1. Woody has improved the IU program immensely since he arrived as the head coach.
2. He's vastly underachieved with the talent he inherited.
Personal anecdote...comparing my experiences with the challenges Woody and IU face, at the high major level, in todays world, obviously isn't a perfect example. But there are core elements that I think fit. So here goes...
From my middle school years through the end of my junior year basketball season, my high school had the same basketball coach. He had some success, won our schools first sectional title in many, many years (my 8th grade year I believe). He was, very much, and offensive minded coach. Which worked out very well for me, as I was a gunner. We had very talented teams my sophomore and junior years, but just couldn't seem to put anything consistently good together. We beat some good teams, but couldn't string wins together. Again, I LOVED playing for that coach, I was having a lot of personal success. My junior year, we finished 8-13, and lost in the first round of sectionals to a team we should have beaten by 20. That night, after the game, our coach told us he was leaving. I actually cried, hard, when he told us.
A month or so later, our new coach was hired. He held a "program meeting" with all players, parents, friends...anyone that wanted to be apart of his program. He told everyone in the meeting that anyone that chooses to play in his program would do the following things. Play Hard. Defend. Be a good teammate. And he proceeded to say that he would teach us how to do all those things. But that they were expectations, not goals. And playing time, status on the team, etc... would be effected by our willingness and ability to do those things. No matter how talented we were. In our individual meetings afterwards, he joked with me about "not making it hard for him to enforce the rules." He said he needed me to play a big role, he needed my offense, but that he wouldn't play me if I didn't take those 3 things seriously. (Up until then, I hadn't taken those things seriously at all).
Anyway...the very next day, he started in with entrenching those things in to our team. They were present in every workout, every weight lifting session, every practice, and every game. I remember getting kicked out of an early practice for throwing a ball too hard at a teammate because I was mad they didn't make a play. I remember many moments early on where I had to take off the "black starter jersey" because I wasn't playing hard enough or wasn't defending...embarrassing for the top returning scorer, only returning all conference kid, etc...
With the exact same starting lineup as the year before...we went 21-4. At one point late in the season we were ranked in the top 15 in the state. We beat a top 5 team in the morning game of regionals, before losing in the final.
My point from the long story...I think the narrative that Woody "did what he could with what he had" is both true, and also not true, at the same time. I think Woody did an excellent job retaining the right players, getting transfer portal guys that would stabilize and help the program, and landing really good HS kids. Those efforts absolutely improved our program. We're unquestionably better today than we were when Archie was fired.
But he hasn't established any sort of good, quality, repeatable basketball principles for his program. They would have been more consistent for him, if he had demanded it of them. They would have defended, made better decisions with the ball, etc... if he had taught those things, and then demanded that they were done. If a HS coach can do it, with a group of talented kids that LOVED playing a certain style that was night and day different than his. Woody could have done it with much better, and more talented and versatile players. Effort, intensity, and focus shouldn't be something up for debate. At least it usually isn't for successful programs. So while I'm excited to see what Woody does this offseason. I'm more than a little wary of how his teams have played. And I'm skeptical a new cast of characters will change the narrative all that much.
