LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Winning the Big East Conference men’s regular season title is not the only task Rick Pitino tackled at St. John’s this season.
Pitino also volunteered to help Indiana fill its coaching vacancy.
Chris Beard, Pitino said.
“He’d kill it at Indiana,” Pitino said. “He’d have them in the top 5-7 every single year. He’s a superstar and a top 3 coach.”
I thought that was a fascinating Pitinoism for several reasons.
One, Pitino typically goes to bat for guys that worked or played for him — Billy Donovan, Tubby Smith, Kevin & Ralph Willard, Mick Cronin (considered a candidate), Kevin Keatts, Mark Pope and others.
Beard is not a former Pitino assistant or player. Cronin left Bob Huggins at Cincinnati to work for Pitino in his first two years. If Mick wanted a shot, I'd expect Pitino would know.
Two, maybe I missed it, but I have not heard Pitino weigh in on the openings at Virginia, Miami or Florida State. Just IU — and I’ve never sensed that Pitino had any juice in Bloomington.
Ole Miss coach Chris Beard in the first half of Kentucky's 75-63 win over Ole Miss.
And three, there’s one part of the Chris Beard resume that Pitino left out. The domestic violence charges that led to Beard’s dismissal from his dream job at Texas. Although the charges were later dropped, a number of major jobs opened last season and no athletic director rushed to Oxford, Miss., to hire Chris Beard, who I believe is indeed a fine coach.
Will Indiana hire Beard?
I don’t believe Indiana will. But getting substantive news about who athletic director Scott Dolson and IU president Pamela Whitten will hire to replace Mike Woodson when the Hoosiers’ season ends has been more difficult than shooting three-point shots in a hurricane.
There weren’t many leaks when Dolson recruited Curt Cignetti to fix Indiana’s football program 15 months ago. If you read the “hot boards” before Cignetti was picked, the top two candidates were Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart and fired Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst.
Oops.
Dolson, with the assistance of TurnkeyZRG, an international executive search firm, runs a quiet search. Dolson was a student manager on Indiana’s last NCAA title team in 1987. He’s worked around or at IU for more than 30 years and understands this hire will define his legacy.
So, who is Dolson going to pick?
After talking to head coaches, assistant coaches, former coaches, TV analysts, an agent and others with knowledge of IU basketball, I don’t have a favorite, a clubhouse leader or a coach I’m ready to recommend Pitino-style.
But I can discuss the candidates with plusses, minuses and the chatter around them.
Scott Drew, Baylor: Why start with Drew? He’s got a credential nobody else on the list has — a national title.
Drew is Baylor basketball. He’s taken the program from the slag heap of college hoops to the 2021 NCAA title in Indianapolis. He’s been in Waco since 2003 — and one day his name will be on the court or building there. Baylor basketball is Scott Drew.
He wasn’t interested in Louisville. He gave Kentucky cursory consideration. Why would he come to Indiana?
Because he grew up in Valparaiso and attended Butler? Sorry, that’s not an IU connection.
But … on Monday basketball insider Trilly Donovan topped his list of IU candidates with Drew and the next name on my list. And one basketball analyst that I trust said Indiana should at least inquire.
“I think Scott would listen,” he said. “I’m not saying he would come. But he would listen.”
Color me skeptical.
T. J. Otzelberger, Iowa State: This is the guy who became the hot name in the search last week. He’s been a big winner in Ames. He’s got Midwestern roots. He just signed a contract extension that bumped his salary to around $4 million while strangely reducing his buyout from more than $18 million to $4 million.
Mixed message, anyone?
After initially writing that Indiana needed to pursue Drew, Jeff Goodman from the Field of 68 has pivoted to Otzelberger. Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News started his first IU hot board with Otzelberger — and DeCourcy was ahead of the field by suggesting Pope to Kentucky last season
But insiders say Otzelberger has a terrific relationship with his athletic director Jamie Pollard and has roots in the area because he was also an Iowa State assistant for eight seasons and his wife, Alison, is a former ISU basketball star.
“I don’t see him leaving,” one basketball person said. "I really don't."
Mick Cronin, UCLA: I’ll say this: If Cronin wanted the Indiana job, Pitino would have recommended him, not Beard.
Cronin has taken some shots in the L.A. media this season because he’s been critical of his players, UCLA fans and the travel demands of the Big Ten. You could interpret those comments as a request for a phone call.
But Cronin’s hefty buyout remains a problem.
