Indiana men’s basketball coaching search should focus on competence, not fame

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Indiana and Purdue will face each other in men’s basketball on Sunday for the 220th time in a rivalry that has never in the modern era looked more lopsided than it does right now.

On one hand here’s Purdue, the picture of sustainability and sensibility, showing up as a Final Four contender darn near every season. On the other here’s Indiana, a program whose expectations and vibes have been hijacked for two decades by a fan base that doesn’t know what it doesn’t know and never quite seems to learn.

Need an example? A little more than a week ago, a not-so-insignificant portion of the Indiana fan base believed there was actual momentum behind the idea Brad Stevens might willingly leave his job running the world champion Boston Celtics to coach at a place whose last 20 years on paper look a lot more like, say, Florida State, than one of the sport’s blueblood programs. Never mind the whole NIL and transfer portal dysfunction, which is pretty much a nonstarter for anyone who has a well-paying, stable job as an NBA coach or team president.

Stevens is much too smart for that and said so to Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, which was actually the best gift he could have given Indiana athletics director Scott Dolson, who no longer has to operate a coaching search with his entire fan base huffing the highest quality hopium.

But the important thing is that one year from now, somebody besides Mike Woodson will be coaching the Hoosiers when they face Purdue and Matt Painter, who has seen five counterparts at Indiana come and go since his first season in 2005.

Think about the staggering dichotomy there: As Painter churns out winning team after winning team, culminating with Purdue’s trip to the national championship game last year, Indiana cannot escape the never-ending cycle of overhype to disappointment to anger that has occurred with predictable regularity since Bobby Knight’s unceremonious exit in 2000.

What has gone wrong since then? Well, a lot.

The initial burst to the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/indiana-mens-basketball-coaching-search-163028375.html

Author : IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2025-02-22 16:30:00

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