Indiana basketball is a program that has deep historic roots and is usually known for being one of the top teams in the country. Having 5 NCAA men's basketball championships and one of the best and most electrifying college basketball arenas ever, IU doesn't usually fall short of greatness.
The past few years have been filled with all sorts of struggles and the end results for these seasons are really underwhelming. The interesting part about it is that IU doesn't lack talent. Last year they produced two NBA prospects, one that was drafted in the top 20 and the other drafted in the second round. IU is known for having some of these top recruits, but for the past few years they haven't been able to put it all together.
A lot of people like to go after the coach. Mike Woodson who has quite the basketball resume has been IU's head coach since 2021 and really hasn't lived up to the high expectations that were put on him. The past two seasons have been complete disappointments considering the level of talent that Woodson has had to work with, and now this year IU didn't even qualify for the NCAA tournament. There has been lots of speculation around if Woodson would be fired or not, but IU released a statement that Woodson would be back for another year. After this statement by the school, just a couple of days later, 5-Star prospect Liam McNeeley informed everyone that he would be decommitting from Indiana and reopening his recruitment. Liam's talent is off the charts as he is the number 11 recruit in this year's class. This came as a shock to all, as IU would be losing its best recruit in a long time, and the only recruit that they had for the coming year.
Many fans are wondering what is next for this program as they have no recruits, and they are likely to lose their star player to the draft in 7'3 center Kelel Ware. With a few other IU players entering the transfer portal, and one or two players to the draft, it's on head coach Woodson to go after the transfer portal hard if he wants any chance at keeping his job long term. People are confused as Woodson is known as a coach that gets highly rated recruits, yet IU has not one for the upcoming season. Sadly, even with this high level of talent, Woodson hasn't known what to do with it and IU is no longer a powerhouse team in the Big Ten.
Liam McNeeley brought real hope to IU basketball fans, and he was supposed to be the centerpiece of the team next season. The level of talent is very low so far for next year and we could see a very similar result or even worse than this season. With two new talented programs joining the Big Ten, IU really has to step up its recruitment, and or make a coaching change if they want to continue to compete at a high level. If no changes are made, we could see the historic Hoosiers fall off of the map completely.
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