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Scott asked him last March if he was ready. He said not until they won the championship or had to break up the team. They won. Just kept talking to him, his family, his dad who played football at IU. Stayed in touch as a friend. Then picked back up the conversation around Thanksgiving all the way up to now. He wanted some assurances about NIL, which we gave. Plus a 10 year deal means their set up for future.

Respectfully, $92m over 10 years.

If I’m Michigan I announce an extension with Dusty minutes before tipoff if the 2 agree to it today however if Dusty doesn’t sign an extension within the rest of the season I believe that shows his hand and going to IU is very likely

I’m not straight up opposed because I believe that given how buttoned up this school tends to be on things if they made a move with him it would be with due diligence down to the bone. But this is why he’s not probably top 5 for me despite being an elite coach: 1) He beat a woman. He did that. I don’t care if she refused to testify and they dropped the charges. The police report’s clear. He did it, 2) The alcohol thing is a concern. When a guy literally drinks himself blind at a Christmas fundraising event for freaking boosters, it’s not nothing. 3) The guy deflected UT questions by calling himself “the most honest guy you’ve ever met. If I say I’m not going, I’m not going.” Then he went. 4) Not saying that stuff is prohibitive on its face, but it’s not nothin’ and that stuff happened with much less scrutiny and heat than this job. Human frailty is more likely to arise under heightened scrutiny. 5) Hovadipo made the point elsewhere, and it’s a good one: If you’re Dolson and making as big a hire as you’ll ever make, are you really tieing yourself and your career to a grenade? I might be willing to overlook or talk myself most of that stuff if I thought he was just miles better than anyone else available, but I’m not sure that’s true.

Crazy what a couple years will do for a coaching search. 5 years ago Beard was the guy that was mentioned as a slam dunk to coach a blue blood. Holtmann was the name to look out for with the Kentucky job since he is from Kentucky. Last year Schertz was a name that was thrown around as a legitimate chance to go to IU. Mack was a name that was thrown out as a big time miss by IU the first time around underwood was looked at as a lower hire then Holtmann and Miller during that cycle and after a couple of bad seasons (worst in Illinois history) Fast forward 5 years and Beard is at Ole Miss(his own doing) and is hoping for a second chance at a big time school Holtmann is at DePaul Schertz hasn’t been mentioned once on here since the opening was announced Underwood was the last man standing in the B1G from that cycle he was hired in I’m confident that IU will get it right this cycle Sooner or later water finds its level

I don’t think that people understand just how extraordinary 108-70 is at FAU. A 4,000 seat arena that was half sold for home games. Long road trips for all conference road games. No workout facilities. Campus and area of the country that had zero interest in hoops. Terrible team history. He won 35 games in that scenario and went to the NCAA championship game. And in case people thought it was a fluke, he then moved to a tougher conference and won 25 games. With Dusty, Johnell Davis was unstoppable- with Calipari he kinda sucks. Dusty May has an incredible talent evaluation eye. The kids that he got at FAU, and now the ones he assembled at UM are really really good and were consistently undervalued , but not undervalued by Dusty. And then he develops them.

That’s why I’m good this time around. Stevens, May, Few, Drew, Beard. We’re getting a winner.

The year Dusty is having at Michigan is better than any season IU has had since the 2015/2016 championship team, and that’s after taking over a team that finished last in the conference by three games last year. The worries I had about him last offseason are gone.

Give me Beard every day all day! RMK guy and is a college grinder! And a WINNER!

Now it just needs to come to fruition.

Dusty’s got Michigan at 17-5 and third in the conference after UM went 8-24 and finished dead last the previous year. I was skeptical of his FAU success translating but he’d be a real solid hire.

I’m ready to bring some good news. Scott is going to do this right, we have plenty of money and assurances that the NIL money will be there.

Stevens, May, and Beard are my top 3. Get one of them and I’ll be happy. Once we dip away from those three I’ll get concerned.

