Leaderboard

Here is most of the staff talking in front of the crowd at Huber’s. Moderated by Don.

This was the most composed / in his element I've seen DDV, that's my main takeaway. So refreshing / reinvigorating to have a HC that gushes when he talks about basketball. Says he has the same expectations as the fans and will do everything to live up to them. Lol at the reporter who couldn't get a question in edgewise. Must be a rookie Other notes for people who can't watch: Likes depth and ability to shoot, said "for the most part" good positional size, acknowledges short at C. DDV said nicest part of taking the trip is 10 extra practices, might do 1 a week to do film study / install stuff. Still actively recruiting, can go in a lot of different directions with those two extra spots. See how it plays out. Says the advantage to building a roster from scratch is everyone is bought in all the way from day 1. Said that matters in terms of connectivity and playing your role, the trip will help build chemistry. Everyone is figuring each other out, fun process to see play out from where we start in June to finish in March Q: What was the biggest challenge putting the roster together, 10 commitments in 27 days, things moved quickly. A: Wanted to be sure everyone we brought in fit who we want to be, not just this year but long term. Same thing with the staff. Trying to do it right from Day 1, if it takes a little longer it takes a little longer, but trying to do it as quickly as we could and be smart and calculated about it. HS recruiting will continue to be a big emphasis. Considered regional connections, experience, youthfulness, lots of things when it came to building the staff. Important to have complimentary skill sets. Potential for one more staff member. Thinks we have guys who are about winning, and that tends to shine through quickly Doesn't anticipate we'll have a lot of rim protection but it's not always blocking shots and there's other ways to protect the rim. Says he feels really good about the 5, like our guys and how they fit offensively. Have the ability to have the ball in their hand and be playmakers, have good depth there, will be nights we're undersized but lots of ways to offset that. On paper likes the balance of shooters and bigs, but have to take it from paper to the floor. That process starts next week.

Finally a coach who doesn't speak in the third person and doesn't say over the hump.

Still can’t really see how they don’t add 1 more interior kid. Thought initially that maybe he philosophically was creating a purely perimeter-oriented style of play and that’s why he hadn’t pushed hard on any traditional bigs. Then he goes out and offers multiple ‘26 post kids. So that’s obviously not the deal, he just didn’t like any of the available options enough. But I’m still feeling some 22yo Euro-big that we’ve never heard of may be in the cards.

Is that really the best picture they could get of him? "Hey Drew, I know you just came off a 36 hr bender and you slept for 8hrs in the sun, but, here, put on this ill-fitting shirt and this pre-tied tie my 13yo was practicing on and we're gonna take a picture of you and put it out in public. Nah, don't worry about shaving, Dude, you look good. The double chin is no problem"

Seems like there would be a better way for the media guys to ask questions rather than talking over each other lol

CDD interview at Huber’s. Talks roster, size/rim protection, Goode/Leal, recruiting, and more.

The issue absolutely isn't the player(s), the issue is assumptive officiating. They make way. way too many calls that they don't or can't see based on reactions. That's what they need to be busted for and the direction from the League office needs to be, "If you can't see it, you can't call it." The Trey Burke block on Peyton Siva in the UM-UL National Championship game came across my feed the other day and that's the all-time example. The Ref was looking right through Burke, couldn't have possibly seen it even if Burke did foul him(he didn't), and called the fact the Siva went down. You can't freaking do that. If that means some calls get missed, they get missed.

You have friends? I'll be damned!

Coach Cig with his opening line last night: "I'd liked to have signed a few more but ya know when we hired Darian and he lost his whole roster money got a little tight" For your reading pleasure here's a number of links to various stories from last night's event. https://www.wdrb.com/sports/bozich-imagine-a-world-where-indianas-football-coach-asks-fans-to-give-indianas-basketball-coach/article_8c2929d0-d726-4489-a602-8cc406c1e97d.html https://www.on3.com/teams/indiana-hoosiers/news/indiana-basketball-done-with-2025-26-roster-were-still-actively-recruiting/ https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2025/05/28/indiana-basketball-tucker-devries-injury-update-roster/83909998007/?taid=6837c6b0684c79000134a5f8&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter https://www.insidethehall.com/2025/05/28/quotes-everything-darian-devries-said-at-hubers-winery/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKlKsFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFlY2h0Y2VMTXl4RmZlbHNuAR6X1OXwrLtRf0BGtu6qy4ex4KhCcQmhqTRN71mRRsRp06XAPKyYfzePs2dshw_aem_wN0X3X9UIElgGfMPpvKK4Q

Brunson’s team will lose Stu, he doesn’t make players around him better, he plays to score as much for himself as he can, he’s a one way player who doesn’t defend well, but yes he scores a lot (in a League that now does everything it can to increase scoring — how many 50-plus scoring games by how many different players have there been in the last 2 seasons?? ) it’s pathetic. It’s ruining the game. People are getting 50-plus games, generally high scoring games all over the place now because of how the game is now ruled and officiated to increase scoring. It’s easy to score now, period. Give me the two-way players, the elite point guards, the guys who make others better not just themselves, any day and every day. Not a fan of Brunson, but Haliburton can wave bye to him soon so it’s all good :)

In the new ACC scheduling model, each team has one league opponent it won't play. That just strikes me as absurd. Then again, so is having a conference with teams in Boston and Palo Alto, California (sorta like a conference with teams in Piscataway, New Jersey, and in Seattle -- LOL). https://apnews.com/article/acc-schedule-unc-nc-state-duke-miami-be3a911141a60b0ad78b4d1436bec7b6

If I recall the story, when he was a kid his sister couldn’t pronounce Lafayette, so it sounded like Fat. The nickname stuck. He wasn’t fat.

