Mike Woodson has critics, and some complaints have merit. But this was always the outcome.
BLOOMINGTON – Despite swelling social media rumor to the contrary, Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson will return for a fourth season at his alma mater in 2024-25.
In truth, he was probably never in the peril perceived.
Woodson has at least two more weeks presiding over an undeniably disappointing third season in Bloomington. After consecutive NCAA tournament appearances capping a two-season turnaround of a program that had failed to reach five straight fields before Woodson’s arrival, he has struggled to recapture the consistency of last year’s Big Ten runner-up with a younger roster.
IU (17-13) is comfortably outside this year’s tournament picture — despite a modest win streak over the past week.
More: IU makes it three wins in a way as Kel'el Ware dominates vs. Minnesota
Frustrations surrounding the course and tenor of this season, and perceptions that Woodson’s preferred style will perpetually struggle to fit in the modern game, built over recent weeks. A 4-10 stretch beginning with the Big Ten restart in early January, a pair of ugly losses to high-flying rival Purdue and concerns about the composition of next season’s roster all prompted questions about whether Indiana might move on from Woodson.
A department source put to rest any such doubt Wednesday night, confirming to IndyStar that Woodson will indeed get a fourth year.
Reaction was swift and largely angry. Woodson has his critics and, in fairness, some of their complaints have merit.
Woodson’s teams have struggled at times with more modern concepts, primarily floor spacing and consistent, effective use of the 3-point line. IU’s defense has regressed statistically in each of the past two seasons — at time of writing, the Hoosiers are outside the top 100 nationally in adjusted efficiency, per Ken Pomeroy.
And Indiana’s computer numbers generally (KenPom, NET, Torvik, etc.) reveal few and small meaningful wins, and ugly defeats. The Hoosiers had seven losses against high-major opponents of 14 or more points, compared to just three wins of 10 or more, including Wednesday's 70-58 win at Minnesota.
Woodson has problems to solve looking forward, as well. He’ll lose his starting point guard when Xavier Johnson’s sixth year of eligibility ends this month. A key reserve, Anthony Walker, also exhausts his eligibility. Kel’el Ware appears likely to declare for the NBA draft, neither Anthony Leal nor Trey Galloway have confirmed they intend to use their COVID-allowed fifth seasons, and the transfer portal remains a clear and present threat for any program.
Youth (KenPom rates IU 225th nationally in Division I experience) has proved a difficult obstacle for the Hoosiers all season. With the potential for meaningful attrition this winter — and just one player, five-star wing Liam McNeeley, signed in the 2024 class — Woodson could face another significant roster rebuild.
Being concerned isn’t crazy. The runaway nature of the speculation over recent weeks — that university decision makers were at war with one another, that factions had formed, that replacements were already lined up — was trending that way, though.
This puts an end to all that.
It does not solve every problem immediately facing Woodson. A coach who recently said on his weekly coach’s show he still believes “the college game is played inside out” has to hammer the portal for shooting and embrace a more open, efficient offensive style if he wants his alma mater to rise to the level he believes to be its right.
He’s excelled in spring recruiting before, better than many IU coaches before him. That’s not been a permanently smooth road, though. Woodson’s absence from the first night of last week's high school sectionals was an easily avoidable gaffe.
Name, image and likeness resources will not be an obstacle. IU already boasts one of the best NIL setups in the Big Ten, if not the country, and IndyStar understands that purse, if you will, has gotten richer.
Some of that is the natural byproduct of persistent fundraising efforts. Some, it should be said, reflects a high-dollar donor class that remains more firmly in Woodson’s corner than is publicly perceived. Numerous major players in Indiana’s NIL efforts still trust the program’s sixth all-time leading scorer to put the Hoosiers back on track.
Which is where it was before this season.
Woodson inherited an Indiana six years and five tournaments removed from its last berth in the field of 68. Half his roster was in or headed for the portal. He pulled together a team that played its way out of the first four in 2022, before finishing second in the Big Ten and reaching the round of 32 in 2023.
Those results don’t measure up to fans’ wider expectations, nor to Woodson’s — he has consistently suggested he believes IU should challenge regularly for conference titles and deep NCAA tournament runs.
Which has made this season understandably difficult for many to swallow. The Hoosiers have struggled to stay in the top 100 nationally in several major analytics rankings. The efficiency numbers documented above are just the tip of the iceberg for a program deeply out of touch with modern offensive basketball. The nature of some of Indiana’s worst losses would wear on any fan base, much less one so starved for a largely justified baseline level of success.
Woodson will get at least one more year to point IU back in that direction.
Archie Miller got four years in the job. Tom Crean effectively got six, nine if we count his initial three-year rebuild. Mike Davis got six, as well. The department would have had a difficult time explaining why a beloved former player, the second Black men’s basketball coach in its history, with more success in his first three seasons — even given the disappointment of this one — than either of his two immediate predecessors wasn’t given at least the same opportunity.
That does not absolve Woodson, by any means. He will enter next season on arguably the hottest seat in the country. He likely would have come to it with significant questions about his long-term future anyway.
Woodson will turn 66 this month. The contract he signed when he left the Knicks bench for Indiana in 2021 ran through 2027, making next year the fourth of six. The amendment he signed last August adding approximately $1.2 million in guaranteed pay and strengthened buyout protections did not extend the life of the deal, meaning that after the season ending in 2025, he will have just two years left on the deal.
While he’s always maintained championship-level aspirations — even if he’s struggled to reach them — there have been subtle changes to Woodson’s tone in recent weeks.
In a Feb. 20 video conference with reporters in which Woodson declared he was “not going anywhere any time soon,” he also spoke more philosophically about his ambitions.
“I came back to try to put this team in the best position possible,” Woodson said, “and I’m going to continue to do that.”
He will get at least one more year to try. Despite speculation to the contrary, that was probably always going to be the case.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Indiana basketball is bringing Mike Woodson back for another year.
