Indiana men’s basketball hired former Hoosier Calbert Cheaney to its staff as director of player development, coach Mike Woodson announced Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:
- Cheaney, who spent the last three years as an assistant for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, will serve in a “non-recruiting role,” per the program.
- Cheaney previously served the IU program as director of operations in 2011-12 and oversaw player development in 2012-13.
- The former Indiana standout is one of four players in IU history to earn national player of the year honors, along with Scott May, Kent Benson and Victor Oladipo.
Welcome home, @calbertcheaney! ⚪️🔴
Details: https://t.co/TMIn8apOKu pic.twitter.com/zXerJg3y2z
— Indiana Basketball (@IndianaMBB) May 23, 2023
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
What it means for Indiana
Indiana fans may primarily remember Cheaney for his brilliant career, but he is by now a longtime basketball coach in his own right, one with no small amount of NBA experience — and the sort of mundane but valuable experience that NBA lifers like Woodson tend to appreciate: grinding tape late into the night, showing up early to work with one player on niche individual skills. Ostensibly, he can help develop Indiana’s players toward the league, and he can do so informed by his own experience as a college star at IU — not to mention his experience doing similar jobs for Indiana in the past.
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But whatever his value as a coach or player developer, the real value of this announcement is symbolic. Woodson remains as keen as ever to unite the Indiana family once and for all, to lean into the things that make Indiana basketball uniquely Indiana. Chaney is a program legend and a conduit between eras, the kind of hire that can get your fans as excited as the replies to Indiana’s tweet announcement Tuesday. Your average director of basketball operations does not get this kind of love. Woodson wants Indiana to feel like Indiana, and having Cheaney around hardly hurts. — Brennan
Backstory
Cheaney, a native of Evansville, Ind., was a three-time All-American at Indiana and is the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,613 career points. He helped guide the Hoosiers to a 105-27 record during his four seasons with the team from 1989-93, as well as a Final Four appearance in 1992. Cheaney received the Naismith College Player of the Year and John R. Wooden Award honors during his senior season in 1992-93. He holds the program record for field goals made (1,018).
He spent the last three seasons on the Pacers staff focusing on player development. Prior to that, he was an assistant for the Erie BayHawks and College Park Skyhawks of the NBA’s G League, and also spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Saint Louis University.
Cheaney was selected No. 6 by the Washington Bullets in the 1993 NBA Draft. His career spanned 13 seasons and included stints with Washington, Boston, Denver, Utah and Golden State.
Required reading
(Photo: Bernstein Associates / Getty)
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