OT: 2021 Coaching Carousel

[Pakuni]

Any Wardle updates?

Probably won't get the North Carolina job.

[onepost]

Doubt if McDermott is hanging by a thread. If he is, he can walk away and find a better gig. He is a damn good coach.

He's hanging on by a thread.  Not predicting he's going to lose his job this cycle, but he's hanging on by a thread.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

He's hanging on by a thread.  Not predicting he's going to lose his job this cycle, but he's hanging on by a thread.

Yep. General rule to live by,  if what's public is bad,  what's not public is probably worse.

[rocky_warrior]

Yep. General rule to live by,  if what's public is bad,  what's not public is probably worse.

McDermott actually keeps his players on a plantation!?!?

[PhillyWarrior]

I don't think McDermott is hanging by a thread based on talking to Omaha contacts.
Probably woulda been done by now and there is no chatter they have heard...

[JWags85]

Any Wardle updates?

He finished under .500, and still hasn't finished better than 3rd in conference. I don't anticipate anyone knocking down his door.  His best bet is another good year or two and trying to get an AAC or A10 job in the Midwest. Cant see him being attractive to anything higher than an upper mid major short of a couple very impressive years.   

[Dr. Blackheart]

Any Wardle updates?

Ask Willie

[Billy Hoyle]

He finished under .500, and still hasn't finished better than 3rd in conference. I don't anticipate anyone knocking down his door.  His best bet is another good year or two and trying to get an AAC or A10 job in the Midwest. Cant see him being attractive to anything higher than an upper mid major short of a couple very impressive years.

he is what he is: a solid mid-major coach.

[MikeDeanesDarkGlasses]

Anyone know the deal with the Mike Woodson quitting Indiana article from Sports Illustrated?  It was taken down.  Did they jump the gun?

[The Sultan]

A few observations on some of the above posts
Doubt if McDermott is hanging by a thread. If he is, he can walk away and find a better gig. He is a damn good coach.

Walk away and find a better gig?  Like where? 

[The Sultan]

Anyone know the deal with the Mike Woodson quitting Indiana article from Sports Illustrated?  It was taken down.  Did they jump the gun?

I think they fell for a local news station's April Fool's joke.

[Skatastrophy]

Anyone know the deal with the Mike Woodson quitting Indiana article from Sports Illustrated?  It was taken down.  Did they jump the gun?

Here's the cached version

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9uMmx8Ere9UJ:https://www.si.com/college/indiana/basketball/april-fools-indiana-mike-woodson-quits-at-indiana-to-record-bedtime-stories+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Dateline BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (April 1, 2021, 8 a.m. ET) – The feel-good Coming2Bloomington story of Mike Woodson returning to his alma mater at Indiana as its new basketball coach came to an abrupt ending on Thursday morning when the legendary former Hoosiers star told Sports Illustrated Indiana that he was quitting. (AF)

Woodson, a great player at Indiana from 1976-1980, played 11 years in the NBA and coached another 25. He was living in New York City – the most famous city in the world – and decided to move to little ol' Bloomington on Monday when he was offered the job by current athletic director and former IU towel boy Scott Dolson. (AF)

"I kept thinking every morning and every night that I was moving from New York City to Bloomington, and that just started to blow my mind,'' Woodson said. In New York, "anything I wanted was a phone call away. Right after I got here I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and got egg noodles with ketchup. I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." (AF) *(Footnote, quotes courtesy of Henry Hill, "Goodfellas'')

Woodson is 63 years old. He grew up in inner-city Indianapolis and then spent four years in Bloomington as a great player for Bob Knight. But from there he lived in New York, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Cleveland again, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, New York again, Los Angeles again, and New York a third time. (AF)

Big cities, big fun. And there's there's this little Southern Indiana place, population 84,000 if all the students weren't denied admission to campus because of COVID. (AF)

Woodson said he hasn't been well-received since he got to Bloomington, because a lot of fans who are Hall of Fame coaches from their mom's basement wanted a young, flashy successful college coach instead instead of an old man who's never once coached a college game. They couldn't understand why Indiana athletic director Scott "Cletus" Dolson hired him in the first place. (AF)

