STATE OF INDIANA HOOPS — The Weekly Opine

On January 28, Hoosier faithful got a glimpse of better days ahead when the home team upset Purdue. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Back on track

Today, I opine about Indiana University’s men’s basketball program. (And offer an innovative suggestion for the Big Ten Conference).

The IU women’s team is in great shape. The Lady Hoosiers followed up last season’s Elite Eight appearance with an appearance in this year’s Big Ten championship game and then made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament. Coach Teri Moren has the Lady Hoosiers in an enviable place, although she needs to restock with fresh talent, following the graduation of three key seniors from the current squad.

The men’s program, by which all other IU sports teams used to be measured, appears to be rising from dark clouds that enveloped the program for the better part of two decades. However, a return to the mountaintop requires Coach Mike Woodson to continue making strides forward, including cleaning up some puzzling decisions during his first season at the helm.

Coach Mike Woodson has a good grasp of the X’s and O’s. He needs to show improvement deploying player personnel. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

B good

Coach Woodson deserves a ton of credit. He ended long winless droughts against archrival Purdue and Michigan. He led IU to the NCAA tournament. Woodson developed a hard-nosed, defensive-minded team. And he established a culture of accountability. Thanks to Woodson, Indiana regained some measure of relevance squandered during the final years of the Tom Crean era and the entire Archie Miller era.

A program long residing at the confluence of delusion and irrelevance is becoming relevant again. There is still delusion within some corners of Hoosier Nation, but that should subside if Woodson returns IU to national prominence.

For his first year, I give Woodson a grade of “B.” He gets an “A” for getting most of his players, many of whom entered the transfer portal following the 2020-2021 season, to stick around. He gets a “C” for overall coaching (and for his overdone references to the NBA).

Woodson’s reliance on NBA principles, most notably rotating four or five substitutes in the game at the same time, cost IU several victories. Had IU beaten Syracuse, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Rutgers – all winnable games – the Hoosiers would have avoided the NCAA play-in game. They were then forced to travel cross-country for their round of 64 game less than 48 hours later. A weary Indiana suffered an epic 82-53 beatdown, at the hands of St. Mary’s.

How long has it been since Indiana won a national championship? A long time. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

During the season, time and again IU blew leads because of Woodson’s predetermined pattern of playing his subs against the opponent’s starters. A second unit rotation against your opponent’s starters does not work at the collegiate level unless your roster is chock full of McDonald’s All Americans or veteran upperclassmen.

For evidence, look no further than last weekend’s North Carolina - Duke Final Four tilt. UNC played its five starters the entire second half except for a couple of minutes, when star center Armando Bacot rolled his ankle and left the game to get re-taped. Had UNC employed an NBA-like rotation of substitutes, Duke would have won the game by double-digits.

Another loud complaint from Hoosier fans was Woodson deferring to underperforming seniors. It was maddening. Miller Kopp and Parker Stewart, brought in because they supposedly could make 3-point shots, were big disappointments. After feasting on cupcake competition in December, Stewart and Kopp were stymied by Big Ten competition from January through March, unable to make 3s when IU needed them most.

Yet Woodson stubbornly refused to alter his lineup, despite overwhelming evidence that changes were needed. With Kopp and Stewart on the floor, it felt like Indiana was playing three against five on offense.

As it is, we’ll never know how a lineup of Trayce Jackson-Davis, Race Thompson, Xavier Johnson, Trey Galloway, and Jordan Geronimo would’ve performed. It’s entirely realistic that IU would have slid into the Top 25, if Woodson put his best lineup on the floor and employed a better substitution strategy.

It’s a serious head-scratcher that Woodson never became curious enough to do what knowledgeable IU fans plainly observed; start the game using his best players. Particularly, in the throes of a 5-game losing streak. Losing 7 of your final 9 regular season games runs counter to how the best teams peak going into tournament play.

Next year is unpredictable. On paper, IU is losing talented big men Jackson-Davis and Thompson. Will one or both decide to come back for a final hurrah? Four players entered the transfer portal, including Khristian Lander, Rob Phinisee, Michael Durr, and Stewart. Only Durr will be missed, in my opinion, because good big men are a must to compete in the Big Ten.

Will other mainstays return, or will more go into the transfer portal? Will IU’s three heralded recruits live up to the hype? Will Woodson bring in frontcourt players who can make an immediate impact?

