there have been countless people over the years who have shown that the schools with the top recruiting classes don't necessarily win the national championship. There is a middle ground between getting a few elite recruits and finding guys who are glue guys in your system. 

Right. Painter is the perfect example. 

[HoosierSadaseci 2,732]

3 hours ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

Sounds like a repeat of 2021 where Dolson puts all his eggs in the pie in the sky Hail Mary basket and then we’re left with an underwhelming hire when that doesn’t work out. At least McCollum has coached college basketball. 

I think Dolson has learned from last time...

[TTT 1,208]

2 minutes ago, HoosierInParadise said:

5 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

You don't need to get 5 stars to compete  at a high level.at a high level. How many 5 stars do Houston, Auburn it Iowa St have

I agree, but it's all about putting the team in the best position to compete in March. Talent matters, work ethic matters, drive and focus matter. A lot of things have to fall into place for any kind of run in March, but having high-level talent makes it easier to get there.

To compete at the highest level continuously the right couple really high 4 stars or 5 stars is always needed…the right ones for program.

[NVFalcons1990 403]

2 minutes ago, go iu bb said:

3 of the 4 aren't realistic options so I guess you're saying it's going to be McCollum.

This could also mean these "Ben's" :
Ben Howland - Retired
Ben Johnson at Minny
Ben Jacobsen at Northern Iowa
Ben Fletcher at USF (interim)

 

[the_jackal 241]

Stevens was never a real thing, i feel bad for those who believed it. I understand wanting to believe it, we are fans after all, but it was never going to happen. 

Mccollum shows every sign of having what it takes to be a great coach. the biggest tell to me is that other coaches (May, Mccasland, Buzz and others) actually call him for his thoughts on their system and how he'd improve it. when successful coaches are calling him for Xs and Os advice, thats big. i would bet for him to win big wherever he lands next, and i'd prefer it's at IU instead of Iowa. 

But again, takes 2 to tango. will see if he wants the job. if he goes Iowa, i would happily take Devries as our next coach. I love Alan Huss, he will win big somewhere too, just not a candidate this go around for IU for whatever reason. hope we aren't here again in 4-5 years, but if we are Huss should be at the top of the list then and wants the job

- Jackal

[iu2win 157]

I'm certainly not vehemently opposed to Mccollum.  For those of you really pushing him, can you tell me why you see his success at Drake differently from Archie's success at Dayton.  I see similarities that are my only concern with going that route again.  

[NVFalcons1990 403]

5 minutes ago, TTT said:

Stevens

May

Alford 

Schertz:  had successive wins in NITin middle of the pack major conference teams vs SMU, Minnesota, and Utah…then blew lead by in championship game vs Seton Hall. (Compare it to McCollum level of competition)

Turned around an Indiana State program (more than just team) in 3 years…not easy!

Now, in process of turning around St. Louis.

after turning around the Railsplitters.

Hire one of these guys and go.

 

Love his offensive style, wins wherever he goes and has a St. Louis team at 18-13, for a team that won 13 games last year.  I am from the Terre Haute area, and he put ISU back on the map last year with the NIT Championship game run.

[JustWinBaby 767]

42 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

Given that we haven't really heard chit, only two possibilities exist at this point.

1)  It is in fact Stevens and they are just waiting for the appropriate time to announce.  Would be pretty simple to keep it quiet as only Stevens, Wife/agent, some big $ boosters would know.  

OR

2)  Dolson hasn't really done squat himself yet.  He's letting the search firm develop the candidate list and he'll pick it up as teams exit the various tournaments.  

This is what’s called a false bifurcation, when one lists two potential outcomes as the only plausible possibilities. When in reality it’s far more likely that neither of these are true.

I’d love for the Brad Stevens rumors to all be true; a tiny part of me is holding out hope that they are. But these are not the only two possibilities. I am certain that Dolson has done far more legwork in this search than any of us will ever know. Just because we aren’t hearing things does not mean he’s not doing anything. It just means he’s conducting this search with an impressive degree of discretion and professionalism.

[MrBBall 736]

3 minutes ago, the_jackal said:

Stevens was never a real thing, i feel bad for those who believed it. I understand wanting to believe it, we are fans after all, but it was never going to happen. 

Mccollum shows every sign of having what it takes to be a great coach. the biggest tell to me is that other coaches (May, Mccasland, Buzz and others) actually call him for his thoughts on their system and how he'd improve it. when successful coaches are calling him for Xs and Os advice, thats big. i would bet for him to win big wherever he lands next, and i'd prefer it's at IU instead of Iowa. 

But again, takes 2 to tango. will see if he wants the job. if he goes Iowa, i would happily take Devries as our next coach. I love Alan Huss, he will win big somewhere too, just not a candidate this go around for IU for whatever reason. hope we aren't here again in 4-5 years, but if we are Huss should be at the top of the list then and wants the job

- Jackal

Wow. Great list of candidates and top one may take Iowa over IU. Great stuff. 

[hoosiersoxfan 463]

1 minute ago, NVFalcons1990 said:

Love his offensive style, wins wherever he goes and has a St. Louis team at 18-13, for a team that won 13 games last year.  I am from the Terre Haute area, and he put ISU back on the map last year with the NIT Championship game run.

Wouldn't mind seeing Avila in candy stripes for a year

[NVFalcons1990 403]

If we are striking out, why not go after Brad Underwood at Illinois? 

