General Coach Candidate News

[Kentuckysucks]

4 minutes ago, go iu bb said:

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.

I think what people are saying is that it's virtually impossible to get anyone but 2 and 3 star recruits at NW.  You could argue that a prime time Bobby Knight would have had difficulty winning any more games than Collins has at NW.  We don't know if that's true or not.  He would be no riskier than a mid major hire at all.

[rcbowla]

1 hour ago, RaceToTheTop said:

He’s more realistic in terms of Beard. 

I agree. I don't think either will be the coach but of the 2 Wade is more likely and actually the more preferred of the 2 for me. 

[JaybobHoosier]

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 agree, but I think the issue is that college coaches don’t seem to be jumping ship quite as easily as they used to. 
 

While I would love a very successful coach at a lower P4 school, it may just not be in the cards. I’m not out on mid-majors after Archie. I think IU learned a lot this last go around with that, and they can better adjust their search with mid-major coaches. 
 

I’m not saying McCollum or Huss are my top candidates, but getting a mid-major type might be the most feasible option Dolson has. We just don’t know because of how tight lipped this is. 

[moyemayhem]

1 minute ago, Chris007 said:

BS is 1A BM is 1B I'll stick to it.

Personally, I've always thought of BM as #2.

[JSHoosier]

10 minutes ago, JustWinBaby said:

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.

This is the same administration that hired Mike Woodson and gave him a 1m raise for what should've been bare minimum expectations. Then didn't fire him when they should have.

Indiana has given no reason to think they won't screw this one up too.

[DChoosier]

4 minutes ago, OKHOOSIER said:

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.

I suppose that one advantage of Wade is that his experience paying players predates NIL.

[Scotty R]

I just don't understand how some people can't grasp the college landscape of today. I see if we have to hire a mid major it shows how far down IU has come but I say that is how far college basketball has changed.

Also I don't see much difference in coaching a D2 program than being a coach at schools like Hofstra, Northeastern and Buffalo. Low majors like these are not much difference then running a D2 program. If you can build a program and have great success that can be duplicated at a higher level.

I wonder how the fans bases st Villanova, UCONN and Alabama thought when they hired coaches from Hofstra, Northeastern and Buffalo

 

[CSP]

5 minutes ago, monskisprodigy said:

I think it would at a minimum, put him in a very uncomfortable position. 

Hope it doesn't come to that...but my point being, I feel like Dolson had to be comfortable with the options on the table, understanding the importance of the next hire, before making a move on from Woodson. With that, I have trouble believing the list that made him move was mid-majors. 

ahhh... I'm not in on the "we have to auto-get a big name guy" so, we'll just have to agree to disagree. 

[Mr. Hoosier Pride]

2 minutes ago, moyemayhem said:

Personally, I've always thought of BM as #2.

[HoosierSadaseci]

2 hours ago, AKHoosier said:

I'm just ready to start supporting and following our new coach.

I legit don't even care who it is anymore. (Just not Brownell please).

Part of Dolson's plan...one part misdirection...one part apathy...pummel IU fans into submission so they won't care who is hired...

[DSUMMITT]

3 minutes ago, moyemayhem said:

Personally, I've always thought of BM as #2.

You see? Gold! How could we not want to have a coach with either the initials BS or BM? The applications....

[Hoosierfan1901]

4 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

I just don't understand how some people can't grasp the college landscape of today. I see if we have to hire a mid major it shows how far down IU has come but I say that is how far college basketball has changed.

Also I don't see much difference in coaching a D2 program than being a coach at schools like Hofstra, Northeastern and Buffalo. Low majors like these are not much difference then running a D2 program. If you can build a program and have great success that can be duplicated at a higher level.

I wonder how the fans bases st Villanova, UCONN and Alabama thought when they hired coaches from Hofstra, Northeastern and Buffalo

 

Hell, Danny Hurley was from Rhode Island and I remember after his 4th year at UConn their fans thought he wasn’t good. And the rest is history after the last 2 seasons.

[Trish]

1 hour ago, LamarCheeks said:

I think Brownell's "rumored connection" to IU is born purely from writers speculating that he could be a candidate. 

And that is for two reasons 

1) He's had a couple very good seasons 

2) He's from Indiana 

and I would think about 90% of that speculation is because of No. 2. I obviously don't know for sure, but I have doubts that he is or ever was a serious candidate. 

Completely agree. No one here would consider him if he wasn't born in Indiana. Hell, I didn't even know his name and I know the CBB landscape. 

[Ctf9]

3 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

I just don't understand how some people can't grasp the college landscape of today.

But this didn’t start with us fans—Dolson has echoed the same points from the beginning. Maybe he didn’t grasp it either? I really don’t know. 
 

See his comments here: 

 

[HoosierHuddle]

4 minutes ago, NVFalcons1990 said:

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

My post is not meant to denigrate Darian DeVries...he's a good coach. I do want to dive into a few things on his resume. 

2018-2019 - Drake was 135th in KenPom - 137th offense/139th defense and 94th tempo

2019-2020 - 163rd overall - 189 O/155 D and 204 tempo

2020-2021 - 55th overall - 33rd O/101 D and 271 tempo

2021-2022 - 84th overall - 73rd O/113 D and 228 tempo

2022-2023 - 69th overall - 108 O/40 D and 220 tempo

2023-2024 - 53 overall - 40 O/73 D and 148 tempo

Drake this season is 57 overall - 77th offense and 47th defense and 364 tempo

West Virginia this season is 51 - 127 offense and 13 defense and 325 tempo

In summary, DeVries has the benefit of a fantastic talent as his son and has not had a top 30 offense in seven seasons. He's had no teams that finished in the top 50 in KenPom. There might be stories of other coaches (guys like Shaka Smart, Grant McCasland, Buzz Williams) holding him in extremely high-regard but I have not seen them for DeVries as I have for a coach like McCollum. Now, he was an assistant at Creighton and does have one year of high-major experience and I do believe he is a good coach...I would personally give the edge to McCollum but it's all subjective. I just wanted to point out those numbers for a bit of context (albeit certainly not determinative). 

[Hornsby]

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

I never really believed it. Jerry got some excited but it was likely all bs. Looks like we will get an underwhelming hire once again since we didn't hire may last year

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[IUGRAD06]

1 minute ago, Trish said:

Completely agree. No one here would consider him if he wasn't born in Indiana. Hell, I didn't even know his name and I know the CBB landscape. 

He is well liked by AAU coaches in Indiana.  Him and Calbert are friends so I am assuming that’s where the push is coming from.  

[Hornsby]

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?

Let's see how football does this year with a harder schedule. It looks good so far but it's only been a year. If dolson flops on this hire after the Woodson flop who knows but it isn't good.

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[Trish]

Alright folks, looks like we're wrapping up the lunch hour. Who should we talk about next? Is it Brusier Flint discussion time?

[Golfman25]

25 minutes ago, JustWinBaby said:

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.

Sure, but if he's really reaching out to guys the news is bound to get out.  The more points of contact, the more chance of it being leaked.  There is just no way he's reached out to 4-5 coaches and we haven't heard a peep.