Grading the entire HC decision process

[VanPastorMan]

What Coach Woodson did in the first month alone gives him a high score... The hire was a homerun; the sequence of events seemed a bit in disarray at first, but the results were outstanding. Retaining key players, attracting others from the portal and securing some future recruits shows Coach Woodson's ability to adapt. We shall see what comes into fruition this coming season. I believe he will achieve much better results than CAM.

If Coach Woodson is in good health then couldn't he coach till he was 75? It would mean he is here 13 yrs. You can get a lot done in that amount of time.

 

[jimmygoiu]

I give the Woodson hire a C-

He’s a well respected NBA guy. Which I think is good. Assuming he knows how to parlay all of those connections into an “NBA prep” atmosphere, it’ll be a big deal in Bloomington.

He’s an IU guy. I don’t really think that, in and of itself, is positive or negative. It becomes a big positive if he wins, and then if he brings all the boys home. But that only works if he wins.

On the bad/questionable side...he’s never coached in college before. The college game has changed a recently, but it’s still very different than the NBA.

He’s also 63. I don’t really worry about his age as much as others are. As I think the next 4-5 years are critical, and more important than us landing a younger guy that could have coached for a decade or two. His job is just to reestablish IU as a B10 contender again. It didn’t need to be a guy that will have his name on the court someday. But, any time you have qualified guys out there like Beard, Oats, Drew, etc... that are much younger. The age card will always be scrutinized.

I give the decision to get rid of Archie now, and then however it came to be that someone paid for it...an A-

Very risky move by Dolson. Shows me he truly does care deeply about IUs flagship program. And that has carried a lot of weight with me with this whole process.

And the fact that we have people out there still that are willing to stroke that kind of check...tells me we’re still a big time program. No one at Minnesota or Iowa State was going to be footing 10 million to change their basketball coaching situation.

I give the Matta hire an A+... Woodson is going to need some guidance on the college game. Matta has deep and varying experiences, all very successful, on how to succeed in college. Small, medium, and big schools. Recruiting top 10 type kids. Changing your program philosophies when said too 10 kids move on, and you have a new crop of kids to coach. At worst, he’s there to help guide Woodsons program. At best, he gets healthy enough in the next few years to take over when Woodson is ready to be done.

Overall grade...B

There are probably better Head Coaches out there we could have gotten. But there are guys that I’m convinced would be worse. Moser as an example. But I’m excited about the mindset and “Give a $hit” that Dolson and others have shown. And thinking out of the box a little bit. He could have puked out the same decision that Glass made with Archie, and just hired Moser. Who likely wouldn’t have wanted Mattas help. And wouldn’t have had any immediate success. This way, you have an experienced NBA guy as the face. And an experienced college guy helping behind the scenes.

Woodson has been here six weeks. Care to comment on your C- grade?

 

[82hoosier]

I give the Woodson hire a C-

He’s a well respected NBA guy. Which I think is good. Assuming he knows how to parlay all of those connections into an “NBA prep” atmosphere, it’ll be a big deal in Bloomington.

He’s an IU guy. I don’t really think that, in and of itself, is positive or negative. It becomes a big positive if he wins, and then if he brings all the boys home. But that only works if he wins.

On the bad/questionable side...he’s never coached in college before. The college game has changed a recently, but it’s still very different than the NBA.

He’s also 63. I don’t really worry about his age as much as others are. As I think the next 4-5 years are critical, and more important than us landing a younger guy that could have coached for a decade or two. His job is just to reestablish IU as a B10 contender again. It didn’t need to be a guy that will have his name on the court someday. But, any time you have qualified guys out there like Beard, Oats, Drew, etc... that are much younger. The age card will always be scrutinized.

I give the decision to get rid of Archie now, and then however it came to be that someone paid for it...an A-

Very risky move by Dolson. Shows me he truly does care deeply about IUs flagship program. And that has carried a lot of weight with me with this whole process.

And the fact that we have people out there still that are willing to stroke that kind of check...tells me we’re still a big time program. No one at Minnesota or Iowa State was going to be footing 10 million to change their basketball coaching situation.

I give the Matta hire an A+... Woodson is going to need some guidance on the college game. Matta has deep and varying experiences, all very successful, on how to succeed in college. Small, medium, and big schools. Recruiting top 10 type kids. Changing your program philosophies when said too 10 kids move on, and you have a new crop of kids to coach. At worst, he’s there to help guide Woodsons program. At best, he gets healthy enough in the next few years to take over when Woodson is ready to be done.

