LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kenny Payne crashed assorted men's college basketball coaching hot seat lists before this season. He was flanked by Mike Hopkins (Washington), Jerry Stackhouse (Vanderbilt), Jerod Haase (Stanford), Bobby Hurley (Arizona State) and others.

Mike Woodson of Indiana was not on that list in November.

He is now.

Losing twice to Penn State will get you there.

Losing twice to Nebraska will get you there.

Losing four in a row to Northwestern will get you there.

Losing 13 of 27 games, eight by a dozen points or more, will get you there.

Showing up at No. 105, No. 102 and No. 108 in three prominent computer power formulas will get you there.

If the Hoosiers sustain those numbers, IU will finish with worse final rankings than Archie Miller produced in four dreary seasons.

That would be IU's ugliest final number in Ken Pomeroy since the Hoosiers were No. 184 at the conclusion of the 2010 season — when Christian Watford and Jordan Hulls were freshmen, Victor Oladipo was a committed recruit and Cody Zeller was an uncommitted high school player.

Check, check, check and check.

Is this checkmate for Woodson?

Too soon to say. But not too soon to discuss.

Scott Dolson has the most difficult decision of his four-year run as the IU athletic director. Dolson shocked many when he fired football coach Tom Allen and agreed to a $15.5 million buyout last November.

But this is basketball. This is one of the program's signature former players. This is three seasons into a six-year contract and less than a year after Woodson was given a $1 million raise to bump his salary to $4.2 million.

This is also a certified mess — that IU must resolve by either laying out a plan for Woodson to fix things or investing in a regime change.

An answer will be required in less than three weeks after the Hoosiers figure to meekly exit the 2023-24 season at the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis.

Indiana has lost four straight, five of six and eight of 10. You don't have to be Purdue Pete to suggest Woodson's team has a reasonable shot to finish the season with nine consecutive defeats. The sagging Hoosiers will not be favored in another game this season.

Can Woodson survive a nine-game losing streak — with only one recruit committed for next season?

Certainly, he could.

He is a credentialed Indiana legend, one of the top 10 players from the Bob Knight era, which was the primary reason IU hired him from the NBA to replace Miller three seasons ago. Turned down by Brad Stevens and Thad Matta, IU turned to a guy they knew would not say, "No."

His first two seasons were modestly successful. But they were embraced with more joy than 21-14 and 23-12 records normally inspire because Indiana's basketball performance has been so tortured and devoid of consistent success since Knight was fired in September 2000.

With that backdrop, Woodson was celebrated for making the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons and winning one game in both appearances.

At a program that legitimately aspires to greatness, those seasons would be filed as mild disappointments because those were 10-loss teams that were blitzed in the NCAA Tournament.

Any goodwill Woodson banked for making the tournament as well his developmental work with Trayce Jackson-Davis and Jalen Hood-Schifino has been burned this season. It's gone.

The atmosphere around Indiana basketball appears to be as toxic as the atmosphere around Louisville basketball.

The boo birds have unleashed at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The internet message boards at the popular IU website peegs.com include lovely topics such "Anyone else hoping we lose out?", "It really feels like IU is at the crossroads.", and "Bluebloods who don't mess around."

Gregg Doyel, the influential columnist at the Indianapolis Star, wrote that Indiana fans seem to be done with Woodson and the writing is on the wall about his chances for future success.

Former IU players like Brian Evans, Christian Watford and Derek Elston have publicly questioned what is going on in Bloomington. A string of flagrant fouls committed by IU players exacerbated the criticism.

Last week, the Hoosier Hysterics recorded a 93-minute EMERGENCY PODCAST (all caps and sirens included) with Evans to discuss the dire condition of Woodson's program.

That's a large hump of toxicity for any coach to overcome, especially a coach who will turn 66 years old in less than a month and has whiffed more than he has hit in recruiting tussles for over a year.

Even Monday, during an off-day Zoom news conference to discuss IU's home game against Wisconsin on Tuesday night, Woodson sounded remarkably out of touch when he answered a question about whether the Hoosiers would be better served with a lineup of one big man and four perimeter players instead of the plodding lineup Woodson prefers with two post players.

"Well, when we won, we won with both of our bigs on the floor," Woodson said. "You know, that's what I look at.

"You (the questioner) look at analytics based on ... we haven't played a lot where we played four around one this year. So you're looking at short stats, basically.

"We basically have played with two bigs on the floor most of the season. The games that we have won and played well, they've been in and out of the game. So I don't look at — I look what we've done as whole."

In other words, No.

That's not what Woodson said would happen this season. A year ago, Woodson repeatedly said that he expected to play a smaller team with more shooters after Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson departed. He said he would have a team that recognized the change that has washed over college basketball. He said he understood the need to create a system that rewarded three-point shooters as well as the need to recruit and develop shooters. He said that was how his teams played in the NBA.

Has not happened.

Woodson's team ranks 354th in the nation in percentage of points scored from distance as well as well as No. 290 in three-point shooting percentage.

Indiana does not take them. And Indiana doesn't make them. Good luck winning consistently when you get outscored at the three-point line game after game after game — by a total of 297 points (or 11 per game) this season.

That's just one reason Woodson has earned his place on the Hot Seat list this season. There are certainly others.

And that's why athletic Scott Dolson must decide if Woodson can be saved or if the time has come for the Hoosiers to move on.

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