General Coach Candidate News

[Trish]

Just now, Pagoda said:

We know Dusty loves IU.  This must all be happening so fast for him.  Last year he gets a major job, less than a year later he is trying to win the B1G, and now he is more or less the top candidate now for friggin’ Indiana job!

I won’t be mad at him if he passes.  If he took it though, I think the support he would get here would be amazing and I would just love to see IUBB reenergized with him.  Knowing IUBB, he’ll pass and we’ll regret missing him in 2024.

Indiana had no business keeping Woodson another year. This will haunt Dolson and company for years if they can’t land someone from the A list. 
 

Frankly, Woodson was an F list hire, I’m worried the interest isn’t there outside of the A list. 

[Stuhoo]

2 minutes ago, Trish said:

If you think Archie and Woodson basketball is hard to watch, you don’t want to watch Tony’s offense. Plus, he will never forgive Indiana after firing his sister. 

Psssshh. A much more stubborn Bob Knight forgave IU for firing … Bob Knight. His sister got fired 20 years ago.

And Tony Bennett basketball is not hard to watch because the defense is so incredibly suffocating.

Bennett has 17 years as a head coach. 
His teams have been to the NCAA tournament for 12. Won 25 or more games eight out of 17 for a win % of 71.9. And he did most of that at a school with high admission standards and nowhere near the resources of IU.

Anyone that couldn’t get behind him needs to re-examine what actually would make them happy.

 

[IU Prof]

4 minutes ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

We’re going to hear a different every story until the end of March is my take so no need to freak about anything that comes out until then. Seems as though next years coach is going to be great regardless 

 

[JPCIVOP]

13 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Dare to dream. A recharged Tony Bennett for ten years would be fantastic:

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/dick-vitale-suggests-tony-bennett-for-iu-basketball-opening-is-he-a-real-candidate/

Do think that a number of younger fans (2020 graduates and later) have a pretty jaded view of Bennett. Also think that view is short-sighted, and doesn't account for landscape changes. In terms of coaching acumen and track record relative to resources, he's superior to candidates like Drew and Cronin. Think he would be a killer with IU's NIL & a general manager. People learn to live with the style of play when it brings wins. 

[bird4par]

30 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

SIAP but what’s the rumor with Ballo?

Pulled a Rodman.

[JPCIVOP]

3 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Psssshh. A much more stubborn Bob Knight forgave IU for firing … Bob Knight. His sister got fired 20 years ago.

And Tony Bennett basketball is not hard to watch because the defense is so incredibly suffocating.

Bennett has 17 years as a head coach. 
His teams have been to the NCAA tournament for 12. Won 25 or more games eight out of 17 for a win % of 71.9. And he did most of that at a school with high admission standards and nowhere near the resources of IU.

Anyone that couldn’t get behind him needs to re-examine what actually would make them happy.

 

Exactly. From 2014 to 2019, Bennett was in a class of his own. COVID, new player compensation rules and UVA's lack of institutional support undermined his ability to have continued success. If he's recharged, I'd be happier with hiring him than anyone but Stevens and May.

[Demo]

2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Psssshh. A much more stubborn Bob Knight forgave IU for firing … Bob Knight. His sister got fired 20 years ago.

And Tony Bennett basketball is not hard to watch because the defense is so incredibly suffocating.

Bennett has 17 years as a head coach. 
His teams have been to the NCAA tournament for 12. Won 25 or more games eight out of 17 for a win % of 71.9. And he did most of that at a school with high admission standards and nowhere near the resources of IU.

Anyone that couldn’t get behind him needs to re-examine what actually would make them happy.

 

Bennett’s obviously top shelf, but it would take me a minute to get there for this reason: Crean took that mess on in ‘08 when Bennett wanted no part of it. I don’t care if it was the rational decision, I’ll always respect Crean for doing it and it’ll always bug me that Bennett wouldn’t.

[Alford Bailey]

9 minutes ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

He definitely makes more than $2 million. Likely a lot more than that. This article is from 8 years ago and a $2 million offer for President of basketball operations was considered a below market offer.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19846453/cleveland-cavaliers-offered-market-salary-former-president-basketball-ops-candidate-chauncey-billups

He made $3.5 million as coach

[JSHoosier]

Yeah, I'd take Bennett in a heartbeat. He'd easily be #3 on my list.

[Trish]

5 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Psssshh. A much more stubborn Bob Knight forgave IU for firing … Bob Knight. His sister got fired 20 years ago.

And Tony Bennett basketball is not hard to watch because the defense is so incredibly suffocating.

