Coach Woodson’s Hoosiers

Due to battling the flu, this will be just a short little article with some thoughts thus far on the Mike Woodson led Hoosiers. As we have now started the second year of Indiana University (IU) Coach Mike Woodson’s tenure at his alma mater I for one would venture to say that I feel good with him leading the helm. I know it’s somewhat of a small sample size to know for certain, but I’ve seen enough to feel like the program is definitely heading in the right direction.

The return of IU basketball being a hard nosed defensive team has been a blessing to this long time Hoosier fan. The IU teams of my past were built on solid defense, taking care of the basketball, and shooting. Those were things you could count on IU teams being able to do. And although having a lights out shooter hasn’t happened yet in his tenure the other two have been focused on and great strides have been made.

A lot of questions surrounded Woodson’s hiring in regards to him having never coached in college, and also his age and whether or not he could relate to young players today. The early returns on his recruiting efforts suggest that he relates just fine. A lot of that can be attributed to his NBA experience and young players having NBA aspirations, but if you watch any of the videos that IU releases of workouts and practices you can see first hand why he relates to people of all ages. He is who he is. He’s honest to a fault. If you’re not going to like the answer, don’t ask the question. He’s been referred to as being “as cool as the other side of the pillow.” He is demanding, yet fair. There doesn’t seem to be any gray area with Coach Woodson.

The team echoes a lot of those traits in their play. They play loose and free, yet disciplined and determined. They take pride in their defense and their ability to shut other teams down for stretches of games. When they get dialed in defensively they are extremely hard to score against and it in turn creates easy scoring opportunities on offense which only amps up their defense even more. Shots are taken with more confidence, the ball is shared more and the whole team and the fans feed off of that energy.

When North Carolina rolls into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (SSAH) tonight for the ACC/B10 Challenge game against the Hoosiers it will be IU’s toughest opponent to date this year despite them having lost two games this past weekend. They lost to two ranked teams, one in quadruple overtime, by a total of 7 points. So it’s not like they were over ranked early on, it’s more of an indication of just how competitive college basketball is now.

The atmosphere will be nothing short of electric. There is basically a who’s who list of recruits, including IU’s two signees for next year, Gabe Cupps & Jakai Newton, scheduled to be on hand. The game is on ESPN. It has all the makings for another unbelievable game in SSAH. A place that has seen many. Pre-season #1 North Carolina vs. #10 Indiana Hoosiers with Mike Woodson in charge…I like our chances!

GO HOOSIERS!