Why Jay Wright is the Right man for the Indiana Hoosiers Head Coaching Job

Indiana will be looking for a new men’s basketball coach for the 2025-26 season after Scott Dolson, Indiana’s vice president and director of athletics, announced that current head coach Mike Woodson would be stepping down at the end of the season.

Indiana has not had a good season despite its 14-10 record. They have lost seven of their past eight games. They came into the season as a pre-season AP Top 25 team and have not lived up to expectations all year.

Woodson has a 77-49 record with eight regular season games remaining in his fourth season in Bloomington. The Hoosiers made two NCAA Tournament appearances in his first two seasons before falling short of the postseason in 2023-24. After failing to clinch a berth in March Madness, Woodson came into the season on the hot seat and now that seat is all but done.

After looking into to many coaches during the past week I came up with the conclusion that the man for the job is a former legend from the Big East Conference.

After deep diving into who my No. 1 "dream candidate" would be if I had the chance to hire a head coach for the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team it would be Jay Wright. The former Villanova head coach even at 63 years of age, would be the coach I present with a blank check and pay to make him the highest paid head coach in college basketball.

A former player at Bucknell, Wright was a collegiate assistant for a decade at multiple schools, including Rochester, Drexel and UNLV. He then went on to be the head coach at Hofstra for seven years, before taking the Villanova head coaching gig in 2001.

For the next 21 years Wright, built one of college basketball’s most consistent programs leading Villanova to four Final Fours and two NCAA titles (2016, 2018). Wright had a .725 win percentage which included 4 top 25 recruiting class. He put multiple players in the NBA including Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Kyle Lowry, Ryan Arcidiacono, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Saddiq Bey.

With 28 years of Division I experience and a 642-282 record, Wright was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the 2021 class. Wright now works as a college basketball analyst on CBS Sports.

Where the Hoosiers will turn next for their fourth head coach since 2016-2017 is to be determined but whoever they find must do three important things, build a culture, recruit in the new NIL era and please the fans along with the donors. Wright can do all three of those things and more if he is interested in the Indiana head coaching job.