One year removed from 27 wins and a Sweet Sixteen appearance, Tom Crean is unemployed. Two days after Indiana lost to Georgia Tech in the first round of the NIT, the Hoosiers pulled the plug on the ninth-year head coach.
RELATED: Lorenzo Romar Fired: Replacements for Washington
Crean departs Bloomington with a 165-135 record, though 66 of those losses came in his first three seasons as he rebuilt a program that Kelvin Sampson left it in disarray. Now for the second time in less than a decade, the once-premiere program is looking for a new head coach.
Here are a few possible candidates.
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Gregg Marshall
Current Position: Head Coach – Wichita State
Gregg Marshall has stopped landing on speculative candidate lists because he's clearly not leaving Wichita State if he's not enamored with the opportunity. Could Indiana be the ticket?
Wichita State is his only midwest coaching stop but that hardly matters. Entering the 2017 NCAA Tournament, he has gone 260-89 with the Shockers and 454-172 overall as a head coach. He led Winthrop to seven tourney bids before building Wichita State into a mid-major power, delivering six more tourney berths and one Final Four.
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Archie Miller
Current Position: Head Coach – Dayton
As said when including Archie Miller as a possible candidate at Washington, it's almost impossible not to consider the Dayton coach for any semi-attractive high-major opening.
Along with Marshall, he's among the hottest coaching candidates in the nation, winning nearly 70 percent of his games and reaching four straight NCAA Tournaments — including one more Elite Eight appearance, which Indiana doesn't have since 2002. At 38 years old, he'd be IU's youngest coach since 30-year-old Bob Knight arrived in 1970.
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Mike Woodson
Current Position: Assistant Coach – Los Angeles Clippers
Mike Woodson is a wild card — a big, big wild card.
He hasn't been on a college sideline since his playing career at Indiana ended in 1980 and aside from a few successful seasons as head coach of the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks, his coaching record isn't stellar.
However, maybe the Hoosiers want to go outside the box after hiring younger, sought-after coaches in the past. Woodson is from Indianapolis, played at IU and is still just 58 years old.
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Ben Jacobson
Current Position: Head Coach – Northern Iowa
Like Marshall, Ben Jacobson has no reason to leave Northern Iowa. He is beloved by the folks of Cedar Falls, signed a 10-year extension in 2015 — although his $900,000 annual salary could be tripled at Indiana — and has four NCAA Tournament bids and four wins in 11 seasons.
But would a guy who's coached at just three programs since 1993 leave for the pressure and uncertainty of Indiana and the Big Ten? No one thought Kelvin Sampson would leave Oklahoma.
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Joe Dooley
Current Position: Head Coach – Florida Gulf Coast
Joe Dooley will get a high-major chance. It's just a matter of when, not if.
The former longtime assistant to Bill Self and Kansas — where he was a master recruiter — has managed to keep Florida Gulf Coast an annual tourney contender despite the loss of Andy Enfield in 2013. Dooley is 91-45, has finished first or second in the Atlantic Sun each season and is preparing for a second straight NCAA Tournament.
He has the national recruiting ties, big-time program experience and his demand is only rising.
