INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana AD Scott Dolson went for a blast from the past when it hired former Hoosiers’ star and NBA coach Mike Woodson as its new basketball coach.
The move should please the Knight crowd. It obviously pleased aging Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, who won three national championships, coached Woodson in college and endorsed him after the selection. Woodson has coached 680 games in the NBA with the Knicks and Atlanta Hawks and his biggest selling point was he was the last coach to take the Knicks to the playoffs in 2013 and he is a Hoosier who understands the folklore associated with the program.
Woodson actually attended one of Knight’s basketball camps at IU whe n he was in sixth grade. He couldn’t pay for the entry fee, so a teach from his school in Indianapolis, paid it for him. “I ended up winning a three-on-three contest at Coach Knight’s camp with two other kids, and coach gave me a T-shirt and that’s all I needed to hear,’’ he recalled. “And I had a great senior year and he came knocking and I made a decision to come here and play basketball.’’
The former IU players from that era love him as a person.
Woodson was a great college player in the late 70’s. But he has never been a college coach at the Big Ten level. “I’ve been saying this for years, I know he hasn’t been in college, there are things he is going to have to learn’’ former IU teammate Randy Wittman said. ’’But it’s not rocket science we’re dealing with. We are coaching kids and basketball. He’s done that.’’
IU fans are obviously thinking Woodson can have the same kind of success as Juwan Howard, an ex-NBA player, is having at Michigan, where he was just selected USBWA national Coach of the Year and the top-seeded Wolverines were the last Big Ten team standing in this year’s NCAA tournament.
But it should be pointed out Woodson was not the first choice for this job. Just last week, the IU administration made a futile run at Chris Holzman, the head coach at Ohio State. Holzman took a pass, figuring at this stage the Buckeyes were a more stable program.
Indiana basketball has not been to a Final Four since 2002 and they have gone through four coaches since Knight, who was fired in 2000. Mike Davis, Kelvin Sampson, Tom Crean and Archie Miller all had their chances, but none played for Knight, whose specter still hangs over Assembly Hall. Davis was fired. Sampson was fired after putting the school on probation for telephone contact violations that would not be illegal under today’s rules. Crean took the Hoosiers to three Sweet 16s but that was not good enough for the faithful. And Archie Miller spent the last four years, wandering in the wilderness without a single NCAA appearance before a rich donor paid the $10 million dollar buyout.
The 63-year- old Woodson is the latest savior, the face of a program that was once a college basketball blue blood.
It should be pointed out Woodson was not the first choice for this job. Indiana took a run at Brad Stevens, the former wonder boy who coached Butler to a pair of Final Fours before moving to the Boston Celtics. But he turned them down. It was also reported the school took a shot at former Ohio State coach Thad Matta, who reportedly took the job but failed the physical because of back problems, a story Indiana denies. Just last week, the IU administration made a futile run at Chris Holtmann, the head coach at Ohio State. Holtmann also took a pass, figuring at this stage the Buckeyes were a more stable program.
Matta, who is 10 years younger than Woodson and has been to the national championship game, will reportedly join the athletic department as an associate AD for basketball, who could in the best of all worlds help Woodson navigate the ever changing recruiting waters if Woodson is willing to listen to him. There are also reports that Woodson will hire 79-year old Larry Brown, a legend in the sport, to work on the court with the players.
Woodson will inherit a team that figures to lose its best player, 6-9 All Big Ten selection Trayce Jackson-Davis and just lost fifth year senior AI Durham to Providence out of the recruiting portal. At least five others, including Race Thompson, have their names in the transfer portal.
He must also come to grips with the fact he will be judged quickly and not many former NBA players and coaches have become instant success stories. Howard may be the exception to the rule. But that is who Woodson will be compared too from now on.