Bennett has 17 years as a head coach. 
His teams have been to the NCAA tournament for 12. Won 25 or more games eight out of 17 for a win % of 71.9. And he did most of that at a school with high admission standards and nowhere near the resources of IU.

Anyone that couldn’t get behind him needs to re-examine what actually would make them happy.

 

He’s been extremely disappointing since winning the championship in 2019. I find that extremely concerning and the fact that he doesn’t believe in this new era of NIL,transfers, etc,.  I don’t see him being a fit at Indiana in 2025-2026. 
 

He’s likely done coaching unless he wants to go D2 or D3 which I could see him enjoying more. 

[ronzo4IU]

51 minutes ago, IUguy77 said:

Me either. Can we please just hire someone normal who’s a good coach. The over the top religious stuff is as bad as Crean and his whacko stuff. 

My sentiments exactly..

[JPCIVOP]

Just now, Trish said:

He’s been extremely disappointing since winning the championship in 2019. I find that extremely concerning and the fact that he doesn’t believe in this new era of NIL,transfers, etc,.  I don’t see him being a fit at Indiana in 2025-2026. 
 

He’s likely done coaching unless he wants to go D2 or D3 which I could see him enjoying more. 

Someone else made the point earlier that it would be interesting to know whether Bennett doesn't believe in NIL & Transfers or whether it's a question of UVA's institutional support and its place in the ACC. Not to shade Mike Woodson, but I think Bennett with a GM could be just as successful attracting talent, and would be much more successful coaching up a team. 

[Hoosierfan2017]

3 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

He made $3.5 million as coach

I think that was when he first started in 2013 and they signed him to a 6 year, $22 million deal. Woj reported back in 2021 when IU tried hiring him that he was making in the high-six million to low-seven million range.

In any event, he’s making enough money with Boston that IU can’t just throw money at him to get him here. He’s made it obvious he doesn’t want to be the IU coach yet I don’t think the thirsting will ever completely disappear. 

[bigrod]

1 hour ago, Chris007 said:

And some messages I have gotten. It's Feb. 20. No one knows what is going on. The one thing I love this time is we have good backup options. We have a long way to go and it's going to be a roller coaster, that is for sure

I have no inside information, and I think Stevens was always a long shot. But, I can't help but think, if you did have an agreement with him but wanted to move the attention away for a while, this is playing out pretty well for you.

USPS, you can now post your disclaimer :)

[DSUMMITT]

10 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Psssshh. A much more stubborn Bob Knight forgave IU for firing … Bob Knight. His sister got fired 20 years ago.

And Tony Bennett basketball is not hard to watch because the defense is so incredibly suffocating.

Bennett has 17 years as a head coach. 
His teams have been to the NCAA tournament for 12. Won 25 or more games eight out of 17 for a win % of 71.9. And he did most of that at a school with high admission standards and nowhere near the resources of IU.

Anyone that couldn’t get behind him needs to re-examine what actually would make them happy.

 

I gotta agree with this - CB won 6 regular season conference titles from 2013 to 2023 - a time period when often the ACC was considered the best conference. This was going against UNC and Duke when some consider their talent pools the highest they've ever been during that period. A clean coach who wins with less talent.

I wasn't entirely happy with his last second retirement to insure that his guy got a chance - but I get it.

[Stuhoo]

7 minutes ago, Trish said:

He’s been extremely disappointing since winning the championship in 2019. 

This is what “extremely disappointing” looks like for Bennett? In other words, his worst stretch at a school with crap NIL would be the best IU has been since Calbert Cheaney was wearing the stripes:

[JSHoosier]

I'm skeptical he'd come out of retirement but Bennett would 100% be a homerun hire.

[Coach Robby]

Tony Bennett? No thanks, we already have plenty of scoring droughts in our games now....

[MonteMarcaccini]

26 minutes ago, IUGRAD06 said:

Think it was just an event but someone said someone was coming in to help with the coaching search.  

Seems plausible, maybe he is going the Eddie Fogler route and consulting AD’s on hires. Would be a great resource and maybe the more he learns about the job, he may just want to throw his own name in.  Probably some reasons his teams declined post covid at UVA which could be overcome here.  Not entertaining by winning 27+ games a year is not a bad option.

The pause in this story is our donors don’t seem to keep a lid on anything.  Can’t imagine Bennett was in town and these guys weren’t spreading the news.

[CSP]

Bennett would have to convince me he's "hungry", of course, that would apply to a fair amount of these candidates.