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It's now been 22 years since the Indiana basketball program last made an appearance in the final Final Four, and while 22 years may not seem like an eternity, for Hoosiers fans, it might as well be. Consider that since 1939, when the first NCAA Tournament was played, Indiana's longest stretch without making an appearance in the Final Four was previously 19 years… that is before this stretch of 22 years and counting.
The man who is in charge of the program and hopeful that this drought won't last much longer is Mike Woodson, a veteran in the coaching game who spent 25 years on the bench in the NBA before coming back to his alma mater. Woodson's tenure thus far has been unspectacular, but by no means a failure, even though his hot seat status would suggest otherwise. He's 63-40 with two NCAA Tournament appearances under his belt. But Woodson, who left Indiana back in 1980 as the program's 2nd-leading scorer, was not brought back to Bloomington for the Hoosiers to remain mediocre. And if the last couple of months are any indication, then the tide may be turning in Woodson and Indiana's favor.
While the Hoosiers don't have a 2024 recruiting class to write home about, Mike Woodson did do very well in the transfer portal, securing the 2nd-best class in the country, per 247Sports. And now, in large part because of the two and a half decades that Woodson spent coaching in the NBA, he may be about to bring a coveted 2025 four-star recruit — Kiyan Anthony, the son of former NBA star and collegiate National Champion Carmelo Anthony — to Bloomington.
“Indiana has long been a school to watch for Anthony given his existing relationship with coach Mike Woodson, who also coached Carmelo Anthony with the New York Knicks,” writes Tyler Conway of Bleacher Report. “Kiyan Anthony has called Woodson a ‘Godfather' figure in his life.”
Here's the full Kiyan Anthony quote:
“Coach Woodson is like my godfather,” Kiyan told 247Sports' Brandon Jenkins. “I want to give him a chance and look into the program he’s building at Indiana. I love that I have the chance to be a part of that as I keep my options open.”
Tyler Conway notes that Auburn and Ohio State are the other two schools that Kiyan Anthony plans to visit, and according to 247Sports, Anthony has already taken visits with Florida State and Syracuse, his father's alma mater. But would one assume given both Kiyan and Carmelo's pre-existing relationship with Mike Woodson, Indiana likely has a significant leg up on the rest of the competition.
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The Woodson/Anthony Connection
Just months after Carmelo Anthony was traded from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks, the Knicks hired Mike Woodson, the recently fired former head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, to be an assistant coach. Just one year later, Woodson took over as head coach of the Knicks, and eventually led New York to what was arguably their most successful season of this century.
The 2012-13 Knicks went 54-28 — their best regular season record since 1997 — which was good enough for the 2nd-best record in the Eastern Conference, and Carmelo Anthony, playing the best basketball of his career, finished 3rd in MVP voting. But by the end of the 2013-14 season, Woodson was on his way out of New York. However, until the very end, Carmelo Anthony continued to support his coach.
“To be honest with you, Mike Woodson, me and him have become, he’s been a guy I can talk to,” Anthony said back in 2014 of the current Indiana Hoosiers coach, per Brian Mahoney of the Poughkeepsie Journal. “He’s been almost a father figure, a friend, a guy who I can bounce stuff off of. I’ve been a guy he’s talked to multiple times about multiple things, different situations.”
Since the end of their on-court partnership, Woodson and Anthony have clearly remained close. In fact, Anthony has played a major role in steering both Trayce Jackson-Davis and Mackenzie Mgbako to Indiana (h/t Mike Schumann of The Daily Hoosier). And who knows, maybe Kiyan Anthony is next.