Senior point guard Xavier Johnson, who after a shaky start played terrific the last 20 games, was arrested last weekend for reckless driving (a 90 mph misdemeanor) and vehicular resisting arrest (a felony). Johnson then lied to cops, falsely claiming he was not driving because he was drunk – another lie borne out by a sobriety test showing just trace amounts of alcohol.

Considering Johnson was suspended for the Northwestern game, Woodson should make him pack his bags and move on, despite having a year of eligibility remaining. “X” is a headache Woodson does not need.

Coach Woodson had a good first year. But there are as many questions as answers heading into the summer.

The heir apparent will not be coaching at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall next season. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

One and done

The Hoosiers’ offseason got off to a shaky start when it was announced two weeks ago that Assistant Coach Dane Fife was fired. Fife, viewed by Hoosier Nation as the heir apparent whenever Coach Woodson retires, reportedly made several questionable decisions and was not on the same page as Woodson.

Among Fife’s indiscretions were tweets suggesting IU did not need to assist players in securing name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals. Fife’s tweets, removed at the request of IU Athletics, ran counter to the athletic department’s strategy to seek NIL opportunities for its athletes.

According to reporting, Fife also misled Woodson about IU’s chances with a top recruit, leaving Woodson embarrassed after IU made an offer to a player who’d already decided to go elsewhere. To the trained eye (like mine) Fife’s firing was not a total surprise.

Indiana’s announcement last year that Woodson was hired as the new head coach was handled in an unusual manner. At the same time Woodson was introduced, IU announced that former Ohio State coach Thad Matta was being brought in as associate athletic director in charge of basketball. In other words, Matta was perceived as a consultant to the men’s basketball program. Within days, Indiana also announced that Woodson hired Fife as an assistant coach.

Due to Fife being a former IU player, and his decade working as an assistant under legendary Tom Izzo at Michigan State, the widespread assumption was Fife was being groomed to eventually take over at Indiana. Speculation ran rampant on social media that Fife was the future “man” and that Woodson, at age 63, would be head coach for just a few years.

When Indiana’s season was on the brink, in the midst of losing 7 of their last 9 regular season games, clamors for Fife to take over grew louder. You can imagine how this must have made Woodson feel.

According to some reports, Woodson did not consult a lot with Matta. Other reporting says that, behind the scenes, Matta helped Woodson transition to college coaching. Either way, Woodson also relied on his former IU teammate, Randy Wittman, himself a former NBA player and coach, with Wittman becoming a consultant to Woodson. Inside sources claim Wittman is on the IU payroll.

Meanwhile, Matta appeared to be mostly a figurehead, occasionally attending practice and glad-handing at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on game nights. Last weekend, Butler University announced Matta would return to his alma mater as head coach.

So, in just a couple of weeks Indiana lost two-thirds of the principal hires, brought in one year ago, that had Hoosier Nation giddy with anticipation. Woody, the team is all yours.

Let me run the Big Ten Conference and I’ll straighten things out. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

B1G revamp

Following another lackluster showing during the men’s NCAA tournament, it’s time for the Big Ten to reimagine their regular season and conference tourney.

First, reduce the 20-game regular season conference schedule back to an 18-game format. Then encourage teams to use the two extra non-conference games to schedule opponents, during February open dates, against the type of mid-major and Power 5 conference teams that regularly beat Big Ten teams in the NCAA tournament.

In a nod to the original number of teams – 10 – that used to make up the conference, only allow the top 10 finishers (of the current 14 teams) from the regular season conference schedule to compete in the B1G tournament. And play the championship game on Saturday. This would give NCAA tournament-bound teams an extra day of rest prior to the Big Dance.

Sure, revenue would be less. But I would gladly give up some revenue in exchange for better achievement during March Madness, including winning the national title.

Big Ten performance in this year’s men’s NCAA tournament was typically mediocre. Nine teams were selected and the conference’s overall Big Dance record was 9 wins against 9 losses. Conference teams won only 3 games against higher seeded teams and lost 5 games against lower seeded teams, the most shocking of which was 3rd seed Purdue falling to 15th seed St. Peters. Only two B1G teams made the Sweet Sixteen and both lost.

By comparison, the five ACC teams in the NCAA tournament had a won-loss record of 14-5. ACC teams won 7 games against higher seeds while only suffering 1 loss to a lower seed. And three ACC teams advanced to the Elite Eight.

Yep, the Big Ten needs to revise its approach. It has, after all, been more than two decades since a Big Ten men’s basketball team won the national championship.

That is embarrassing.