General Coach Candidate News

[Demo]

3 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

A coach in his 60s when he took his first college coaching job of his career. I think it’s as simple as that.   All he knew as a coach was the NBA game.  When you have spent 30 + years coaching in a entirely different sport and think you can come in the college game and because it’s below the NBA you think you can just step in and pick it up right away is the wrong approach.    Not just Woody almost every nba guy that has come into the college game has failed.    I don’t think they know just how much of a grind being a college basketball coach really is.  Listen to any college basketball lifer talk and they say it takes part of your life away in the business.  You have limited life outside of being the coach.  It never stops.  Ego of being from the NBA and thinking the college game is inferior probably has something to do with it as well.  You want to be successful in college you have to put the work in and grind.  Bottom line Woody didn’t want to grind and now we are looking for a grinder to lead this program back.    Hopefully Otzelberger doesn’t sign an extension and wants to grind in Bloomington 

100%. For all the BS about IUBB HC being Woody’s “dream job” it was nothing of the sort. It’s his dream TITLE, but that he’s been miserable in the college game is clear as day.

[OGIUAndy]

11 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

A coach in his 60s when he took his first college coaching job of his career. I think it’s as simple as that.   All he knew as a coach was the NBA game.  When you have spent 30 + years coaching in a entirely different sport and think you can come in the college game and because it’s below the NBA you think you can just step in and pick it up right away is the wrong approach.    Not just Woody almost every nba guy that has come into the college game has failed.    I don’t think they know just how much of a grind being a college basketball coach really is.  Listen to any college basketball lifer talk and they say it takes part of your life away in the business.  You have limited life outside of being the coach.  It never stops.  Ego of being from the NBA and thinking the college game is inferior probably has something to do with it as well.  You want to be successful in college you have to put the work in and grind.  Bottom line Woody didn’t want to grind and now we are looking for a grinder to lead this program back.    Hopefully Otzelberger doesn’t sign an extension and wants to grind in Bloomington 

I'd say it's been more the other way around. Former NBA players who think they can coach CBB, maybe. But how many former NBA head coaches go to college? Normally it's college guys who think they can coach the NBA: 

Rick Pitino, P.J. Carlesimo, John Calipari, John Beilein, Lon Kruger, Fred Hoiberg, Billy Donovan to name a few who were very successful college coaches and not so much in the NBA. 

[Hoosierfanyuh]

Yeah I’m just ready for March lol. IUBB games that will matter and when our season ends we’ll start getting into the nitty gritty of it all; new coach and portal, the boards will be on fire 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

6-year old article FWIW

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2019/05/22/what-history-tells-juwan-howard-ex-nba-players-jump-college-coaching-mixed-results/3766698002/

[iu eyedoc]

1 hour ago, Kentuckysucks said:

There’s an obvious solution ;-)

Chris Beard showing up to pick up your daughter(unpictured: the 12 pack of Natty Light in his lifted F150)

[Kentuckysucks]

9 minutes ago, iu eyedoc said:

Chris Beard showing up to pick up your daughter(unpictured: the 12 pack of Natty Light in his lifted F150)

A 12 pack of Natty Daddy.

[JustWinBaby]

5 hours ago, EasyEJay said:

https://x.com/tyme1299218/status/1895190226106225006?s=46&t=wvB5Ust96aXw3uINU-fkXw
 

Guessing the 3 Xs are 

Stevens 

May 

Otz 

I know it’s suppose to be no news is good news but I could really use a pick me up! Lol 

can we stop acting like Tyme is an insider who knows anything? he's clearly connected to the current staff but is not connected within the athletic department

he also missed on a lot of recruitment predictions this offseason because he was being fed sunshine and rainbows by whoever his staff source is, but deleted his tweets so people couldn't go back and call him on his BS

[RaceToTheTop]

Just now, JustWinBaby said:

can we stop acting like Tyme is an insider who knows anything? he's clearly connected to the current staff but is not connected within the athletic department

he also missed on a lot of recruitment predictions this offseason because he was being fed sunshine and rainbows by whoever his staff source is, but deleted his tweets so people couldn't go back and call him on his BS

I remember when he talked about how the staff was in on Danny Wolf coming to IU.

[JustWinBaby]

5 minutes ago, RaceToTheTop said:

I remember when he talked about how the staff was in on Danny Wolf coming to IU.

He said Connor Essegian to IU was a done deal multiple times, doubled and tripled down on it, then it was announced literally that day he was going to Nebraska and he deleted all his tweets on the topic.

