Boston Celtics news: Brad Stevens declines Indiana HC offer

Rest easy, Boston Celtics fans. Brad Stevens isn’t going anywhere.

Well, at least that’s not the current plan. On Sunday afternoon, on the second day of the Sweet 16, NCAA reporter Jeff Goodman revealed that Stevens had turned down the Indiana Hoosier head coaching offer.

Current assistant New York Knicks assistant Mike Woodson committed to the job instead. The former NBA pro will be making his first foray into the college hoops ranks as a coach. This will be his first head coaching job since being the head coach of the Carmelo Anthony-Am’are Stoudemire-Tyson Chandler Knicks teams.

Per Goodman’s Twitter page:

Chris Holtmann is the current head coach of Ohio State, and like Stevens, didn’t want to make the jump to Bloomington. While his Buckeyes suffered a shocking upset loss to Oral Roberts University in the Round of 64, OSU made it all the way to the Big Ten Championship after upsetting Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament.

This puts to rest any chatter that Stevens wanted to make a jump back to the college coaching realm after a successful stint with the Cs. What it does not do, though, is shut the door on the former Butler coach looking for another NBA head coaching gig if this season doesn’t produce satisfactory results.

It’s not known what that would entail, but Danny Ainge didn’t just trade two draft picks to have his team fail to reach at least the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Stevens will need to produce to remain at the helm of the Boston Celtics, because usually when a team struggles to get over the hump, the head coach is the first one to go.