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With the offseason now in full effect for the Hoosiers, it was no secret that changes to the roster were going to take place and Indiana was forced to make one of those changes last week after it parted ways with associate head coach Dane Fife after only spending only one year with the program.

While there were many options and candidates that head coach Mike Woodson could have gone with, he decided to stay in-house and hire Brian Walsh, who had spent the last five years with the program as the Team and Recruiting Coordinator.

There are many assets that Walsh will immediately bring to the Indiana program like player development or the experience he has as a former college guard at Akron and Xavier. However, the one asset that flies a little under-the-radar is the value he brings in the recruiting area.

"I do feel like some of the things that I had done over the previous four seasons allowed me to be valuable with what I was able to give the new staff as they kind of got their boots on the ground," said Walsh.

Even though Walsh is still young into his coaching career, he already brings in so much experience and many connections to the Indiana program and when it comes to recruitment of players, he knows what area he specializes in.

"I think my specialty is the Midwest" said Walsh. "I grew up in western Pennsylvania.

"I still have a ton of close friends and contacts, guys that are my age that are now running AAU programs on all the different circuits that I've kept in touch with and have great relationships with; and then I go over to Dayton, ran team camp for several years and plucked teams from within the state out of the state, the surrounding states, so I feel like Ohio is another state that I have really strong ties in.

"Then moving a little bit further west at Indiana where your reach is bigger, you know, so I feel like the relationships that I've built in Indiana are very, very strong, and the surrounding states, Illinois, Kentucky, the surrounding states is kind of my, I guess you would call it, the bread basket."

With the Midwest being his specialty when it comes to recruitment, he has the commitment of Centerville, Ohio's own Gabe Cupps to back that up as Walsh was a very big part of landing the 2023 point guard.

When a brand new coach joins a college staff, there are often great challenges that they encounter very early on. However, with Walsh it is nothing new to him as he had to basically start fresh with his recruiting coordinator role this past season with Woodson's first year at the helm.

"It was good, because I had to prove myself all over again," Walsh said. "And that was a good driving force for me to help with getting kids on campus unofficially, officially bringing them to basketball games, connecting Coach (Woodson), and Coach Yasir and Kenya, these are guys in the Midwest in different programs.

"Hey, let's build relationships with these guys, these guys can help us, let's bring this kid in. All of those things, and not only that, just being organized, when these kids come here, what are we doing officially and unofficially on these visits."

Speaking of Woodson, Walsh was also a big part of helping him transition from the NBA to college level as far as recruiting went.

"It was a little bit work," Walsh said.

"You just had to lay it out, X, Y and Z, hey, when this guy is coming in, this is the situation behind it and this is kind of who is with him, and just giving him a very clear and concise, okay, this is who they are, where they are coming from and what they have done, the relationship that we have built before you get in here.

"And you know, there was really nothing else other than that, just my preexisting relationships that I've had over the past four years that kind of just built, you know, being consistent with your approach and finding out who is who in the Midwest."

Even though Woodson technically has recruited before at the NBA level, Walsh has seen tremendous growth in the way Indiana's head coach has recruited at the college level.

"He has been great, man," said Walsh. There's really not much that he hasn't seen or done or experienced.... Talking to high school kids might be different than what he's used to, and talking to parents and whatnot, but man, I'm hard-pressed, when we get kids here and he talks with them on a one-on-one setting, he's really, really good.

"So just being able to set the table for him a little bit and getting the kid here, he's the finisher. Again, that's something that Coach (Thad) Matta always told me to do is, hey, you get them here, and you've done your job and you let Coach finish."

When you really look into to it, this was arguably the best option Indiana had as far as replacing Fife. Walsh may technically be a first time assistant coach, but he comes in with experience, relationships already built with the Midwest recruiting trail and current roster, plus he has the passion to do this.

"There are countless things that I could say about things that I've learned that I'm going to take with me when it comes to recruiting, when it comes to preparation of scouts, when it comes to delivery of scout to the players," Walsh said.

"All of my stuff that I was doing, I was doing from upstairs and that's what I'm most looking forward to is getting out and seeing you guys at these AAU events and getting to be with families and recruits in their homes and just building that relationship even more."

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