By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo: (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball head coach Mike Woodson has high hopes for the new season. The program has a good transfer portal group coming into the season.
Indiana is all about business. They expect to win when you come to their program, especially in college basketball. The standards are high.
The Hoosiers have six new players joining the program to play for coach Woodson. Myles Rice (Washington State), Bryson Tucker (Bishop O’Connell H.S.), Luke Goode (Illinois), Langdon Hatton (Bellarmine), Oumar Ballo (Arizona), and Kanaan Carlyle (Stanford).
Woodson sat down for an interview with NBC Sports about the whole recruitment situation.
“Once the season was over and the portal opened up. I treated like I was when I coached in the NBA getting ready for the draft,” Coach Woodson said.
“You find the best players in each position, and you have meetings amongst your staff, and you watch films to see who likes which player, as well as Myles and Kanaan Carlyle, not knowing that Ballo would come in. He wasn’t on the radar at the beginning, but those two guys were sitting at the top regarding us going out and trying to make them a part of our ballclub.”
While new players are coming into the program, some have left for other schools, and others to go to the NBA draft.
A player that Woodson was lucky to coach and could potentially be a future All-Star is Kel’el Ware. He’s currently in his first year with the Miami Heat. Under Woodson, Ware received All-Big Ten honors – Second Team (media), Third Team (coaches).
Woodson played college basketball in Indiana and hopes to be a more successful basketball coach.
Woodson led the Hoosiers to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in his first two seasons for the first time since 2015 and 2016. The Hoosiers also advanced to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals in his first two seasons. The Hoosiers have won at least one Big Ten Tournament game in three consecutive years for the first time since 2001-04.
Woodson’s coaching record at Indiana is 63-40, with a .612 percentage. He’s entering his fourth season as the Hoosiers coach.
Miguel Mike Medina is a publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com
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