Woodson said, "One dude in overalls said, 'I don't know why Cletus drug your tired old bones in here, he must of owed you something fierce. Fact is, mister, you start screwing up this team, I'll personally hide-strap your ass to a pine rail and send you up the Monon Line!' '' (AF) *(Footnote, quotes courtesy of George Walker, "Hoosiers'')

Woodson said he couldn't figure out the media situation here in Indiana, either, when he went out to "get the papers, get the papers.'' (AF) (Footnote, "Goodfellas"

"There's like 40 people on the conference call at my first press conference, so I asked my assistant to go out and pick up all the newspapers around the state so I could read them all. She got papers from Bloomington, Indianapolis, South Bend, Lafayette, Muncie, Evansville, Richmond, Martinsville, Bedford, French Lick, Paoli, Spencer and Clay City – and it was THE SAME STORY in every paper.'' (AF) (Editor's Note: Sadly, that is not made up.)

Woodson said that he drove over to Bob Knight's house and sat down for a visit. He doesn't understand why all sorts of people in Bloomington were asking if Coach Knight threw him a chair. "That's like the oldest, most stale joke in Indiana basketball history,'' Woodson said. "It wasn't funny 35 years ago, and it's sure not funny now.'' (AF) (Sadly, that's true, too.) (AF)

Woodson said he met with Indiana's current players players, but he couldn't understand why Trey Galloway had his pants tucked into his socks, why Khristian Lander had a man-bun and not a bald head and goatee like Woody rocks, why Joey Brunk's back was worse than his and why Trayce Jackson-Davis shook hands with him using his left hand. (AF) (Sorry, TJD, just had to do it.)

He met with all his new players out in the lobby at Assembly Hall, out by all the statues. He wondered why he didn't have a statue himself. "I scored 2,000 damn points and won Big Ten Player of the Year when I only played six games!!!!'' (AF) (Actually, that's true too, amazingly.)

Woodson also wondered why there was no statue of his coach, Bob Knight, who won three titles in the building. "If I was going to stay, that would be the first thing I'd fix,'' Woodson said. (AF) (We all concur on that one.)

Woodson said that after everyone listened to his silky smooth voice during all his press conferences that he got all sorts of requests from people asking him to record voicemail message for them, or recording jingles for their Tik-Tok videos – ''but I didn't know what that was,'' Woodson said. (AF).

The folks over at The Bluebird, Bloomington's coolest music place when live music is allowed, asked him to come over and play the sax for a while and just read lyrics. ''His voice is so cool,'' the Bluebird guys said, ''that we could probably sell out the place even if he was just reading the phone book.'' (AF) For you young people, a phone book is a large printed object that has names and phone numbers in it of everyone who lives in your town. There was a time when "Siri, call Lindsey's cell'' actually didn't work.

With all that, the silky smooth Woodson decided to use those dulcet tones to record audio versions of bedtime stories instead of coaching basketball, hence the announcement today on April 1. That soft, soothing voice "will make millions,'' some slick NYC record producer said. (AF) (Yea, youngsters, a music record is ...oh, never mind. You know what they are, now that vinyl is back.)

And if you're wondering what all these (AF) symbols are after every headline and paragraph, it stands for ... APRIL FOOLS!!!!

Mike Woodson and those dulcet tones aren't going anywhere, baby. He'll find good Italian food in Bloomington, he'll get that Bob Knight statue built, he'll win a lot of games and he will teach Trayce Jackson-Davis how to shake — and bake – with that right hand.

Mike Woodson is going to be great in Bloomington. I really needed a laugh early this morning, and I hope you got one, too.

[JWags85]

Saw a tweet from him quoted which made me think about it, surprised Levelle Moton from North Carolina Central never comes up in the coaching carousel. I can only assume he has minimal interest in leaving his alma mater.  But he's been incredibly successful in a tough spot to win.

Would actually be interesting if Wes Miller took the UNC job to see if Moton's name came up at UNCG

[Pakuni]

@AdamZagoria: Porter Moser is a leading candidate at Oklahoma, per sources.

