Indiana says Woodson will step down after season

• Jeff Borzello Close Jeff Borzello ESPN Personnel Author Basketball recruiting expert. Joined ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University of Delaware.Feb 7, 2025, 04:25 PM ET Indiana guys

• ‘s basketball coach Mike
• Woodson is stepping down from his position at the end

of the season, the school said Friday.The Hoosiers are heading toward their 2nd successive season without an NCAA competition look, losing 4 straight games and 6 of their past

seven.ESPN reported Thursday that Woodson, 66, and the university remained in discussions about his exit and that he was not expected to return to the Hoosiers next season.”During a conference with Coach Woodson on Wednesday, he notified me he wished to step down as our program’s head coach at the end of the existing season,”Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson

said in a statement Friday.”He said it had been weighing on his mind for a while, and that it was an emotional and hard decision. We have actually had subsequent thoughtful conversations about his decision and his desire to guarantee that the program remains in the best position it can be moving on. At an appropriate time, Coach Woodson will articulate his feelings about his decision and his experiences these last 4 years.Editor’s Picks 2 Related “It’s clear to me from our discussions in the last several days that his No. 1 top priority is for the attention to be off him, and rather concentrated on uniting Hoosier Country in support of our student-athletes, coaches, and, most notably, the program. We still have much to

bet this season as we prepare for Saturday’s game against Michigan and the rest of the 2024-25 season, and we wish to encourage Hoosier fans to rally around the program and support it in the same positive way that Hoosier fans did during Mike’s All-America and Big Ten MVP playing profession. “While the financial terms of Woodson’s resignation are not clear, his agreement called for him to be paid more than $8 million were he to be fired. His agreement allows for the buyout to be paid in yearly million dollar swelling amounts, that makes it more workable for the school from a budgetary standpoint.Indiana had among the largest name,

image and likeness spending plans in the Big 10 and in the country this season, which is anticipated to be a substantial selling point for the job.Indiana is hosting No. 24 Michigan on Saturday. Wolverines coach Dusty Might– a Hoosiers alum who was a student supervisor under Bob Knight– is expected to be amongst the targets to change Woodson.Following an offseason restore that included among the much better transfer portal classes in the nation, headlined by Oumar Ballo (Arizona ), Myles Rice(Washington State)and Kanaan Carlyle (Stanford ), Indiana went into the season with considerable expectations. The Hoosiers were No. 17 in the preseason AP survey and behind just Purdue in the preseason Big 10 media poll.The Hoosiers suffered back-to-back blowout losses to Louisville and Gonzaga in late November before apparently righting the ship and winning 9 of their next 10 games. But they’ve won simply one game in the previous month and dropped to 14-9 overall and 5-7 in the Big Ten.In ESPN’s newest Bracketology, the Hoosiers are not even noted amongst the Next 4 Out.Following Indiana’s latest loss, a 76-64 defeat at Wisconsin in which the Hoosiers tracked 26-4 just minutes into the game, Woodson honestly questioned his group’s strength.”We’re just not a tough group right now,”he stated.”We’re not. Mentally we’re not tough.”The Hoosiers had a comparable collapse midway through Big 10 play last season, starting 10-3 before losing 10 of their next 14 games.

They finished 19-14 total, with the school announcing towards completion of the project that Woodson would return as the program’s head coach for the 2024-25 season.Indiana reached the NCAA competition in each of Woodson’s first two seasons, consisting of a second-place Big Ten finish in 2023. It made a 4-seed in the NCAA competition before being up to ultimate Final 4 participant Miami in the 2nd round.The Hoosiers went 21-14 in 2021-22, slipping into the First Four of the NCAA competition and beating Wyoming before being up to Saint Mary’s.”Coach Woodson is a class act,”Dolson said in the statement. “During the last 4 years, he has actually led the program during a transformational time in college athletics and helped us become a national leader in progressing locations including NIL and the Transfer Website. Nobody likes IU Basketball more than he does. I want to thank him for coming back to Bloomington and accepting the challenge of restoring our program and re-connecting it with its past and its foundation. In pursuit of that goal, it was essential to him that he restore other legendary Hoosier players such as Calbert Cheaney, Randy Wittman, and Jordan Hulls, all of whom share his love and enthusiasm for this program. That’s a group of people that combined for 375 wins at IU, seven Huge 10 championships, 2 Last Fours, and a nationwide title. “With this choice made, Coach Woodson and I share the desire to see Hoosier Nation join beginning on Saturday afternoon in support of these players, coaches, and program.”Woodson is a previous Indiana star who played under Knight from 1976 to 1980 before being chosen in the first round of the 1980 NBA draft by the New york city Knicks. After an NBA profession that consisted of 11 years as a player and 25 years as a head coach and assistant coach, he was hired by his university in 2021 to change Archie Miller.