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It was a game that surely made the people of Michigan who roam among us terribly happy. The Wolverines may not have looked as good at their schooling in Florida state as Gonzaga buried Creighton earlier today, but only by degrees.
Michigan grabbed the game early, controlled the midfield, clinched a 76-58 win at the end of the game. The Wolverines looked formidable on both sides of the pitch, and on offense they were an indoor-outdoor strength / finesse clinic that will keep the purists humming through Tuesday night and the Elite Eights.
They have been and are brilliantly trained.
And that’s why, as happy as Michigan fans may be right now, there must be some tension of optimism emerging from their conference rival Indiana. Earlier Sunday, the Hoosiers named Knicks assistant (and former head coach) Mike Woodson to replace Archie Miller and try to guide IU out of the abyss.
At first glance, this is a curious choice.
At second glance, you realize a few other things:
- Woodson was one of the best players in Indiana history, scoring 2,061 points on four Bob Knight teams that went to two NCAA tournaments and won the 1979 NIT – just as Juwan Howard was one one of the best players in Michigan history, scoring 1526 points on three Steve Fisher’s Teams that made three NCAAs and two title appearances.
- Woodson hasn’t coached a college ball second so far – like Howard before he took over the Wolverines last year.
- Woodson takes the job as people wonder if this wasn’t news better reported by “The Onion,” like the reaction than when Howard was hired to replace John Beilein in Michigan.
Sure, Woodson may be 63 – 15 years older than Howard – but he’s already been a head coach for 680 games, winning 315 of them, including a 109-79 record with the 2012 Knicks. 14, the only New York coach since Jeff Van Gundy resigned in 2001 to have a winning record.
Indiana has decided to ride a volatile wave here. There had been many instances where hiring a legend at the Alma Mater hadn’t worked out at all – think Clyde Drexler in Houston, Eddie Jordan at Rutgers, Chris Mullin in St. John’s. But in recent years, this trend has started to reverse.
There’s Penny Hardaway at Memphis State, and the Tigers won the NIT on Sunday afternoon with a decisive 77-64 victory over Mississippi State. There’s Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, whose Big East Hoyas won and despite being hammered by Colorado, is expected to be on the rise thanks to momentum and a good recruiting class.
And there’s Howard, who had Michigan as high as No. 2 in the polls for some time this year, who is 44-16 in two years and will host the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class in Ann Arbor. the next time. falls.
Yes. This is exactly what Indiana hopes to channel.
“The coach has always prepared us and always has a great game plan,” said Franz Wagner, who had 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to lead the Wolverines. “There is nothing that surprises us because we have a lot of confidence before each game.”
Woodson’s biggest move now, immediately, is to muster the kind of staff that Howard, Ewing, and Hardaway were able to muster in their old schools because, like Howard, this is the only area he’ll go blind in. He hasn’t been part of the recruiting process since Knight pulled him from Broad Ripple High in Indianapolis 45 years ago.
We have seen up close that he knows how to train. The Knicks have had an aberrant season since 2000, and it was the 2012-13 season in which they won 54 games and beat the Celtics in the playoffs. Earlier in Atlanta, the Hawks increased their winning streak in each of their six seasons. He was mentored by Knight and Larry Brown, two of the best.
The Hoosiers will be well trained.
Will they have the talent to make it count? It’s coming. It is to be discovered. But based on what Hoosiers fans see happening in their northern rival, they need to be filled with at least a minimum of hope today. Juwan Howard, among all the people, gives them that.
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