Who for IU

 Scott Drew ain't the guy. After 18 years he's Mr. Baylor now, same as Bob Knight was Mr. IU by the time his alma mater's job opened up at Ohio State.

Steve Alford ain't the guy, either, on account of IU apparently isn't interested.

John Beilein, Dane Fife, Tony Bennett at Virginia, Chris Beard at Texas Tech?

Maybe, maybe, maybe and maybe.

That leaves one guy. I think you know who he is.

Brad Stevens.

Indiana born and bred, prodigy coach at Butler, he's everyone's perfect fit to come to Indiana University and resurrect its dead glory. And if a single donor was willing to shell out $10 million to evict Archie Miller, who was fired as IU's basketball coach on Monday after four pale seasons, surely the alumni pockets are deep enough to pry Stevens away from the Boston Celtics.

Except.

Except Stevens has been an NBA coach for almost a decade now, and he's taken the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals three of the last four seasons, and the only reason they never got to the NBA Finals is they kept running into LeBron. And the year they didn't make the conference finals, they lost in the semifinals.

The last five seasons, they've won at least 48 games. Last season they won 48 and lost in the conference finals to Miami.

This year, however, they've been awful.

And the IU job just came open.

And so the thinking is, well, the timing is right now, and the moneybags alums obviously have some financial want-to -- look what one of them did just to get rid of Archie! -- and the new AD, Scott Dolson, obviously has someone big in mind because he's not even activating a search committee. So ...

So maybe this time WE GET BRAD STEVENS!

Except.

Except the Blob is letting his imagination take over, and what it's imagining now is Brad Stevens sitting in his office in Bloomington. The phone rings. It's the Rockets or the Suns or the 76ers or maybe even the Lakers, and they're looking for a coach. What will it take to get you back to the big time, Coach?

Because listen, even if IU pulls off this miracle and gets its man, Stevens has already established himself as an extremely attractive NBA hire. He's got experience, he's had success, he's an established, proven commodity in the league. And established, proven commodities are the most valued coin in the NBA realm.

How long before Brad Stevens realizes that, and takes the phone call?

After eight years, see, he's an NBA guy. That's his identity. A lot of folks, despite this year, regard him as one of the brightest young minds in the league. And people like that rarely go back down to college ball.

The only coaches who tend to do that are coaches who fail in the NBA, like Rick Pitino and John Calipari. That's certainly not Brad Stevens.

I could be wrong, of course. It wouldn't the first or second or even the eleventy-hundreth time. And Stevens has already showed he walks a different path; look how many of us were shocked when he left Butler to take the Celtics' job. 

So maybe he does it in reverse this time. That's what every good little Hoosiers fan is hoping, anyway.

Me?

I'll believe it when I see it. And admit I was wrong, wrong, wrong if I do.