Clemson coach Brad Brownell shouts to his team during Louisville's game against Clemson at the KFC Yum! Center on Jan. 7, 2024.
Brad Brownell, Clemson: Would Indiana hire a coach who has escaped the hot seat at Clemson several times?
A guy who won a total of three NCAA Tournament games in his first 13 seasons at Clemson?
Maybe. Brownell won 24 games last season and took the Tigers to the Elite Eight. His current 24-5 squad is ranked 11th in the Associated Press poll and 21st in the NCAA Net formula, the only Atlantic Coast Conference team to defeat Duke. Maybe the transfer portal and NIL world has leveled the field and helped Brownell succeed.
He’s an Evansville native who played college basketball at DePauw. “He’s just a solid basketball coach who knows how to run a program,” one Division I head coach said. “I think he’d do well at Indiana. He can coach.”
Ben McCollum, Drake: Talk about mixed messages. One basketball insider told me that McCollum is in the top 10% of offensive minds in college basketball, calling him the “next John Beilein.”
Another insider said that despite the four Division II national titles McCollum won at Northwest Missouri State, he’s only worked one season at the D1 level and would be behind in developing relationships to recruit the players you need to win at the power conference level.
And check his style of play: Athough Drake is 27-3, the Bulldogs rank 364th, last in D1, in tempo. An average Drake possession lasts nearly 22 seconds. Deliberate basketball is not entertaining basketball unless you're winning an extraordinary level.
“Don’t see that working at Indiana,” one basketball analyst said.
Greg McDermott, Creighton: McDermott has the Bluejays positioned to make the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season. The Bluejays are tied with Marquette for second in the Big East. Four of his last six teams have ranked in the Top 25 nationally in offensive efficiency.
But McDermott turned 60 last November, and he whiffed in a four-season run at Iowa State. “If Arizona State does something with Bobby Hurley, I think that’s the job that appeals to him,” one basketball analyst said.
For the record, McDermott is the pick of college basketball analyst Robbie Hummel. Not that Hummel, a former Purdue star, has more pull in Bloomington than Pitino.
Chris Beard, Ole Miss: Pitino is not wrong. Beard can coach. He got Texas Tech into the 2019 NCAA title game. He’s done solid work at Ole Miss. But most insiders say that what happened at Texas will eliminate Beard from consideration at IU. I agree.
Buzz Williams, Texas A&M: Williams left Marquette for Virginia Tech after six seasons. He left Tech for Texas A&M after five seasons. This is his sixth season in College Station. Time for a change?
I don’t think so. A&M has SEC-level resources that Marquette and Tech lacked. He’s a Texas guy. And although this is Williams’ 18th season as a head coach, his NCAA Tournament record is a lackluster 11-10, with one trip to the Elite Eight at Marquette 12 years ago.
Chris Collins, Northwestern: This name does not get as much play as it should because Northwestern basketball is Northwestern basketball.
But a closer look shows that Collins won nearly 65% of his games during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, giving him four seasons where his teams won at least 62% of their games.
Before Collins arrived, Northwestern won better than 60% of its games one time since 1947. Collins is the only coach to take Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament — and his teams won at least one game (Vanderbilt, 2017; Boise State, 2023 and Florida Atlantic, 2024) in every trip.
Collins has also won five straight games against Indiana. He’s got the Coach K seal of approval and has always spoken highly of Indiana basketball. Don’t count him out.
Will Wade, McNeese State: Not happening. I realize any rules that Wade broke at Louisiana State are no longer an issue because of the current Name/Image/Likeness situation. Indiana is not hiring a guy whose issues with truth telling resulted in a show cause ruling from the NCAA.
Tony Bennett, retired from Virginia: ESPN analyst Dick Vitale tweeted about Bennett early in the process. If concerns about NIL drove Bennett to walk away from his Virginia team before the start of this season, I can’t envision Bennett walking into a job where NIL expectations would be even greater in Bloomington. And remember: IU once dismissed his sister as the women’s basketball coach.
Mr. Unexpected: At least two basketball insiders told me this is where IU will find its coach. A guy that nobody is discussing. A veteran coach who is looking for a challenge. A guy eager to embrace the job of succeeding where Mike Woodson and Archie Miller failed.
“It’s still one of the 10 best jobs in the game,” one basketball analyst said. “You’ve got resources, you’ve got a recruiting base, you’ve got fan support, you’ve got a great conference and you’ve got tradition. They just need to find the right coach.”
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