He blocked me for asking why he got it wrong lol. He blocks anyone who questions or dissents with his BS.

[Pagoda]

53 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

A coach in his 60s when he took his first college coaching job of his career. I think it’s as simple as that.   All he knew as a coach was the NBA game.  When you have spent 30 + years coaching in a entirely different sport and think you can come in the college game and because it’s below the NBA you think you can just step in and pick it up right away is the wrong approach.    Not just Woody almost every nba guy that has come into the college game has failed.    I don’t think they know just how much of a grind being a college basketball coach really is.  Listen to any college basketball lifer talk and they say it takes part of your life away in the business.  You have limited life outside of being the coach.  It never stops.  Ego of being from the NBA and thinking the college game is inferior probably has something to do with it as well.  You want to be successful in college you have to put the work in and grind.  Bottom line Woody didn’t want to grind and now we are looking for a grinder to lead this program back.    Hopefully Otzelberger doesn’t sign an extension and wants to grind in Bloomington 

The grind point is spot on.  You know CBB better than I do, a few thoughts on my mind after reading your post:

I would guess it’s so much different working with less skilled and less experienced players. College players are in an earlier development phase, and figuring out how to help guys improve is vital and not the same vs working with polished and high skill NBA guys. Also understanding what various players are capable of and what you can get them to do is so different.  Carmelo vs Mgbako, Ray Felton vs Rice, Amare vs Malik… this is another world in college.

Woody had never really worked with college kids.  I think that’s why we see so many of our players stagnate outside of some bigs that had NBA level skills.  I also don’t think our offense or defense works well with college level players (or any level players eeeek).

And lastly, college coaches have to play a sort of father/role model/ mentor/disciplinarian role with 18-21 year olds that coaches either have or they don’t.  Woody has some of this, but he doesn’t have the disciplinarian part, or the role model part, which is another issue.

Broadly speaking, the best NBA coaches seem to be tacticians and ego managers.  Phil, Spo, etc.

By the way I’m not dogging CBB, I vastly prefer college to the pros — more passion with the fans, more interesting variability with younger players, and programs have more unique identities.

Overall, Woody was just a nightmare fit for CBB in so many ways.  I can’t wait to have a real CBB coach again.

[str8baller]

1 hour ago, Hovadipo said:

This isn’t based off much other than vibes from following IHSA basketball (and mostly the lower two classes at that) but it seems like the number of kids that can get into NW and actually play B1G basketball is extremely low in Illinois. The Martinelli/Ciarvali (I absolutely butchered that) kids are rare. I know that NW doesn’t move off their academic standards much either. 

I actually have a little second hand knowledge on this, and I would estimate NW is the tightest admission standard for athletes in the P5 . Second would be Stanford but they seem to be willing to make exceptions for athletes at times in a way NW doesn’t.  
 

In the 00s there used to be a story about a duke  assistant (before Colins and I forget who) that interviewed for the nw job. They gave NW admissions the blind resumes of several players to see if they would accept them. NW admissions said no. Those players turned out to be former Dukies like Laettner, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley. Obviously guys that got into Duke. Said coaching candidate turned down the NW job. 
 

Collins can coach his butt off. Not sure if he’d be successful at IU, but there’s no doubt that guy is a good coach. Just looking at his record in a vacuum is a mistake, imo.

[TheDMV]

Just a question for you all:

Is the significant negativity for Mark T mostly about his personality or results in the court, or some of both? If it’s the latter, it’s worth pointing out in his last 7 seasons at Maryland, his very worst team was the 2017-2018 squad, a team that went 19-13, finished 39 in KenPom, and probably should’ve been in the tournament. That was the *worst* team. In his four years at Texas A&M, he was dancing every season. 
 

So if you consider that and then add in that IU offers better NIL and other resources, is it really that crazy for  Dolson to think he’d be successful at IU?

 

again, just worth keeping an open mind. It’s a lot harder to hire away coaches who are having success than fans think. 

Edited February 28, 2025 by TheDMV

[Sobchak_Security]

27 minutes ago, JustWinBaby said:

can we stop acting like Tyme is an insider who knows anything? he's clearly connected to the current staff but is not connected within the athletic department

he also missed on a lot of recruitment predictions this offseason because he was being fed sunshine and rainbows by whoever his staff source is, but deleted his tweets so people couldn't go back and call him on his BS

He’s seems to be very sensitive.  Always talking about the impact of the fans on players and coaches.  Methinks he would have had a tough time here during the Knight years.  

