Panic.
Indiana men’s basketball head coach Mike Woodson did not exactly enter this season with the most job security in the world.
Getting the Hoosiers back into the NCAA tournament in each of his first two seasons brought him massive good will after the Horrors of the Archie Miller era, but support started to falter after a huge step backwards in the 2023-24 season.
Statistically speaking, last year’s team was the worst in over a decade of KenPom data, though a lot of the issues with the roster construction appeared to have been addressed with this year’s portal haul, which brought Kanaan Carlyle and Myles Rice to campus.
Now with one of the most talented, deep, and flexible rosters Indiana has had in years, Woodson has turned in a couple of the worst losses of his tenure. The team looked uninspired, unsure and underprepared for both games in the Battle 4 Atlantis, the only respectable non-conference opportunities on the schedule.
Individual players appear to have regressed, largely, outside of some nice flashes from Mackenzie Mgbako before the trip to the Bahamas. The team is older and more experienced than past Indiana rosters, but there are no signs of leadership or composure from anyone.
The last two days have been bad enough that Indiana is at risk of losing not just its ranking, but also seriously jeopardizing its tournament chances with such lopsided losses.
With so much talent on the roster… you have to wonder whether it might be time to make a coaching change.
Something is clearly not working, and there’s still time to salvage something of the season.
There are a number of interesting interim coaching candidates on the staff already with Calbert Cheaney, Kenya Hunter and Yasir Rosemond being linked to (lower level) head coach openings in the past.
Without knowing too much about any of their basketball philosophies, it’s hard to have a preference between the three. It’s hard to imagine that the result would be worse than what we’ve seen the last two days, no matter which of them were at the helm.
It isn’t a long term solution, and Scott Dolson clearly has a problem on his hands now, but sometimes a change can go a long way. Even if the next head coach isn’t on the staff, a good season and inspired hire could keep some talent in Bloomington and rejuvenate Indiana’s high school recruiting.
At this point, I’m honestly less worried about the long term – Scott Dolson has done well with football and women’s basketball, and the boosters appear committed to making Indiana relevant in every sport possible.
What I really want is some reason to tune in to the rest of this season, because there are good players on this team and it’s very obvious that things could be different and should be better than they are now.