It looks like Georgetown might be the school to beat for him, but it also sounds like IU is up there. See quote below. He's starting to get a lot of recruiting interest from schools so he says he's not in a hurry to make a decision but it also sounds like he wants to narrow his list down soon(ish). Quote mentioned above which makes me think GT is the team to beat for him: "I talked to Georgetown yesterday, and I love Coach Cooley and the staff. One thing I really like is that it feels like home. I can work out anytime with my uncle, and my mom can come to any game she wants. It's a perfect fit, and they want me to come in as their starting point guard. Indiana is catching up, but Georgetown feels like a perfect fit." He did say that he hears from the whole IU coaching staff, including CDD. I'm liking the team effort this staff is putting in. Building relationships with the whole staff will only help with recruiting and might also help retain players if any one member of the staff leaves.

Love watching free throw merchants like Brunson lose. Ethical hoopers only please. Now just need the Pacers to take out the other merchant in the West (SGA).

No one (I think) has at least 32 points, 15 assists, 10 boards and 4 steals (with 0 TO’s). Haven’t checked that game by Davis, that was special as well. However you want to dissect it, regardless, it’s absolutely an historic game. And that’s with the refs (ahem, the League), trying to get the Knicks to the finals. How many players fouled out? What was the FT disparity? What a joke. The Knicks of course are the big market money maker, I’m sorry, it’s damn clear the League is money driven and that translates on the floor - despite that, unfavored in most of these games, the P’s keep winning. Btw, the players voted Haliburton as the Most Overrated Player. It’s beautiful how he’s slapping all of them in the face. Love how he’s turning into the next Reggie — face of the P’s for years to come

This is oddly one thing that IUFB was ponying up for even before the Cig hire. They paid Ballou and Rhea handsomely and when they took off for Bama, went out and grabbed Wellman who was far from cheap. Hopefully we don't have to replace Owings for a long time.

IU playing in the big leagues.

Love it. 1. We beat out Tennessee and Miami for him. We continue to level up the recruiting battles we are winning. 2. Obviously it's nice he already has the connection/chemistry with Fernando. Yes. To be a trusted destination for QBs and other players with NFL aspirations would be amazing. And really it's already happening -- Miami and Georgia (and Mizzou among others) were recruiting Fernando hard. While our NIL/rev share has improved, those two schools can offer more than us. Yet, he chose the emerging superpower in Bloomington. The progress IUFB has made in 18 months is just incredible. It was only about 18 months ago we were rock bottom taking 4OT's to beat Akron at home.

Cal WR Jonathan Brady transferring to IU. Caught 74 for 1010 yds and 7 td’s from Mendoza over the past 2 seasons. Based on size(5’10” and 180) and yards per catch I assume he’s a slot guy. 1 year left.

I've been trying to say to anyone that will listen to my sorry arse, on paper, IUFB upgraded its 2025 roster compared to an 11-2 2024 CFP roster and last season was not a fluke. Coaching matters. I'm tired of hearing from all the skeptical folk (fans included) in my neck of the woods. The whole "they didn't play anybody" message is stale and gets old. I get it, being the door mat for pretty much the entire existence of the program is ingrained in the these folk's DNA. But man, if these folks actually watched football they'd understand the door mat days are no longer a thing in Bloomington (Just so long as Coach Cig is still here). I'm tired of explaining to these folk that IUFB curb stomped 9 out of 3 (2 of those 3 played in the CFP Championship game) of their opponents last year. Like absolutely destroyed and completely dominated their opponents. And then having to explain to them that these very same opponents played other games on their own schedule. And how they played against like opponents. And how good teams don't play close games against weaker teams. And just like ND, we beat those effs up north 66-0 for crying out loud!!!! Etc. etc. Hopefully after this year all the Herbstreits will take a seat and just shut the eff up.

You could argue some are more concerned with the optics of how IU is perceived by the national media and other fan bases then they are actual results on the court. Some would rather lose a close game to a national brand team like Duke then actual win a close game where IU looks bad against a team like Northwestern. Been that way for a while for some people. The reality is doesn’t matter how IU is perceived next year coach DeVries is going to have to win. He could have gotten the top 12 transfer portal guys this year or he could have gotten 200-212 ranked transfer guys in the portal and his expectation is going to be the same. Win. Optics would look better for some with choice 1 however expectations would be no different the door number 2. Unimpressed or impressed with what he has done doesn’t matter just got to sit back and see if this is the year IU claws its way back to where people want it to be

Look at this mid-major bum, I hope they didn’t overpay.

Who has said they don't want to be in the top 25 because we were in the preseason top 25 last year? And yes, you should want to be top 25... when it matters. Would it be great to be in the preseason top 25? Sure... but nothing matters less than what a bunch of writers think before the season even tips off.

Here you go. I think you would like this roster.