It hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for high major college basketball coaches hired direct from the NBA.
Michigan’s Juwan Howard? Fired.
Vanderbilt’s Jerry Stackhouse? Fired.
Louisville’s Kenny Payne? Fired.
No one at Indiana came out and said it at the time, and they certainly aren’t going to admit it now, but Howard sure seemed to be a significant part of the inspiration behind IU’s hiring of Mike Woodson in March of 2021.
At that moment, Howard was coming off a Big Ten title, and he was the national coach of the year. Hiring the former college star from the NBA back to the alma mater seemed like the trendy move at the time. And for a while Indiana and Woodson seemed to be on that right side of the trend, as they starting making NCAA Tournaments again, and recruiting was on the rise.
At the 2021 confluence of NIL and the transfer portal, perhaps Indiana was out in front of a new era in college basketball?
But Michigan got successively worse each season since, as Howard went 26-40 over the last two years and missed the NCAA Tournament twice.
Now Woodson and Memphis’ Penny Hardaway seem to be at their own inflection points.
Memphis is publicly supporting Hardaway after a 7-8 finish to the season and an NCAA Tournament miss. And as you know, IU leaked out support for Woodson, indicating he’d be back in 2024-25 despite a 19-14 season and missing the NCAA Tournament by a wide margin.
They all follow NBA to college failures such as Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, Chris Mullin at St. John’s, Avery Johnson at Alabama, even Indiana’s own Isiah Thomas at FIU — and many others.
There have been success stories. Fred Hoiberg did well at Iowa State and seems to have things trending favorably at Nebraska. Kevin Ollie won a national title at UConn (after two years there as an assistant) — but was fired just four years later.
But the trend is undeniable at this point, and now Woodson and his staff must find the answers for why that is the case.
What factors contribute to a lack of success by NBA coaches at the college level?
At the top of the list has to be that college basketball is a far greater grind than the NBA, and most NBA lifers are not ready for it. Yes, the NBA has more games and more travel, but it is all very predictable, luxurious and low-key. Arrive at an NBA city, have a nice dinner, and don’t worry about much beyond tomorrow’s opponent.
And even at that, each game is much more important at the college level. And that necessitates an unwavering sense of urgency when it comes to game-planning. In the NBA a 30-loss season is good, and terms like “load management” exist. In college, a 12-loss season raises eyebrows.
Before, during and after seasons, college coaches are responsible for building their rosters, while NBA coaches have entire front offices to manage that part. That means a never-ending array of players, coaches, parents, and agents to attend to. It means enjoying being a visible ambassador of a brand. It means hosting visitors on campus and hitting the road to see prospects.
The spring and summer is just as much of a grind as the season, with 12 hour days at AAU tournaments during the day, and calls to return at night. It’s an entirely optional part of the grind that can make or break a coaching staff. Want to take a day off? Okay, but somebody is outworking you. And everyone will notice.
Even the game itself is much different at the college and pro levels. The college game is more physical, while the NBA has better spacing and freedom of movement. That means different nuances to appreciate and take into account. In college, players and teams have more weaknesses to exploit, and that places a greater emphasis on game-planning, in-game adjustments, flexibility and innovation. Not to mention all the work that goes into constructing a roster to avoid those shortcomings in the first place.
And while the NIL and portal era resembles NBA free agency in some respects, dealing with the money part and re-recruiting your own players have become two more variables far different than the NBA.
It’s a massive adjustment, and far more have tried and failed than succeeded.
Woodson already has his doubters. And he’ll have a captive audience watching his every move over the next year to see if he can become one of the outliers who succeed.
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