They “Retired” Coach Woodson Thread

[spe317 669]

3 minutes ago, Hoosierfan1901 said:

Seen a lot of conflicting reports, saw that Musselman was looking for greener pastures, aka Louisville 

He’s basically burned his bridges in Arkansas and not sure anyone’s looking to touch him. 

[RoncalliHoosier 409]

2 hours ago, HinnyHoosier said:

Whether they actually said it or not is moot in the big picture. It is however an easy scapegoat when the most concerning thing was how bad the team and the trajectory of the program looks and you'd rather not say it out loud.

There's a level of toxicity within every large fan base. But when it appears to be building stronger and stronger, there's a reason for that. Every symptom has a cause.

The optics are his decommitment had to do with the announcement that Woodson was coming back for 24-25. 

There were reports that Liam had decided to decommit as early as December/January, but was waiting to see if Woodson would be fired so his LOI release would be automatic. When the news broke that Woodson would return, Liam made the announcement and asked for his release.

But yeah, it was the fans that drove him away. LMAO. It was Woodson's coaching and the lack of supporting cast ("recruiting") that caused Liam to reconsider.

[RoncalliHoosier 409]

2 hours ago, mdiu28 said:

oh Steubs....never change

Nope... like the Enegizer Bunny, he just drones on and on and on.

[RoncalliHoosier 409]

1 hour ago, Schreckbagger said:

When your fans are booing your own players on a televised game, that's pretty much the definition of toxic.

Sent from my SM-S906U using BtownBanners mobile app

How do you know that they were booing the fans instead of Mediocre Mike?

[Hoosierfan1901 6,947]

3 minutes ago, spe317 said:

He’s basically burned his bridges in Arkansas and not sure anyone’s looking to touch him. 

Sounds like it, UA fans were questioning some of his online media stuff. Like removing “Head Coach of Arkansas Razorbacks” from his bios.

[RoncalliHoosier 409]

1 minute ago, Hoosierfan1901 said:

Sounds like it, UA fans were questioning some of his online media stuff. Like removing “Head Coach of Arkansas Razorbacks” from his bios.

I could see why that would be a clue to the fans. It's like your wife changing her FB status to "single".

[cleeter 2,651]

Sorry to keep bumping this, but did anyone ever explain what the Woody was a Bridge comment meant? Bridge to a specific plan or coach, what the heck was their strategy when they hired him? 

I believe by bridge, they mean like bridge to get us back where we should be. Like they got an old school IU guy that knows what being a coach at IU means and what IU needs to get back to etc etc. Plan sounds good. Execution. F-


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[RaceToTheTop 28,089]

31 minutes ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

Lots of wild reports for Louisville. 

As Trilly Donovan has said, don’t trust any info coming out if Louisville.

[JSHoosier 21,469]

33 minutes ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

Sorry to keep bumping this, but did anyone ever explain what the Woody was a Bridge comment meant? Bridge to a specific plan or coach, what the heck was their strategy when they hired him? 

Woodson once got overlooked for a job he never should've had, him and his friends got their feelings hurt. That kind of injustice simply could not be allowed to stand.

Did you think IUBB was serious? After the last 25 years?

[OKHOOSIER 4,717]

3 hours ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

Sorry to keep bumping this, but did anyone ever explain what the Woody was a Bridge comment meant? Bridge to a specific plan or coach, what the heck was their strategy when they hired him? 

The bridge stuff was BS when it was stated. It was the same as Woody agreeing to Matta and Fife and then not using them. I’m convinced now they knew the hire would go over with a collective dud, which it did, and were trying to soften the blow. It all seems very calculated now in hindsight to appease the fan base and slide in QBs guy who everyone knew was wildly unqualified for the job. They said “bridge” so we would all take a collective breath and think maybe he could be a short term answer as we look for “the guy.” It was all a snow job. 

[JSHoosier 21,469]

3 hours ago, OKHOOSIER said:

The bridge stuff was BS when it was stated. It was the same as Woody agreeing to Matta and Fife and then not using them. I’m convinced now they knew the hire would go over with a collective dud, which it did, and were trying to soften the blow. It all seems very calculated now in hindsight to appease the fan base and slide in QBs guy who everyone knew was wildly unqualified for the job. They said “bridge” so we would all take a collective breath and think maybe he could be a short term answer as we look for “the guy.” It was all a snow job. 

To think there were actually some on this board that thought it was a good hire.

[Hoosier DaDa 3,395]

13 hours ago, IU - Kaulie said:

It’s Kaulie.

