“Coach Woodson, I just want to thank you so much for believing in me for all these years,” IU guard Trey Galloway said at the microphone on Senior Day in March.
“I wouldn’t want to have any other coach than you.”
Galloway then announced his return to Indiana for a fifth season. And those comments came just moments after his long-time teammate Anthony Leal said “There’s no other coach in the country that I would trust with anything in my life than coach Woodson.”
Both Leal and Galloway put the full weight of their support behind IU head coach Mike Woodson that day.
Immediately prior to their remarks, there was a message board fueled narrative a mass exodus was coming. But that scenario didn’t play out this offseason, and it never really has since Woodson took over in 2021.
That doesn’t mean everything is all good in Bloomington. There isn’t anyone inside the program who is content right now.
Each time I’ve seen a staff member in passing and congratulated them for their offseason success assembling a talented roster for the 2024-25 season, it’s been met with some variation of “Thanks, but we’ve got to win.”
But whatever success the Hoosiers have this winter, it’ll start with the stability provided by a foundation of returning players. Galloway, Leal, Malik Reneau, Mackenzie Mgbako, Gabe Cupps and Jakai Newton all had options — because everyone has options — and they all returned. And the stability provided by their return helped to solidify in the minds of prospective talent Indiana is a place where players want to come, and stay.
On a recent podcast, assistant coach Brian Walsh provided some insight into why, even through the highs and lows over the last three years, the players Indiana wants to come back keep coming back each year.
“His (Woodson’s) personality man, he’s contagious, he gives you confidence, he’s easy going, fun to be around, great energy,” Walsh said on the Rising Coaches podcast. “And I think the guys, the players, they notice a difference. Everyone says Coach Woodson is a players coach, what does that mean?
“The guys love him. Guys like being around him. He’s funny. He’s loose. He’ll come into practice with a headband and a cutoff on. He’s so comfortable with who he is. I think a lot of times in college basketball, a lot of people are looking over their shoulder insecure so far as who they are as a person. He is very secure with who he is. He is gonna do what he is gonna do, and that’s it. He’s not worried about what people are going to say. That’s something I’m working on myself, but that’s something that I really, really admire about Coach Woodson.”
Woodson has been difficult to evaluate from an X’s and O’s standpoint through three seasons.
Year one is a challenge for any new college coach, and he got the Hoosiers to their first NCAA Tournament in five years. Indiana improved late in that season, especially point guard Xavier Johnson.
Much like next season, there were high expectations surrounding year two, and the results were mixed. Clearly impacted by a season-ending injury to Johnson, IU probably did worse than expected but still finished second in the Big Ten and earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
At 19-14, this past season was a clear disappointment for Woodson. He has said much publicly.
“I’m sick at the stomach this summer knowing we didn’t make the tournament this last year,” Woodson told an audience at an alumni event last week. “We didn’t come here for that.”
But Woodson and his team’s failings in year three seemed to be much more about roster construction than on-court coaching. Indiana had backcourt limitations that few if any coaches were going to solve, especially after Johnson suffered additional injuries, and Jakai Newton missed the entire season.
Walsh says Woodson has made a strong impression on him and others on the staff as a coach on the floor.
“His (Woodson’s) basketball mind, when Thad Matta was on staff with us his first year I remember this like yesterday because it stuck with me,” Walsh said. “He said ‘Coach Woodson and the NBA is talking chess, and college is talking checkers.’
“Just a different game, different way of thinking. Different rotations, different schemes. Just being able to pick his brain, and Coach Woodson includes everybody on everything he does. We have big staff meetings, and I’ve learned so much basketball in my three years with him that I’ll forever take with me.”
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