Category: Hoosiers

ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello have reported that Indiana Hoosiers head coach Mike Woodson is expected to coach the rest of the year, then step down as coach after the 2024-25 seasons end.

Goodman’s report says Woodson is “contemplating stepping down and retiring.” The report also says Woodson has lost the support of “high-level boosters and alum” at Indiana.

The Hoosiers are currently 14-9 overall and 5-7 in Big Ten play have struggled to find rhythm all season and are 1-6 in their last 7 games.

Woodson, 66, took over as the Indiana Hoosiers head coach in 2021 after former head coach Archie Miller’s departure.

Woodson entered this season with a 58-35 overall record through his first three seasons at his alma mater Indiana but he misses out on the NCAA Tournament a year ago after going 19-14 overall and 10-10 in Big Ten Conference play.

This 2024-25 roster was ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll and was looked at as a sleeper to win the Big Ten Conf but IU could never stay consistent on the court. The Hoosiers went 1-2 in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament and have gone through a very rough stretch in Big Ten as fore mentioned losing 6 out of the last seven matches.

The Hoosiers also have one of the most difficult remaining schedules in the entire country which features games against Michigan, Michigan State, UCLA, Purdue and Ohio State, amongst others.

Though the financial terms of coach Woodson’s contract remain unclear, his current contract specifies a payment of over $8 million if he is formally dismissed. The buyout can be paid in annual installments of $1 million, making it more manageable for the university’s budget.

Mike Woodson is contemplating retirement and the fans, pundits, analyst and social media eyes aren’t making it easier on Woodson.

Think it’s a good time to repost this article of the seven potential candidates who’d be in the running to replace Mike Woodson, who reportedly is on his way out at Indiana.

I respect the basketball player Mike Woodson was and his contributions as a PLAYER but for those of you giving him grace and feeling bad for him as a coach you were not paying attention. His own family regularly called us fans “IU Psychos” and threw hate at us lol

Didn’t understand the Mike Woodson hire then and took some/a lot flak from Indiana fans.

One of the biggest jobs in college basketball — and what could arguably be the biggest one available this spring — took a sizable step toward opening on Thursday, with ESPN reporting that Indiana men’s basketball coach Mike Woodson is not expected to return for the Hoosiers’ 2025-26 season.

The high-major coaching carousel has been spinning since late October, when Virginia’s Tony Bennett suddenly announced his retirement. Fellow ACC coaches Jim Larrañaga and Leonard Hamilton have followed suit in recent months, with Larranga leaving in the middle of his 14th season at Miami this past December, and Hamilton announcing his departure at the end of his 23rd season at Florida State in early February.

But the expected vacancy at Indiana is the most notable of this cycle thus far.

Woodson opened his Indiana tenure with back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances, finishing second in the Big Ten in 2023. But the Hoosiers have struggled since, missing last year’s NCAA tournament altogether after collapsing midway through their Big Ten campaign — and they are heading toward a similar fate this season, with a 5-7 record in conference play. They had top-25 expectations in the preseason after spending a lot of money on a talented portal class, but it hasn’t translated to success on the court. Woodson and his staff then compounded the issue by missing on top in-state recruits Jalen Haralson (Notre Dame) and Braylon Mullins (UConn) this past fall.

With Woodson likely on his way out in six weeks, here’s what you need to know about which coaches could take the reins in Bloomington.

And where does it stack up nationally?

Well, from a historical perspective, there are few programs on the same tier as Indiana. The Hoosiers have won five national championships, reached eight Final Fours and their 1976 team remains the last undefeated team in college basketball. But they haven’t come close to matching that level of success in recent years.

Indiana hasn’t reached a Final Four since 2002, nor has it advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2016. The Hoosiers have two NCAA tournament wins over the past eight years, and one was a First Four victory in 2022.

Indiana is not the destination program it once was, even for in-state prospects like Haralson and Mullins.

And then there is the matter of expectations. The fan base desperately wants to see Indiana return to its glory days, when Bob Knight was sitting at the end of the bench, keeping the Hoosiers nationally relevant every single season.

It didn’t take long for the tide to turn against Woodson, despite his status as an alum who played under Knight.

But with the high expectations of this role comes deep pockets for whoever fills Woodson’s shoes — the Hoosiers had one of the season’s biggest NIL budgets not only in the Big Ten, but the country, which shows no signs of slowing down. They should be able to compete for the best transfers in the portal moving forward, a selling point for athletic director Scott Dolson to leverage in his recruitment.

Indiana will undoubtedly try to recruit Stevens, an Indiana native who led Butler to back-to-back national championship games in 2010 and 2011 before leaving to coach the Boston Celtics in 2013.

