The Indiana basketball program has had a very productive offseason in utilizing the transfer portal to their advantage to bring in talent which was desperately needed after other players graduated or went elsewhere. Hoosier head coach Mike Woodson has been hard at work as he spoke with Seth Tow of The Daily Hoosier about the process of evaluating talent through the transfer portal and the similarities it has with the NBA.
Woodson's work has paid off on paper anyways as per 247Sports, the Indiana basketball program has the No. 2 ranked transfer portal class in the entire country. Such additions include “top player in the transfer portal this year in big man Oumar Ballo, outside shooting in Kanaan Carlyle and Luke Goode, playmaking in Myles Rice, and front court depth in Langdon Hatton” according to The Daily Hoosier.
Woodson compares the transfer portal to NBA free agency
This would not be the first offseason where the Hoosiers have a highly ranked transfer portal class as Woodson was successful last season as well like obtaining Kel’el Ware who could be a lottery pick this year's NBA Draft. What Woodson and his staff does is treat it about the same to an NBA free agency per Tow.
“We sat down at the end (of the season)… I kind of treated it like I was when I was back in the NBA,” Woodson said. “I make our guys rank the top 10 players at their position. Then I make the decision on who I want to go get. And if it’s the best player, then we’ve got to give it a shot. Because all they can do is tell us no.”
Woodson has had a long career in basketball, especially at the professional level, going back to when he was a player in the NBA from 1980 to 1991 which he then became an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1996. After bouncing around different teams as an assistant, he would become a head coach in 2004 for the Atlanta Hawks until 2010 and also with the New York Knicks from 2012 to 2014.
Indiana basketball's roster was depleted after last season
The Indiana basketball program had to utilize the transfer portal more desperately this season than ever as over half the roster needed to be accounted for. This prompted Woodson to talk about the state of college basketball and college athletics in its entirety saying that it is “the new norm.”
“We had no choice, we had guys that left, we had guys that graduated. That’s the new norm, now, guys,” Woodson reportedly said at Indiana basketball's annual event at Huber Winery and Vineyards. “This is not like the Bob Knight days where you could build your team over three, four years and trust the process. Our process now is changing every year because you don’t know who’s coming and who’s going. And it was a busy summer because we had to fill a lot of holes based on who left and the guys that graduated.”
While the transfer portal has no doubt changed the landscape of college basketball, another aspect that has been impacted is recruiting players from high school. With the inclusion of name, image, and likeness deals (NIL), that has become an important recruiting tool which has made them weigh their options even more where as more often than not, top in-state recruits would have gone to the closest big school.
Woodson will not “quit” on recruiting in-state prospects for Hoosiers
According to The Daily Hoosier, there are three highly touted high school players within the state of Indiana, saying that “the Hoosiers remain involved with top in-state class of 2025 players Trent Sisley, Malachi Moreno, and Braylon Mullins, among other top prospects in that class.” Woodson will not “quit” in recruiting, but also says that “I don't know what more we can do.”
“Got to keep recruiting them. I’m not going to stop recruiting them,” Woodson said. “I think they’re talented enough to help us here in the future. So we’re still on their doorsteps, we’re still going to AAU games and I’m on the phone constantly communicating, because we’d like to see them stay here in the state. But again, it’s up to these guys. They’ve been offered the scholarship. I don’t know what more we can do. We could keep hammering home and say, ‘We want you in the uniform,’ ‘Come see us,’ ‘Can we come see you?’ and they still tell us no,” Woodson said. “Those guys have that opportunity (to wear an IU uniform) because I have offered them scholarships, and I do want them here. I’ve just got to keep recruiting them. I can’t quit.”
“It’s what it is. You just don’t know. I would love to grow a team with high school kids and they stay with me for four years,” Woodson continued. “But those days are gone,” Woodson continued. “You’ll get a player that’s disgruntled, ‘Hey, I want more minutes.’ I’m trying to put a team together that you can’t worry about minutes. It’s got to be about team and you’ve got to commit to team because then everything else takes care of itself.”
Outsiders want to play for Woodson and the Indiana basketball team
Even though it has been harder on head coaches to keep players on the team for reasons talked about before like NIL deals, the transfer portal, etc., the Hoosiers do have a head coach that has the tools to make players at an NBA level. Plus, Woodson is a coach young stars want to play for as the same sentiment was echoed by Indiana basketball assistant coach Brian Walsh according to The Daily Hoosier.
“His (Woodson’s) personality man, he’s contagious, he gives you confidence, he’s easy going, fun to be around, great energy,” Walsh said on the Rising Coaches podcast. “And I think the guys, the players, they notice a difference. Everyone says Coach Woodson is a players coach, what does that mean?
“The guys love him. Guys like being around him. He’s funny. He’s loose,” Walsh continued. “He’ll come into practice with a headband and a cutoff on. He’s so comfortable with who he is. I think a lot of times in college basketball, a lot of people are looking over their shoulder insecure so far as who they are as a person. He is very secure with who he is. He is gonna do what he is gonna do, and that’s it. He’s not worried about what people are going to say. That’s something I’m working on myself, but that’s something that I really, really admire about Coach Woodson.”
In any sense, the Hoosiers are trying to come back stronger next season as they were 19-14, 10-10 in conference play last season which put them sixth in the Big Ten. They did not make the national tournament and were eliminated in the second round of the Big 10 tourney where they lost to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 66-93.
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