- What does athletic director Scott Dolson have to sell prospective coaches on Indiana basketball?
- Will any home run hires be willing to leave their cozy situations?
- Dolson can prove he isn’t playing by making a statement of intent.
- Any of the proven hires would be fine choices, if not in the top tier, and bring a level of excitement to Hoosiers hoops.
BLOOMINGTON — If, or perhaps when, a resolution arrives regarding Mike Woodson’s future at Indiana, it could mark the third time in 10 years IU searches for a new men’s basketball coach.
Woodson guided the Hoosiers to back-to-back NCAA tournaments, after six years out of the field, and he restored the program’s NBA pipeline. But Indiana missed the field again last season and, having lost six of seven, looks on course to do so again, creating the environment for potential change.
If that comes, what does it look like? The job is not what it has been historically, in ways both good and bad. There will be pressure on Scott Dolson, Indiana’s fifth-year athletic director, to land a hire that elevates it back to the blue-blood status it has by now clearly lost in the national college basketball landscape.
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Who puts IU back onto that elite shelf? Let’s dig into some names.
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The sales pitch
Indiana won’t mince words this time around — the program is too far removed from its former status to claim that as its birthright anymore.
The pitch, instead, is the job might be a more attractive proposition for someone with designs on restoring that luster right now than it has been in decades.
IU’s position in the Big Ten means the Hoosiers will be able to maximize revenue-sharing opportunities, and it’s likely this athletic department (even while aggressively funding football) will commit significant resources to men’s basketball as well. Already, Indiana is believed to have a top-10, if not top-five, NIL money pool nationally, which it can now bolt onto revenue sharing for a double-barreled promise of roster-building resources to its next coach.
The latest:Discussions had about Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson’s future. Here’s what we know
The Big Ten itself is a pitch — it is one of two conferences most likely to shape the college sports power structure in the future. It’s far better both financially and politically to be inside the Big Ten (or the SEC) than out.
And, quite frankly, IU probably does not come with some of the same internal pitfalls it once did.
Alumni influence is more blunted now. Football does absorb some of the energy and attention, both naturally and because of Curt Cignetti’s success. And while fans might need some convincing by any new hire, jaded after years of false starts, those same years of disappointing results have probably dampened expectations enough for the right coach to clear at least the initial bar with a certain ease compared to his recent predecessors.
It will pay well, fund well and come with less baggage relative to previous hiring cycles. What can Dolson do with that?
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We’ll break this up into groups, as you’re about to see. Not all candidates are created equal. Some fit better than others, some are more attainable than others, etc. We’ll start with the home runs and work our way down.
Home-run hires
These are the shots at the moon. Any one would immediately be received as such, a message that Indiana will be as serious as it possibly can about getting its program back in elite circles.
All of which, of course, means these are the toughest gets on the list, and therefore the least likely hires. In no particular order, they are:
Brad Stevens, president of basketball operations, Boston Celtics
Has a college basketball program ever had a white whale quite so enormous as Stevens is to Indiana?
A native Hoosier whose father played football at IU, Stevens enjoyed remarkable success leading Butler to back-to-back national championship games in 2010 and 2011. He was and remains widely considered to be among the best basketball minds of his time, having taken his talent to the NBA where he won 354 games in eight seasons as Boston’s head coach.
That said, there’s no real indication Stevens — now the architect of the reigning NBA champions from the Celtics’ front office — desires a return to coaching. Indiana has made overtures in past searches and, while Stevens at least seemed more initially possible in 2021 than at any time before, he never got serious with the Hoosiers.
Honestly, it’s a call Dolson should make not so much to make Stevens say no, but to pick his brain as and when he does. Stevens remains one of the foremost minds in the sport. His opinions on where IU is and where the Hoosiers should go would be invaluable.
Scott Drew, head coach, Baylor
Another Indiana native, Drew has been at Baylor now for more than two decades. He won a national title in Waco in 2021, plus Big 12 regular-season titles in 2021 and 2022, and he’s three times been named Big 12 coach of the year.
A Butler grad, Drew coached under and then succeeded his father, Homer, at Valparaiso, before taking over as Bears head coach in 2003.
