Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Former Northwestern deep threat Miller Kopp commits to IU – more good April news!

Miller Kopp transferring to IU is more good news in April! How much of this good news in April will remain good news in January can be answered then. Right now, this is a lot of fun.

Indiana Basketball has had a monstrous 23 days that is fueling a return to relevance and championship contention among fans!

Mike Woodson was hired as coach on March 28, and he has crafted a furious rebuild of his staff and roster that has people in Indiana wondering what might happen if Woodson is as good at in-game strategy as attracting talent to Bloomington.

The news hasn’t been all good for Woodson and the Hoosiers, but the losses have been offset by almost immediate gains.  No one wanted to see Armaan Franklin leave for Virginia last week, but he was replaced yesterday by Tamar Bates – a very talented wing in the class of 2021 who can shoot, drive, defend, and communicate loudly on the defensive end.  Joey Brunk‘s transfer to Ohio State was unpleasant, but Northwestern’s Miller Kopp announced his commitment to Indiana this morning.

Kopp and Brunk are different players at different positions, but would you rather have a 6’7″ healthy senior-to-be who can flat shoot or a 6’11” sixth year senior coming off back surgery?  Brunk is a great guy, and we wish him success at Ohio State, but Kopp makes threes!

Woodson has also added senior-to-be transfer Xavier Johnson, who averaged 14 points per game at Pitt over his fist three seasons.  He retained portal entries Race Thompson, Jordan Geronimo, Parker Stewart, and Khristian Lander.

Most importantly third-team All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis will be back for his third season in Bloomington to hone his game for the NBA and lead Indiana back to some measure of respect in the Big 10 and beyond.

The staff is robust.  Three-time Big 10 coach of the year Thad Matta joined the program in an administrative role.  Dane Fife rolled four hours south from East Lansing on I-69 to join the fun in Bloomington an an assistant.  Yasir Rosemond was hired to complete the staff last week.

I don’t know how all this will work when the season starts, but for now, different is good.  Indiana’s reality has been bad for five years, so a pivot in any direction represents reason for hope, and that is what the offseason is for.

Some other day, we will have a serious conversation about how Kopp played for 13-19, 8-23, and 9-15 teams at Northwestern, and how Johnson left his Pitt team with a few games left on the schedule.  There are other reasons for a reality check as we assess the future of the Hoosiers, but late April is never the time to indulge in cynicism – or even realism.  The next five or six months are for the dreamers among us.

Today, it’s “Miller Kopp is coming to Indiana!”  In December, our ebullience might be tempered.  After all, who wasn’t equally thrilled when Evan Fitzner – (remember him?) – decided to transfer to IU in 2018?

April is the time for Hoosier hopes to be highest.  Maybe one day reality will fulfill hopes.  Maybe Bates will be the Big 10 Freshman of the Year.  Maybe Kopp will hit 45% from beyond the arc.  Maybe Lander will become a consistent contributor.  Maybe Rob Phinisee will make Fife look brilliant by becoming the Big 10 Defensive Player of the Year.  Maybe Jackson-Davis will develop a three-point shot and earn a spot in the first round of the 2022 NBA Draft.  Maybe Woodson will be the National Coach of the Year after leading Indiana to a Big 10 Championship.

These are all fun thoughts to have now.  It’s late April – the time for fanciful hoop dreams.

But those Hoosiers – new and old – need to work long and hard beginning right now to turn fans’ idle hallucinations into reality.  They must not mistake well-wishes and strangely optimistic social media posts for accomplishment.

Indiana fans are not nearly as patient after a six game losing streak in February as they are while winning the offseason in April.

Indana Basketball – Mike Woodson might be the perfect Plan B after Stevens declined 7 years, $70M

Mike Woodson might just wind up being the right coach at the right time in Bloomington – despite not being the first choice.

On his first swing, Indiana University athletic director Scott Dolson swung as hard as he could and missed an unhittable Brad Stevens breaking ball.  Then, he choked up an inch, got the Mike Woodson batting practice cheese he was looking for, and got a rally going as he strung together multiple hits.

That’s the way life works in big time, big money college athletics.  And just like baseball, a run is a run – whether the product of a 460-foot bomb onto State Road 46 or a double down the left field line followed by a couple of ropes up the middle.

The home run swing was reportedly a seven-year, $70 million offer Stevens declined to remain the coach of the Boston Celtics, a team with a flawed roster and scant chance to advance to the NBA Finals before GM Danny Ainge‘s patience finally runs thin.  The double down the line was a six-year, $18 million deal with IU alum and former NBA coach Mike Woodson.  The base hits were additional hires of three-time Big 10 coach of the year Thad Matta and IU alum and longtime Michigan State assistant Dane Fife.

Dolson swinging for the fences was laudable whether he connected or not.  IU fans were tired of coaches hired for economic reasons, and a run at Stevens was overdue.  That the strong back-up plan that was executed after Stevens said no shows the kind of direction athletic departments need.  Plan B might be a better play than Plan A!

Stevens was always a long shot.  Indiana is home for Brad.  When he was a kid, visits to Assembly Hall with his dad for IU basketball games were common.  Maybe those memories and a desire to be closer to home might compel him to yank his temporary root system out of Boston – America’s most provincial city – for the more friendly confines of his native Indiana.  Maybe not.  Worth some conversation at least.

The $10 million per year would have made Stevens the highest paid coach in college basketball, and Stevens has been the coach of the Celtics for almost eight seasons – a long time for a guy to never have led his team to the NBA Finals.  I don’t know what the record for NBA coaching longevity without a trip to the Finals, but I’m sure Stevens is closing in on it.

If ever there was a time to give Stevens an excuse to come home, this was it.

When it didn’t get done, Dolson turned his attention to a pitch he could hit.  Woodson was back in the NBA as an assistant for the Knicks, but was more than willing to accept 30% of the money offered to Stevens to professionally return to a college campus for the first time since 1980.  Because of the massive savings, Woodson and IU were able to offer Matta and Fife the kind of cash that motivated them to invest their talents in restoring greatness (or at least competence) to Indiana Basketball.

While Stevens to Indiana would have been a great story, it would also have marked yet another beginning point for the re-plating of the basketball culture.  Stevens may have been an Indiana fan, but never a part of a successful IU team.  He would have brought “Brad Stevens basketball” to Bloomington, and while that would have been a solid improvement over Tom Crean or Archie Miller basketball, it would not have been Indiana Basketball.

With Woodson and Fife, there are two alums who were a part of Indiana’s successful past who also appear able and ready to forge toward a successful future.  With Matta, Indiana hired a guy who was a consistent pain in its rear for the 13 years he spent running Ohio State’s program.

So far, so good for Indiana.  Woodson has kept the majority of his roster intact, while losing Joey Brunk (Ohio State), Armaan Franklin (Virginia), and Al Durham (Providence).  While saying goodbye a junior-to-be like Franklin is unfortunate, keeping Trayce Jackson-Davis, Khristian Lander, Parker Stewart, and Race Thompson sets up IU for a mostly seamless transition.

Anytime a critical hire is required two paths are needed – the dream candidate and the Plan B scenario.  Dolson executed Plan B well enough that fans may be grateful one day that Dolson whiffed on the dream.

A double and a couple of base hits might end up being a lot more fun to cheer for than the home run Dolson tried valiantly to barrel up.