BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana will be looking for a new men’s basketball coach for the 2025-26 season.
Scott Dolson, Indiana’s vice president and director of athletics, announced Friday that Woodson informed him he wanted to step down at the end of the season. Indiana hosts No. 24 Michigan at 1 p.m. ET Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
That raises the obvious question; who will be Indiana’s next head coach?
While Indiana’s five national championships are way in the past – and it has reached the NCAA Tournament just twice in the last eight seasons, with slim chances again this year – the job remains attractive for several reasons. Indiana has strong NIL resources, perhaps in the top five or 10 nationally, and the Big Ten and SEC are in the most financially advantageous position with revenue-sharing opportunities likely beginning next school year.
Here’s a list of potential candidates, broken into several different categories.
Brad Stevens, Boston Celtics president of basketball operations
Stevens has long been the dream hire for Indiana fans after two national runner-up appearances in 2010 and 2011 and a .772 win percentage in six years as Butler’s head coach. But if Indiana couldn’t reel him in when it hired Archie Miller and Mike Woodson, what suggests things are different now? Perhaps time and a desire for a new challenge are the best answers. Stevens, 48, just built an NBA championship roster in Boston, and maybe the Zionsville, Ind., native and DePauw graduate wants to see if he can return Indiana to blue-blood status. Then again, he’s got a great gig now and might not want to step into the pressure cooker in Bloomington.
Jay Wright, former Villanova head coach
Wright’s shocking decision to retire in April 2022 came when he was at the top of his game, and he was widely considered one of the best coaches in college basketball. He won two national championships and made four Final Four runs at Villanova, including a .725 win percentage. Wright, 63, now works as a college basketball analyst on CBS, and the main question is whether he even wants to get back into coaching, and if Indiana is the right place to do so. When he retired, he said, “I started to feel just like I didn’t have the edge.” He’d also be stepping into a new world of college basketball with the transfer portal and NIL, which were only just beginning when he retired.
Scott Drew, Baylor head coach
Drew is a beloved figure at Baylor, having coached there since 2003-04. He won the 2021 national championship, made two Elite Eight runs, is a three-time Big 12 coach of the year and has finished in the top five of the conference 13 times. There’s no doubting his coaching ability. Like Stevens and Wright, the question is whether Drew, 54, would be motivated to leave Baylor, especially after rejecting Kentucky and Louisville last offseason. Maybe Drew’s ties to the state of Indiana – he graduated from Butler and coached at Valparaiso – change that dynamic.
Billy Donovan, Chicago Bulls head coach
Donovan was the last coach to win back-to-back national championships for almost 20 years, until Dan Hurley did it at UConn the last two seasons. He made two additional Final Four runs and three trips to the Elite Eight before leaving for the NBA. Donovan, 59, led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the playoffs in all five seasons. His time with the Bulls hasn’t been as successful, with one playoff appearance in four years and a 22-30 record this year, but one could argue Chicago’s ownership is more to blame than Donovan’s coaching. Like Wright and Stevens, if Donovan came back to college, he’d be dealing with transfer portal and NIL responsibilities that weren’t present when he left Florida in 2015.
Shaka Smart, Marquette head coach
Smart broke out at VCU with a 2011 Final Four run, followed by four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, thanks to what was known as a “havoc” style of high-pressure basketball. That landed him a job at Texas, where he never finished higher than third in the Big 12 – including a 111-22 second season – lost in the Round of 64 in all three NCAA Tournament appearances and won the NIT. He’s been more successful at Marquette, winning the Big East regular season and conference titles in 2023, reaching the Sweet 16 last year and currently ranked No. 11 nationally with Final Four aspirations. Indiana fans would appreciate his energy and style of play, but it’d be a bit surprising to see him leave Marquette.
T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State head coach
Otzelberger signed an extension in December through the 2032 season, though the buyout terms aren’t yet public. So it’s hard to say how that would impact the cost of this hire, and it’s unclear about his desire to leave. After stints at South Dakota State and UNLV, Otzelberger, 47, has turned the Cyclones into an immediate winner. They’ve gone to the Sweet 16 in two of the last three years and are a legitimate national title contender this year, ranked No. 8 with a 17-5 record. Iowa State has ranked in the top eight nationally in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric in all four seasons under Otzelberger, including No. 1 last year.
Bruce Pearl, Auburn head coach
Pearl told Hoosiers On SI in December 2023 that Indiana was once his dream job, but the timing was never right. Is the timing right now? He has the Tigers rolling, ranked No. 1 in the nation with a 21-1 record. Pearl has helped create an energetic basketball atmosphere at a historically football-focused school, and there’s not a great reason to walk away from that at 64 years old.
Nate Oats, Alabama head coach
Oats is similar to Pearl in that he’s built a football school into a national contender in basketball. Alabama was the No. 1 overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, lost in the Sweet 16, but made a Final Four run last year. He also made back-to-back NCAA Tournament second-round appearances at Buffalo in 2018 and 2019. The Crimson Tide were second nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency last year, and they’re third this year, according to KenPom. His modern, fast-paced offense would be a welcomed change after the Archie Miller and Woodson eras. Oats, 50, signed a six-year extension in March 2024, though, and prying him away from Alabama would be difficult.
Mick Cronin, UCLA head coach
Cronin led UCLA to the 2021 Final Four and followed that up with back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances. The Bruins dipped to 16-17 last year after losing its successful veterans, but Cronin has them back to 17-6 overall and two games out of first place in the Big Ten. He also won annually at Cincinnati, with nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances and six straight top-three conference finishes before leaving for UCLA. His teams always defend well and play hard, and his offense is nothing to overlook. Cronin, 53, has outwardly noted the challenges around UCLA’s travel schedule now that it’s in the Big Ten, so many the Cincinnati native would like to return to the midwest.