We can keep debating Chris Beard all we want, but here are the facts: No one truly knows what happened except for Beard and his ex-fiancée. The photos were disturbing, no doubt, but anything beyond that is speculation. I’m not willing to label someone a wife-beater without 1) knowing him personally and 2) having all the facts in front of me. Another university hired him. Yes, the SEC’s moral compass is questionable at best, but if this situation were as open-and-shut as some on here claim, Beard wouldn’t just be out of a job—he’d be in prison. The fact that he’s coaching in a Power 4 conference suggests there’s more to the story. It isn't as simple as "Ole Miss is a bunch of scumbags that are looking the other way." Finally, I actually trust Scott Dolson this time. I don’t have much faith in the rest of our administration, but based on what insiders have shared, it seems like Scott has always had a solid plan—he’s just been limited in what he could do. If IU were to hire Beard, that would tell me Dolson did his due diligence, spoke to the right people, and still felt comfortable moving forward. That’s good enough for me.

If it ain’t Brad, it ain’t Rad

Bob Knight attended Ohio State. Ohio State just won the CFP with a coach named Day. Day rhymes with May, who student managed under Knight. The circle will be complete. For more amazing connect the dots sessions, catch my new podcast where I show that Danny Hurley is, in fact, one of the lizard people

His stuff isn’t super special. He runs a lot of half court offense out of horns derivatives. Really likes that action a lot. They push pace, and they create a lot of 3’s but they’re not Bama. They play a lot of different defenses. I mean more than anyone. You watch a full Mizzou game and you’ll see man, 2-3, 1-3-1, they’ll trap half and 3/4 court out 1-2-2 and full court out of 1-2-1-1. They don’t play more than a handful of possessions without changing up. And they create a bunch of to’s, but I don’t think it’s about to’s strictly, it’s about just physically and mentally wearing teams down. He plays 10 guys or more every night, he insists on max effort or you’re gonna sit immediately, and they’re just tough to play. And they play without fear and he doesn’t bust them for odd mistakes. Bates looks like a completely different guy there. He makes a mistake now and he just plays. But what he does bust is effort. He sees a kid halfa$$ a play and thery’re sitting on the next dead ball. He plays so much depth he can do that. Even at a higher profile job I doubt he would load up on 5-star types. He really likes him his chip-on-their-shoulder kids. I like the guy a lot. Think he’s very good. And as I mentioned earlier, how he handled himself last year through that mess was super impressive. Dude just grinds. Would be pretty floored if he’s part of the conversation here, but would be fine with it if he is.

Interesting how things get spun these days… Izzo has had a blind eye to multiple felonies in his program and is still a media darling Kobe raped a woman and is revered , even posthumously Rothlesberger assaulted multiple women and suffered no repercussions. DeShaun Watson assaulted even more and was rewarded by being made the face of the Browns along with a check for $145 million If Beard agreed to a short leash with mandatory counseling, he deserves the chance to prove he’s not who he was

It will be either one IMO. Get Brad to sign a 10 year $100 mil contract. Highest paid coach in the ncaa. Or it will be Dusty, for quite a bit less.

I expect IU to win today with everything that has gone on this week but I would still want Dusty next season

There’s a natural tendency to be attracted to an @$$-kicking, hyper-intense coach that wins. But it’s also true that for a seemingly less intense coach like Stevens or May to be this successful there needs to be an extraordinary competitive fire and work ethic, albeit one that may not be as apparent to the public.

Alcohol issues are well known with him. This is what Scott will have to do due diligence on for sure. Steve Sarkisian is a recent example of a coach with alcohol abuse issues getting his life back on track, taking over a blueblood program, and having major success. Kudos to him for doing so, and it's also proof it can be done.

First off the part of Greene County he’s from is closer to Bloomington then it is Terre Haute so that’s crazy talk. He gets IU, no one wins at that school and he grinds all the time like Cignetti. Constantly watching film.

Feel like I should put my true feelings out here after a few beers. This dude truly deserves to be fired. He stinks by almost every standard. He deserves credit for developing a few players and that may be a stretch. Tjd ware and hood. Everyone else kind of struggled or regressed or stayed same. The proof is in the results. For four years we were capable of beating almost anyone and we damb sure could lose to everyone. He was a great player and that is great. Bad coach and that sucks. Just remember playing for knight and coaching with knight are very different things. The interview with pat was interesting when he said the first time he seen behind the curtain was when he was assistant at tech. I am really not sure what Woodson thought he was doing but coaching and game prep he certainly was not. He deserves to be fired. The results are that bad. Sent from my SM-S926U using Tapatalk