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It's been 568 days since Scott Dolson made his first big hire at Indiana. Selecting Hoosier legend and 34-year NBA veteran Mike Woodson to lead Bloomington's slumping basketball team.

The reactions were mixed. Your sentimental Indiana fans were satisfied. It was an interesting hire, there was no doubt about that. Hiring within the Hoosier bloodline was always of interest, and there may not have been a better fit available.

The more cynical looked at Woodson's age and lack of college coaching experience and voiced their doubts from the rooftops. Woodson reminded the media that he feels they were wrong on that front at Big Ten media days last week.

"It was you guys that said he was too old, he can’t recruit, he’s been away for 42 years," Woodson said. "I mean all the negative things that you can say about a guy."

It's hard to say that there would ever be a low-pressure season for a coach in Bloomington. But, if there was, it was probably Woodson's first year.

Still, he thinks he beat the tough hand the media dealt him.

"I was able to beat those odds and get the job," Woodson said. "I don’t think I’m too old and I think we've done a pretty good job in recruiting. Only time will tell, you know once you start playing."

The dichotemy of Woodson's first two seasons is one to note. One that could be considered a ragtag group of homegrown recruits and risky transfers. Followed by one that -- from the outside looking in -- has very few holes.

It would be easy for many to get ahead of themselves when they look at the potential a team like this has. I wouldn't be surprised if some Hoosier fans aren't checking early April flights to Houston every now and then.

Woodson wants to zoom out and attack what's in front of him. If you ask him, he'll say he's just happy his assistant coaches have one less thing to make fun of him for.

"I spent 34 years of my life in the NBA. To come now, to college; I’m trying to figure it out," said Woodson. "But, I can tell you this. I can go back and tell my assistant coaches I’m not a rookie anymore. That’s for damn sure.”

It was a season full of ups and downs. Most of the ups came during a seven day span starting with the Big Ten tournament that found the Hoosiers taking a cross country flight from Dayton to Portland.

It's worth wondering how the chips would have fallen had the Hoosiers suffered a first round exit against Michigan in the conference tournament. 20 years of NBA coaching will inevitably immerse a coach in rough patches and Woodson found himself in plenty of those during his professional career.

He was asked about the adjustment in coaching professionals compared to college players. he pointed out a few of his teams in the NBA were on the younger side.

"It’s no different, all I can do is convert back to when I was in Atlanta when I had the youngest team in the NBA," Woodson explained. "They were like 18, 19, and 20 year olds who should’ve stayed their butts in school but they didn’t."

“It’s learning my opponents, the guys I’m coaching against. You have to figure out their style and what they’re thinking. It becomes a chess match. I just have to make sure my players are well prepared when they step on the floor to give themselves a chance to prepare and win a game."

However, with that difficulty, Woodson says the amount of time he gets to spend with his players instead of having to play every other day.

“I think the beauty about being in college, above everything, being in the NBA - because that’s where I spent all my life - you’re playing three or four games a week. It’s just not enough time to prepare and teach. You’re kind of rolling the dice when you jump it up," Woodson explained. "In college, man. I get a lot of opportunities to teach and prepare before I step out on that floor to coach. That’s kind of nice, I haven’t been able to do that in a long time. That’s the fun part about being back in college.”

That relationship-building aspect of being a college coach isn't just important to Woodson, but also his starting forward Race Thompson.

The senior went as far as saying that kind of coach was one that he had to have when Dolson asked him who he wanted to lead the Hoosiers.

"When the AD was talking to us about what we want in a coach, it was someone you can build a relationship with," Thompson said. "The first time I saw him in person he was really excited to talk to me and build that relationship even though I was in the portal at the time."

Thompson says it was a mix of "joking around and tough love" that led to Woodson cutting through the tension of being a first-year head coach. Before recruiting, examining the transfer portal or filling out your staff. You have to win over the players that are already on your roster.

Woodson did that well.

"If he tells me to do something I'm going to do it, because I trust him. If that's on the court, on the court, he would do anything to help us," reiterated Thompson.

After just his first season leading Indiana, Woodson has turned the Hoosiers from a program looking to find traction to a Big Ten preseason favorite. He's made a deep run in the Big Ten tournament and earned an NCAA tournament birth when many thought his season was over after a home loss in early march.

He flipped a five-star, plug-and-play power forward from Florida, signaling a shift in how Indiana is perceived on the recruiting circuit.

Instead of a program that goes bounds and leaps to land highly touted prospects, Woodson thinks they should want to play for him.

And from everything that I've seen. They do.

The conclusions made on Mike Woodson after year one were overwhelmingly positive.

Time will tell after year two. In which the pressure and expectations have all reached new heights.

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