Mike Woodson Thinks He's Done His Job at Indiana -- I Beg to Differ

Mike Woodson thinks he's done his job in three years as the head coach at Indiana. He said so after the final game of the regular season. If the 65-year-old truly believes he has done what is required of him in his first three campaigns in charge of his alma mater's basketball program, then someone needs to shake some sense into that man. And if this is what Woodson considers as having done his job, then Indiana can and should do better.

Two weeks ago, Indiana's athletic department leaked that Woodson would return as the school's head basketball coach next season. The next day, five-star forward commit Liam McNeeley followed with his own announcement: he was de-committing from the program and asked out of his Letter of Intent. This all came in the middle of a five-game winning streak for the Hoosiers. That kind of good news/bad news scenario has been a feature of Woodson's three-season tenure, not a bug.

After making his pronouncement, Woodson's Hoosiers entered the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 6 seed. They inched past Penn State 61-59 in the second round, then got absolutely hammered by Nebraska 93-66 in the quarterfinals. It was the third time the Huskers had beaten Indiana by more than 15 points this year. Woodson watched the end of the game from the locker room after being ejected with a few minutes to go. IU, far off the NCAA Tournament bubble, declined an invitation from the NIT, meaning that for the third straight season Woodson's program wrapped up the campaign with a blowout loss. In 2022 the Hoosiers exited the first round of the NCAA Tournament with an 82-53 defeat at the hands of St. Mary's, and last season they were run off the floor by Miami 85-69 in the Round of 32.

While Woodson has produced mild success during his first two seasons in Bloomington, his third campaign was a huge step back, and the future of the program looks bleak. The Hoosiers finished the regular season 19-14 and 10-10 in the Big Ten. While that might not look too awful on the surface, they finished the season ranked 98th in the NET, and 93rd on KenPom. They were 14-13 and had lost eight of 10 before winning five straight near the end of the season. Given that the roster included three former five-stars and four seniors in the rotation, the Hoosiers have fallen short of expectations.

Indiana also finished the season without a truly good win. They whiffed in the non-conference schedule and the only wins that look good in Big Ten play have huge caveats attached. Indiana beat Wisconsin at home on February 27, but the Badgers were in the middle of a stretch where they lost eight of 10. The Hoosiers beat a highly-rated Michigan State team, but no one has been able to figure out what to make of the Spartans all season. They also beat Ohio State on the road but that was a week before the Buckeyes fired Chris Holtmann. The season was a complete and utter mess. It was the basketball equivalent of Madame Web, a product far inferior to the sum of its parts.

Woodson's defenders point to the fact that Indiana made the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons, something that hadn't happened in the five years before he arrived. They are correct, but those results need context. The Hoosiers finished 21-14 during the 2021-22 season and were 9-11 in the Big Ten. They needed to win two games in the Big Ten Tournament -- one of which featured a miracle comeback -- just to earn their way into a play-in game. They won their First Four contest against Wyoming, then got trounced by St. Mary's.

In Year 2, much was expected of Woodson's squad. He had All-American center Trayce Jackson-Davis in his senior year and Jalen Hood-Schifino was a five-star freshman who would go on to be a lottery pick. The roster also featured two other seniors and a junior in the starting lineup even after senior guard Xavier Johnson was lost for the year. Those Hoosiers should have contended for a Big Ten title and made waves nationally. Instead, they finished 23-12, went 12-8 in conference and ended up three games out of the Big Ten title chase despite beating champion Purdue twice. That team suffered a number of astonishing losses -- at Penn State, at Rutgers, a 22-point home blowout loss to Iowa, and again to Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament -- and was embarrassed by Miami in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. There's no way to look at that season as anything but falling short of expectations.

Those two seasons qualified as a success if making the NCAA Tournament is Indiana's goal. Given the tradition, resources and fan support the program has at its disposal, reaching the tournament should be the absolute floor of expectations. Following those two seasons up by falling flat with a talented roster should get people grumbling about the head coach's job. Which is exactly what has happened.

After the Hoosiers beat Michigan State 65-64 to close out the regular season, Woodson acted like it was ludicrous for anyone to wonder about his job status. Before the players spoke during their Senior Day festivities, their coach thanked the "true fans" for supporting them. He repeated that term with emphasis. His implication was that anyone critical of his team or its coach wasn't really a fan. Bear in mind, that team started 14-13, suffered three blowout losses on its home floor, got crushed by rival Purdue twice, went 1-7 against Penn State, Northwestern, Nebraska and Rutgers and lost eight games by 14 or more points. During the post-Michigan State press conference, Woodson claimed he'd done his job.

I beg to differ.

A college basketball coach's job isn't just about winning more games than losing. At least not at Indiana. Woodson is 31-29 in the Big Ten over three seasons, which isn't good enough. His teams have been blown out in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament twice and didn't reach it in Year 3. He has won more than he has lost, but that's not enough. Recruiting has been a disjointed mess, culminating in a 2024 high school class that now features zero players. Additionally, college coaches need to tweak their schemes to fit their rosters and constantly adjust with changing times. Woodson's offensive and defensive systems flat-out don't fit the college game and do very little to help his players succeed.