He was the dream candidate the last time the job opened, when Indiana ultimately turned to Woodson as Archie Miller’s replacement. A few months after that failed pursuit — if you can call it a pursuit — Stevens was promoted from head coach to the franchise’s president of basketball operations. The Celtics won the NBA championship last season and Stevens was named 2023-24 NBA Executive of the Year.

But would Stevens really leave to return to coaching — in college, no less? It feels like a stretch.

Baylor’s Scott Drew was pursued by both Kentucky and Louisville last year, turning down both offers. Would he change his mind about leaving the Bears a year later? He has ties to the state of Indiana, attending Butler and coaching at Valparaiso for a decade, but he has been at Baylor since 2003 and has never appeared eager to leave.

Bruce Pearl has Auburn as the No. 1 team in the country, sitting at 21-1 and in pursuit of the first national championship in program history. He checks nearly every box: reasonable buyout, personality to reinvigorate the fan base, experience in the Midwest, enormous amount of success. But why would he leave the Tigers now?

One of Indiana’s first calls should be to Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger, who has done a tremendous job since arriving in Ames in 2022, leading the Cyclones to a pair of Sweet 16s — and now has them ranked in the top 10 nationally. His buyout used to be exorbitant, but he signed a new contract in December that is believed to have lowered it.

Then there are two more obvious names — both with ties to Knight — who have been linked heavily to the potential opening: Michigan’s Dusty May and Ole Miss’ Chris Beard.

May is an Indiana native who was a student manager for Knight’s Hoosiers between 1996 and 2000. He led Florida Atlantic to a Final Four in 2023, but left the Owls last spring to take over at Michigan after the Wolverines parted ways with Juwan Howard. Did IU already miss its chance with May?

Beard worked under Knight at Texas Tech, later leading the Red Raiders to the national championship as head coach. He has Ole Miss in the top 25 this season but obviously has baggage: Texas fired him in January 2023 following an arrest on a domestic family violence charge that was later dismissed.

Then there is a slew of coaches who have eight-figure buyouts and are, in all likelihood, unattainable: Alabama’s Nate Oats, Florida’s Todd Golden, Missouri’s Dennis Gates, UCLA’s Mick Cronin and Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd. It’s also unclear what Shaka Smart’s buyout is, given that Marquette is a private school, but he doesn’t appear interested in leaving. And Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan doesn’t seem realistic, either, for any number of reasons.

Buzz Williams, Texas A&M: Williams has had success at three different programs, leading Marquette to five NCAA tournaments, three Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight; Virginia Tech to three NCAA tournaments and a Sweet 16; and now he has Texas A&M headed for its third straight tournament appearance — possibly as a top-three seed. His buyout is believed to be low, and his time at Marquette would minimize any regional concerns. It’s also likely he would listen if Indiana called.

Grant McCasland, Texas Tech: McCasland has done one of the best coaching jobs in the country this season, with the Red Raiders knocking on the door of the top 10 after winning seven straight games. Like Williams, though, McCasland is a Texas native who has spent most of his coaching career in the state. He led North Texas to one NCAA tournament, an NIT title and two conference championships, and will be 2-for-2 at Texas Tech. A deep run in March could make him an even more attractive candidate.

Greg McDermott, Creighton: One of the best offensive tacticians in the sport, McDermott has won at least one NCAA tournament game in each of the past four NCAA tournaments, going to three Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight over that stretch. Creighton also won a share of the Big East regular-season title in 2020 under his watch. McDermott signed a contract extension last March after his name was linked to Ohio State, but his buyout isn’t believed to be high.

I don’t think it’ll get this far, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Drake’s Ben McCollum involved at some point. He won four Division II national championships and has guided Drake to a 21-2 start in his first season as a Division I head coach.

McNeese’s Will Wade has high-major experience and is very likely to land a big job this cycle, but Indiana could be an odd fit.

Saint Louis’ Josh Schertz had success in the state at Indiana State last season, winning 32 games and constructing one of the most aesthetically pleasing offenses in the country, but he would need to get the Billikens to the tournament to have a chance.

And hey, Dolson found magic on the football sideline at James Madison when he hired Curt Cignetti from the Dukes — what if he tries for the guy who was the basketball coach at JMU while Cignetti was there? Mark Byington has done a fantastic job in Year 1 at Vanderbilt after leading James Madison to an NCAA tournament win, but his buyout is likely prohibitive.

With the way the 2024-25 campaign has been going for the Indiana basketball team, it’s no surprise that people have been calling for Mike Woodson to be let go for quite some time now. Things just haven’t gone according to plan for him this winter.

