Indiana coach Mike Woodson won’t return for the 2025-26 season

Indiana coach Mike Woodson won’t return next season, the school announced Friday.

The 66-year-old Woodson has been under fire most of the past two seasons because his teams have underperformed. Indiana did not make last year’s NCAA Tournament for the first time since Woodson returned to his alma mater for the 2021-22 season, and they could miss the 68-team field again this season.

“During a meeting with Coach Woodson on Wednesday, he informed me he wanted to step down as our program’s head coach at the end of the current season,” associate athletic director Jeff Keag said in a statement. “He said it had been weighing on his mind for a while, and that it was an emotional and difficult decision.”

Indiana heads into Saturday’s matchup against former No. 24 Michigan and coach Dusty May, a former student manager with the Hoosiers, having lost four straight and six of seven. The Hoosiers were this season’s preseason pick to finish second in the Big Ten.

The news comes just two days after Indiana never recovered from a 27-4 deficit at No. 21 Wisconsin, prompting Woodson to question his team’s mental toughness.

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“We have a game like we did at Purdue where we really competed for 40 minutes, then we come in here and we lay an egg based on how we started the ballgame,” Woodson said Tuesday. “You spot teams on the road 20, it’s going to get tough to get back in them. Again, that’s on me, man. We’re pushing and pulling and scraping and just trying to get what we can get. Guys just didn’t step up again tonight.”

The move comes just months after athletic department officials made a significant names, images and likenesses investment to help Woodson win.

Instead, the Hoosiers have endured a series of missteps, including a home loss to Maryland in which Indiana blew a late lead and last Friday when Woodson said he couldn’t get the attention of guard Myles Rice to call time out as he raced up the floor with less than 10 seconds to play. The result: Rice turned the ball in over in what was a 79-76 game, leading to Purdue’s game-sealing free throws.

“Like that was our concern in that situation would have been Trey (Galloway), that’s who was torching us,” Boilermakers coach Matt Painter said Friday, referring to the Hoosiers guard. “He was getting to the rim, he was making plays, he was the guy who was feeling it. We were fortunate.”

The continual miscues have led fans at home games to loudly chant for Woodson’s ouster.

Indiana (14-9, 5-7 Big Ten) was ranked as high as No. 14 in the AP Top 25 in late November but were only 65th in the NET rankings heading into Tuesday night’s game.

Woodson posted back-to-back 20-win seasons in his first two seasons with the Hoosiers, beating Wyoming in a play-in tournament game in March 2022 for Indiana’s first NCAA tourney win since 2015. The Hoosiers also beat Kent State in a first-round game in March 2023. They were Indiana’s first tourney wins since 2015.

But he enters this weekend with a 77-49 mark over four seasons, no Big Ten titles and no Sweet 16 appearances.

Before coming to Bloomington, Woodson spent his entire coaching career in the NBA with two stints as a head coach. He went 315-365 in nine seasons as an NBA head coach, six with the Atlanta Hawks and three with the New York Knicks.

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