For IU head men’s basketball coach Mike Woodson, this has been an offseason defined by replacement.
That took multiple forms. He underwent a much-needed knee replacement surgery in April, and he had to replace some major roles on the Indiana men’s basketball roster.
Neither was easy and seamless for the 65-year-old Woodson and the Hoosiers. But as players come back to Bloomington for summer workouts, both Woodson and his team have come out of that period stronger.
Some questioned the timing of Woodson’s right knee procedure, in the middle of a hectic transfer portal recruiting season. But he said he didn’t have a choice, after putting off the procedure for a long time and having trouble getting around. He hit a snag during his recovery, but he’s now healthy and feeling better.
“I feel like a new man,” Woodson told local media during IU’s event at Huber’s Winery. “If you ask me would I do it all over again, I don’t know if I would or not, because I had some complications and had to go back into the hospital for some time. Lost a lot of weight, starting to get it back. But I feel 100 percent better, and I think I can probably outrun you now. I can run a little bit now.”
And when it comes to recruiting, Woodson is certainly running.
With program bedrock Trayce Jackson-Davis gone and three other starters leaving with him, IU was bound for roster turnover this offseason. Woodson had some recruiting success in his first two years at IU, but missed out on enough players to raise some question marks.
And with the dust now mostly settled, he and others can feel like it’s been a successful offseason. Only time will tell how all the new players will fit together on the court and how far that group can go, but the pieces are in place. And that’s what the offseason is about. Woodson has the Hoosiers in the conversation for some of the top pieces available, and has landed a few of those players.
“I’ve got a wonderful staff,” Woodson said. “We’re beating the phones down, and when guys come available, we’re trying to get in front of their parents and whoever’s their representative, and we’re doing all the necessary things to get them to campus and close the deal. This has been a great summer for us in terms of recruiting. I give a lot of credit to my staff and them getting me in front of the people that we’re trying to recruit, the player, and it’s starting to pay off for us.”
It wasn’t a perfect offseason. IU saw some players it was publicly connected to go elsewhere — notably Chris Ledlum and Dalton Knecht, who both went to Tennessee. But bringing in former five-star prospect Kel’el Ware from Oregon and current five-star Mackenzie Mgbako are two massive recruiting victories for Woodson.
Mgbako, in particular, fortified Woodson’s growing strength at recruiting late-cycle decommits. And the Mgbako recruitment, it’s worth noting, went down while Woodson recovered from his knee surgery.
From the 📸 shoot, Indiana HC @MikeWoodsonNBA X ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mackenzie Mgbako’23 @MackenzieMgbako #iubb 🔴⚪️ https://t.co/maKj9rGZet pic.twitter.com/jkFzSXyVdi
— 𝒜𝓃𝒹𝓇ℯ𝓌 𝒮𝓁𝒶𝓉ℯ𝓇 (@Andrew__Slater) May 7, 2023
And though IU has not yet landed anyone in the class of 2024, it’s still early for that class, with many of the top players still uncommitted. And the Hoosiers are in the mix for several of those recruits.
“When I took the job, I made it clear to my coaches that we deserve to sit at the table with the best players. We kind of squabbled a little bit early on because they didn’t think we were in position to be able to do that; I thought we were, based on Indiana basketball and the history of it. I didn’t accept no for an answer. I told them I wanted to be able to sit at the table with the best players and compete with Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, teams like that. All they could do is tell us no. But we’ve got to get there. And we’ve been able to get there some. So it’s nice.”
One of Woodson’s early recruiting successes set the table for this positive offseason.
Jalen Hood-Schifino was the second player to commit to IU with Woodson as head coach, and he flourished with the Hoosiers last season. His performance against Purdue at Mackey Arena was one of the top individual performances by an IU player over the last decade. He improved and grew during the season and became a clear one-and-done college player. Hood-Schifino is expected to go in the first round of the NBA Draft this month — he’d be Indiana’s first player selected since Romeo Langford, and he could join Langford in being a lottery pick.
Hood-Schifino’s development and trajectory has clearly played a role in IU’s current status with recruits.
“It’s done a lot,” Woodson said. “Jalen rode that ship with us and everybody did their part, and we regrouped and found ourselves again. You’ve got to give that kid a lot of credit because that’s a freshman that’s been thrown to the wolves, when you talk about dealing with the Big Ten. I thought he answered the bell extremely well, and he’s put himself in a nice position to be able to get drafted. And that’s great for our program.”
Indiana’s added four players, in total, this offseason, in Ware, Mgbako, Ball State transfer Payton Sparks, and Miami (Fla.) transfer Anthony Walker. The Hoosiers have one open scholarship remaining, and Woodson didn’t rule out bringing another player in that spot.
Whether they do that or not, they’ve handled this critical offseason well. IU brightened its outlook for 2023-24 with the key additions, and seem to have momentum on the recruiting trail to do the same for its future teams.
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