Cheney is their Juwan. Nearly the same age. Although he does have college coaching experience. If they hire Dane Fife… that’d be 3 B1G openings and they all hired college assistant coaches 
One cool thing if they hire Woodson (or Cheney) is that’d be 3 black hires. After no black coaches were hired for a decade before Juwan.
It has that same type of feel as Michigan Football because Indiana seems hell bent on hiring former IU players/alumni.
I’m sure Cheaney would be a cool hire for Juwan to have another coach in the league that he knows. Played against each other in college and played together in the pros.
IMO Cheaney would be a decent hire, not as qualified as Juwan but not as disastrous as Woodson
actually, re-reading that list…Woodson is probably the second-best choice on there? Fife (Clarkston Mafia disaster), Smart (fired, hasn’t coached in two years), Michael Lewis (who???)
Hiring cheany is risky as hell, just such little experience
Definitely seems like Indiana should be able to do better than any of these names. They aren’t getting Brad Stevens, but they should still target top coaches in the next realistic tier even if they don’t have ties to Indiana. It is the best job opening on the market for Pete’s sake.
I literally have no idea who Michael Lewis is
Didn’t Evansville pass on Cheaney as HC? I get that he’s probably the closest thing they have to a Juwan at this point, but that shouldn’t be the impetus for the hire.
There have been some comical Cheaney threads on the IU 247 board comparing him to Juwan though.
Isn’t he the author of Moneyball? Maybe they’re on to something there at IU…
so this guy appears to be a former IU guard who was Tim Miles’ offensive coordinator at Nebraska and now is the guards coach at UCLA.
Most of the offenses at Nebraska under Miles were atrocious and UCLA runs everything through its big wings. So…not my first choice if I’m Indiana
My Indiana shortlist:
What do you have against Jared Jeffries and Bracey Wright?
Cheaney was a heck of a college player and a very good pro, but his coaching career has not had traction
I didn’t know HOW good he was: ended his career as a three-time All-American and remains the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer. Virtually every post-season honor, including National Player of the Year (both the Wooden and Naismith), Big Ten Player of the Year; 13 years in the NBA.
The fact that someone doesn’t develop traction as a coach might or might not be an indicator of ability or prowess, honestly. Juwan was getting passed on quite a bit, after a long period of dues-paying.
Inevitably, a former player hire is going to get compared to Juwan now, though. Might be a tough act to follow. I think that Boutros characterization of him as a unicorn has merit. Cheney’s a decent interview, fwiw.
IU needs to stop screwing around and hire Steve Alford already…
The Mike Davis era never happened. Coverdale is a Knight era holdover.
Anyone have an answer to my question above? If you’re a Big Ten team and you turn down the chance to hire John Beilein, you’re insane, right? What do you not like winning games in the tournament?
I think you have to at least call him. Maybe he’s being picky, doesn’t want the B10 (hello Marquette…looking at you), isn’t ready to come back, etc. But make the call. Izzo is the only active coach in the conference with as much success as Beilein so he is theoretically an upgrade over every other coach or candidate.
Screw it, why not Ben Howland?
Juwan was an up-and-coming NBA assistant, interviewed for Lakers and Knicks HC not long before he came back.