By Lee Strawther
The Sporting Tribune
The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
When you think of Indiana Hoosiers basketball the first thing that comes to mind are players like Isaiah Thomas, Quinn Buckner, Scott May, Mike Woodson, Alan Henderson, Steve Alford and the like. And of course there’s Coach Bobby Knight. But there are a handful of players that should be mentioned more frequently, including a strong, left-handed forward that grew up just two hours away from the Indiana University campus.
Calbert Nathaniel Cheaney was born July 17, 1971 in Evansville, Indiana. A proud native of the Hoosier state, he began his hoop dream at William Henry Harrison High School in Evansville where he averaged 22.9 points per game as a senior and left the school with 1,064 career points, second on the all-time scoring list at the time. He also set a school record for points in a single game with 47 his senior year and helped his team win two city and two conference titles.
Cheaney was a prep stand-out, no doubt, but an unfortunate injury cut his senior season in half, subsequently taking him off the national radar. It also left him as a bit of an unknown in Indiana’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class of 1989, coached by the controversial Knight.
Cheaney was known for his smooth style of play and over his final three seasons the team went 87-16 (46-8, Big Ten Conference) and spent all but two weeks ranked in the top 10 nationally, with 38 of them ranked in the top 5. In fact, in his four years at IU the Hoosiers went 105-27 and captured Big Ten titles in 1991 and 1993. The 105 games won during Cheaney’s tenure was the most of any Hoosier at that time.
After winning all 10 of its non-conference games to begin his freshman season, Indiana came back down to earth in conference play, winning just eight of 18 league games, before being upset by California in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Our freshman year was very, very subpar,” Cheaney once reflected. “We started out excellent and when we got into the Big Ten we were in for a rude awakening. I knew once that season was over and we started working out over the summer, we were going to become a pretty good team. I knew we were going to be a team to be reckoned with for the next three years.”
As a sophomore, Cheaney’s scoring shot from 17 ppg to 26.8 with the Hoosiers ending the 1990–91 regular season with a 29-5 overall record and a 15-3 conference mark. As conference champions, they were a 2-seed in the 1991 NCAA Tournament where they got as far as the Sweet Sixteen.
In year-three (1991–92), after a long summer of playing, a slightly-fatigued Cheaney’s scoring dropped to 17.6 ppg, though it was felt he didn’t need to score as much with the talented roster they had. Nonetheless, the Hoosiers went 27–7 and 14–4 in conference, good enough for 2nd place. They returned to the NCAA Tournament, again as a 2-seed, where they advanced to the Final Four.
As a senior Cheaney averaged 22.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, leading the Hoosiers to a 31–4 record and a 17–1 Big Ten mark. As the Big Ten champions, they entered the 1993 national tournament, this time as a 1-seed, where they advanced to the Elite Eight for a second straight year.
During his four years with the Hoosiers Cheaney was a three-time All-American and remains the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer with 2,613 career points. And as a senior, he had captured virtually every post-season award imaginable, including National Player of the Year honors by winning the highly-coveted John R. Wooden and James Naismith awards.
Cheaney would be selected 6th overall by the Washington Bullets in the 1993 NBA draft. His strongest showing as a professional came in 1994-95 season when he averaged a career-high 16.6 points for Washington. He spent six seasons with the Bullets/Wizards, including when they made the playoffs in 1997.
He would play for the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and Utah Jazz, before concluding his career with a three year stint in Golden State, where he retired after the 2005-06 campaign. During his thirteen-year NBA career, Cheaney averaged 9.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per contest.
Post-retirement, Cheaney spent two seasons on the staff of the Warriors and was a special assistant in the front office in 2009-10, and an assistant coach under fellow Indiana alumnus Keith Smart in 2010-11.
In 2011 he returned to Indiana to serve as Director of Basketball Operations for the Hoosiers and the following year he added the title of Director of Internal and External Player Development.
In the Fall of 2013, Cheaney became an assistant coach at Saint Louis University and during his first season the Billikens finished with a 27–7 record and secured an Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season title and an NCAA Tournament appearance. He remained on staff there for three seasons before becoming an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers.
Finally, in 2023 IU head coach (and alum) Mike Woodson announced that Cheaney would return to the Hoosiers as Director of Player Development in a non-recruiting role, a position he held through last season.
“I could not think of anyone better suited to be part of this program than Calbert Cheaney,” Woodson would say of his hiring. “Every team or program he has been a part of after his playing career, he has had an immense impact on. As a player in college and as a pro, his experiences are as good as it gets.”