[JakeBarnes]

@AdamZagoria: Porter Moser is a leading candidate at Oklahoma, per sources.

Well then

[Viper]

Walk away and find a better gig?  Like where?

if I'm the AD at Texas Tech, I'd call McDermott. Conversation is free.

[Pakuni]

if I'm the AD at Texas Tech, I'd call McDermott. Conversation is free.

Too soon for a Gregg Marshall rehabilitation? Would be a good fit in Lubbock 

[cheebs09]

@AdamZagoria: Porter Moser is a leading candidate at Oklahoma, per sources.

That is one heck of a commute.

[The Sultan]

if I'm the AD at Texas Tech, I'd call McDermott. Conversation is free.

That's not a better gig.

[TallTitan34]

Any Wardle updates?

I'd take Wardle over Woodson.

[The Sultan]

I'd take Wardle over Woodson.

Not me.

[MikeDeanesDarkGlasses]

UNC is the most overrated job in college basketball now.  With transfers and the 1 and done portal bigger than ever before, it will be harder than ever to succeed at UNC with all of the expectations.  UNC will be the next Indiana if they don't get the right coach.  Anyone want to bet that UNC doesn't win a title in next 10 years?

[JWags85]

UNC is the most overrated job in college basketball now.  With transfers and the 1 and done portal bigger than ever before, it will be harder than ever to succeed at UNC with all of the expectations.  UNC will be the next Indiana if they don't get the right coach.  Anyone want to bet that UNC doesn't win a title in next 10 years?

Was this supposed to be teal?

In the 15 years since the 1 and Done rule came to be, UNC has had 11 top 15 classes, made 7 E8s, 4 FFs, and 3 Title games.

For comparisons, Duke made 5, 2, and 2.  UK made 6, 2, and 1.  KU made 7, 3, and 2.

Indiana? 0, 0, and 0.

For fun, Nova has made 4, 3, and 2. And MSU 5, 4, and 1.

So in the 1 and Done era, UNC has been more successful in March than any other blue blood program.  They also won or shared 1st in the ACC 9 times.  Duke for comparison has only won or shared the ACC 2 times in that same time frame.

So if UNC is "the most overrated" in this era, then no major historical, and also recently successful, programs are great jobs. Every program is a bad hire away from falling down a few notches.  It's happened to UCLA lately, happened to Kentucky for a bit, obviously Indiana.  But UNC has boatloads of recent success and the set up to be successful into the future and to declare otherwise is ridiculous.   But then again, you made a moronic point about Roy winning a title with "Doherty's players" like it was some scarlet letter against him, so who knows.  Just another hot take

[willie warrior]

Walk away and find a better gig?  Like where?

Look around. Plenty of gigs. If he gets let go, we shall see where he ends up

[muwarrior69]

Was this supposed to be teal?

In the 15 years since the 1 and Done rule came to be, UNC has had 11 top 15 classes, made 7 E8s, 4 FFs, and 3 Title games.

For comparisons, Duke made 5, 2, and 2.  UK made 6, 2, and 1.  KU made 7, 3, and 2.

Indiana? 0, 0, and 0.

For fun, Nova has made 4, 3, and 2. And MSU 5, 4, and 1.

So in the 1 and Done era, UNC has been more successful in March than any other blue blood program.  They also won or shared 1st in the ACC 9 times.  Duke for comparison has only won or shared the ACC 2 times in that same time frame.

So if UNC is "the most overrated" in this era, then no major historical, and also recently successful, programs are great jobs. Every program is a bad hire away from falling down a few notches.  It's happened to UCLA lately, happened to Kentucky for a bit, obviously Indiana.  But UNC has boatloads of recent success and the set up to be successful into the future and to declare otherwise is ridiculous.   But then again, you made a moronic point about Roy winning a title with "Doherty's players" like it was some scarlet letter against him, so who knows.  Just another hot take

....but it alway boils down to this: the Coach makes the program, not the program making the coach. The last 7 years should have taught us that.