Overall grade...B

There are probably better Head Coaches out there we could have gotten. But there are guys that I’m convinced would be worse. Moser as an example. But I’m excited about the mindset and “Give a $hit” that Dolson and others have shown. And thinking out of the box a little bit. He could have puked out the same decision that Glass made with Archie, and just hired Moser. Who likely wouldn’t have wanted Mattas help. And wouldn’t have had any immediate success. This way, you have an experienced NBA guy as the face. And an experienced college guy helping behind the scenes.

I appreciate your sharing your opinion. I don’t necessarily agree with a good bit of what you say that doesn’t mean that you’re wrong and I’m right. The low points of this board over the last 20-some years has been when there was a group think attitude. Especially near the end of the old regime you when could get banned for not being on the same page as the moderators.

Some rhetorical questions: has Indiana University ever had a basketball coach with as much skill playing basketball as Woodson? With regard to x and o’s has Indiana University ever had a coach that competed at a higher level or coached in more significant games than Coach Woodson? The 64 dollar question is can coach Wpods on motivate players like Bob Knight did. Time will tell.

How well will all of this translate to Coach Woodson’s attempt to resurrect Indiana University basketball? I have absolutely no idea. But I listen to some of his interviews and It’s obvious that he’s a bright guy.

On a sidenote: in my opinion when somebody comes across as beinpg convinced that there are the brightest guy in the room, they may not be that smart at all. I don’t think that Mike Woodson doesn’t have that characteristic. I’m excited about him being coach. I have to admit that I was excited about Archie Miller being coach. Fortunately it was obvious that he could get his players equally as excited.

Mike Woodson is not gonna be able to step to the free-throw line to sub for players you can’t shoot a freaking uncontested set shot. In order for him to be successful in the long run he’s going to have to get all American high school players. That’s just the reality of the situation. And that’s just the beginning. If he can’t motivat players to play at the highest intensity level he will will not be successful.
Been typing this on my iPad which really sucks. I apologize advance for typos but I give up.

 

[Tru2Irish]

I personally like the new AD. He has cajones that Glass never had. This whole staff makeup is an A.

 

[fwiu]

I personally like the new AD. He has cajones that Glass never had. This whole staff makeup is an A.

Fully agree given what’s known at this time

 

[IUNorth]

Woodson has been here six weeks. Care to comment on your C- grade?

I can barely remember yesterday, let alone my specific thought process in late March!

Seriously though...at the time, I was underwhelmed with the Woodson hire. He’d never coached, and maybe more importantly never recruited, as a college head coach. I think he’s answered some of the questions on that with “recruiting” as many key guys to stay as he did. He also picked up 3 key transfers that will help us be better. And he landed Bates, which was huge. He still hasn’t coached college kids though. And there were a handful of seemingly realistic guys that were available that either are or were successful college coaches. Look what Beard has already done at Texas, as an example. And we know he’s a good college coach.

All in all, after nearly 2 months...I’d change the grade to a B+, maybe A- all around.

 

[IUNorth]

I appreciate your sharing your opinion. I don’t necessarily agree with a good bit of what you say that doesn’t mean that you’re wrong and I’m right. The low points of this board over the last 20-some years has been when there was a group think attitude. Especially near the end of the old regime you when could get banned for not being on the same page as the moderators.

Some rhetorical questions: has Indiana University ever had a basketball coach with as much skill playing basketball as Woodson? With regard to x and o’s has Indiana University ever had a coach that competed at a higher level or coached in more significant games than Coach Woodson? The 64 dollar question is can coach Wpods on motivate players like Bob Knight did. Time will tell.

How well will all of this translate to Coach Woodson’s attempt to resurrect Indiana University basketball? I have absolutely no idea. But I listen to some of his interviews and It’s obvious that he’s a bright guy.

On a sidenote: in my opinion when somebody comes across as beinpg convinced that there are the brightest guy in the room, they may not be that smart at all. I don’t think that Mike Woodson doesn’t have that characteristic. I’m excited about him being coach. I have to admit that I was excited about Archie Miller being coach. Fortunately it was obvious that he could get his players equally as excited.

Mike Woodson is not gonna be able to step to the free-throw line to sub for players you can’t shoot a freaking uncontested set shot. In order for him to be successful in the long run he’s going to have to get all American high school players. That’s just the reality of the situation. And that’s just the beginning. If he can’t motivat players to play at the highest intensity level he will will not be successful.
Been typing this on my iPad which really sucks. I apologize advance for typos but I give up.

Couple counter points. It’s actually incredibly rare for players as talented and successful as Woodson was, to be able to translate that into coaching success. I think many of them struggle teaching and relating to kids that aren’t as good as they were. To answer your question, no, not even close. But I don’t see that as a factor at all.

Teams that are normally categorized as “well coached” nearly always shoot free throws well.