BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – There’s no hiding the fact that Indiana’s season hasn’t gone to plan.
Coach Mike Woodson entered the year with what he called his most talented roster in four seasons, and Indiana was picked to finish second in the preseason Big Ten media poll, receiving seven first-place votes out of 33.
But the Hoosiers have fallen to 14-8 overall and 5-6 in Big Ten play after losing five of their last six games. Woodson led the Hoosiers to the NCAA Tournament in his first two seasons, but Indiana is in serious danger of missing the Big Dance for a second straight year.
On Tuesday, Woodson was listed as one of “the big dominos” on the college basketball coaching hot seat watch list written by Sports Illustrated’s Kevin Sweeney.
Here’s what Sweeney wrote about Woodson’s standing in Bloomington.
“It’s never easy to part with a program legend, but Woodson returning for another year in Bloomington, Ind., looks increasingly untenable as the Hoosiers’ tailspin continues,” Sweeney wrote. “Losses in five of its last six has taken IU out of the projected NCAA tournament field. After being given near-limitless resources to rebuild the roster last spring from a disappointing 19–14 campaign, failing to go dancing would likely spell the end of the road.”
“The more interesting question remains who the ideal candidate to replace him would be, a question very few in the industry have a good answer to. The natural fit is former IU manager Dusty May, now the Michigan Wolverines coach, but coaxing him to Bloomington from a lower-stress gig in the same league looks like a serious uphill battle. Logically, the Hoosiers need a sitting high-major coach with a long résumé, but several of those who might pique their interest come with serious baggage. In a world where the Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals each hired coaches with zero career NCAA tournament wins, are we sure the Hoosiers don’t just target an elite basketball mind from the mid-major ranks and arm him with a war chest for talent acquisition?”
In the midst of his fourth season coaching his alma mater, Woodson has a 77-48 overall record and a 36-35 mark in regular season Big Ten play. Indiana has finished ninth, tied for second and tied for sixth in the Big Ten standings under Woodson, and it’s currently in a three-way tie for ninth place in the new 18-team league.
After Tuesday’s 9 p.m. ET tipoff at No. 21 Wisconsin, the Hoosiers return home to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to host No. 24 Michigan, a notable matchup not only because Indiana is desperate for wins at the moment.
The only candidate Sweeney directly named in reference to Woodson’s potential replacement was Michigan coach Dusty May, a student manager for the Hoosiers from 1996-2000 under Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight. May graduated from Eastern Greene High School in Bloomfield, Ind., less than 20 miles from Indiana’s campus.
May has a 16-5 overall record and an 8-2 mark in Big Ten play during his first season coaching the Wolverines. He previously coached six seasons at Florida Atlantic, where he went 60-13 in his final two seasons, including a run to the 2023 Final Four and a loss in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Indiana hosts Michigan Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on CBS, May’s first time facing the Hoosiers as a head coach. At Big Ten Media Days before the season, May shared some thoughts on the matchup and his time at Indiana.
“Once I saw the guys that coach Woodson was able to get this year and the team they’ve put together, I’ve tried not to think about that game,” May said in October.
Although it’s been 24 years since May was part of the Indiana basketball program, there are a few things that stuck with him from his time under Knight.
“As an assistant coach, I don’t think I used a lot of what coach Knight did and said. But immediately after becoming a head coach, I caught myself saying a lot of his expressions and phrases and thinking about a lot of the things that he talked about,” May said.
“But most importantly, his ability to take complex concepts and make them seem simple, make players understand in a quick, efficient manner. Efficiency of language, outside of the four-letter words and stuff that he was very adept at. But I learned so much. There’s no question, I wouldn’t be here today without the coaches I grew up playing for, and then just being around coach Knight every day.”
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