Mike Woodson to be next IUBB coach. Thad Matta to be associate AD

[Class of '66 Old Fart 83,509]

Transcript of the press conference -

https://www.insidethehall.com/2021/03/29/transcript-mike-woodson-introductory-press-conference/

[Bgaines99 62]

Just getting around to watching the press conference and 25 minutes in I’m in tears with Woody’s humility and emotion. 

[bleedhoosier 3,627]

I love the mix of humility and referring to himself in the 3rd person

[Artie86 1,830]

3 minutes ago, Bgaines99 said:

Just getting around to watching the press conference and 25 minutes in I’m in tears with Woody’s humility and emotion. 

Same.....I wiped my face 3 time, luckily I was at lunch, at my desk.

[Willkie71 173]

34 minutes ago, Stromboli said:

 

After a day of consideration and learning about Coach Woody, I’m a big fan of the hire. Very different from Archie’s energy, for sure. Hearing Dolson talk about the three main concerns of the players was telling: relationship with coach, skill development, overall style of play. I’d say this is in line with what we all suspected. I agree with the sentiment that Woodson will be a players’ coach. Personally I view that as a great thing. Woodson is calm and self-assured and large and accomplished. He’s got some swag about him, has so much more to his resume than a Lewis or Fife or even Cheaney. And I think he’s going to have real rapport with these guys having come from Indy and succeeded and has awesome pics with the hair and records that still hold up. And the dude wants to bring our offense and defense current! Yeah. The more I think about him the more I like it. My reservations before were really just ignorance. Oh, lastly, his reverence for IU ball. Hard to imagine many more qualified to connect and instill that in young players. 

The announcement of Matta simultaneous to Woodson was an interesting choice. We’ve talked about making a splash with the hire, and this I think was an effort towards that, which could be seen as a recognition that Woodson himself doesn’t make that splash. Hard to imagine a fiery guy like Matta can sit back and not try to take some ownership along the way. Regardless, he has to be viewed as an asset. 
 

As for transfers vs retention, I’m nearing ambiguity. I do like our players, but will like the new ones, too. Let Coach build his own team. 

Regarding the Matta hire, SD mentioned hiring a "CEO of basketball operations" or something like that in his initial press conference regarding the new coach hire criteria.  So, he must have been thinking of this all along even before deciding on Woody.   Not sure how this would have worked for the Masshole, but should work great with Woody. Perfect situation for Matta also, allowing him to stay involved in bball, but not so demanding or stressful on his health.  Love the hires, excitement is back.

[Willkie71 173]

6 minutes ago, Bgaines99 said:

Just getting around to watching the press conference and 25 minutes in I’m in tears with Woody’s humility and emotion. 

I thought it was just me lol.  I thought he was having a hard time holding it together too. Would have been epic if he had teared up too haha

[hoosierfan84 296]

2 hours ago, Trish said:

His ability to recruit the teams own players coming back will give us a sign of his recruiting abilities, stop. He said he would beg for them to stay. Let's see how good he is. 

Again, players come and go all the time when coaching changes are made. If they want to be here, fine. If not, fine. I'm quite confident in Woodson's tone meaning that he wants them to see that IU is a great place to be and to play ball. He's dealt with more finicky personalities in the NBA. In the end, if they want to go, he's gonna say go. I'm quite certain that when the day is done, whoever leaves will have left not because Mike Woodson is the coach, but rather that they didn't like what Mike Woodson was going to expect of them. Stop.

[hoosrnight 52]

I didn’t get to see the presser, but from everything I’m reading here, I’m liking the hire more. It’s nice to have a head coach that truly WANTS to be here as opposed to getting paid to be here.

[DChoosier 7,643]

25 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

I like the mindset but unfortunately today most kids are soft.  It's not the 1980s anymore.  I just think he's going to have trouble getting recruits with that old school mindset.

