General Coach Candidate News

[Kentuckysucks]

1 minute ago, Certified Sunshine Pumper said:

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

If we go the boring route definitely hire McCollum instead.  He’s hungry and a lot younger.  I want no part of Bennett.

[AZ Hoosier]

59 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

SIAP but what’s the rumor with Ballo?

 

28 minutes ago, bird4par said:

Pulled a Rodman.

He wore a wedding dress to North Korea? Wow... must have missed that... /s

[Trish]

14 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

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:

That’s not good enough at Indiana. Otherwise Crean would be here. 

[Kentuckysucks]

2 minutes ago, Trish said:

That’s not good enough at Indiana. Otherwise Crean would be here. 

Crean was fired because he kept missing the tournament.

[Trish]

“I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way,” Bennett said. “That’s who I am, and that’s how it was.” 

He’s not getting back into D1 high major basketball. Players are about to be paid “officially” here starting next season, he doesn’t want any part of that including the portal. 

[Ghost of Rick Majerus]

I can't help but laugh at some of these responses. Tony Bennett and Scott Drew would be fantastic hires. They would turn this bus around. Both have won championships at schools that nobody would consider blue bloods. Yet some of you guys are saying pass?!?!? Are you serious?

Our program has been as mediocre as they come for the past 25 years. We would have killed to have the success that Baylor and Virginia have had. 

[CSP]

2 minutes ago, Ghost of Rick Majerus said:

I can't help but laugh at some of these responses. Tony Bennett and Scott Drew would be fantastic hires. They would turn this bus around. Both have won championships at schools that nobody would consider blue bloods. Yet some of you guys are saying pass?!?!? Are you serious?

Our program has been as mediocre as they come for the past 25 years. We would have killed to have the success that Baylor and Virginia have had. 

Passing on Scott Drew would be absolutely wild. 

I dont really know that TB would be on my list at all, unless he was on the phone begging for an interview. 

If we have to "ask" someone, not sure they're the guy for the job. 

[lillurk]

13 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

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:

DeCourcey and some other national writer both wrote up TB-to-IU stories in relatively short time recently and I saw a keen observer who said hmmmmm: that seems like it might reflect real interest from Tony’s side.

I don’t love how he left the team this fall, even assuming he was trying to get his assistant the job. If he can convince Dolson he’s passionate enough to do it, he can probably be great at IU, though I have some concerns.

The defense is excellent. It would be what everyone thought we were getting by hiring Archie.

The offense doesn’t worry me much; his best teams, culminating in the title team, were frankly awesome at running efficient offense. It wasn’t always what I’d like to see, but when he had talent, he had great offenses. After the title, he hasn’t had the dynamic guard/wing talent he did during the peak. As I say all the time, talent is never the issue at IU. You can chalk up the lack of talent after the title to a few things: natural erosion from a team built for that period, COVID-era recruiting weirdness, UVa’s strict academic standards making transfer-ins tough (a la UM), a dearth of NIL there(?).

But other than the above, what would really worry me is pace. Not because I don’t want to watch slower games (though I’d rather watch faster ones) but because slow teams are more susceptible to upset losses. If you have more talent, then you want more possessions to fade the random noise. (E.g. I can get lucky and win a one shot 3-pt contest vs. Steph Curry if he misses and I hit, but I’ll never beat him across more than like a best-of-5). He was consistently among the slowest in basketball at UVa. 

I will add that slow defensive possessions are good; but on offense, earlier shots tend to be higher %age looks.

[Hoosierfan2017]

22 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.

 

Yeah, idk what people are expecting out of the hire if they wouldn’t be happy with Bennett. UVA has an acceptance rate under 20%. I’m sure athletes get some wiggle room, but he wasn’t working with the same talent pool that he would at IU. NIL and the transfer portal exacerbated that. His experience at IU would be vastly different from his time at UVA.

Maybe he’s still mad about IU firing his sister 20 years ago, but the people involved with that decision are all gone. Would be silly to turn the job down now for that reason. 

[Papacap]

7 minutes ago, Ghost of Rick Majerus said:

I can't help but laugh at some of these responses. Tony Bennett and Scott Drew would be fantastic hires. They would turn this bus around. Both have won championships at schools that nobody would consider blue bloods. Yet some of you guys are saying pass?!?!? Are you serious?

Our program has been as mediocre as they come for the past 25 years. We would have killed to have the success that Baylor and Virginia have had. 

Some posters here are like cousin Eddie. He’s waiting for a management position. 

[Hoosierfan2017]

11 minutes ago, Trish said:

That’s not good enough at Indiana. Otherwise Crean would be here. 

In what world? Bennett’s worst conference record during that stretch was 12-8. Crean finished above .500 once in his last four seasons. 

[HinnyHoosier]

1 hour ago, Mr. Hoosier Pride said:

haven't watched it but saw the comments .... 

 

@enterprises9983

9 days ago

This was a terrible video

They thought we'd hired Sean instead of Archie.

[Stuhoo]

44 minutes ago, bird4par said:

Pulled a Rodman.

Went to Vegas and knocked boots with Carmen Electra?

She’s getting older, but impressive nonetheless.

[IUBtown]

19 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

Crean was fired because he kept missing the tournament.

He was fired because he was inconsistent, weird af, and he ran the program weird af.  He was so difficult to play for Devin Davis tried to get run over by a car to get out of there. 

Edited February 20, 2025 by IUBtown

[HinnyHoosier]

6 minutes ago, lillurk said:

DeCourcey and some other national writer both wrote up TB-to-IU stories in relatively short time recently and I saw a keen observer who said hmmmmm: that seems like it might reflect real interest from Tony’s side.

I don’t love how he left the team this fall, even assuming he was trying to get his assistant the job. If he can convince Dolson he’s passionate enough to do it, he can probably be great at IU, though I have some concerns.

 

Maybe leaving the team in the Fall was playing the long game. Maybe it's been in talks all this time.

[CSP]

2 minutes ago, IUBtown said:

He was fired because he was inconsistent, weird af, and he ran the program like weird af.  He was so difficult to play for Devin Davis tried to get run over by a car to get out of there. 

So many lies wrapped into one post. 

[Kentuckysucks]

2 minutes ago, IUBtown said:

He was fired because he was inconsistent, weird af, and he ran the program like weird af.  He was so difficult to play for Devin Davis tried to get run over by a car to get out of there. 

And I always heard he never had the players on a schedule.  Like they get a text saying practice in a half hour don’t be late.  Maybe @Chris007 can confirm that.

[RoadRage]

Tony Bennett says, “I am not a candidate for the IU coaching job!”

    -@thefieldof68

 

[Stuhoo]

12 minutes ago, Ghost of Rick Majerus said:

I can't help but laugh at some of these responses. Tony Bennett and Scott Drew would be fantastic hires. They would turn this bus around. Both have won championships at schools that nobody would consider blue bloods. Yet some of you guys are saying pass?!?!? Are you serious?

Our program has been as mediocre as they come for the past 25 years. We would have killed to have the success that Baylor and Virginia have had. 

Just saying—anyone that wouldn’t be thrilled with Bennett, but has a glimmer of interest in McCollum, who is at an even slower pace and hasn’t accomplished jack in D1 yet?

Whooo boy.

[IUHoosierJoe]

2 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

And I always heard he never had the players on a schedule.  Like they get a text saying practice in a half hour don’t be late.  Maybe @Chris007 can confirm that.

My son heard that from one of his former assistants