Salary of $4.7 million and is 271-126 (.683).  Has 6 straight 20-win seasons at Illinois.  He also made the Elite 8 in 2023-2024.  Only negative is his age of 61, but he makes Woody look like he's 76.

[monskisprodigy 2,240]

The questions that I keep coming back to....

This hire could, if wrong, cost Dolson his job IMO...he got the football hire right (so it appears after year 1), but this is a different animal. Get this wrong, again...and it will get ugly. 

With that in mind, does Dolson roll the dice on mid-major guy, with that much on the line? And if it's a roll of the dice or a mid-major guy, given all the leg work he surely would have done to feel comfortable with the prospects, would he have moved on from Woodson?

[JustWinBaby 767]

4 minutes ago, iu2win said:

I'm certainly not vehemently opposed to Mccollum.  For those of you really pushing him, can you tell me why you see his success at Drake differently from Archie's success at Dayton.  I see similarities that are my only concern with going that route again.  

I think we all have PTSD from the amount of bad hires that have been made. But Archie was on its face a bad hire for many reasons. McCollum does not share much at all in common with Archie in terms of his approach to the game, coaching style, personality, etc.

Eventually a coaching hire is going to work out here. IU basketball has been criminally mismanaged by its administration for three decades; we now (finally) have an AD and President that actually “get it” when it comes to athletics and are actually committed to winning. Their approach to this hire is unlike any other coaching search we’ve seen. I trust them to get it right.

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 10,575]

1 minute ago, monskisprodigy said:

The questions that I keep coming back to....

This hire could, if wrong, cost Dolson his job IMO...he got the football hire right (so it appears after year 1), but this is a different animal. Get this wrong, again...and it will get ugly. 

With that in mind, does Dolson roll the dice on mid-major guy, with that much on the line? And if it's a roll of the dice, or a mid-major guy, given all the leg work he surely would have done, would he have moved on from Woodson?

I hope his job isn't on the line for a basketball hire. 

[IU05 212]

1 minute ago, monskisprodigy said:

The questions that I keep coming back to....

This hire could, if wrong, cost Dolson his job IMO...he got the football hire right (so it appears after year 1), but this is a different animal. Get this wrong, again...and it will get ugly. 

With that in mind, does Dolson roll the dice on mid-major guy, with that much on the line? And if it's a roll of the dice, or a mid-major guy, given all the leg work he surely would have done, would he have moved on from Woodson?

Dolson got the hire right for the top revenue-producing sport at IU. He's going to be just fine. 

And if this hire goes bad, blame the people who got us here like QB. I used to be a huge skeptic of Dolson, but when given the ability to perform his job without interference, he's done a good job so far.

If this hire sucks, you won't convince me it was because he didn't execute. It's due to lack of desire from past bad administrations.

[go iu bb 8,127]

44 minutes ago, realTomCrean said:

Respectable coach and guy from the outsider perspective but that's a big no thank you

Yeah. What exactly does better with IU's resources and admission standards equate to?  Maybe 60-65% overall and 50% in conference? Basically, Woodson level.

Basically, he was able to hit on a few underrated players over his tenure there. Outside of that, pretty blah results.

[NVFalcons1990 403]

5 minutes ago, MrBBall said:

Wow. Great list of candidates and top one may take Iowa over IU. Great stuff. 

I love Devries over all others......look what he has done with West Virginia after his run at Drake!  So if he wins game one of Big 12 tourney he will hit 20 wins again, doing it all without his son who was their leading scorer but was injured in game #8.  West Viriginia was 9-23 last year.

 

Drake Bulldogs (Missouri Valley Conference) (2018–2024)
2018–19	Drake	24–10	12–6	T–1st	CIT First Round
2019–20	Drake	20–14	8–10	8th	Postseason cancelled
2020–21	Drake	26–5	15–3	2nd	NCAA Division I Round of 64
2021–22	Drake	25–11	13–5	T–2nd	CBI Quarterfinals
2022–23	Drake	27–8	15–5	2nd	NCAA Division I Round of 64
2023–24	Drake	28–7	16–4	2nd	NCAA Division I Round of 64
Drake:		150–55 (.732)	78–33 (.703)
West Virginia Mountaineers (Big 12 Conference) (2024–present)
2024–25	West Virginia	19–12	10–10

[OKHOOSIER 5,378]

59 minutes ago, EasyEJay said:

I'm starting to lean towards him potentially being what so many have said is the "mystery guy" it makes sense that Dolson would want to 

A) keep it tight lipped as to avoid the amount that people will be able to talk about the past issues. 

B) The hiring of TurnKey to properly vet him all the way around gives you a safety net 

Think about it if it were to leaked early on that he was the candidate Dolson had zeroed in on then people would have dug into past for more than a month and public opinion or higher ups might soured on the idea.  Now Scott waits till McNeese State is done playing and announces it as a done deal before the portal opens (As long as McNeese doesn't go on a run to the S16) . 

You can tell everyone that TurnKey did there due diligence and you vetted him for more than a month and did your HW and feel good about the decision. You've controlled the story and now its solely about winning 

I'd be more shocked than I was when we hired Woody if we hired someone on an active show cause. That said, I care precisely none about financial silliness and paying players. I would take Wade, but I would put the chances at less than zero.

[go iu bb 8,127]

44 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

My insides are letting me know that our next coach will 100% have at least one letter on the alphabet in their name.

We're not hiring #898365? I think it would do great at IU.