How Indiana's Mike Woodson went about building one of nation's top-ranked transfer classes

BORDEN — Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson approached the spring transfer portal window like he did free agency as a coach for the New York Knicks.

The Hoosiers went into the offseason with seven open scholarships and needs at every position after letting signee Liam McNeeley out of his national letter-of-intent back in March. They cast a wide net to replenish the roster's talent level, and ended up reeling in some of the most talented players available.

Indiana signed five transfers including three who were ranked among the top 25 in the country — Arizona center Oumar Ballo (No. 2), Stanford guard Kanaan Carlyle (No. 16) and Washington State guard Myles Rice (No. 25). The transfer class ranks No. 2 in the country behind Arkansas, according to 247Sports rankings.

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Woodson talked to the media about assembling the transfer haul for the first time on Wednesday at Huber's Orchard and Winery before speaking to a crowd of IU fans for a NIL event.

"I make our guys (assistant coaches) rank the top-10 players at their position then I make the decision who I'm going to go get," Woodson said. "If it's the best player, we got to give it a shot. All they can do is tell us no."

It's s the same reason Woodson hasn't been shy about targeting elite high school talent. Woodson outlined the pursuit of Ballo as an example.

The staff had a ready-made pitch for Ballo the minute he entered the portal and moved quickly to get him on campus. Ballo, a 7-foot, 260-pound center, was first team All-Pac-12 last season while averaging 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds a game. The two-year starter has played in 132 career games (71 starts) and is one of only 10 players in Arizona history with 1,000 career points and 800 rebounds.

Woodson was just as aggressive about adding dynamic playmaking guards (plural) out of the portal. Indiana signed Rice and Carlyle along with Illinois guard Luke Goode. He said the goal was to "amp up" the backcourt after a years long search for sufficient depth.

"I thought we've done that," Woodson said.

Given the current collegiate landscape, Woodson envisions having to rely on a similar game plan in the years ahead.

"That's the new norm now guys," Woodson said. "It's not like the Bob Knight days where you could build your team over three or four years and trust the process. Our process now is changing every year cause you don't know who is coming and who is going."

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.