Not sure that Tim Miles (worse case) isn’t the same as Fran (best case).
2 Likes
The Matta hiring would make better sense with a younger coach.
2 Likes
From a lot of stand points, Woodson is not a bad hire for Indiana, and especially with Thad Matta on the wing. I am sure that IU will throw in resource so that he can surround him with the best assistants. While Woodson was never one of those brilliant NBA coaches, he was never a bad one neither, his two years in NY was the best Knicks ever had in this century. Not as exciting as their last hire, but not necessarily fare worse.
2 Likes
A hire they would’ve never made without witnessing Juwan Howard’s success at Michigan.
12 Likes
Fun fact: Juwan Howard (3-0) has as many NCAA tournament wins in his career as Brad Underwood (3-5) … and one more than Holtmann has at OSU (2-3).
22 Likes
What was the real story behind Miller’s departure? I just read his wiki entry and even his path to the job is really interesting.
The word within the Butler rumor/whisper sphere is mental health issues around addictive personality. The story I heard is that he went on a sex bender in Florida and was non-contactable a week before the season.
This isn’t at all firm or confirmed knowledge, but there was something strange going on because he took a medical leave of absence, but no one would ever talk on it.
2 Likes
Yeah, I kept digging and there’s just nothing accessible via a google. It’s made all the more strange by the way he quit coaching for a year earlier in his assistant career.
Apparently his issues weren’t totally new revelations, which is why I wonder if Holtmann who was already friends with Miller saw an opportunity. I believe Brad Stevens had tried to get Holtmann to come on staff previously, which begs the question, what changed?
The claim is that Holtmann felt that leaving Gardner Webb after only a year or two would be a bad look.
pretty weird energy in this Mike Woodson intro PC.
1 Like
Hard to think that the hiring of Matta doesn’t mimic, at least a little, what Coach Howard did at UM. But you’re adding one more moving piece to an already-large puzzle. Especially if it’s true that Matta wanted the job.
1 Like
I am excited to read the post-game reactions from IU boards. Not bringing the energy. A lot of “What’s best for Mike Woodson.” “I gotta watch more film before I can say I like the players.”
Based on this arrangement, I would guess that they wanted Matta and Matta said he’d liked to but with his health he couldn’t do it.
1 Like
Saw a guy on Twitter say Matta was going to run the program and Woodson was just gonna coach. How he expects Matta to run the program from an administrative role I do not know and he didn’t have an answer for how that would work when I asked
1 Like
Yeah, 100%. IU fans are prescribing way too much to the Matta hire. Matta is valuable for bridging the gap from college to NBA so that he knows the basics of how to run a college program (How do you schedule college games? What is a normal scouting/practice schedule? How do you make prioritization decisions in recruiting? Etc.). That’s why Phil Martelli and Jay Smith were valuable for Juwan. Matta isn’t going to be able to land 5 stars or coach the team. This is the same mistake that people make with Martelli. He was valuable for bridging the NBA-college gap, but now that Juwan’s adjusted, he’s probably the least valuable assistant.
6 Likes
I’m just thinking about recruits committing to IU because Thad Matta is going to be scheduling the non-conference games.
6 Likes
The Martelli comparison doesn’t even work for me for three reasons:
-
Dolson, not Woodson, hired Matta. He is like an assigned instructor whereas Juwan hand picked Martelli.
-
Martelli is an actual bench coach.
-
Martelli is closer to the end of his career. Matta at 53 may believe he has a lot left in the tank.
It’s just way too awkward and convoluted a setup. How is this a better arrangement than just hiring Porter Moser?
16 Likes
People still watch introductory press conferences??