The Indiana men’s basketball head coaching job has opened up three times since 2010. Former Butler head coach and current Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has been publicly floated as a possible candidate each of those times.
Stevens hails from Indiana and comes from a family of Hoosier fans, having watched the program in his youth. It’s why his name comes up for Indiana in particular before quickly and rightfully being shot down by a wave of analysts and insiders before the man
himself politely declines.
It happened again last year when Indiana parted ways with Mike Woodson. It happened again this offseason, only at a different program: North Carolina, which parted ways with program legend and head coach Hubert Davis.
Stevens was named as a candidate immediately after the news of Davis’ firing broke. It took less than 24 hours for him to remove himself from that discussion. So much for that.
There’s a few different takeaways from this. For one, when Stevens is floated at Indiana, it’s used as a way to call the expectations of Hoosier fans far too lofty when they’re not necessarily the ones initiating the Stevens discussion, at least not in a way that isn’t clearly ironic. That mostly didn’t happen here as the search chugs along and more names get brought up. For another, UNC’s search is a pretty interesting case study in how the sport’s premier programs operate these days.
You could look through this search and feel a sense of déjà vu if you were following Indiana’s last year. We already got through the Stevens sideshow so the next name to surface in discussions is Iowa State’s TJ Otzelberger, who was also floated for the Indiana job last season.
He too denied interest, and not in a “I’m focused on where I am,” way that leaves the future open to interpretation. In a “I love Ames more than anything and I have no reason to leave,” way.
UNC isn’t the first top historic program to go through this, Kentucky went down what felt like a lengthy list before landing on Mark Pope. UNC won’t be the last either given it’s only a matter of time before Kansas opens up, this year or in the future, with Bill Self weighing his options.
Anyway.
Stevens is Indiana’s white whale and apparently UNC’s too? Sure. One of the best basketball minds on the planet with college experience, gotta think about making him give you a “no,” at the very least. What’s also true is these other top coaches, like Otzelberger, are saying no as well. That’s new. A few decades ago, a coach from Iowa State turning down UNC would feel huge. Now it’s just another day in the sport, to be expected even.
The playing field is more level than it’s been at the high-major level in both men’s basketball and football. Indiana, the losingest program in the history of college football as you likely know all too well, was able to fend off suitors to lock down Curt Cignetti before he won a national championship. It’s a good thing, making the sport far more interesting than it usually is with the same handful of programs huddled around the top.
Indiana men’s basketball has learned, more than most, that you can’t just pump money into a program to fix it. Kentucky went through this too, in a different way, between hiring Pope and providing him with reportedly incredible roster funding that he turned into a round of 32 appearance. Is UNC about to learn the same?
Maybe.
Maybe the Tar Heels pry Billy Donovan out of the NBA. Maybe they do land one of these Sweet 16 coaches. Or, maybe, what if they land the same kind of coach everyone else has, winners at the mid-major level.
We’ll see!
