Robbie Hummel Was "A Little Surprised" By Indiana Hiring Mike Woodson

Purdue basketball legend and current college hoops analyst woke up with me on Thursday to discuss the Final Four, Indianapolis hosting, Purdue basketball, and more, but what I was really wondering about was his thoughts on his formal rival Indiana hiring Mike Woodson as it's head coach this week. 

"I was a little bit surprised just because I thought they might go with somebody with more college experience coaching wise," Hummel said. "Coach Woodson...I've met him a couple times. I've been around him a little bit. He is so well respected in basketball circles and that NBA kind of world, but coaching in college is so much different than coaching in the NBA."

That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. He said the hire reminds him a lot of what we've seen with Michigan and Juwan Howard. 

"I think Juwan Howard kind of opened the door for hires like this to look and say 'OK this is going to be good'…I think him filling out his staff is going to be important. I don't doubt that he's going to be terrific X's and O's wise. It's going to be about recruiting and some of those other outside things I talked about. I think it's always cool when you bring someone back to their alma mater. They have pride like Juwan Howard or we (Purdue) have with Matt Painter because they want the school to do so well."

Catch the full interview with Robbie covering Purdue basketball, his best times as a Boiler, and what he think the trajectory of the Boilermaker program is heading.