[TheWatShot]

3 minutes ago, TheDMV said:

Just a question for you all:

Is the significant negativity for Mark T mostly about his personality or results in the court, or some of both? If it’s the latter, it’s worth pointing out in his last 7 seasons at Maryland, his very worst team was the 2017-2018 squad, a team that went 19-13, finished 39 in KenPom, and probably should’ve been in the tournament. That was the *worst* team. In his four years at Texas A&M, he was dancing every season. 
 

So if you consider that and then add in that IU offers better NIL and other resources, is it really that crazy for  Dolson to think he’d be successful at IU?

 

again, just worth keeping an open mind. It’s a lot harder to hire away coaches who are having success than fans think. 

The negativity is because he's not going to be the next coach here and nobody wants to discuss it. 

[Hovadipo]

5 minutes ago, TheDMV said:

again, just worth keeping an open mind.

No, it isn’t. 

[Sobchak_Security]

3 minutes ago, TheDMV said:

Just a question for you all:

Is the significant negativity for Mark T mostly about his personality or results in the court, or some of both? If it’s the latter, it’s worth pointing out in his last 7 seasons at Maryland, his very worst team was the 2017-2018 squad, a team that went 19-13, finished 39 in KenPom, and probably should’ve been in the tournament. That was the *worst* team. In his four years at Texas A&M, he was dancing every season. 
 

So if you consider that and then add in that IU NIL and other resources, is it really that for  Dolson to think he’d be successful at IU?

 

again, just worth keeping an open mind. It’s a lot harder to hire away coaches who are having success than fans think. 

He is similar to Woodson in that no one, college or pro, has been clamoring for him to be their coach.  Did UK or UL court him?  Shoot, any other school for that matter?  If Turgeon is even remotely close to being a candidate, the search has gone off the rails badly.  I would be stunned if, with all the NIL resources and apparent salary possibilities at our disposal, no one better could be had.

[tyappleg]

5 minutes ago, TheDMV said:

Just a question for you all:

Is the significant negativity for Mark T mostly about his personality or results in the court, or some of both? If it’s the latter, it’s worth pointing out in his last 7 seasons at Maryland, his very worst team was the 2017-2018 squad, a team that went 19-13, finished 39 in KenPom, and probably should’ve been in the tournament. That was the *worst* team. In his four years at Texas A&M, he was dancing every season. 
 

So if you consider that and then add in that IU NIL and other resources, is it really that for  Dolson to think he’d be successful at IU?

 

again, just worth keeping an open mind. It’s a lot harder to hire away coaches who are having success than fans think. 

I'll be honest, his resume at Maryland was better than I thought it was, ill give you that. But he had some talented teams and only got to the sweet 16 one time.  He's also 60 and hasn't coached in 5 years.  I just don't think there's a scenario where he ends up being the hire. 

[Home Jersey]

Mark Turgeon logging onto BTownBanners.com begging for IU fans to hear him out, lol

[Hovadipo]

17 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I actually have a little second hand knowledge on this, and I would estimate NW is the tightest admission standard for athletes in the P5 . Second would be Stanford but they seem to be willing to make exceptions for athletes at times in a way NW doesn’t.  
 

In the 00s there used to be a story about a duke  assistant (before Colins and I forget who) that interviewed for the nw job. They gave NW admissions the blind resumes of several players to see if they would accept them. NW admissions said no. Those players turned out to be former Dukies like Laettner, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley. Obviously guys that got into Duke. Said coaching candidate turned down the Duke job. 
 

Collins can coach his butt off. Not sure if he’d be successful at IU, but there’s no doubt that guy is a good coach. Just looking at his record in a vacuum is a mistake, imo.

I have a soft spot for NW and personally think it’s an awesome job for the right type of guy. It has a pretty defined ceiling, but no expectations, in a premiere conference. Location, facilities, campus community are all plusses too. I could see that being tough to leave, but with regard to Collins I have no idea if he’s ever had the opportunity to. 

[TheDMV]

4 minutes ago, tyappleg said:

I'll be honest, his resume at Maryland was better than I thought it was, ill give you that. But he had some talented teams and only got to the sweet 16 one time.  He's also 60 and hasn't coached in 5 years.  I just don't think there's a scenario where he ends up being the hire. 

The tournament is pretty random, though, and a much worse measure of coaches by itself than looking at the performance of teams across a whole season. Overweighting tournament performance for coach searches is how IU ended up with Archie — none of his teams at Dayton were actually very good if you look under the hood (KenPom). 

Edited February 28, 2025 by TheDMV