Dusty May Named Michigan Coach: While Indiana stands pat with Mike Woodson

Dusty May is what the Indiana Hoosiers need as a Head Coach. He was a student manager for the legendary Bob Knight at Indiana and played high school basketball at Eastern Green in Indiana. Dusty is a Hoosier. He is young and energetic, while the Hoosiers continue to flounder with an almost 70-year-old Head Coach who currently has zero recruits. Mike Woodson played for Indiana nearly 50 years ago and after what we saw this season that should mean nothing when deciding if he should be the coach or not.

Michigan hiring Dusty May as head coach I CBS Sports

Woodson’s first two years saw him take the Hoosiers to the NCAA Tournament. Those two trips ended with a loss against Saint Marys, where the team gave up early on, and another loss in the second round, in which the Hoosiers were outcoached and outplayed throughout the game. Mike Woodson was a failed NBA head coach who took a couple of teams to the playoffs. He was fired because of an archaic offense and mediocre defence. Sound familiar?

When Woodson was hired, nobody else was allowed to interview because his buddy Quinn Buckner had headed the search and just gave it to his friend. Hell, when Archie Miller got the job, nobody else was interviewed then, either. You can understand the Miller hiring. He was coming off taking Dayton to an Elite Eight appearance, and Woodson had not even been a head coach for almost a decade in the NBA.

When Woodson arrived, he was given former Hoosier Dan Fife and Thad Matta as people with college basketball experience; within a year, they had both left. Fife because he talked politics that Woodson did not like, while Matta left because he was being ignored. I am betting that Woodson talks woke liberal politics with the players, I’m pretty sure he is good with that.

People have said that Woodson coaches like he is in the NBA, but he really isn’t. The NBA has turned into a free-flowing game that encourages three-point shooting. That’s not what Woodson is doing in Indiana. The Indiana offense looks like College Basketball in the mid-80s. Two bigs inside, and everything runs through them. That will not bring a Final Four to the Hoosiers anytime soon.

Unfortunately, Indiana fans like to make fun of the ship that Juwan Howard was sinking in Michigan while ignoring that we have an older version of Juwan Howard here in Indiana. Michigan has at least admitted that and hired a young, energetic coach who took Florida Atlantic to the Final Four.

From everything I hear Indiana Athletic Director Scott Dolson wanted to move on from Woodson, but Quinn Buckner shot that idea down. Dolson wanted to set performance standards for Woodson, but Buckner shot that down also.

Indiana has one of the highest NIL pots in the country, but it has zero high school recruits who want that money. Come on, that’s a huge issue. Woodson is heading into his late 60s, and he is set in his ways. He’s not changing anything. He does not hit the recruiting coach the way Dusty May does. I have heard some Hoosier fans scream that FAU just lost in the first round this season, and why would we want him? Let me remind you of this: May took over a mid-major program, and five years later, he has taken them to back-to-back March Madness appearances, including a Final Four.

May is a coach who has won recruiting players to fit his system, which worked in College Basketball. Woodson’s system doesn’t work in College Basketball and never will! The laziness of Woodson’s tenure is evident in the recruits he gets. Remember, TJD and Race Thompson were Miller recruits. What has Woodson recruited from High School?

Maybe Dusty May will turn into another Archie Miller and fail. We don’t know that yet. But what we do know is that Mike Woodson has already failed, and he is still here.