For IU, the writing is on the wall. But Mike Woodson can't see it — among other things.
The IU basketball team is bad and getting worse, and Derik Queen isn’t walking through that door. Queen is the five-star recruit IU coach Mike Woodson made a recruiting priority for the class of 2024, but on Wednesday the 6-10 Queen announced his commitment to Maryland, not the Hoosiers. A few hours later Nebraska walked into Assembly Hall and whacked IU 85-70.
All of which leaves the IU fan base, which has been angry, no choice but to get angrier.
IU fans were booing the home team eight minutes into the game Wednesday night — Nebraska led 22-11 — and the noise just got deeper, uglier, until it was halftime and Nebraska led IU 51-31 and the Assembly Hall crowd was booing the Hoosiers into the locker room.
Insider: IU is just a badly constructed team, waiting for frustrating season's quiet end
Insider Zach Osterman: Boos tell the story as IU loses to Nebraska, continues spiral downward
The Hoosiers have lost seven of nine games, and their past three, and this comes on the heels of Woodson saying he had every intention of returning next season. By the time Woodson was done answering a reporter’s question on Tuesday — “How much longer do you want to do this?” — Woodson was saying something so scary, so ominous, I’m going to ask you to sit down.
“I don't know,” he said. “There are coaches that are coaching into their 70s.”
Mike Woodson hasn’t even turned 66.
Bright side? This topic is like so many topics that relate to the current IU basketball program: Mike Woodson doesn’t appear to understand what’s happening here.
Mike Woodson is safe this year unless...
This is Woodson’s third year as coach of his alma mater, and he’ll get a fourth unless the Hoosiers do something unthinkable, like lose every game the rest of the way. But let’s be honest: Would that shock you?
The Hoosiers have five games left in the regular season, and just two are at home, though as Nebraska, Northwestern and Penn State have proved in the past 18 days, IU is vulnerable at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are hapless on the road, and they’ll play at Penn State on Saturday, followed by trips to Maryland and Minnesota. The Terps are not good, and the Gophers are not much better, but I wouldn’t bet 25 cents on the Hoosiers winning any of those road games.
Their home opposition? Wisconsin and Michigan State.
You know, I could talk myself into the Hoosiers losing their final five games. Wouldn’t be all that difficult, either. It would sound a little something like this:
Do you think the Hoosiers could go 0-5 to fini—
Absolutely.
That’s probably what it would take for IU fans to get their wish, and let’s be very, very clear about this: IU fans are in agreement about Mike Woodson. They want him gone. Former players are more inclined to want more time for Woodson, and their opinion will matter to IU athletic director Scott Dolson, a former IU student-manager under Bob Knight.
Dolson’s in a terrible position. He has a coach that everyone knows is not going to survive, but he almost can't fire Woodson after just three years. Name an optic — name any optic — and it would look terrible. Woodson is an alum. He played for Bob Knight. Woodson is 58-38 right now, and even if the Hoosiers lose their final five regular-season games and then the Big Ten tournament opener, his record after three seasons (58-44) would be better than those of Tom Crean (28-66) and Archie Miller (55-43) after three seasons.
And those guys were given more time.
Mike Woodson? He’s the one who gets fired after three years?
No, Dolson is in a terrible spot, though six more losses in a row would mean an 0-9 end to the season, with 14 losses in IU’s final 16 games. I’ve got to think that would give IU the cover to do what we all know will be done eventually.
Here’s where some of you might suggest: Maybe Mike Woodson will see the writing on the wall, and do the right thing and retire.
Here’s where I tell you: Mike Woodson can’t see the writing on the wall. Not sure he’s even looking at the wall.
Did you hear what he said this week about Jalen Hood-Schifino?
Mike Woodson has no clue
You’re not going to make me write about this game, are you? Fine: Nebraska 85, IU 70. Satisfied?
Try this: Nebraska was 14-for-33 from 3-point range. IU was 4-for-21.
Or this: IU was 14-for-24 from the foul line.
Look, this is who IU has been all season. It’s a team that can’t shoot from distance or the line, and Woodson thinks it’s in his players’ heads. He actually said this week:
“They don't have bad shots — so it's between the ears,” he said.
Woodson continued, specifically naming Trey Galloway — Gallo, as he calls him, because it’s cool I think — as someone whose foul shot “is not tore up.”
Here is where I’d ask Woodson if he knows which player Trey Galloway is. He’s the guy wearing No. 32. He’s shooting 54.8% from the line. He’s one of the guys whose shot is tore up.
Know who else’s shot is tore up? Gabe Cupps. He has tried just 13 free throws all seasons and made eight, for 61.5%. Have you ever seen Cupps shoot? It’s a lot like Galloway, all tore up. Makes no sense, because both guys are coach’s sons, but they have a shooting motion that hurts my rotator cuff, just watching. But Woodson thinks his guys have good shooting strokes.
Has he seen senior center Payton Sparks (14-for-34, 41.2%)? No offense to you, Payton. Your shot is tore up, but it’s not your fault. Nobody has ever helped you improve it. Not at Ball State, and not at IU. Woodson thinks your motion is fine, apparently.
Woodson has no clue, OK? Here’s what he said after the loss Wednesday night, when a reporter asked why the team has fallen off a cliff.
“Missing our senior point guard,” he said. “Trying to play a freshman at point guard.”
Before suffering an injury six games ago, the senior point guard in question — Xavier Johnson — had regressed to the point where he was the Hoosiers’ least effective player. He was posting career-low shooting and scoring numbers across the board, he was as likely to commit a turnover (27) as record an assist (30), and he was melting down into a puddle of technical fouls and flagrant fouls.
Add all of that, and Johnson’s plus-minus rating, game after game, had become the worst on the team. The young man is struggling something terrible this season, and it doesn’t make me feel good to write this paragraph, but I’m writing it not as a criticism of Johnson. This is criticism of Woodson, who apparently has no idea what kind of play he was getting from his senior point guard.
Then again, he doesn’t seem to have much of a clue about anything. Have a seat again, and then check what he said earlier this week when he was asked about Cupps having to play this much as a freshman.
“He’s been thrown to the wolves basically as a freshman,” Woodson said. “When I recruited Gabe, the deal was everyone thought Jalen wouldn't be a one-and-done. That was the whole deal. You had X (sixth-year senior Xavier Johnson) and you knew Gabe would come in and probably be a third point guard behind two veteran guys, Jalen being a sophomore now.”
Rewind there:
Everyone thought Jalen wouldn't be a one-and-done.
Who, exactly, is everyone? Hood-Schifino was on mock 2023 NBA mock drafts as a possible first-round draft pick before the first game of his freshman season. He was thought to be a 2023 lottery pick shortly after the New Year. I mean, that’s what everyone thought.
Who was Woodson listening to, his staff? Let me say this: Woodson either has hired a terrible staff, or he doesn’t take his assistants seriously. Either way, that’s on Woodson, who also is sensitive to criticism in addition to not understanding the personnel on his own team. Throw in his inability to hire — or trust — a staff, and he checks all the boxes.
Fired, fired, fired.
But that’s probably 14 months away. That’s what everyone thinks, anyway. Well, everyone but Woodson.
“There are coaches that are coaching into their 70s,” he was saying the day before the Nebraska debacle, and here we’ll continue the rest of his answer. “You know, I don't know if that's something I'll do. I don't know. But at this point I'll take it a day at a time, a year at a time. I'm not going anywhere any time soon, guys — I’m just not.”
That's not how this is trending, but as usual Mike Woodson will be the last to find out.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU basketball is spiraling because coach Mike Woodson is not very good