Now, it looks like he has one foot out the door. According to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Woodson has let the university know that he’s planning to leave the program following this season. Per Thamel, Woodson will be with the team for the rest of the current campaign, but it will be his last in Bloomington:

As things stand, the Hoosiers are 14-9 on the year and 5-7 in conference play. That Big Ten record is not what anyone was expecting. Things took another negative turn for Indiana earlier in the week when the team suffered a double-digit loss to Wisconsin.

Indiana basketball is a storied program, but Woodson has failed to get the team to operate at a high level, which has been pretty surprising to see for the Indiana faithful. The Hoosiers are currently on a four-game losing streak. Last season, Indiana missed the NCAA Tournament, which had people furious.

Fast forward to present time and it’s going to take a miracle for Woodson to have his team dancin’ once March gets here. It’s going to end up being another down year for the Hoosiers, which no one saw coming.

Entering the new season, Indiana was ranked No. 17 in the country, but they’ve done nothing to live up to the preseason hype. It’s been an unfortunate turn of events for this group and Indiana will now need a new head coach much sooner than most people anticipated.

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball guard Trey Galloway took a patient approach to rehabbing the knee injury he suffered at the end of the 2023-24 season.

Galloway didn’t want to force his way back onto the court too early after undergoing a surgical procedure to repair a torn meniscus and suffer a setback that would sideline him during his final year of eligibility.

He’s now ready to put the injury in the rear view mirror as the Hoosiers get ready for the start of practice next week.

“I would say I feel really good, and my body is responding the right way,” Galloway said, at IU’s media day on Wednesday. “It’s going to be ready.”

Galloway, who was a team co-captain last year, suffered the injury in practice leading up to IU’s regular-season finale against Michigan State at Assembly Hall.

The Culver Academies alum tried to play through the injury by wearing a knee brace for the first time all year, but he checked out of the game with 11:54 to go in the first half and didn’t return. He missed both IU’s games in the Big Ten tournament and remained sidelined through the team’s summer workouts that started on June 3.

Indiana coach Mike Woodson detailed what Galloway’s rehab process has been like in recent weeks when he met with reporters on Wednesday.

“He’s been doing a lot of our conditioning work, he’s not on the floor doing five-on-five physical contact, but he’s done drills and things of that nature,” Woodson said. “We’ve brought him along slowly based on how he’s feeling, but we’re hoping when we open next he’s ready to bang a little bit and playing at a level that he played last season.”

Galloway played out of position for long stretches last season as IU’s lead ball-handler with Xavier Johnson sidelined with injuries. He found his footing in the role late in the year and averaged 6.4 assists in February and March.

On the season, he averaged 10.6 points and a career-best 4.8 assists per game in 30 starts.

With Indiana adding a ton of depth in the backcourt — Myles Rice (Washington State), Kannan Carlyle (Stanford) and Luke Goode (Illinois) — Galloway has been unable to work alongside his new teammates.

“Oh yeah, I want to compete, and be out there with my new teammates, that was the hardest thing for me not being out there with the new guys,” Galloway said. “I wanted to get a feel with all of them.”

Woodson admits he’s not sure what the final product will look like, but is eager to get Galloway in the mix as well.

“We’re still in the process of putting it all together,” Woodson said.

Indiana men’s basketball has faced a tumultuous few weeks, with a string of disappointing losses putting their season on shaky ground. Despite entering the season with high expectations, the Hoosiers have struggled to find consistent form, falling to several key conference rivals. These setbacks, including losses to unranked teams and a few crucial missed opportunities, have raised concerns over their NCAA tournament hopes.

Recent losses have highlighted persistent issues, particularly with shooting efficiency and defense in critical moments. Indiana’s offense has been uneven, often failing to capitalize on open shots, and their defense has been exposed in late-game situations. These lapses have led to mounting frustration among players and fans alike. However, head coach Mike Woodson has maintained that the team still has time to correct these mistakes.

Looking ahead, Indiana enters the final stretch of the regular season with a critical slate of games. The Hoosiers will need to regain their rhythm quickly, with upcoming matchups against both top-tier and lower-ranked teams. The key will be the team’s ability to stay disciplined on both ends of the court, particularly under pressure. Additionally, the return of key players from injury could provide the much-needed boost to their chances.

With a few games left to solidify their position in the postseason race, Indiana must regroup and embrace the urgency of each contest. The next few weeks will determine whether the Hoosiers can reset their season and make a strong push toward March Madness.

Indiana found success in a mid-major head coach for football; maybe they can in basketball too.

