IU should go all in on Kenny Payne as their next head coach.
Rumors about Brad Stevens to Indiana
- Thread starter ukcatz12
- Start date
I wouldn't go that far, but I would actually say that he is a MASSIVELY underrated coach and is doing an incredible job this year.
In my book, and it's biased. but the coach of the year is Mark Pope, and Ben would be my #2. Put Pat Kelsey happily on that as a mention too as #3 coach of the year. Put Golden and Byington on the list and just keep it all about the SEC this year... not to mention Bruce and Nate. And if they need to, let's not forget Pitino. I'm good with that.
I put the blame squarely on the putrid IU fansbase that will destroy their own future rather than come out of Knights shadow.
Indiana basketball has been so bad for so long that it reached a point several years ago that I got to not caring if they won or lost. They're not even a blip on the college basketball radar screen anymore. I mean only 1 Final Four in 33 years will do that to you.
I don’t agree with this take. History matters very little in the modern age of college basketball. You have to belong to a power conference, have top facilities, and have NIL money available, and that’s pretty much it. Auburn checks all those boxes now (as does Alabama for that matter), so there’s not much reason for guys like Pearl and Oats to jump to programs currently in a lesser state than their own just because of what’s now ancient history.
We got lucky that one of our alumni appears to really be able to coach, but the fact that we hired an under the radar guy in Pope after publicly being rejected by two higher profile coaches and allegedly by a couple more should be a pretty strong indication that it’s hard to make a splash hire just by selling what happened decades ago. Indiana has already been through this with their last couple of hiring cycles for that matter.
Having lived in Indiana it couldn’t have happened to a better fan group. I would be wearing my UK sweatshirt into a Walmart and some old lady or stranger would say nasty things. Vile group that deserves it. I’ll never get tired of seeing them suck but I agree with you, it’s very nice not hearing their name in sports.
Pearl will NOT leave Auburn for Indiana. He's in a perfect position at Auburn. No way he builds it up like he has, got that new arena built and made it an absolute madhouse to play at, for a dead program.
Gregg Doyel threw it out there and Goodman shot it down. But Cronin would crawl to Bloomington. I think they're tired of him in LA too. He's got a huge buyout but I imagine both sides would happily negotiate it down. He's probably on their 2nd or 3rd tier of candidates though.
