Hoosiers Now

BREAKING: Indiana Stays Home, Hires Mike Woodson As New Basketball Coach

Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson has chosen Mike Woodson to lead the basketball program, keeping the hire – his first as boss, and his most important – inside the IU family. An official announcement is expected on Monday.

Tom Brew

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For more than 20 years, people outside of the Indiana basketball family have run the bluebood program since Bob Knight was fired. That's changing on Sunday, where sources close to the hiring search have confirmed that former Hoosier great Mike Woodson will be named the next basketball coach.

Indiana made it official at 4:49 p.m. ET that the deal was done and posted this tweet:

Woodson played at Indiana from 1976 to 1980 and was the school's second all-time leading scorer when he left. He had a long NBA playing career and was the head coach of both the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks. He is expected to sign a six-year contract to coach the Hoosiers.

This is his first college coaching position. He replaces Archie Miller, who spent four seasons at Indiana and never had a winning record in the Big Ten or played in an NCAA Tournament game.

Woodson just turned 63 years old on March 24 and is currently an assistant coach with the Knicks. He played at Broad Ripple High School in Indiana and averaged 19.8 points per game during his four-year career at Indiana, which was highlighted by winning Big Ten Player of the Year in 1980 despite playing only six league games after back surgery. 

Woodson played 11 seasons in the NBA with five different teams. He was the first-round pick of the Knicks, who drafted him 12th overall in the 1980 NBA Draft. He 10,981 career points.

He began coaching in the NBA in 1996 and got his first head coaching job with the Atlanta Hawks in 2004. He spent six seasons with the Hawks and took a bottom of the league franchise to the playoffs three times, compiling a 206-286 (.419) record, and led Atlanta to the playoffs three times. They won more games in his each of his six seasons and he had a 53-29 record his final year, the most wins in a season in Atlanta Hawks history at the time.

He also coached the New York Knicks from 2012 to 2014, taking over another losing franchise and increasing its win total in his first full season. After a 37-45 season in 2014, he was fired. His overall NBA record is 315-365.

Since then he has worked for Doc Rivers as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers staff and was hired again by the Knicks when Tom Thibideau took over as head coach. 

New Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson has close ties to the basketball program. He was a student manager from 1984-88. He said from the beginning after firing Miller on March 15 that having someone with Indiana roots would be important to him to help fix a fractured fan base.

Woodson certainly fits that criteria.

The Indianapolis Star has reported that former Ohio State coach Thad Matta is being hired by Indiana as well as ''associate athletic director for men's basketball administration,'' according to the Star. Matta's position will be administrative, so Woodson will be able to hire three full-time assistant coaches.

Former Indiana players have wanted closer ties to program for years since Bob Knight was fired in 2000 after 29 years on the job and three national titles. They started to weigh in on social media too after the Woodson news became official. 

This story is developing and will be updated.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

  • TOM BREW COLUMN (March 28): Bringing Mike Woodson back to Bloomington was a home run hire, but there's plenty of work that needs to be done quickly. >>> CLICK HERE
  • WOODSON MUM ON IU SEARCH (March 22): Former Indiana star Mike Woodson talked to Sports Illustrated Indiana, but didn't want to discuss in any detail about the coaching search. >>> CLICK HERE
  • SCOTT DOLSON VIDEO (March 15) : Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson met with the media Monday and explained why he fired Archie Miller, how tough the decision way, and his vision for the future. Watch all 26 minutes here. >>> CLICK HERE
  • TOM BREW COLUMN (March 15): Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson didn't let that big buyout get in the way of making the right decision for the basketball program. >>> CLICK HERE
Indiana University makes it official. Mike Woodson is the next head coach of the Hoosiers.
Indiana University makes it official. Mike Woodson is the next head coach of the Hoosiers
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Tom Brew
TOM BREW

Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who has worked at some of America's finest newspapers as a reporter and editor, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the Indianapolis Star and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered college sports in the digital platform for the past six years, including the last five years as publisher of HoosiersNow on the FanNation/Sports Illustrated network.

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