Fire Mike Woodson chants reign down on Indiana coach during embarrassing loss

Indiana fans have turned on one of their own.Chants of “Fire Woodson” reverberated throughout Alumni Hall on Tuesday while coach Mike Woodson’s Hoosiers squad suffered an “embarrassing” 94-69 home loss to No.19 Illinois.The Hoosiers (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten) trailed by as much as 31 points and faced a 28-point deficit at halftime while dropping a second straight conference game by 25 points.“I love our fans and I respect our fans, but it’s up to me to get our players to play at a high level and that’s my job and I’m going to continue to work in that area,” Woodson said of the chants calling for his dismissal, “and hope that our fans will stay in there and hang in there with us.”Woodson is in his fourth year guiding his alma mater after a long run at the NBA level that included guiding the Knicks and the Hawks.A fourth season is when, in theory, a college coach should have a team ready to compete since it will have afforded them the chance to get their own recruits in the building.Woodson didn’t help himself by missing the tournament last season and set the bar high by saying before this season that this roster marked the best one of his tenure.Well, for all that talent, this year’s team has flopped against quality competition.

Each Hoosiers’ loss has come by at least 16 points and three have come by at least 25 points.KenPom ranks Indiana as the No.58 team in the country and the Hoosiers are 1-5 in Quad 1 games.“Do I think we’re good enough to win? Yeah, I do,” Woodson said.

“I just got to get us to believe that and keep pushing these guys in the right direction.”That the Hoosiers came out so flat against Illinois certainly irked the fans since it came on the heels of an 85-60 blowout road loss to Iowa.Tuesday marked the chance for a quality resume win but the Hoosiers fell behind 25-10 less than nine minutes into the game.Seeing the home team down by 25 elicited several “Fire Woodson” chants that certainly have made the coach...