How the Hoosiers’ head coach drew on his NBA experience when approaching the offseason.
Mike Woodson spent the entirety of his coaching career in the NBA before he took the Indiana job back in 2021.
That experience has showed up in a few different ways and was a plus with his hiring. He’s sent two players to the NBA Draft and will see another, Kel’el Ware, hear his name called this year. The program hosts a preseason pro day for league scouts to get a glimpse of talent on the roster.
Now, entering year four, it was absolutely critical this offseason.
Woodson has excelled in short term recruitments during his first three offseasons as the Hoosiers’ head coach, adding Tamar Bates, Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako in consecutive spring cycles. The Hoosiers went in on Bryson Tucker to add their lone freshman signing this time around.
Prior to this offseason, his experience in the transfer portal was more about adding pieces than rebuilding. He landed commitments from Xavier Johnson and Miller Kopp during his first offseason without using the portal in his second thanks to a large freshman class and multiple returners. Last year was Ware and a few bench pieces. He hasn’t had to build until now.
So when it came down to it, Woodson drew on that NBA experience.
“We sat down at the end and I kind of treated it like I was when I was back in the NBA,” Woodson said at Huber’s Winery. “I make our guys rank the top 10 players at their position. And then I make the decision on who we’re gonna go get. And if it’s the best player, then we gotta give it a shot because all they can do is tell us no.”
This was especially true in the case of Oumar Ballo. Needing a center and hearing rumblings that Ballo would be entering the portal soon, Woodson said he told his staff to prepare to make a push for him. Once he entered, the program landed his first visit, which ended up being his only one. It’s safe to say that Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle, with the former winning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, were pretty high on Indiana’s list as well.
All five of Indiana’s transfer additions took just one visit, with all committing either during or in the days following the visit. The Hoosiers identified their targets quickly and zeroed in.
Woodson also addressed the current environment in the sport, saying that while he’d love to be able to build through 4-year high school players, that’s not necessarily how the sport works anymore.
“I would love to grow a team with high school kids, they stay with me for four years, man, but those days are gone,” Woodson said.