IndyResident16

Not guys who have never coached collegiately prior. That should be the bare minimum requirement.

I gave him a pass in year 1 and even year 2 although year 2 ended in a disaster. His year 3 team had multiple upperclassmen who were all P5 capable players based on their offer sheets out of high school who all played a ton as underclassmen. There were several underclassmen on the roster who were highly and nationally ranked coming out of high school as well. Did I expect Crean to win the National Title in year 3? Of course not. But acting like finishing 3-15 and dead freaking last in the conference is some form of acceptable is ASININE. You think KU, UNC, Kentucky etc are bringing back a coach for a 4th year who went 3-15 the year prior? Hell no. But those programs also take basketball seriously. Make any excuse you want, it’s what you do, but Crean’s 3rd year was an absolute failure any way you try and slice it and termination would have certainly been warranted had the administration actually cared.

Why is it stupid to include year 3? Teams in rebuilding mode should be progressing each year. Going 3-15 and losing 9 straight games to end the season isn’t progressing at all. I didn’t say he HAD to be fired after year 3, simply said it would have been justified. There were huge red flags all over the place after 3 years.

Thank God we kept a coach after a 3-15 conference season just so we can relive a regular season game 10+ years after the fact. Tells you just how far this program has fallen. Unbelievable.

Guys who aren't qualified to coach here in the first place should have the shortest of leashes.

He wasn't during year 3. Typically during the rebuilding process you look for other things such as player development, in-game adjustments, how players respond to adversity, etc. IU was a talented albeit young team during year 3 of the Crean era, but that team absolutely quit. You almost have to try and lose 9 games in a row unless that is of course you've lost the locker room which I absolutely believed to be the case for that Crean team. Going 3-15 in the B10 in your 3rd year is unacceptable, especially considering the B10 wasn't all that great during the 10-11 season.

I had serious concerns about Crean after year 2. Year 1 was understandable, but year 2 IU lost 11 straight games (9 by double-digits) before winning the finale against NW in OT. Year 3 the team quit on him again as they lost their last 9 games of the year. Obviously the Zeller commitment was huge and IU played like a worthy team years 4 and 5, but the ending of that Syracuse game was the nail in the coffin for me. Went 17-15 in year 6 with another missed tourney and he limped into the tournament as a 10 seed in year 7. I think firing him after year 3 the way the season ended would have been justified but they absolutely should have pulled the plug after year 6.

My schedule used to revolve around IU games. I’ve voluntarily chosen not to watch a few this year. Outside the two games in the Garden I attended, haven’t seen them play in person once. Not worth the time or effort.

Lol. This might not be statistically the worst season ever (it isn’t), but easily the most disappointing, unenjoyable season in my 52 years. Watching IU basketball is like a chore. There’s nothing redeeming about this years team or anybody on it. When Anthony Leal coming off the bench to beat a 12-9 Iowa team at home is likely the highlight of the season, you know its bad.

This current athletic administration gave Tom Allen a $30 million extension and buyout (fully guaranteed) and hired and already extended Mike Woodson. It's been a constant problem for 20+ years and it's because we keep hiring people to leadership roles who don't know what they're doing.

When you're 20+ years and 5 failed coaches in, where else do you start to lay blame? The athletic department has neglected the most important revenue generating sport for seemingly ever. Yeah, I'd say the athletic department deserves more than their fair share of the blame.

It's starts at the top with administrative leadership. Duke, Kentucky, Carolina, etc don't have incompetent athletic directors. Sure not every hire is a home run and there have been instances where it simply doesn't work out, see Matt Doherty or Bill Gillespie, but it doesn't become a 20+ year problem to fix. When you continue to hire guys to leadership and decision making roles (Glass and Dolson) who don't know what they're doing, it further compounds the problem.

It wasn’t pay for play. Chuck Person accepted money in the form of a bribe to try and steer current Auburn players towards a certain sports agency once their eligibility was up. Doesn’t implicate Pearl at all.

We are in the reality stages of the Mike Woodson era. Anybody who thought this was going to be anything more than a band aid hire to unite the older and younger generations for a year or two was lying to themselves. This hire was doomed to fail from the start. Shudder to think where we’d be right now if a generational talent in TJD elected to keep his name in the draft. Chris Mullin St. John’s level bad?

Can they pass, dribble, shoot?

Leal wasn't dressed last night and Sparks can't make a layup. I'd have left my starters in till the end of the game as a form of punishment and embarrassment. And then ran their ass the second the game ended for whatever fans were left to see it.

I think you absolutely can blame it on being an NBA guy. Doesn't mean he doesn't know X's and O's, but he's never been tasked with constructing a roster, managing/developing college aged kids, etc. They have highly paid personnel in the NBA to do that. And the sets we do run don't reciprocate with the level of talent or personnel that we do have. It's a lot easier to run a 2 man game or iso in the NBA when the talent level allows it. We run very little off the ball to free up good looks or put players in position to score.

This staff has two Archie holdovers (Hunter and Walsh) and a recruiter who doesn't seem to be pulling his weight. All being lead by a 30 year NBA guy who doesn't understand the college game.

No way. The Bob Knight return game was at least competitive for a half. Last night's game was over by the 2nd media TO.

Woodson can recruit top individual talent. That's where his NBA connections come into play and our NIL budget doesn't hurt either. But he is completely in over his head constructing a roster. This isn't the NBA where you can trot out the 5 best players and talent wins out more than not over the course of an 82 game season. He hasn't figured this out yet and most likely never will.

Archie checked nearly all of the boxes for a young coach, except for one: winning at a big time program. He failed miserably at that. Every elite coach at one point was an up and comer, I get that. But for every elite basketball coach who wins at the highest level, there's a hundred failed up and comers who never make it at the top level. It's a risk every single time you go this hiring route. If you had to bet on someone succeeding at IU in the next 5 years who would you put your money on (or in the AD;'s case your job): Dusty May or somebody like Bruce Pearl/Chris Beard? That needs to be the only approach going forward.

Jfc. We’re a soft team both physically and mentally compounded with terrible bball IQ. The administration has made hires that have lead us from bad to worse the last two decades. Just get it over with and hire a real college basketball coach. I’m tired of watching the athletic department make PC and/or safe hires. We just showed some balls hiring an actual football coach for the first time in some 40 years. Zero reason it can’t happen in basketball.

Woodson's run in NY ended when the Knicks hired Phil Jackson as president of basketball operations late into his 3rd season and ultimately his last. Jackson wanted a coach familiar with his Triangle offense and fired Woodson in favor of rookie head coach Derek Fisher, who ended up an unmitigated disaster. Woodson wasn't fired for performance rather a philosophical change in the front office. It's the nature of the business at that level.

Yes and no. By efficiency metrics and disrupting what Rutgers wanted to do, yes the defense was fine. But by my count, Rutgers scored 14 points off offensive rebounds. That can't happen against a team like Rutgers.

Give Woodson the same BS title they gave Matta, let him sit courtside for every home game, and name an administration lounge after him with a walk-in humidor and on-call catador.