A Look Back at 25 Years of Indiana Head Coaches

Since firing Hall of Fame coach Robert Montgomery Knight in 2000, Indiana has gone through six head basketball coaches and is now gearing up to hire number seven. 

Knight's first successor, Mike Davis, was chosen by his players, not the athletic director, and only lasted six seasons. He took the team back to the National Title game with an upset over Duke, but ultimately didn't have what it took to keep Indiana in the sport's upper echelon. 

Kelvin Sampson was next, a great coach, but awful fit for an Indiana program looking to clean up its image. He had NCAA violations in his prior gig at Oklahoma and was dismissed from Indiana for similar violations after just two seasons. He was replaced by a radio personality, Dan Dakich, for the remainder of the season. 

That's when Indiana turned to Tom Crean. Crean had a squeaky clean record, wholesome personality, and had taken a Dwyane Wade-led Marquette team to the Final Four in 2003. He had some down years with the Golden Eagles, but made the NCAA Tournament in four of his eight seasons and had winning records in Big East play. 

He inherited a mess of a program that was not expected to return to greatness anytime soon, but eventually brought Indiana back to national prominence with Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo, two top-five NBA Draft picks. 

He lost a lot of support from the fanbase when, even with that roster, he failed to get past the Sweet 16 and appeared surprised at Syracuse's famous zone defense. He kept his job for four more years and did reach a Sweet 16 again in 2016, but ultimately couldn't win consistently enough to survive his disastrous 2016-17 season, when Indiana went from a top five ranking to missing the tournament. 

Indiana named Archie Miller as his successor, a move that appeared to make sense at the time. Not only was he one of the hottest up and coming coaches at the time, but he also addressed a lot of Crean's shortcomings in being defense-first and having recruiting connections in the state. 

Miller recruited well in the state, but, again, did not win enough. He never reached the NCAA Tournament in four seasons and went 0-8 against Purdue, something that would get any Indiana coach fired. 

And then, finally, came Mike Woodson. His connections to Knight and NBA experience endeared him to fans and recruits, initially, but it never translated to the level of on-court success that he himself promised in his introductory press conference. 

So after the 2024-25 season, Indiana will be looking for a new head coach once again, hoping to get it right after 25 years of misfires.