MINNEAPOLIS — Mike Woodson knew it was coming.
His Indiana men’s basketball team had just defeated Minnesota, 70-58, Wednesday night at Williams Arena. The Hoosiers — left for dead not long ago, with growing concerns over whether they’d win even one more game this season — have now pulled out three straight victories.
But after the game, in front of a small local media contingent that traveled to Minneapolis, Woodson knew what he’d eventually be asked about.
Hours before tipoff, reports surfaced — first by IndyStar, and later confirmed by The Daily Hoosier — that Woodson will return next season as Indiana’s head coach. His job status had become a popular debate topic as IU’s season spiraled downhill for more than a month of Big Ten play. Fans questioned whether Indiana would retain Woodson after a disappointing campaign, and whether the 65-year-old would consider stepping down.
But the Hoosiers entered The Barn on a two-game winning streak, and the program ended any uncertainty surrounding its head coach before the game even began.
After fielding some questions about the win, Woodson heard a reporter mention the news as a lead-in to another question. He didn’t let the reporter finish.
When he processed what sort of question was coming — something he clearly knew would come up at some point — he shook his head and assertively cut in.
“I’m not going to discuss my sh— I shouldn’t have to sit here in front of you guys and discuss my job,” Woodson said. “No comment.”
With every word Woodson spoke on the matter, his tone grew bolder and his body language reflected more disdain. This is a man who came to Bloomington with a vision to restore his alma mater’s men’s basketball prominence, and this season — his third at the helm — has been his first setback in doing so.
And he hasn’t shied away from the struggles this season. He’s been unafraid of publicly addressing his players’ or his own shortcomings, on frequent occasions as rough performances piled up.
But if Wednesday’s reactions and comments — or lack thereof — on the situation are any indication, IU’s down year hasn’t shaken Woodson’s confidence that he belongs in his position and that he’s the right person for it.
“I’m not discussing (with) you guys, my job. I shouldn’t have to do that,” Woodson said. “I feel good in my skin in terms of my job.”
Woodson is fully entitled to avoid publicly discussing his job status.
But the context of his situation has undeniably changed over the last week. Despite its struggles, and in spite of the outside noise, his team hasn’t given up on its season. And the Hoosiers, seemingly out of nowhere, are playing their best basketball of the year in March.
It’s no coincidence that this streak began when sixth-year point guard Xavier Johnson returned to action after missing six games with an elbow injury. With freshman Jakai Newton’s extended absence, Indiana’s backcourt has been thin all year — even with senior Anthony Leal’s emergence as a serviceable option off the bench.
A healthy Johnson helps alleviate those problems, and at his best — like he was on Sunday at Maryland — he does things on the court no other Hoosier can. And his presence trickles around the rest of the team, both in terms of minutes and workload and in what he opens up for his teammates.
But Johnson isn’t the lone reason for IU’s turnaround. The entire team has played with more inspiration and resilience the last three games. Senior guard Trey Galloway felt the struggles the Hoosiers endured for much of the season have led to this revival.
“Obviously, we’re playing good basketball at the right time, which is good,” Galloway said. “But we can’t really focus on the past. We have to focus on the present and the future. We have to keep winning games. Take it one game at a time.”
Wednesday’s game in Minneapolis was a good summation of Indiana’s last three games.
The Hoosiers didn’t play a squeaky clean, perfect game of basketball at The Barn. They had some things going awry that could’ve sparked their downfall — whether it was careless first-half turnovers and defensive miscues, Anthony Walker suffering a right knee injury while giving IU effective minutes off the bench (Woodson did not yet have any update on Walker’s status after the game), or foul trouble for Mackenzie Mgbako, Kel’el Ware, and Malik Reneau.
But Indiana just found a way to win. The Hoosiers battled through the adversity, capitalized on the opportunity to make this their game, and sustained that fight through the rest of the contest.
This is the sort of upside this flawed yet talented roster possesses and hasn’t lived up to for so much of this season. But Woodson is finally seeing his group tap into that potential.
“Guys are committing themselves. We’re playing now like we should’ve been playing,” Woodson said. “We’re playing faster. And guys are making shots behind the offense, and that helps. You go out on the road and you play defense like we played the last couple of games on the road, you give yourself a chance to win. And that’s what we’ve done.
All that said, realistically, this winning streak — most likely — won’t put IU back in play for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. While the probability of that scenario may not truly be zero percent, it’s not far off that mark. Indiana’s résumé and metrics were extremely poor before the Wisconsin game, and the Badgers are the lone NCAA Tournament-bound team IU has beaten in this stretch. It still lacks enough good wins to make a serious case.
These wins are more likely to revive and strengthen Indiana’s NIT hopes, and — particularly if the Hoosiers close the regular season by beating Michigan State on Sunday — it can give them confidence going into the Big Ten Tournament.
But given the news of Woodson’s return, perhaps the biggest takeaway from IU’s winning streak should be the reminder that he still knows the right buttons to push with his team.
He’s made some moves that haven’t worked out, both within games and in assembling this year’s team. He’s regularly mentioned his preference to play inside-out, but didn’t build a roster capable of doing that effectively — largely because of its severe deficiency in outside shooting.
But Woodson has developed players on this team. Mgbako arrived in Bloomington a touted prospect, but he struggled early in the season. And while he still has work to do, particularly defensively, he’s since blossomed into a legitimate Big Ten Freshman of the Year candidate. Ware came in from the transfer portal carrying concerns about his work ethic and effort after a difficult freshman year at Oregon, and Woodson has helped him achieve All-Big Ten-caliber success this season.
Indiana’s players have responded to Woodson’s coaching and battle for him. Ware spoke positively of his experience with his head coach this year.
“Every day in practice, he’s teaching us. He did come from the league,” Ware said. “Him just teaching us his ways, and being able to just pick his brain and everything like that. And playing the way that he wants to play. I feel like that’s been working out well for us.”
Woodson has his work ahead of him this offseason to get Indiana back on track.
Johnson and Walker are exhausting their eligibility this season. The Hoosiers could also lose other pieces, whether to the NBA Draft or to the transfer portal. And they have just one incoming freshman, in five-star Liam McNeeley.
IU has some talented pieces lined up for next season, but the roster has clear needs — some of the same as this year’s team did — and Woodson has to properly address them in the transfer portal. He declined to discuss future portal plans Wednesday beyond acknowledging that he and his staff have had some talks about it and will discuss it further at a later point.
But this coming offseason will be a defining one in Woodson’s tenure as IU head coach. The roster he builds for next year will prove this season to be either an aberration or the beginning of a worrying trend.
The latter option would make it tougher for Indiana to stick with Woodson beyond 2024-25. The former would restore faith he can achieve the ambitious goals he brought with him to Bloomington.
His emphatic reaction on Wednesday and his team’s late-season turnaround over the last 10 days show that, if nothing else, Mike Woodson will keep fighting and believing in himself and his players for as long as he possibly can.
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