My Two Cents: Uncertain Ending to Last Chapter of My 48 Years With Indiana's Mike Woodson

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — It was Nov. 27, 1976, just a few days after my 18th birthday, when I strolled into Assembly Hall for my first-ever Indiana basketball game as a college freshman.

I wore jeans, tennis shoes and a red Indiana sweatshirt. Mike Woodson, a fellow freshman, was there, too. He wore a No. 42 white jersey, with Indiana emblazoned across his chest. It was his first game in Assembly Hall, too. They beat South Dakota like a drum that night.

And that's how it began, my connection with Mike Woodson that's lasted 48 years now. I watched from the balcony that night, and I watched every Indiana home game in person for my four years in Bloomington, first as a kid and then the last two-plus years as the basketball beat writer for the Indiana Daily Student.

Our time together at Assembly Hall ended on March 2, 1980, when Woodson and Indiana beat Ohio State to win the Big Ten title. I still say, with nearly 50 years of a sportswriting career to lean on, that it was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen.

Woodson recovered from major back surgery in December to play in Indiana's last six regular season games. That wasn't supposed to happen, since he could barely walk a few weeks earier. But Indiana won them all, with Woodson averaging 20.5 points per game despite being in major pain. He needed help just getting out of bed every day, and help just getting in and out of his car.

He hooped anyway. Like a star.

We both walked out of Assembly Hall for the last time that day as students. Despite playing only six games, he was named Big Ten Player of the Year.

He got his one conference title, and our time as students together ended two weeks later when the Hoosiers lost to Purdue in the Midwest Regional in Lexington, Ky. I loved watching him play, and for decades after, when people asked me who my all-time Indiana player was, I'd say it was Mike Woodson. I'd always make the effort to go see him as a pro, too.

Flash forward 45 more years, and Woodson and I shared another farewell on Saturday. We both had our last Assembly Hall game when the Hoosiers beat Ohio State — how's that for defining irony? — Woodson's last because he is resigning at the end of the season, and me because I've decided to start slowing down and I won't be writing college sports on a daily basis anymore. I'll be 67 soon. It's time.

Woodson will be 67 soon, too, in March. We share bad backs, slow walks and no vertical leaps. (He had one before, I didn't.) It's a good time to ride off into the sunset, and enjoy children and grandchildren, and maybe a few extra rounds of golf.

For both of us. The time is right.

Worrying about the last dance

I had decided at the end of last season that this was going to be it for me. One last dance. And one of the things I absolutely did not want to do was writing about Woodson, someone I've cared about for 48 years now, getting fired. A poor Year 3 had put him on the hot seat.

I hated Feb. 6, working the phones all day and seeing sources in person for confidential conversations. Writing that Woodson — whose Hoosiers were in the midst of losing seven of eight games — would be ending his coaching career wasn't easy. I'll be honest, it made me sad, writing that breaking news story that he was gone.

I was all for hiring Woodson in the first place, and I really thought he would have success here. But it hasn't worked, not completely at least, and on Feb. 6, that decision to move on from him seemed like the right thing to do.

The last chapter of my Mike Woodson story seemed complete then. We could put a bow on his time at Indiana. I was a little surprised that the school — and Woodson — decided together that it was a good thing for him to finish out the season.

"This is my team,'' Woodson said a few days after the announcement. "I don't want to give up on them. I want to do everything I can to help them, especially the seniors who don't get another chance. I remember what that was like, playing my last college games. I hated losing. I still do.''

A hot streak out of the blue

And then something strange happened.

The announcement was perfectly timed because it came just days before Michigan was rolling into town for a nationally televised game at Assembly Hall. Woodson was already getting booed at home games, and this would have been a nightmare with Dusty May — an IU grad who is Michigan's incredibly successful first-year coach — in the building. Indiana lost that day, the seventh of eight losses, but they played well and Woodson was treated with respect.

Since then, though, the Hoosiers have won five of seven games to close out the season and likely earn an NCAA Tournament berth, Woodson's third in four years. They beat No. 11 Michigan State on the road, and No. 13 Purdue at home. They swept Ohio State with Saturday's 66-60 win, and the Hoosiers are on a roll.

I will be the first to admit that I never saw this coming. Every player on Indiana's well-paid roster has flaws of some kind. They had been exposed through these 12 losses this season, a team that rarely shoots well from three, doesn't play defense particularly well a lot of the time and struggles to close out games.

But that's all changed, which has made this month since Woodson announced he was leaving so very enjoyable. A month ago, I couldn't wait for this season to end. Now, I hope it never ends. I want to see this group of kids continue to win games, and I want to see Woodson enjoy a few more nights on the Indiana sidelines. He certainly enjoyed the video tribute on Saturday, and the ovation from fans had to be nice, too.

Sure, he hasn't coached as well as we had hoped, but he has earned our respect as a Hoosier during the past 48 years. He is an all-time great as a player, and he's wanted nothing more than to succeed here as a coach. He wanted that badly.

Coming back home to Bloomington meant a lot to him. The seeds for that were planted in 2020, when he played a huge part in Bob Knight returning to Assembly Hall for the first time in 20 years. In my six years with this Sports Illustrated Indiana run, it was my all-time favorite day.

It really did make sense when he was hired a year later. Not all of it went right, of course, but a lot of it did. It meant the world to Woodson — and this current roster — that he got to spend the last few years of Bob Knight's life with him. Knight was frail and struggling at the end, but Woodson still loved having him at practice, and just sitting and chatting with him, both at Assembly Hall and at Knight's home. His coach was the most important male figure in Woodson's life, and that's special that they got that last little bit of time together.

Another of my favorite moments of the Woodson era was when Trayce Jackson-Davis passed him on the all-time scoring list at Indiana. The best thing Woodson did at Indiana was convincing Trayce to stay, not once by twice. Trayce got much better during his two years with Woodson, especially as a shot blocker and rim runner. There's a lot of closeness between those two, and no one is more thrilled for Jackson-Davis than Woodson that he got to play in two NCAA tournaments and is now having a nice pro career with the NBA's Golden State Warriors.

After passing Woodson on the scoring list, I saw the two of them after the game. I teased Woodson that Trayce was now my all-time favorite Indiana player. "I'm good with that,'' he said with a smile.

I've spent a month wondering how to end the last chapter of my Mike Woodson story, and for a month, he keeps throwing me curve balls.

His team keeps winning. His team keeps having fun. His team keeps making dramatic second-half comebacks. HIs players continue to show him unconditional love.

The end, certainly, is inevitable. It's coming. We've got the Big Ten Tournament left, and then a likely NCAA Tournament berth that I certainly didn't see coming a month ago.

In a season of misery, we've had a month of fun. Indiana has never won a Big Ten Tournament, but wouldn't it be amazing if Woodson and the Hoosiers made a run?

Wouldn't it be something if they won an NCAA game or two, and made some noise on a national stage?

I have no idea if that will happen because, as I said earlier, this is a team full of flaws, despite their recent success. Woodson has 28 double-digit losses on his Indiana resume, and a 29th could happen any time.

But he's also won some big games lately. And here's to winning some more.

I can wait to write the last sentence of the last chapter — for both of us. I'll wait as long as Woodson and his kids want me to.