Indiana found a lot of success going to a mid-major program in college football to find their new head coach last season. Curt Cignetti truly made his mark on Indiana forever by leading him to their best season in the program’s history, and he didn’t come from a big program like Georgia, Ohio State, or big-time schools.

Indiana basketball may be in the market for a new head coach after this season with the way things are going with Mike Woodson. The Hoosier State of Mind did an article talking about which head coaches with experience could come in to help lead the program back to the top, but maybe they should be looking to the smaller programs instead like they did in football.

So if Indiana chooses to move on from Woodson this offseason, here are five mid-major head coaches that could be good replacements.

James Jones has been coaching at Yale for a very long time, dating back to 1999. He has built quite the record at Yale, even becoming the winningest coach in Yale men’s basketball history with 407 wins. Jones has been sneaky good in the last few seasons, with an NCAA Tournament appearance in five of the last six seasons, including the 2020 NCAA Tournament that ended up being canceled.

Jones would bring a lot of experience to Indiana with the number of years he has been in the game and doing with probably not as high-quality of players as he could get with the Hoosiers. He would be a great hire for Indiana.

Penny Hardaway was a well-known player in the NBA, most known for playing with the Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic. Since hanging up his cleats, Hardaway has been a head coach for the Memphis Tigers and has been since 2018. since taking over, he has a 150-66 record with two NCAA Tournament appearances in the last two years.

It may not seem like Hardaway is a good choice, but with only two NCAA Tournament appearances, he has a lot of coaching experience and winning in a small conference. Hardaway also brings an aspect of recruiting that not many other coaching have in being a recent former player in the NBA.

Bucky McMillan has only been a head coach for five years, and before joining, Samford was just a high school basketball coach. McMillan took some time to learn and understand what it took to be a college basketball coach but has certainly begun to pick it up.

After only getting six wins in his first season, McMillan led his team to 20 or more wins for the next three seasons, which also included a conference regular season championship in 2023 and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024. McMillan knows how to find a diamond in the rough and turn it into a well-oiled machine in his system.

Ryan Odom is a proven winner at multiple mid-major programs, starting with UMBC when they had an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018 when his No. 16 seeded squad was the first team of that seed to take down a No. 1 seed when they beat Virginia. A few years later, he took the head coaching position at Utah State, where he had an NIT appearance in his first season in 2022 and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023.

Odom has shown he can be a winner at a few different smaller programs, so why not give him the keys to a bigger program and see what he can do with more money and better recruiting tools, he would probably bring his history of success with him.

Shaka Smart has certainly proven he is a winner, not just at a smaller program like Marquette but at a larger program like Texas, and he also had a lot of success with VCU, which is where Texas noticed Smart. Including this season, Smart has coached for 16 seasons and has made the NCAA Tournament 11 of those seasons and the NIT once and won it with Texas.

Smart is a proven winner at both a high level and a small level, so getting him to Indiana could really do some good, especially if the Hoosiers want to get strong recruits in the building.

A third former Indiana University basketball player has alleged in a lawsuit that the team doctor sexually abused him and the school did nothing to protect him from a predator.

John Flowers joins players Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller in an amended class-action lawsuit against the Indiana University Trustees. Flowers said in the lawsuit that he was subjected to at least two unnecessary prostate examinations by Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr. when he played for the Hoosiers from 1981 to 1982, according to the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Southern District of Indiana.

In addition to adding Flowers as a plaintiff, the lawsuit names longtime men’s basketball trainer Tim Garl as a defendant. It alleges that Garl was aware that Bomba was performing “invasive, harassing, and demeaning digital rectal examinations” when Garl referred players to Bomba.

“After his first physical, Flowers’s teammates told him he had ‘passed’ Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s ‘test,’ and that he would not have to undergo a digital rectal examination again,” the lawsuit says. “Garl laughed at Flowers and his freshman teammates and made jokes at their expense regarding the digital rectal examinations they endured.”

Flowers, who went on to play basketball at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and later played professional basketball in Europe before he retired, added his allegations to a lawsuit Mujezinovic and Miller first filed in October.

“I am proud to stand up on behalf of my former teammates and other IU basketball players to seek justice for the sexual abuse we endured as members of the Hoosiers,” Flowers, who lives in Arizona, said in a statement.

Kathleen Delaney, who represents Flowers, Mujezinovic and Miller, has said in court papers that Bomba may have violated at least 100 male athletes.

Delaney said in an email Tuesday, “Our clients each present compelling and disturbing allegations that Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s pattern of subjecting IU men’s basketball players to abusive and unnecessary digital rectal examinations went on for so long that university leadership must have known about it.”

