With a staff opening now available due to Steve McClain's departure to become

the head coach at Illinois-Chicago, could this be the opportunity for Indiana to

reshuffle responsibilities?

If you watched the Butler-Notre Dame game last night you may have noticed

that the Bulldog staff has separated responsibilities for the coaching staff. A

page out of a normal football staff's responsibilities with offensive and

defensive coordinators.

Former Hoosier player Michael Lewis is in charge of the offense and Terry

Johnson takes care of the defense for coach Chris Holtmann. Each comes up with a

game plan before each upcoming opponent. It's something Brad Stevens initiated

during his tenure at the school.

The Bulldogs were eliminated in overtime last night by a higher seeded Notre

Dame team but Butler ends the season ranked as the No. 8 team in the country in

defensive efficiency per this morning's numbers at KenPom.com

Indiana, on the other hand, struggled mightily on the defensive end this

season. The Hoosiers sit No. 218 in the country in that same defensive efficiency

measure. The issue can't be blamed on lack of height. No better evidence than

that than Indiana's season ending defeat Friday night to Wichita State. The Shockers were even shorter than

Indiana yet were much more aggressive with their defense, especially in how they

defended high ball screens, a popular offensive tactic in college basketball.

Lack of aggression was a season long issue for the Hoosier defense. Indiana

currently ranks 331st nationally with its 15.9 percent turnover rate. That

translates to forcing a miscue from the other team only once every 6.3

possessions. The best in the nation this year is West Virginia, creating a

turnover every 3.6 possessions.

Most college teams like Indiana spread responsibilities across the three main

assistant coaches. Each will take turns with the "scout" for the next game

unless one of the assistants is fairly young and less experienced. That's not

the case with Indiana which is blessed with more former Division I head coaches

than any other program in the nation. Besides McClain, who hasn't been

officially announced as new UIC head coach, Tim Buckley (Ball State), Chuck

Martin (Marist), Rob Judson (Illinois State) and Bennie Seltzer (Samford) have

all been the head guy at another program.

Placing someone in charge of the defense or offense has long been an approach

that NBA teams have successfully taken. Dick Harter was the defensive guru that

helped build the Detroit Piston defense under Chuck Daly in the mid and late

80's and then went on to help Pat Riley with the Knicks in the early 1990's and

worked for the Indiana Pacers from 1997-2000, helping Larry Bird coached teams

go to the NBA finals and two other Eastern Conference finals.

On the offensive end the most famous guru was probably Tex Winter. The

guy who coached Kansas State to eight league titles and two Final Four

appearances wrote a book in 1962 about his triangle offense (The Triple-Post

Offense). He was coaxed out of retirement in 1989 by then new Bulls head

coach Phil Jackson. That triangle offense then helped the Bulls to six NBA titles

and he followed Jackson to the Los Angeles Lakers where that team won three

straight titles.

There's no Dick Harter or Tex Winter out there to hire in the college

game but the point is a specialist can influence results. A realistic compromise might be having an assistant already on staff be given only the defense to worry about for games and possibly in practice as well.

Whether the Hoosiers go the specialist route or not it does seem time to

think "outside the box" when it comes to coaching defense. Maybe that's sitting

some of your best offensive players for extended stretches when their defense

isn't up to snuff. It's a risky strategy with the fragile egos and ever growing

number transfers. But risky times require risky measures.

Have your own thoughts on the matter? Email

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