Hoosiers hire Mike Woodson as head basketball coach
LATEST: Mike Woodson on Monday morning was officially named the 30th head coach of the Indiana University men’s basketball team, News 8’s Olivia Ray tweeted.
Video with this story is from the news conference in Bloomington on Monday morning.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP/WISH) — Indiana University is negotiating for former Hoosiers player Mike Woodson to become the school’s next head basketball coach, WISH-TV Sports Director Anthony Calhoun confirmed Sunday.
Thad Matta will oversee the basketball program as an associate athletic director, Calhoun confirmed. Matta was formerly the head coach at Butler University and Ohio State University.
Woodson has spent 22 of the past 23 seasons coaching in the NBA. He was head coach of the Atlanta Hawks from 2004-10 and the New York Knicks from 2012-14. He went 315-365 in those nine seasons.
And though he’s never coached at the college level, he has two attributes Hoosiers fans have craved for decades — a connection to three-time national championship coach Bob Knight and a name Indiana fans revere. He also brings something else athletic director Scott Dolson said he wanted — familiarity with an NBA-style game that would appeal to today’s high school and college players.
Woodson didn’t play on any of Knight’s title teams but he did graduate as the school’s second-leading scorer and the second player in school history to top 2,000 points. He still ranks fifth with 2,061.
He replaces Archie Miller, who was fired March 15.
Woodson will be the sixth Hoosiers coach since Knight was fired in September 2000.
The IU men’s basketball account posted a welcome to Woodson on Sunday afternoon on Twitter:
Calhoun talked to former IU star Isiah Thomas about the hire.
“Monumental hire for the state of Indiana and Indiana University. You can’t buy the love and passion he has for our school and his home state,” Thomas said.