I’m an old dude that sees a lot of tough minded kids still playing in the tourney .The “tougher” ‘70’s, 80’s” mentality is romanticized these days as there were plenty of screw ups back then, hard partiers, they didn’t have to deal with constant social media scrutiny and many of them didn’t do squat in the off-season.  

[PB1230 502]

Also, the knee jerk reaction is that an NBA guy like Woodson might struggle to relate to college younger players, but the Knicks currently have 6 guys on the roster between the ages of 20-23 (essentially college aged players), and those younger players are the ones coaches are going to be giving more attention anyway rather than the veterans

Edited March 29, 2021 by PB1230

[hoosierfan84 296]

1 minute ago, DChoosier said:

I’m an old dude that sees a lot of tough minded kids still playing in the tourney .The “tougher” ‘70’s, 80’s” mentality is romanticized these days as there were plenty of screw ups back then, hard partiers, they didn’t have to deal with constant social media scrutiny and many of them didn’t do squat in the off-season.  

Exactly. Sure there are plenty of soft kids today, but there are a ton of kids out there that want to be disciplined, and who want to be really coached. That argument is a bunch of bunk if you ask me.

[Hoosier Roots 732]

29 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

I like the mindset but unfortunately today most kids are soft.  It's not the 1980s anymore.  I just think he's going to have trouble getting recruits with that old school mindset.

The dude was an NBA coach during the 1 and done era. I feel like he would have no problem handling primadonna 18-20 year olds. 

[rcbowla 6,973]

SIAP but for all the haters that lost their **** over Brad Stevens.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

[Dalton26 16,892]

I’ll be honest. I’ve warmed up a lot more to the hire than I was yesterday. the press conference and Matta definitely helped, the shout out to coach knight big plus to me. If woody does what he says he’s going to do and bridge the old school with the new school I think he’ll have success. 

[Trish 11,483]

Just now, rcs29 said:

SIAP but for all the haters that lost their **** over Brad Stevens.

 

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk
 

 

To be fair, It's BRAD ******* STEVENS! 

[tomallenfan1 581]

My initial reaction to Woodson hiring was disappointment as I had believed we still had a shot at getting Oats/Musselman/etc. But ever since Goodman tweeted he didn’t like the hire AND Thad being announced as an quasi-assistant.. I’m feeling hopeful.

[HoosierCoop 3,885]

4 minutes ago, PB1230 said:

Also, the knee jerk reaction is that an NBA guy like Woodson might struggle to relate to college younger players, but the Knicks currently have 6 guys on the roster between the ages of 20-23 (essentially college aged players), and those younger players are the ones coaches are going to be giving more attention anyway rather than the veterans

Also to note, CMW has been endorsed by not only current NBA players, but NBA legends.  His network of relationships is by far valuable when you can use that on the recruiting trail.  When Miller was hired, he was endorsed by the media.  Look where that ended up.  When you have player of both NBA and IU rooting for you, the sky is the limit.

[hoosierfan84 296]

58 minutes ago, southsidehoosier said:

Rick Bozich couldn’t put the dog outside during his questioning?

Hey, Kravitz wasn't smart enough to turn the TV down while he was on the phone.

[Trish 11,483]

2 minutes ago, HoosierCoop said:

Also to note, CMW has been endorsed by not only current NBA players, but NBA legends.  His network of relationships is by far valuable when you can use that on the recruiting trail.  When Miller was hired, he was endorsed by the media.  Look where that ended up.  When you have player of both NBA and IU rooting for you, the sky is the limit.

It's nice people like Woodson and of course having the older Indiana fans more tuned in than recent years. But the results have to be there. He has to win and he has to win big. 

If it's not working in 2024/2025 then cut ties. If there's some potential, keep going. 

[mdiu28 1,752]

Can someone tell me what the "sweet georgia brown" play DD mentioned to Woody is. Got a hell of a laugh out of the guy. 

Guess it's a Woodson inbounds play?