LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — After 2.5 mostly pleasant seasons as the Indiana University men’s basketball coach, Mike Woodson is discovering a harsh truth that slapped Mike Davis, Kelvin Sampson, Tom Crean and Archie Miller:
He is not Bob Knight.
A return to the glory days remains steadfastly elusive in Bloomington, which is going over as warmly as a tuition increase.
Never mind the hostile message boards or doomsday social media posts. Pockets of former IU players, guys like Christian Watford, Brian Evans and Derek Elston, are wondering why the Hoosiers are looking up at Nebraska and Northwestern in the Big Ten standings.
They don’t like the way this team plays or behaves because of the losses and an absurd string of seven flagrant fouls. They don’t understand why Year 3 of Mike Woodson has been less encouraging than Year 3 of Archie Miller, when IU started 15-4.
“Our offense is weak, like what are we doing?” Watford said recently on, “Ball from Assembly Hall,” the podcast he hosts with Elston.
“I don’t know what we’re doing. I really don’t.”
Stack those words with the ones spoken by Evans, who played for Knight from 1992-to-1996.
“I’m not happy with the state of the program at all,” he said on an Indianapolis radio show. “And, worse than that? I don’t think it’s going to get better, I’m afraid it’s going to get worse.”
If you’re scoring at home, those are the words of two of the top 13 scorers in program history. But they are words that do not surprise or annoy anybody that has watched this team since its uninspiring season-opening wins over Florida Gulf Coast and Army.
Unless Woodson uncovers a magical motivational or strategical button over the next 52 days, the Hoosiers will not participate in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Knight, for the record, made the tournament in 24 of 29 seasons, including the last 15.
“We’re soul-searching as a team,” Woodson said Thursday in his weekly Zoom interview. “We’ve had some tough days of practice, which we should, if you know what I mean.”
I know what he means, especially when I see that his team ranks No. 100 (NCAA Net), No. 93 (Ken Pomeroy) and No. 90 (Bart Torvik) in the most-watched computer power formulas of the day. That’s well outside the typical cut line for the 68-team NCAA Tournament field.
That will end Woodson’s perfect record of putting IU in the tournament in back-to-back seasons.
Get this: The last IU coach to make the tournament in three consecutive seasons was Davis, who did it from 2001-to-2003, his first three seasons with many of Knight’s recruits.
Considering Indiana lost two players to the NBA as well as two other starters who played five seasons of college basketball, expectations should have been modest for this Indiana team.
But not this modest.
The Hoosiers are 12-7 overall, 4-4 in the Big Ten, losers of four of their last six. Both Torvik and Pomeroy forecast IU will finish the regular season 16-15, 8-12 in the league.
Using the NCAA Net formula, IU is 0-6 against Quad I opponents. They’ve played three programs (UConn, Auburn and Purdue) that are trendy picks to make the Final Four. IU surrendered, losing those three by an average of 23 points.
Those results as well as the ejections of point guard Xavier Johnson for hitting a Rutgers player in the groin and guard C.J. Gunn for a flagrant elbow at Wisconsin escalated the gloom and doom around this program.
Can Woodson change the vibe?
This season?
That seems utterly unlikely. This team was poorly constructed. In a world where the three-point shot reigns, Woodson built a squad with three guys who do their best work in the post.
There’s not a guard on Indiana’s roster currently performing as well as an Honorable Mention all-Big Ten player because there’s not a guard on Indiana’s roster who can do all the things an all-conference perimeter player should do:
Make three-point shots; attack with the basketball; break down the defense; set up teammates, enforce the teams’ defensive principles or lead.
The Hoosiers rank No. 104 nationally in offensive efficiently and No. 86 in defense at Ken Pomeroy. Mark that down as the least efficient offense that IU has played since 2014 (no NCAA Tournament) as well as the least efficient defense since 2017 (no NCAA Tournament, resulting in the dismissal of Crean).
In its last game, IU allowed 91 points to a Wisconsin team that averages about 76 points per game. Even Wisconsin coach Greg Gard joked that Knight would not be pleased with the defense either team played.
“Our defense stunk,” Woodson said. “That’s on me. I’ve got to get us playing defense.”
Next season?
To be determined. In the Portal World, it’s pointless to predict the shape of any team’s roster 10 months prior to the next season.
Woodson has a commitment from one high school player — Liam McNeeley, a McDonald’s all-American from Montverde Academy in central Florida. He’s ranked a Top 15 prospect and one of the best three-point shooters in the class.
He’s also 6 feet, 8 inches and not a guard.
Woodson has work to do fix Indiana basketball — and more people than he ever imagined are wondering if he can do it.
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