Drew turned back overtures from Louisville and Kentucky in recent years, all his behavior suggesting he’s happy in Waco. Turning his head has been impossible thus far, but Indiana could try.
Nate Oats, head coach, Alabama
One of the most promising coaches of his generation, Oats got his start at Buffalo in 2015 and has been winning most of the way since.
He’s been to the NCAA tournament seven times in nine years in head jobs, with just one losing record in conference play in that time. Three times in the past four years at Alabama, Oats has guided the Crimson Tide at least as far as the Sweet 16. Last year, Alabama reached the Final Four.
His teams play an aesthetically pleasing brand of basketball that mixes stingy defense with efficient offense. Three times in the past four years, Alabama has finished in the top 15 nationally in KenPom.
That said, even if Oats were interested, his buyout stands at $18 million if he wants to leave Alabama before April 2026. That’s a steep price for any department, especially as revenue sharing comes online.
Bruce Pearl, head coach, Auburn
A section of Indiana’s fan base fell for Pearl the day his Auburn team wiped IU out in Atlanta in December 2023. That win was one mile marker on an impressive rise for Auburn under Pearl, who guided the Tigers to the 2019 Final Four and also made the Sweet 16 (or better) three times in six years at Tennessee.
Pearl’s teams are often among the most efficient in the country, he recruits and roster builds well, and by all accounts he’s immensely popular within the Auburn athletic department at large.
The last of the home runs, Pearl would be difficult to prise away from Auburn. He’s established a strong rapport within that fan base, his son coaches with him in Auburn and it’s not like being at a traditionally modest basketball school has stopped him from bucking the trend. Like all these, IU should make the call without getting anyone’s hopes up.
Statements of intent
This is the next tier down, but it’s still a robust set of candidates. Coaches with significant accomplishments on their CVs, including NCAA tournament appearances and conference title runs, and success for all (to varying degrees) at high-major schools.
It’s a pretty eclectic group, all things considered. Again, in no particular order:
T.J. Otzelberger, head coach, Iowa State
Otzelberger’s stock has never been higher. He’s taken Iowa State to three straight NCAA tournaments, including two Sweet 16s, with a second-place finish in the Big 12 last year.
And the Cyclones are aiming even higher in 2025, having already established themselves as one of the pace setters in their conference this winter.
Like Oats, Otzelberger signed a new contract recently. Unlike Oats, the terms aren’t yet public, which means the cost of getting him out of that deal isn’t either.
In a way, it wouldn’t really matter for IU’s purposes. If Otzelberger would consider an offer from another program, he likely would only have signed that contract provided it made leaving relatively easy. If the opposite is true, it means he’s comfortable in Ames, and Indiana doesn’t need to worry anyway.
Dusty May, head coach, Michigan
This will be one of the names most sought after among certain sections of the fan base.
May is a Greene County native and former manager who worked under both Bob Knight and Mike Davis. He spent several years as an assistant before taking a head job that would qualify as doing it the hard way, building Florida Atlantic up from virtually nothing to become a nationally relevant program.
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In his last three seasons in Boca Raton, the Owls went 79-28, with a CBI appearance and two NCAA tournament berths. Famously, in 2023, FAU advanced all the way to the Final Four.
All of which led May to accept the open job at Michigan last spring. There have been conflicting suggestions as to whether coaching his alma mater holds significant appeal for May, but if it does, buying out his contract at Michigan would cost a relative pittance — it starts at $5 million and goes down annually.
The politics of hiring in conference would be another matter.
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Shaka Smart, head coach, Marquette
Smart, who’s had his admirers in IU job searches past, rebounded from a difficult spell at Texas to restore Marquette among the best teams in the Big East.
In three-plus seasons in Milwaukee, the Wisconsin native has guided Marquette to three NCAA tournament appearances and a Big East title. Smart’s teams have merged his traditionally disruptive defensive style with smart, efficient offense, winning 56 games between 2022-24.
As the employee of a private institution, the terms of the extension Smart signed in 2023 aren’t publicly available. But it’s probably fair to ask a) does Smart want to leave his home state? b) does he feel like he has all the resources he needs to keep a good thing going in Milwaukee? and c) is he eager to return to a job with a spotlight as bright as the one at Indiana.
