The Indiana men’s basketball team announced on Friday that Mike Woodson will be leaving his role at the end of the current campaign.
The Hoosiers have dropped four straight games and six of their last seven as they approach their second straight season without making it to the NCAA tournament.
ESPN reported Thursday that Woodson, 66, and the university were in conversations regarding his exit and that he was not anticipated to return to the Hoosiers next season.
In a statement released on Friday, Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson said, “Coach Woodson told me he wanted to resign as our program’s head coach at the end of the current season during a meeting with him on Wednesday.” He claimed that the decision was emotional and challenging, and that it had been on his mind for some time. Since then, we have had careful discussions regarding his choice and his wish to make sure the program is in the best possible position going forward. Coach Woodson will discuss his thoughts on his choice and his experiences over the past four years when the time is right.
Our conversations over the past several days have made it quite evident to me that his top priority is to divert attention away from himself and toward bringing Hoosier Nation together in support of our student-athletes, coaches, and, most importantly, the program. As we get ready for Saturday’s game against Michigan and the rest of the 2024–25 season, we still have a lot of work ahead of us, and we want to inspire Hoosier supporters to support the program in the same way that they did for Mike during his All-America and Big Ten MVP playing career.
Although Woodson’s contract stipulated that he would get more than $8 million in compensation in the event of his termination, the specifics of his resignation’s financial conditions are unclear. His contract makes it possible for the buyout to be paid in lump sums of millions of dollars each year, which makes it easier for the institution to manage financially.
A major selling factor for the position is anticipated to be the fact that Indiana had one of the biggest name, image, and likeness budgets in the Big Ten and the nation this season.
On Saturday, Indiana will visit Michigan, ranked No. 24. One of the candidates to succeed Woodson is Wolverines coach Dusty May, a former Hoosier who worked as a student manager for Bob Knight.
Indiana started the season with high expectations after an offseason makeover that featured one of the nation’s top transfer portal classes, led by Oumar Ballo (Arizona), Myles Rice (Washington State), and Kanaan Carlyle (Stanford). The Hoosiers trailed just Purdue in the preseason Big Ten media poll and ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP poll.
After suffering consecutive crushing defeats to Gonzaga and Louisville in late November, the Hoosiers appeared to turn things around and won nine of their next ten games. However, they are now 14-9 overall and 5-7 in the Big Ten after winning only one game in the last month.
In ESPN’s latest Bracketology, the Hoosiers are not even listed among the Next Four Out.
Following Indiana’s latest loss, a 76-64 defeat at Wisconsin in which the Hoosiers trailed 26-4 just minutes into the game, Woodson openly questioned his team’s toughness.
“We’re just not a tough team right now,” he said. “We’re not. Mentally we’re not tough.”
The Hoosiers had a similar collapse midway through Big Ten play last season, starting 10-3 before losing 10 of their next 14 games. They finished 19-14 overall, with the school announcing toward the end of the campaign that Woodson would return as the program’s head coach for the 2024-25 season.
Indiana reached the NCAA tournament in each of Woodson’s first two seasons, including a second-place Big Ten finish in 2023. It earned a 4-seed in the NCAA tournament before falling to eventual Final Four participant Miami in the second round.
The Hoosiers went 21-14 in 2021-22, sneaking into the First Four of the NCAA tournament and beating Wyoming before falling to Saint Mary’s.
Coach Woodson is a class act,” Dolson said in the statement. “During the last four years, he has led the program during a transformational time in college athletics and helped us become a national leader in evolving areas including NIL and the Transfer Portal. No one loves IU Basketball more than he does. I want to thank him for coming back to Bloomington and accepting the challenge of rebuilding our program and re-connecting it with its past and its foundation. In pursuit of that goal, it was important to him that he bring back other legendary Hoosier players such as Calbert Cheaney, Randy Wittman, and Jordan Hulls, all of whom share his love and passion for this program. That’s a group of individuals that combined for 375 wins at IU, seven Big Ten championships, two Final Fours, and a national title.
With this decision made, Coach Woodson and I share the desire to see Hoosier Nation unite beginning on Saturday afternoon in support of these players, coaches, and program.”
Woodson is a former Indiana star who played under Knight from 1976 to 1980 before being selected in the first round of the 1980 NBA draft by the New York Knicks. After an NBA career that included 11 years as a player and 25 years as a head coach and assistant coach, he was hired by his alma mater in 2021 to replace Archie Miller.
