Mike Woodson will no longer be the head coach of the Indiana men's basketball team. After starting his stint off hot with two straight NCAA Tournament appearances, Woodson has struggled. His choice to step down was almost undoubtedly a result of external pressure as Woodson has fallen out of favor.
Nonetheless, Indiana University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Scott Dolson is tasked with finding a replacement. Of course, this is the tricky part. Indiana is no longer as attractive a position as it once was. The veneer of excellence has faded in the years since Bob Knight left. The results speak for themselves: no championship since 1987, no Final Four since 2002, and only four trips past the Sweet Sixteen since 1995. Indiana is not without its perks though: deep NIL pockets, fervent fans and a chance to play in the Big Ten.
Wishlists have been made, including some interesting, albeit far-fetched, options (Brad Stevens and Bruce Pearl!?!) and more reasonable picks like Michigan coach Dusty May (the sentimental favorite), Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger, and Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland.
Yet, the choice should be obvious. Indiana needs a shot in the arm—they need a winner, someone who has had demonstrable success, not merely the possibility of it. Dolson already did this when he hired Curt Cignetti. He picked the unconventional, proven winner and what did Indiana do? They won games.
Drake coach Ben McCollum fits the bill.
Prior to this season, you wouldn’t have been blamed if you hadn’t heard of McCollum. After all, he’d been toiling away at Northwest Missouri State, a Division II school, since 2009. He’d only won 395 (!) games, made 10 straight tournaments (which would have been 11 if not for the tournament canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic), won 11 straight conference championships (!!!), and won four national championships (!!!!). The most impressive part: it was his first head coaching job, period.
McCollum took over the Drake Bulldogs this season, and his winning ways have continued. Drake is 22-2 thus far and is first in the Missouri Valley Conference. McCollum’s Bulldogs aren’t just beating up on small schools either as they have three wins over Power 4 opponents. KenPom ranks the Bulldogs as the No. 61 team in the country and Torvik ranks them at 57 (11 spots ahead of Indiana).
McCollum wins, and that’s what matters. Cignetti was hired with the same idea in mind. Granted, Indiana’s football legacy and Indiana’s basketball legacy could not be more different, but what does Dolson, and the rest of the athletic department, have to lose? Indiana basketball has been rudderless, stuck in the perpetual middle. Maybe hiring a young, up-and-coming coach is what the Hoosiers need.
Sure, McCollum has gaps in his resume. Even worse, the comparison to former Indiana coach Archie Miller is all too easy to make. Miller only had one head coaching stint prior to taking the Indiana job but was an assistant for the near decade prior.
In some ways Miller was far more qualified for the job than McCollum. His last four Dayton teams all made the NCAA Tournament and even included an Elite Eight run. Drake has yet to even qualify for the tournament.
While McCollum has more head coaching experience than Miller did, he’s done so at the Division II level. Miller was a trainwreck for Indiana; he was the shiny new thing, the coach on the rise with very little experience. Is it possible that McCollum would be no different?
Sure, if you’re a pessimist then McCollum would be a terrible hire for the Hoosiers. His lack of a Power 4 pedigree could doom Indiana from the start and inexperience recruiting high-major talent may mean that Indiana will be working with a seriously depleted pool of players.
However, if you’re a realist like me, then you would see the more apt comparison for McCollum would be Cignetti. Despite being much older than McCollum, Cignetti has two fewer years of head coaching experience (the caveat here is that Cignetti was an assistant in one form or another for nearly 30 years before his first head coaching job).
Both earned their stripes being uber-successful at lower levels before taking jobs at the highest level. Both are perennial winners and have the accolades to prove it. McCollum actually has Cignetti beat in this respect.
McCollum’s success as a college basketball coach is almost unrivaled. Yes, he was winning at a lower level, but his achievements are practically unprecedented. McCollum won his four championships in the span of six years. (One of those years did not have a tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Northwest Missouri State finished that season 31-1.) The only men's college basketball coach at the Division I level who can match McCollum’s success in that short of a period is John Wooden. (At the Division II level it’s former Evansville Aces head coach Arad McCutchan back in the 50s and 60s.)
Cignetti and McCollum have a history of being able to develop overlooked talent, which is a necessity when you can’t recruit the best of the best recruits. Cignetti has guys such as Elijah Sarratt, Kurtis Rourke and Aiden Fisher, while McCollum has players including Trevor Hudgins who scored 20.3 points per game and shot 52-47-88 splits for his career.
In retrospect, the Cignetti hire was the best of the 2024 offseason. Dolson not only hit it out of the park, he sent it into orbit. McCollum could be just as good, if not better for Indiana. All they have to do is take a chance.
