When Indiana hired then 62-year-old Mike Woodson, it logically never felt like a long-term solution.
Would he coach for five years, 10 or 15? That wasn’t clear, but because of his age when he took the job, Woodson was never going to be a generational coach at Indiana.
So just how long the former IU star might run the show has always been a subject of curiosity since he was hired in March of 2021.
And of course, how long Woodson coaches is not entirely within his control. At 14-11 this season, the program’s current trajectory is one that coaches at programs like Indiana don’t survive without a course correction sooner than later.
Woodson was asked on Tuesday morning whether he thinks about how much longer he’ll coach at IU if it is left up to him.
“I came back to try to put this team in the best position possible,” Woodson said. “I’m going to continue to do that. I’m almost 66 but I feel good and I still move around and I think that I still think well in terms of the game and I still think I can teach the game.
“I don’t know, there are coaches that are coaching into their 70s. I don’t know if that’s something I’ll do, I don’t know. But at this point, I’ll take it a day at a time, a year at a time. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon guys. I’m just not. So I’m going to continue to build this team and try to put this team in the best position possible and see where it leads us.”
Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni currently carries the distinction of the oldest Division I men’s college basketball coach in the country at 76 following the recent retirement of Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis, who is 78.
There are only four other active D-I coaches over the age of 70: Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton, La Salle’s Fran Dunphy, Miami’s Jim Larrañaga and Rick Pitino of St. John’s.
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