Greg McDermott, Creighton head coach
McDermott has Creighton on pace for an eighth straight top-four finish in the Big East at 17-6 and 10-2. That stretch includes two Sweet 16 appearances and an Elite Eight run in 2023. McDermott, 60, has been at Creighton since 2010 and could retire there as a legend. If he’s eager for a new challenge, the draw for McDermott would be to join the Big Ten or SEC, which are shaping up as the two powerhouse conferences in college athletics after recent conference expansion and upcoming revenue sharing opportunities.
Grant McCasland, Texas Tech head coach
In his second season, McCasland has Texas Tech in the heat of the Big 12 title race, a game behind Houston and Arizona and two games ahead of Iowa State and Kansas. He had a very solid first year, going 23-11 and earning a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament before a first-round exit. That followed a great run at North Texas, where he won the 2023 NIT and reached the 2022 NCAA Tournament Round of 32 after defeating Purdue as a No. 13 seed. McCasland, 48, is an Irving, Texas, native, played at Baylor, and has coached in the state almost his entire career, so he may be content to stay in Lubbock.
Dusty May, Michigan head coach
May, a former Indiana student manager (1996-200) and staff member (2002-05), returns to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for the first time as a head coach Saturday afternoon. In his first year at Michigan, he has the Wolverines in the heat of the Big Ten title race at 17-5 overall and 9-2 in conference play. May went 60-13 across his final two seasons at Florida Atlantic, including a Final Four run and a first-round exit. May knows Indiana intimately, which could make the job more attractive, or deter him because he’s seen the program struggle for the better part of over 20 years. Maybe he’ll shed light on his perspective Saturday.
Micah Shrewsberry, Notre Dame head coach
Shrewsberry spent a large portion of his life in Indiana, graduating from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, playing at Hanover College, working as an assistant at Wabash, DePauw, Butler and Purdue, and getting his first head coaching gig at IU South Bend. He had a solid run at Penn State, going 37-31 overall and reaching the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, before leaving for Notre Dame, where he’s 23-32 in two seasons. Shrewsberry does not have the lengthy head coaching experience or track record of success like most of the aforementioned candidates, so the timing might not be right. But many see him as an up-and-coming coach, and he’s landed the nation’s No. 6 recruiting class of 2025.
Brad Brownell, Clemson head coach
Brownell was teammates with Indiana legend Calbert Cheaney at William Henry Harrison High School in Evansville, Ind., played at DePauw and was an assistant at Evansville and the University of Indianapolis. He’s coached at Clemson since 2010, a tenure with high points but perhaps not the desired amount of consistency. Brownell, 56, led Clemson to the Elite Eight last year and has the Tigers in second place in the ACC at 18-5 overall and 10-2 in conference play. He missed the NCAA Tournament nine times in his first 14 seasons at Clemson, but he’s in the midst of his most successful stretch.
Chris Beard, Ole Miss head coach
In his second season, Beard, 51, is on the verge of taking Ole Miss to its first NCAA Tournament since 2019, ranked No. 25 with a 17-6 overall record and a 6-4 run in an SEC with six top-15 teams. He had a successful run at Texas Tech, reaching the 2019 national championship game and 2018 Elite Eight. That followed a 30-5 season at Arkansas Little Rock in 2015-16, when he upset Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He was also the associate head coach on Bob Knight’s Texas Tech staff from 2001-08. Beard’s coaching credentials are strong and would not hold him back from being a candidate. However, concerns around Beard’s 2022 domestic violence charge, which was later dismissed but led to his mid-season firing at Texas, is something he and the Indiana administration would have to answer.
Todd Golden, Florida head coach
Golden has made steady improvements at Florida, going from 16-17 in his first year to 24-12 and an NCAA Tournament appearance last year and a current No. 6 ranking at 19-3. The Gators rank top-15 nationally in both offensive and defensive efficiency on KenPom. At 39 years old, Golden is the youngest coach on this list, but he has six years of head coaching experience, including a 57-36 three-year run at San Francisco with one NCAA Tournament appearance. Golden was accused of sexual harassment and stalking in November, but the University of Florida cleared Golden in January after finding no evidence and ending the investigation.
Ben McCollum, Drake head coach
Indiana may shy away from the risk involved with hiring a coach that doesn’t have high-major success. But McCollum wins – Google him. At 43 years old, McCollum is 21-2 in his first season at Drake. From 2009-2024, he went 395-91, an .813 win percentage, at Division II Northwest Missouri State. In 15 seasons, he won four national titles, 12 regular season conference titles and five NABC Division II coach of the year awards. If Indiana swings and misses at its top choices, it should at least consider McCollum.
Will Wade, McNeese head coach
Wade is on pace for a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance with McNeese, leading the Southland Conference at 17-6 overall and 11-1 in conference play. He was suspended for the first 10 games of the 2023-24 season due to recruiting and bribery allegations that led to his firing from LSU. From 2017-22, Wade went 105-51 at LSU with one SEC regular season title, four top-five conference finishes and three NCAA Tournament appearances, peaking in the Sweet 16. Wade also took VCU to the NCAA Tournament in each of his two seasons. Some of what got Wade fired at LSU is now legal, but it may take him out of consideration for the Indiana job. But he’s only 42 years old and has won at every stop.