After the season-ending blowout loss to Nebraska, Woodson was asked about his post-heavy, inside-out offensive philosophy and what Indiana needed to make it work. His response, "Again, for the most part it did work. We didn't make enough shots." No, Mike. No, it didn't work. Indiana finished the season ranked 106th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency. It was a disaster, and the archaic system he runs will chase players away.

McNeeley, the recent decommit, is a gifted wing scorer and elite shooter, something Woodson has yet to prove he can feature in his post-heavy, ISO-based offense. Despite claims the offense would modernize heading into Year 3, it was virtually unchanged from the first two seasons. Indiana finished ranked 352nd nationally in percentage of points scored from the 3-point line. Woodson rarely runs plays to get shooters open and instead pounds the ball inside repeatedly while relying heavily on perimeter players beating their men in ISO sets. There's very little movement and it is all predicated on scoring out of the post. It's basketball from a bygone era. Woodson's playbook is the kind thing Zahi Hawass would get way too excited about unearthing in Saqqara.

For three years, Woodson has shown he doesn't get the importance of shooting or the 3-point line. He has repeatedly made comments that show how out of touch he is, marveling at how much teams shoot threes nowadays. This season, Indiana was outscored by 354 points from beyond the arc. That's an average of 10.7 points per game. During the 2022-23 campaign, forward Miller Kopp shot 44.4 percent from deep, but was only taking 4.1 threes per game. When asked why he wasn't scheming up plays to get Kopp more looks, Woodson said, "I'm not just here to create a lot of shots for just Miller." Yes Mike, but it is your job to get him more shots. Despite ranking 39th nationally in 3-point percentage (36.8) as a team during the 2022-23 season, Indiana ranked 345 in the percentage of points it got from beyond the arc. Read that again. No, seriously, I'll wait ... it's an utterly insane statistic.

As we sit here today, it appears Woodson is in over his head at Indiana. Before arriving, he had been an NBA head coach or assistant since 1996 and had never coached college basketball at any level. Let's be real, he got the job because he was an All-American under Bob Knight and is incredibly close with some very important people at Indiana. His resume was in no way worthy of the gig. It shouldn't be surprising that Woodson has yet to adjust his style to fit the college game. And, based on his quotes and what sources inside the program tell me, he doesn't plan to alter much. He wholeheartedly believes in his system and that he just needs to get his players to run it better. That should terrify Indiana fans.

This offseason could be one of upheaval in Bloomington. Barring something cataclysmic, star sophomore center Kel'el Ware is headed to the NBA Draft, and five-star freshman forward Mackenzie Mgbako could join him -- at the very least he is likely to go through the combine. Seniors Xavier Johnson and Anthony Walker will be gone and several reserves are expected to transfer. Senior guards Anthony Leal and Trey Galloway have announced they will utilize their COVID seasons and return next season, but the roster will be full of holes. With McNeeley no longer coming, Indiana may need to land as many as seven players in the transfer portal. No matter what, they'll likely need five at a minimum. Importing that many players is an almost impossible path to creating a championship culture.

When he arrived, Woodson said his goal was to compete for championships. He hasn't come close, but continues to act as if his program is on the cusp of greatness. Someone needs to feed him a healthy dose of reality. Indiana is light years away from being where it should at this point. Yes, he's been better than Archie Miller was at Indiana, but that's not an impressive feat. I guarantee you a solid 65 percent of the people reading this article would have been a better fit at Indiana than Miller was. Woodson says he cares, he needs to show it by questioning everything he's done to this point. Then fixing it.

Woodson will be back at Indiana, but to be successful he has to be willing to change. He needs to show humility and admit his systems aren't working on either end of the floor. Indiana's offense was bad (106th nationally), but the defense wasn't much better (82nd). Both of his schemes need to be heavily adjusted or outright scrapped. He also needs to admit whatever he's doing in recruiting is wrong. A consistent chorus behind-the-scenes claims Woodson is far less involved in the process than his rival coaches, and it has bitten Indiana repeatedly. Indiana has a massive NIL war chest and should be pulling in top players. Despite more than two dozen offers to the 2024 class, none committed to Woodson. I landed as many recruits as he did this cycle, and my budget was considerably smaller.

Mike Woodson will enter the 2024-25 season with the hottest seat in the country. He seems to scoff at that notion and the hint of arrogance about his performance is wearing thin with Indiana fans. Woodson thinks much too highly of what he's accomplished in his three-year tenure. A massive turnaround will be needed next season and it'll take a change in attitude for that to happen. Can Woodson do it? Sure, but he'll have to accept that what he's doing isn't working. In other words, he'll have to actually do his job.

If Woodson is incapable of that, Indiana needs to move on and find someone who is.