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After Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens told the world – repeatedly – that he had no interest in being Indiana’s next coach, the name “Juwan Howard” kept coming up. .
Juwan Howard. Juwan Howard. Juwan Howard.
Everyone else I’ve spoken to over the past few days has suggested that Indiana may ultimately decide to do what Michigan did a few years ago: hire an elder to run the program. Why? Because, man, watch how Juwan Howard kills him at his alma mater!
So with that in mind, it wasn’t too surprising on Sunday when a source confirmed that Indiana was indeed hiring former Hoosiers star Mike Woodson as their next coach. The school then confirmed the news.
As you might expect, the announcement sparked a lot of understandable skepticism. Indiana fans can be optimistic now, if they want – and really, what’s the point of being anything other than that? – but here’s the truth: If you had told them two weeks ago that IU was about to pay $ 10 million to get Archie Miller to leave, six players would enter the transfer portal (including three of the top four scorers ), and 63-year-old Mike Woodson (who spent nine seasons as an NBA coach but never worked on a college campus) would be the man about to come back and put everything back in order, the answer would not have been pretty.
It is indisputable.
But it’s also the truth: who knows how it will actually turn out?
I firmly believed that Miller was a fantastic employee for Indiana – and I was wrong. So I have no interest in telling you that I am sure how it will unfold. That said, as I wrote last week, it’s still reasonable to wonder if you’re paying $ 10 million to blow up your program – instead of just letting Miller bring back most of a team’s best pieces from the KenPom’s top 50 and see if next season could be a breakthrough – could end up being a net negative. And it could definitely, really, definitely end up being a net negative. At best, it’s probably a setback. But regardless of the short-term damage or the long-term results, Indiana just decided she’d rather gamble on the next thing than stick with someone she no longer believed in.
So here we are.
It should be noted that Indiana’s decision to hire Woodson comes with an addendum. The Hoosiers are also enlisting former Ohio State coach Thad Matta as associate athletic director for basketball to play an advisory role to Woodson. It’s clearly a good move, one that should make up for some of Woodson’s lack of experience at the college level. However, the question of whether this is ultimately a success or a failure will be determined not by the new AD partner but by the new coach.
It’s up to Woodson to do that.
If he wants to be for Indiana what Howard has already become for Michigan, the first thing Woodson has to do is follow Howard’s lead and hire great staff. Then he has to convince Trayce Jackson-Davis to stay, dissuade some Indiana players from the transfer portal, convince non-Indiana players at the portal to play for the Hoosiers, and generally build the roster in an inspiring way.
If Woodson can do that, it might work. If he can’t, he probably won’t.
Either way, I can’t wait to see it unfold. Once again, Indiana has a new coach. Again, it’s not Brad Stevens. And now we all see whether paying $ 10 million to replace Archie Miller with Mike Woodson turns out to be a smart move or just more money poorly spent.
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