Scott Dolson against the weight of history

Scott Dolson has a number of decisions to make. With the Mike Woodson era effectively over, it will be up to the athletic director and board to decide how to proceed.

The first order of business: formally ending the Mike Woodson era. This will be the first phase of his confrontation with the history of Indiana basketball.

Aside from the moderate success Woodson experienced in his first two seasons, the main reason he is still employed is his history as a great Indiana player and connection to Bob Knight, the last coach to hang a banner in Assembly Hall .

Since at least the Crean era, a portion of the fan base had been calling for a Knight disciple to return Indiana to its former glory. If it couldn’t be a former Knight player, someone from Indiana with an understanding of the program’s history would suffice.

Woodson checks both of those boxes as one of the Knights’ best players and a graduate of Broad Ripple High School, and four years into his tenure, we find ourselves in an untenable situation.

A midseason firing might look harsh on a man who accomplished so much for the program and the state as a player, but it would spare him the embarrassment of fans calling for his firing at home games.

However Indiana navigates the termination of Woodson’s contract – a ‘mutual’ parting of ways would not surprise me – he will once again come face to face with the history of Indiana basketball when he has to appoint a new head coach.

Every day we get further away from Keith Smart’s game-winner in the 1987 national championship, the pressure in the room grows. This is why Woodson found himself on the hot seat this season after getting Indiana to the round of 16 for the first time in nearly a decade.

Indiana fans want the team to be great again, and they want it to happen fast. Curt Cignetti’s success in year one as football coach only adds to the feeling that the right hire could have things up and running in year one.

However, the biggest difference between Indiana’s football and basketball programs is history. Cignetti’s season began with half-filled Memorial Stadiums and pleas from the coach himself to fans to buy into this new regime to believe the future would be different from the program’s dismal history.

Indiana’s next basketball coach may not see an empty auditorium throughout his first season. Depending on how well he can retain the existing talent and utilize Indiana’s massive basketball NIL war chest, he could very well have a roster that people expect to compete for Big Ten titles. If there is a grace period, it will be extremely short.

It’s the double bind of Indiana basketball history.

The fandom and passion that decades of championship-caliber basketball translates into NIL dollars, sold-out arenas and strong fan attendance give the program a material advantage that should make it attractive to schools and players alike.

On the other hand, when teams fail to meet historic levels of success, that support turns to animosity. Donations withheld, boos raining down. The spiral does not stop.

The obvious solution would be to hire someone who can win in year one while building a culture of sustained winning that doesn’t give fans a reason to be anxious in year three. The problem is that the list of coaches who could arguably do that is pretty short.

Unless Dolson can somehow land Brad Stevens, the next hire will be under tremendous pressure from the start. That in itself will deter some candidates.

This isn’t to say that the fans are the problem or that expectations for Indiana shouldn’t be high, but an acknowledgment of the fact that the pressures of the position make it harder to land the right guy.

If things go right, the recruit will have a chance to rewrite Indiana basketball history after 2002, making all of this a moot point. Until that happens, Scott Dolson and whoever he hires will go up against what this program once was — a powerhouse.