Because otherwise, the resume is very much there for a head coach with 11 NCAA tournament appearances and a Final Four to his name.
Greg McDermott, head coach, Creighton
McDermott is on the older side for this list, given he’ll turn 61 this year. But programs don’t necessarily need to worry about the same long runway anymore, especially in a job like Indiana where roster-building resources should be immediate and robust.
At this point, it might just be worth asking whether McDermott has any interest in leaving Creighton, where he’s been since 2010. He’s taken the Bluejays to the NCAA tournament nine times, including two Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight appearance in the past four years.
If there’s a concern about McDermott, it might stem from four unsuccessful years at Iowa State from 2006-10. But those concerns should have been alleviated by now, given his success in Omaha.
Again, the question might be one of dislodging him from his current position — McDermott’s name has come up for other high-major jobs in recent years, and he’s still at Creighton despite that. He signed an extension with Creighton last year.
Proven hires
Coaches with sturdy track records of success tempered, perhaps, by concerns of one sort or another. This group isn’t enormous, and there will be cons to go alongside the pros for each. But all boast resumes at least strong enough for consideration.
Mick Cronin, head coach, UCLA
Cronin has close to 500 wins on his resume as a head coach, his career now spanning more than 20 years between stops at Murray State, Cincinnati and UCLA. Any sense he’d bumped his ceiling with the Bearcats was dispelled when he reached a Final Four and two Sweet 16s (with a Pac-12 title thrown in for good measure) within four seasons in Westwood.
The past two, however, have not gone so according to plan. UCLA finished under .500 last season, and 10-10 in conference, and the transition to the Big Ten this winter has come with some hiccups.
A Cincinnati native, there’s probably an argument Cronin is more suited to a Midwest program. But recent complaints over Cronin’s willingness to criticize his players openly have only intensified concerns about UCLA’s direction. Pitching him as an upgrade right now might be difficult.
Brad Brownell, head coach, Clemson
An Indiana native, Brownell was a teammate of Calbert Cheaney at Evansville Harrison and enjoyed a successful playing career at DePauw before going into coaching.
His Midwest ties run even deeper — Brownell has multiple stops in the region as an assistant and won 84 games in four years as head coach at Wright State — but his greatest success has come in the South. Across 15 seasons as head coach at Clemson, Brownell has won close to 300 games, with four NCAA tournament appearances.
Brownell has enjoyed particular success of late, with winning conference records in each of the last three years and an Elite Eight run in 2024. Clemson has been among the ACC’s best teams this winter.
The resume doesn’t explode off the page. In total, Brownell claims just seven NCAA tournament appearances across his first 22 years as a head coach. Before this season he’d never finished higher than tied for third in the ACC, and he’s only taken a team to the second weekend of the tournament twice. But his recent success suggests that even at 56, Brownell has more room to grow in coaching, and if ties to the state are a factor, he brings that as well.
Grant McCasland, head coach, Texas Tech
One of the younger coaches on this list, McCasland made a name for himself at North Texas, where he guided the Mean Green to an NCAA tournament in 2021 and winning conference records in each of his last four years. In 2023, North Texas won 31 games and the NIT, landing McCasland the Texas Tech job.
He’s thrived there in two years since, already surpassing 20 conference wins. He took the Red Raiders to the NCAA tournament last year and has them firmly in the Big 12 title picture this season. Entering the weekend they were among Ken Pomeroy’s top 10-rated teams nationally.
McCasland has strong ties to Texas. It’s his home state, where he and his wife (who also played soccer at Texas Tech) both grew up. Would it be possible to pull him away from what’s likely a comfortable setting in Lubbock? Tough to say, but his performance the last two years earns him a place here.
Buzz Williams, head coach, Texas A&M
Williams has had an interesting career.
He inherited Marquette from Tom Crean and didn’t miss a beat, winning 139 games in six seasons with two Sweet 16s, an Elite Eight and a share of the 2013 Big East regular-season title.
