General Coach Candidate News

[Kentuckysucks 3,096]

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 2,552]

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

    -@thefieldof68

 

[Stuhoo 84,769]

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 1,663]

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 

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 9,916]

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.

How could you possibly believe something like that? 

[OKHOOSIER 4,592]

42 minutes ago, JPCIVOP said:

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. 

Friend, we’ve got 2000 pages of that in another thread. Shade away. 

[HoosierHoopster 7,518]

16 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

Crean was fired because he kept missing the tournament.

Not completely accurate, he was fired because he could not maintain consistency in conference performance or in recruiting and had largely lost the HS and AAU coaches in IN, which signaled recruiting would continue to fall off. IIRC, he was B1G COY a couple seasons before he was fired. 

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 9,916]

2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

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.

Bennett JUST quit on his team, like literally JUST happened. 

[AZ Hoosier 9,005]

3 minutes ago, Hardwood83 said:

True, but as GI Joe taught us "knowing is half the battle." Recognizing the retarded mistakes IU has made in the recent past so as not to repeat them. The easiest route (Davis) is seldom the right choice. Past behavior IS a good indication of future behavior (Sampson.) Personality & fit are essential (Miller.) Hiring your incompetent buddy is sure to fail (Woodson.) There are several aspects, but ultimately it's not that complicated. Create a concise list of criteria, identify the best coach that meets them, and hire him. If your 1st choice refuses, then move to the next one. 

Wow... that approach is way too logical to really work. Self-reflection is important here, both in terms of personalities (who did we hire) and process (why did we hire them). Of course the guy doing the search and hiring this time isn't the guy who has done any of these past hires, but you still need to evaluate what has happened in the past.

There are a lot of names being tossed around, and only one of them will get the job... as a fanbase, we have to recognize that there's no guarantees, but we need a process that will get us as close to the "home run hire" as we can possibly get. Indiana University has the resources... Dolson just needs to do the work... and I have to believe that he will get it right.

[Kentuckysucks 3,096]

1 minute ago, Certified Sunshine Pumper said:

How could you possibly believe something like that? 

Why would I not believe it?  Heard it from people close to the program.  Crean was absolutely manic.  Not a bad man but extremely unorthodox.

[Jet812 101]

24 minutes ago, AZ Hoosier said:

 

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

No, he banged Madonna…

[AZ Hoosier 9,005]

9 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Went to Vegas and knocked boots with Carmen Electra?

She’s getting older, but impressive nonetheless.

Well, silicone is pretty resilient... 

[IUBtown 46]

7 minutes ago, Certified Sunshine Pumper said:

So many lies wrapped into one post. 

Feel free to correct it.  

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 9,916]

Just now, Kentuckysucks said:

Why would I not believe it?  Heard it from people close to the program.  Crean was absolutely manic.  Not a bad man but extremely unorthodox.

Because it makes no f'ing sense. 

They have blocked off times in their schedule for practice. They do have a class schedule..... 

[HoosierMatty 499]

Just to add to the Bennett thing. Even though a candidate like him or Stevens has the ability to talk directly to our AD I can't image it would ever happen on our  campus. They would meet somewhere far away. 

[Chris007 52,555]

8 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.

100%. Even as a ref I would get a message saying Coach is going to practice in an hour can you be at assembly hall in 2 hours

[Jet812 101]

17 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.

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.

I do like how it seems someone is floating names out there, almost like they’re providing distractions from what’s really going on, but that almost seems too competent for the IU Athletic Dept. I’ve grown accustomed to.

[JSHoosier 21,412]

23 minutes ago, Trish said:

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

In those 5 years Bennett averaged 22 wins per year and an average conference finish between 2 and 3. In his last 5 years here Crean averaged about 20 wins and an average conference finish of about 5th.

Crean didn't have the consistency of Bennett, inconsistency was one problem with Crean.

[MonteMarcaccini 130]

2 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

Why would I not believe it?  Heard it from people close to the program.  Crean was absolutely manic.  Not a bad man but extremely unorthodox.

If you’ve ever listened to Hysterics podcast, multiple players have confirmed it.  Not a secret.  And a crazy way to run things.  He claimed it helped them be ready to adapt when things didn’t go their way in games.  Dumb.

[Kentuckysucks 3,096]

3 minutes ago, Certified Sunshine Pumper said:

Because it makes no f'ing sense. 

They have blocked off times in their schedule for practice. They do have a class schedule..... 

And Crean of course knew their class schedule.