IU spokesperson Mark Bode said the university “does not comment on litigation.” He also pointed to a statement in September announcing that IU had hired a private law firm to conduct an “independent review.”

“We ask for the IU Community to have patience as we search for the truth and to have confidence that the university’s actions will be consistent with our values,” it said.

Garl, who has worked for the university since 1981, did not return a call or respond to an email seeking comment.

Flowers, Mujezinovic and Miller are suing Garl and the IU trustees under Title IX, a federal law that requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funds to put safeguards in place to protect students from sexual predators.

Bomba, 88, is not listed as a defendant.

Last month, Bomba repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination dozens of times during a deposition when he was asked whether he performed rectal examinations on young athletes.

He agreed that he and Knight were “close friends,” but he invoked the Fifth again when he was asked whether Knight told him to perform “digital rectal exams on his players.”

Bomba provided medical care to all of the university’s sports teams from 1962 to 1970, and from 1979 until the late 1990s he was the basketball team’s doctor, according to the lawsuit.

Bomba, who had played football for Indiana University, was nicknamed “Frankenstein” by coaches and players “due to the large size of his hands and fingers,” it adds.

“Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s routine sexual assaults were openly discussed by the Hoosier men’s basketball players in the locker room in the presence of IU employees, including assistant coaches, athletic trainers, and other Hoosier men’s basketball staff,” according to the lawsuit.

Bomba’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the amended lawsuit.

Basketball is a game of quick decisions, and no one knows this better than Mike Woodson. Call a timeout or let the play unfold? Take the last shot or pass it off? These choices define careers, shape legacies, and sometimes, haunt coaches long after the final buzzer. On Friday night, Woodson found himself in one such moment—a split-second decision, or lack thereof, that once again left Indiana on the losing end against Purdue.

The irony? A week ago, Woodson called a late timeout in a close game and was criticized when the strategy backfired. This time, he held back, allowing Myles Rice to attack the basket in the closing seconds. The result? Another costly mistake, another missed opportunity, another loss.

According to a post on X by a beat writer for Indiana, “Couldn’t get his attention,” Woodson admitted post-game. “We got to connect better, that’s just the bottom line.”

 

 

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Mike Woodson just stared out onto the court as Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn sank a pair of free throws to extend the  #10 Boilermakers’ lead to five with two seconds remaining in Friday night’s contest. It was all he could do as time expired, the scoreboard showing the sold-out Mackey Arena crowd an 81-76 Purdue Boilermakers victory.

Indiana was led by sophomore forward Mackenzie Mgbako, who tallied 25 points and 5 rebounds on 10/17 shooting from the field. The two-headed monster of Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith once again led the Boilers through the night. Kaufman-Renn scored 23 points on an incredibly efficient 10/13 shooting, including the go-ahead jump shot with eleven seconds left to play. Smith stuffed the box score with 24 points, 7 assists, and 6 steals.

The Hoosiers parlayed a solid first half into a 41-37 lead going into halftime. Indiana shot 55.2% from the field and outrebounded the Boilermakers 19-12 in the game’s opening twenty minutes. Foul trouble and turnovers doomed them in the second half, however. Three Indiana starters (Malik Reneau, Oumar Ballo, and Anthony Leal) fouled out in the game’s final minutes and Purdue turned 10 second-half turnovers from the Hoosiers into 13 points.

Speaking to the media following his team’s loss, Mike Woodson discussed the game’s final sequence. After Purdue took a one-point lead with eleven seconds to go, Woodson notably did not take one of his two remaining timeouts, opting instead to let guard Myles Rice push the ball down the floor and take a contested jumper. Purdue guard Gicarri Harris blocked the shot and the Boilers secured the rebound before icing the game with free throws.

Woodson spoke about what he wanted to do on the play:

Rice struggled all night, going 0/4 from the field and committing two turnovers.

Friday night was the third straight loss for the Hoosiers, with all three losses coming by single digits. Woodson spoke about his team’s frustration with their inability to close out these close games:

Woodson said he’s proud of how his team is staying in these games, but stressed that they need to start finishing them:

Painter also discussed his team’s struggles in the first half. Indiana dominated the paint in the opening half and took a four-point lead into halftime.

Painter discussed Myles Rice’s failed game-winner attempt as well:

Both teams have a three-day break ahead of them before resuming play on Tuesday, February 4. The Purdue Boilermakers travel to Iowa for a matchup with the Hawkeyes (13-8, 4-6 Big Ten) while the Indiana Hoosiers head north for a matchup with the #17 Wisconsin Badgers (16-5, 6-4 Big Ten).