Coach Mike Woodson leaves NBA for NCAA

Mike Woodson (YouTube)

According to Slam on Monday, the University of Indiana Hoosiers have hired New York Knicks assistant coach Mike Woodson of Indianapolis, Indiana to be their next head coach. This will be the first time that Woodson will have coached at the National Collegiate Athletic Association level after a quarter of a century coaching in the National Basketball Association.

For the 2020-21 NBA season, Woodson returned to the Knicks after being their assistant coach in 2011-12, and their head coach from 2012-14. This season, Woodson has helped Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, as New York is trying to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2012-13. They are currently fifth in the East with a record of 24 wins and 23 losses. Interestingly, the Knicks have not been over .500 since the 2012-13 season either.

In addition to coaching the Knicks, Woodson was the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks from 2004 to 2010. He has a NBA head coaching regular season record of 315 wins and 365 losses, as well as a playoff record of 18 wins and 28 losses. Twice as a head coach Woodson won 50 games in a single season. He won 53 games with the Hawks in 2009-10, and 54 games with the Knicks in 2012-13.

Woodson has also been an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks (1996 to 1999), the Cleveland Cavaliers (1999 to 2001), the Philadelphia 76ers (2001 to 2003), the Detroit Pistons (2003 to 2004), and the Los Angeles Clippers (2014 to 2018). While with the Pistons, he was on Larry Brown’s staff that won the NBA Finals.

While as a player, Woodson spent 11 seasons in the NBA with the Knicks, New Jersey Nets, Kansas City/Sacramento Kings, Clippers, Houston Rockets, and Cavaliers. In 786 games as a shooting guard, he averaged 14 points per game, with a career-high 18.2 points per game with the Kansas City Kings in 1982-83.

Woodson’s connections to the University of Indiana are deep. Woodson played his collegiate basketball with the Hoosiers from 1976 to 1980. It is there he played under controversial Hoosiers head coach Bobby Knight, and alongside teammate and future Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas.

It was an extremely disappointing Hoosiers season of 2020-21. The team had a record of 12 wins and 15 losses, lost their last six games, and did not reach the NCAA or NIT tournaments. On March 15, the Hoosiers fired head coach Archie Miller.

There is no doubt that the University of Indiana has one of the most high-profile college basketball programs in the United States. They have won five NCAA basketball championships, but none since 1987, and Woodson will be counted on in bringing glory back to the Hoosiers program. Now it will be interesting to see who the Knicks hire as Woodson’s replacement on their coaching staff.

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