BLOOMINGTON — A season that began with a top-25 ranking and hopes for Indiana men’s basketball to comfortably return to the NCAA Tournament has spiraled downhill, as the Hoosiers dropped their fifth straight game on Saturday in a 70-67 loss to No. 24 Michigan.
After the university announced on Friday that Indiana head coach Mike Woodson will step down at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, fans in Assembly Hall attempted to give their team — and their coach who had a legendary playing career in Bloomington — a jolt amid the chaos surrounding the program.
Unfortunately for the Hoosiers, this game felt all too similar to many others this season, further solidifying the obvious: This team is nowhere near the level of NCAA Tournament locks like Michigan.
“We haven’t been the same team for a while,” Woodson said after the game, which was his first time speaking publicly since his resignation was announced. “For whatever reason we’ve dug a hole. I’ve done a terrible job of putting them in the best position possible to win, I think. But emotionally, these kids have taken a beating a little bit.”
Indiana recovered from a 16-point halftime deficit to tie the game at 59 with 4:08 left, but the Hoosiers never gained a lead and failed to execute as well as Michigan down the stretch.
When Woodson took the Indiana job, he made it clear that his goal was to win a Big Ten championship and a national championship. The closest Indiana got to that under Woodson’s reign was in 2022, when it finished second in the Big Ten (three games behind Purdue in first place) and lost in the Round of 32.
In the two seasons since, Indiana has underperformed relative to expectations, as it missed the NCAA Tournament last season and is on pace to do so again this year.
Woodson has not met his own expectations, and he’s living out his final weeks at the helm having accepted that reality.
Despite this, IU’s staff and players have seven more regular season games to endure, plus however long it lasts in the Big Ten Tournament (assuming IU remains in the top 15 of the Big Ten standings). The book on Woodson’s time as IU’s head coach has been written, and the next month and change just serves as the final few pages.
“It's been emotional,” Woodson said of this week. “We're dealing with young men, young kids, that are trying to figure it out. But we've still got seven more games to play, and it's my job as their coach to try and push them and realize they can still win basketball games.”
At the very least, IU announcing that Woodson is stepping down has saved the 66-year-old coach from the wrath of the fanbase. Chants of “Fire Woodson” have reigned in Assembly Hall since the Hoosiers took a 25-point beating at the hands of Illinois on Jan. 14. IU hasn’t won in this building since Jan. 8.
Even when Indiana fell behind by 18 points on Saturday, those chants didn’t emerge from the adults or students at the game, as everyone now knows this ride is on its last legs.
On the opposing sideline stood Dusty May, a former Indiana student manager who graduated in 2000, months before Bob Knight was fired. May’s Michigan squad won its fourth consecutive game by four or fewer points, while Woodson’s looked outmatched again in the game’s most crucial moments.
Many IU fans have been (and will continue to) clamor for May to be the next head coach in Bloomington, although the time to sort that out will come. But Saturday displayed another instance of a program with an identity and winning trajectory overwhelming the Hoosiers.
With Woodson being almost out the door, Indiana is now taking its final breaths with no ventilator in sight.
