Woody on the rebound

 Hey, look at this, will ya. Perhaps Mike Woodson isn't soiling Indiana University's grand basketball tradition, assuming anyone out there is old enough to remember Indiana's grand basketball tradition.

Yes, the Hoosiers failed to make the NCAA Tournament this year, and couldn't hit water if they fell off a cruise ship sometimes, and tracked mud all over hallowed Assembly Hall on more than a few occasions. Even got grated like parmesan by Purdue twice, losing by 21 in the Hall and 20 in Mackey Arena. 

All of this made the less rational  precincts of Candy Stripe Nation somewhat disgruntled. OK, so they thought Woody was the WORST COACH EVER and wanted to TAKE HIM TO CAPE CANAVERAL AND LAUNCH HIM INTO SPACE.

(Sorry for the all-caps. Just trying to convey the general mood of the Less Rational Precincts.)

Anyway, Woodson's Hoosiers were a deeply flawed team, and they missed Da Tournament, and hardly anyone remembered that Woodson's first two teams made the Da Tournament, which is something his predecessor (Archie Miller) never did. His one prize recruit de-committed, and some folks were saying this was because Mike Woodson was lazy, with the unfortunate racial subtext that goes with that.

That was March in Bloomington.

And now that April is past halftime?

Well, let's take stock, shall we?

Trey Galloway and Anthony Leal have decided to stick around for another season when they didn't have to.

Ditto Malik Reneau and Co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year Mackenzie Mgbako.

Woodson landed another five-star recruit (Bryson Tucker) to replace the five-star recruit who bailed (Liam McNeeley).

Via the transfer portal, he's also locked up the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year (Washington State point guard Myles Rice) and the nation's No. 1 portal target, 7-foot Arizona center Oumar Ballo -- a two-time all-Pac-12 selection and a player who averaged a double-double this season for the Wildcats.

I don't know about you. But it sounds to me like Woodson hasn't exactly been sitting around eating bonbons since the season ended.

Sounds to me like he's winning the offseason, and, yeah, he's done that before. But he's got a lot of nice pieces, and the portal and recruiting season has barely started, and maybe by this fall he'll have a roster even he can't screw up. 

Or so the Less Rational Precincts no doubt would put it.

Me?

I say he's already proved the usual doom-criers half wrong.  Whether or not he'll prove them all the way wrong is yet to be seen.