Indiana coaching search: Mike Woodson, Larry Brown “aligning” in bid for IU job

With the Indiana Hoosiers entrenched in a coaching search that is moving at a meticulous pace currently by athletic director Fred Glass, two unlikely names appear to be combining to form a candidacy together.

Indiana graduate and former NBA coach Mike Woodson is potentially aligning with former college and NBA coach Larry Brown to form a pairing to campaign for the head coaching vacancy in Bloomington.

In the quoted tweet, Jon Rothstein suggests that Larry Brown “yearns to get back to coaching” after resigning from SMU last year.

The caveat with Brown, obviously, is the long string of violations in his time in college. Most recently at SMU, Brown and the Mustangs were handed a post-season ban while losing nine scholarships. Brown was also suspended 30 percent of the team’s games.

Brown has spent time at UCLA, Kansas and SMU and amassed a 266-99 record while making the NCAA Tournament eight of his 10 years in the college ranks, winning the national title in 1987-88 at Kansas and making another Final Four in ‘85-86.

Woodson, meanwhile, has no experience at the college level, which explains the potential partnership with Brown. Woodson has coached 680 games in the NBA, most recently 2013-14 when he went 37-45 with the Knicks.

Since then, Woodson has served as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers under Doc Rivers.

This certainly counts as the most unexpected rumor regarding the coaching position yet, but given the source, it’s hard to imagine this isn’t a legitimate rumor. It’s also worth noting, as mentioned in the tweet, that Indiana has no interest in a Woodson/Brown partnership.