Noted and sorry Kaulie

[str8baller 6,280]

4 hours ago, OKHOOSIER said:

The bridge stuff was BS when it was stated. It was the same as Woody agreeing to Matta and Fife and then not using them. I’m convinced now they knew the hire would go over with a collective dud, which it did, and were trying to soften the blow. It all seems very calculated now in hindsight to appease the fan base and slide in QBs guy who everyone knew was wildly unqualified for the job. They said “bridge” so we would all take a collective breath and think maybe he could be a short term answer as we look for “the guy.” It was all a snow job. 

I perused back through the hiring of Woodson thread a while ago because I was curious of my own reaction. Your characterization is correct, at least for this board. The hiring of Matta and Fife definitely softened the blow for a lot of people.   
 

The bridge terminology is something I think we fans came up with. It was the only logical way a hiring of someone that age was going to make any sense on a long term scale. Obviously we are seeing the many flaws with that bit of hope too. 

[Chris007 52,954]

8 hours ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

Sorry to keep bumping this, but did anyone ever explain what the Woody was a Bridge comment meant? Bridge to a specific plan or coach, what the heck was their strategy when they hired him? 

A bridge to a younger coach who will be here for a long time. He's old so he's just bridging the past to the future. Who that is? Well, there is no plan for that

[IUrocker 2,435]

I know some people say maybe Mike worked some magic and got everyone to stay. Maybe I’m not thinking correctly on this, but wouldn’t that not be very encouraging either? Keeping the same group of guys that might have snuck into the NIT? I think it’s a damned if you do damned if you don’t with what Woodson does at this point. Keep everyone he has now means how can we change from the season we just had, or mostly everyone he has leaves and he buys a bunch of players he can’t do anything with. Ahhh misery ha. Ready for the tournament to get here to see if any results of others end up starting to produce some traction for who is gonna be getting who in regards to the coaching carousel. 

[Silat Player 958]

12 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

Just blows my mind that those people actually support this. I figured the whole reason they wanted Woodson was because they felt he would run the program like Knight. Buying a team full of transfers is the antithesis of Indiana basketball. 

Come on. This is the program and AD who hired Woodson in the first place. 

A 60-something coach with ZERO college basketball coaching experience who hadn't even been an NBA head coach for years. There was no part of this that was logical. 

There's no part of keeping Woodson and throwing a bunch of money at the portal that's logical either. You're going to get a bunch of pieces that aren't going to fit together. It's going to be a season of Misfit Toys.

[Golfman25 6,228]

8 hours ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

Sorry to keep bumping this, but did anyone ever explain what the Woody was a Bridge comment meant? Bridge to a specific plan or coach, what the heck was their strategy when they hired him? 

My expectation was that he would put the program on a solid foundation.  Rebuild recruiting in state, develop players, win enough to make the tournament regularly, and then work on a smooth transition to the next guy.  Had no expectation that he would be an arrogant sob who’s basically destroying the program.  

[IUFAN1976 4,320]

3 minutes ago, Silat Player said:

Come on. This is the program and AD who hired Woodson in the first place. 

A 60-something coach with ZERO college basketball coaching experience who hadn't even been an NBA head coach for years. There was no part of this that was logical. 

There's no part of keeping Woodson and throwing a bunch of money at the portal that's logical either. You're going to get a bunch of pieces that aren't going to fit together. It's going to be a season of Misfit Toys.

That’s because Woodson on wants the highest rated players he can get and that he doesn’t recruit to fit his system he plays because he has no exact system he plays.  

[iu-dl 1,593]

Say what you will, but I think the lack of transfers from IU (MR, MM, CG, others) is telling. In my mind, they're not "all in" on Woodson. They're waiting to see what happens. This probably sounds like a crazy theory, but I think Gunn specifically is outta-here. If anything related to Pearl or another highly regarded coach is remotely a possibility, they stay and wait for a few more weeks until the tournament is over. Or, I'm crazy.

[BleedCubbieBlue 1,698]

 

3 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

My expectation was that he would put the program on a solid foundation.  Rebuild recruiting in state, develop players, win enough to make the tournament regularly, and then work on a smooth transition to the next guy.  Had no expectation that he would be an arrogant sob who’s basically destroying the program.  

Go back and read what he actually said about that bridge. Here are the direct quotes:

"Because it’s going to be my job to bridge the gap between young people who don’t know who coach Woodson is and the old-timers who don’t know who I am. I’m going to bring all the old-timers back like the old days, and we going to bridge the gap between old and new."

"A lot of these old-timers, they probably look at me as an old-timer. We laid the groundwork for where we are today and those players should never, ever be forgotten and in my heart they won’t ever be forgotten. So I will bring them all back and bridge this gap that’s so desperately needed why the young players and the young fan base that we do have, a lot of these young fan base, they don’t know who I am and I get that."

It was always about making sure everyone knew how important Mike Woodson and his buddies were.