The Hoosiers have resources that rival the top programs in college basketball. All the program needs is someone to use them correctly.
CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein recently questioned whether or not Indiana is a good men’s college basketball job in 2025.
In a minute-long tirade Rothstein recounted the program’s history since the firing of Bob Knight, going through each subsequent coach’s accomplishments in Bloomington while saying that none were ever good enough for the fanbase.
Rothstein ended his take by asking why anybody in a good situation in a power conference role would leave that job for Bloomington.
Well,
For one, if somebody shies away from the expectations of the Indiana job, which are frequently overblown in national commentary, what does that say about their competitive nature? This is college basketball, where coaches are working tirelessly around the clock trying to find the most minute of advantages to get a leg up on their opponents.
If a coach isn’t the kind of competitor who would embrace those expectations not only are they not on any sort of candidate list for this job, I’d wonder why they’d be working any job in the sport.
Secondly, Rothstein goes through Indiana’s past coaches since the firing of Knight including Mike Davis, Kelvin Sampson, Tom Crean and Archie Miller.
Of this list: Davis stepped down, Sampson was removed for violating NCAA rules in a way that didn’t really afford Indiana a choice, Crean’s future outlook was bleak and Miller did a poor coaching job from the jump,
So that’s three men Indiana has parted ways with for purely on-court reasons: Davis, Crean and Miller. Each of these men has gotten another head coaching job in college basketball following the end of their time in Bloomington.
Would you like to guess how many have made the NCAA Tournament as of this writing, with Miller being the only sitting head coach with a shot at making it this year?
One.
Davis, whose path to the Indiana job was by far the rockiest as Knight’s sudden and surprise successor, took both UAB and Texas Southern to the NCAA Tournament.
Crean missed the tournament in all four of his years at Georgia despite the presence of emerging NBA superstar Anthony Edwards and finished his time in Athens with a 6-26 season.
Miller is in year three at Rhode Island. His team is improved from his first two seasons but the Rams are still under .500 in A-10 play and would need a conference tournament run to go dancing.
Going in on this point, would you like to guess how many games former Indiana coaches who parted with the program for on-court reasons have won in the NCAA Tournament? Which, again, is just Davis.
Zero.
So, is it on Indiana as a program that it’s had lackluster NCAA Tournament results for the past 25 years? Or is it all the coaches who can’t seem to win a single tournament game once they leave? I’ll let you decide on that one.
This isn’t to dunk on these guys by the way. Davis was a young coach in an unfair situation who openly says he wasn’t ready for that kind of job. Crean did his best and built the program back up from the lowest of the low but couldn’t maintain what’s he’d built. Miller just didn’t work out.
What is on Indiana is that it keeps hiring coaches that can’t make it work. Davis was, as previously mentioned, stuck in an unfair situation. Crean had it all until he didn’t. The Miller hire was more flawed in hindsight than the outside perception made it feel at the time. As for Woodson? The current and future outlook are both pretty bleak, anyone could see how another year would go.
Putting aside recent results, the overall notion that Indiana isn’t a great job in 2025 is just… silly.
Indiana has modern faculties that are constantly being upgraded. That obviously doesn’t include the arena, but Cook Hall has everything a modern college basketball program needs and then some. As for Assembly Hall, it’s seen upgrades and does its job as an arena.
The program exists in extremely fertile recruiting ground in Indiana, a state that can’t seem to stop producing Division-I caliber basketball talent, with a fleet of coaches who would love nothing more than to send a pupil of theirs to Bloomington.
Indiana’s current and past rosters should speak to its NIL investment. The program is believed to have one of the top NIL budgets in the sport and has competed with the likes of Bill Self and Kansas in recruiting battles through high school and the transfer portal.
This is a very, very good job in 2025. Don’t let someone tell you otherwise.