Then he took a struggling Virginia Tech program and within three years had it in the NCAA tournament. Three bids later, Williams parlayed that into the Texas A&M job where, after a rebuilding period, he guided the Aggies to consecutive tournament appearances in 2023 and 2024, with another in his sights this winter.
On the other hand, Williams’ teams have not always been easy on the eye offensively. He’s been out of the first round of the NCAA tournament just twice in the past decade. And his average league position across the past 16 seasons is sixth. He gets results. Would they translate enough to go up a level at IU?
Chris Jans, head coach, Mississippi State
Jans broke 200 wins as a head coach this year. He’s on course to take Mississippi State to three straight NCAA tournaments. That would make six in his past seven full seasons as a head coach, dating back to his time at New Mexico State.
His teams play rugged defense and, thus far this season, have married that to an efficient offense that limits turnovers, rebounds tough and finishes well around the rim. Fans might not want to get overly invested in tracking the 3-point shooting numbers from Jans’ teams in recent years, something that might actually be a bit of a deal breaker for this program right now.
So, too, might be an incident from Jans’ past that led to his dismissal after just one season at Bowling Green. According to an April 2015 report from the Toledo Blade, Jans was terminated “following an investigation that indicated his ‘public conduct failed to meet his obligations as a head coach and the expectations that (Bowling Green) athletics has for its coaches.’”
Dennis Gates, head coach, Missouri
Gates has a fascinating resume among this group.
He won fast and impressively at Cleveland State, where he reached an NCAA tournament and went 31-10 in the Horizon League in his final two seasons. In Year 1 at Missouri, he won 25 games and took the Tigers to the second round of the NCAA tournament. In Year 3, he has Mizzou on course for the field again, and on the fringes of the SEC title race.
And in Year 2 in Columbia, Gates did not win a single conference game, 0-18. His best teams have been outstanding offensively, especially at Missouri. If you buy Years 1 and 3, he’s a really promising coach. Can you get past the one in between, if you’re Indiana?
Will Wade, head coach, McNeese State
The school that fired Kelvin Sampson for impermissible contact with recruits primarily based on phone calls hiring Will Wade would really be something.
But Wade is a winner. He’s still only 42. And while he’s comfortable at McNeese State, a job like IU would surely appeal to him.
Would Indiana be able to see its way past Wade’s significant recruiting indiscretions at LSU? It’s worth pointing out he’s still under an NCAA show-cause order until June, meaning any school wanting to hire him would have to show cause to the association why it was confident Wade would not again run afoul of recruiting rules.
On the other hand, a fair wedge of that is legal now. And Wade has fashioned himself something of a crusader against the NCAA’s more restrictive rules at a time when the climate favors those sorts of positions.
Listen, it’s probably a non-starter. But you never know.
Worth a conversation at least
This is where Indiana gets into hopeful territory. The names in this group would come with some drawbacks or doubts that would need addressed, but there’s merit to each of them.
It’s also where we start digging past high-major candidates into some more unorthodox resumes.
Mark Byington, head coach, Vanderbilt
Byington very much straddles the line between this category and the one above. He won consistently at Georgia Southern, parlayed that into the James Madison job, led the Dukes to a 32-win season and a second-round NCAA tournament appearance last year and then went to Vandy.
In Nashville, Byington turned one of the SEC’s perennial strugglers around in just one year. Already, the Commodores are in the NCAA tournament picture with upset wins over Kentucky and Tennessee. The Dores are on the bubble but, for a program with as many winning seasons in conference play as winless seasons in conference play (1) in the last seven years, that’s progress.
Would James Madison magic work one more time in Bloomington? Byington’s work in Harrisonburg and Nashville at least merits a second look.
Josh Schertz, head coach, Saint Louis
Schertz is well-known to IU fans, having just turned around Indiana State across a three-year cycle that eventually ended with a 32-win season and an NIT runner-up finish.
Before his stint in Terre Haute, Schertz enjoyed tremendous success at the Division II level, where he won 337 games in 13 years at Lincoln Memorial. Now in his first season at Saint Louis, Schertz is trying to continue his winning ways through a step up in competitive level.
In one sense, this would be a popular hire for a fan base that watched with admiration what Indiana State achieved last season. But in another, Schertz has never been tested at this level, and that would be a tough sell.
Ben McCollum, head coach, Drake
If you’re going to make the argument for Schertz, it’s arguably even stronger for McCollum.
The Iowa native enjoyed a dominant run with Northwest Missouri State at the Division II level, winning 395 games and four national titles in 15 years in Maryville. McCollum traded that job for Drake last offseason, replacing Darian DeVries and generally keeping that program humming along.
Like Schertz, a McCollum hire would require a hefty chunk of faith. But it would not be without merits.
Darian DeVries, head coach, West Virginia
Why hire the current Drake head coach when you could grab the one who just parlayed the position into a bigger job?
DeVries was outstanding in Des Moines, winning 25 or more games in each of his last four seasons and taking the Bulldogs to three NCAA tournaments. That grabbed him the West Virginia job last spring, where he’s started well with a good showing in the Battle 4 Atlantis (sorry IU fans) and wins over Gonzaga, Arizona and Kansas already.
DeVries’ teams generally play stout defense and excel in conference play. He’s also got IU connections on staff — former Hoosier Kory Barnett and former Archie Miller assistant Tom Ostrom — in Morgantown.
But while he’s at least in a high-major job now, like others in this grouping, DeVries’ resume is short of experience in a job like this one.
Micah Shrewsberry, head coach, Notre Dame
Shrewsberry endeared himself to IU fans (and Big Ten fans in general) with the open, attacking brand of basketball he fashioned across two seasons at Penn State. The Nittany Lions even won a tournament game in 2023, behind the creative force of Jalen Pickett and an impressive array of 3-point shooters spacing the floor until Penn State was almost unguardable.
Between State College and his two years now in South Bend, Shrewsberry has also proven himself a shrewd recruiter. He plucked Pickett from the portal, and beat out Indiana for Jalen Haralson just last fall.
Shrewsberry’s appeal runs deeper than just his resume. He grew up in Indianapolis and starred at Cathedral, before becoming a three-year starter at Hanover. He’s also coached under both Brad Stevens (at Butler and in Boston) and Matt Painter. There would be significant support for Shrewsbury within segments of IU’s fan base.
But Dolson would also have to sell a coach who has four years in a head job at the high-major level and has never finished better than .500 in conference play. Markus Burton’s injury is undeniably hampering Notre Dame’s ability to level up this winter, but the Irish remain pedestrian in a pedestrian ACC. This opening might have come too soon for Shrewsbury, if the job would even interest him.
Chris Beard, head coach, Ole Miss
No one questions Beard’s quality as a head coach. The issues would be off the floor.
On it, Beard’s teams are outstanding. He’s won virtually everywhere he’s been, from a 30-win season in his one year at Little Rock, to an Elite Eight and a national title game at Texas Tech, to 20-win seasons in his first years at Texas and Ole Miss, respectively.
The Rebels look even better in Year 2, pointed firmly toward an NCAA tournament appearance. And for what it will be worth this time around, Beard coached under Bob Knight as an assistant at Texas Tech.
Again, the obstacles would be away from basketball.
Beard was fired from Texas in January 2023 after being arrested on a domestic violence charge. While the charge was later dismissed, the arrest cost Beard his job, and required an explanation from Ole Miss when it hired him in March of that year.
For any number of reasons, Indiana probably would not want to put itself in the same position.
An assistant somewhere
This last category is open ended. We won’t go name by name, but simply point out this approach has worked at times in the past.
Lloyd, for example, was hired straight from Mark Few’s staff into the Arizona job, where he won immediately. The circumstances are not exactly the same, but Jon Scheyer’s elevation at Duke has gone well so far. There are other scattered cases.
Who would figure into this conversation? Maybe a member of Dan Hurley’s staff at UConn, like Kimani Young or Luke Murray. Purdue assistant Terry Johnson also has experience at Ohio State and Butler, where he coached under Brad Stevens.
There are a few other names worth considering if IU goes this route. But given where the Hoosiers are, and the expectation of where they need to go, selling an unproven assistant as Woodson’s successor seems highly unlikely.
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