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I'm going to speculate without stating a detailed basis for doing so, because the different theories have all been recently discussed in this thread: I think we get Thompson and one of the four between Allmond, Taylor, Diana, and Karvala. For me the probability order for IU is: Thompson Allmond Taylor Karvala Diane

I think what’s happened is other schools have jumped up more than IU has changed: - BYU has obviously made a push with the Jazz owner - St John’s has a NIL sugar daddy plus rev share pop - All bball only schools (mostly the Big East) that don’t have to materially fund football have benefitted significantly from rev share. - UK is allocating more rev share to bball and hanging their FB program out to dry. Arkansas is similar. - UL is quasi-blue blood who has had a resurgence. Dusty has UM donors excited. - Etc. All the above happens, we stay mostly the same, and we go from top-5 last season to #10-15 now. But I think that’s enough for a good coach. Our big donors have limits — is what it is. And I don’t know the impact of this, but Cig has earned the right to eat first. I still feel 90% of our fate lies on how good CDD is. If he does a very good job this year and we make the tourney no problem and win some big games, our donors will be energized and the NIL will increase.

This is what I’m disagreeing with. The committee will look to big wins and metrics before bad losses. ND last year is a good example. Their loss to N Illinois was worse than PSUs at UCLA. As others have pointed out, in the extremely unlikely event PSU runs the table they’d have a 10-2 record that is better than almost anyone’s. A close loss to a conf bad team on the road won’t keep you out so much as not having good wins, imo. ND could be on the other side of the ledger at 10-2 with the two “best” losses but not a single good win and I don’t think anyone thinks they’ll get in. Currently it looks like there is a good chance there will be more 10-2ish type teams than spots available. That is one big reason we need Illinois to keep rolling. They should help our cause quite a bit.

HOOOO BUDDY. Now this report from a local Chapel Hill tv station's news site. At a certain point, it matters less whether allegations are true than the fact that people think it's the case and are willing to say it. Some excerpts? "It's all starting at the top, and the boys are being affected," a parent of a current UNC player said under the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. "I don't fault the players; I fault the leadership that created this toxic environment. There's an individualistic mindset. The boys are young, and they are feeding into it." "There's been no communication with coaches and parents, period," a parent of a current UNC player said. "None, zero, zilch. Not one email from a coach, one text, phone call, nothing." Under Mack Brown, parents had relationships with coaches and their phone numbers. Coaches might call a parent if they felt something was going on with their son. Multiple sources have said that Belichick's son, Brian, the defensive back/safeties coach, is very personable. Belichick's son Steve, the defensive coordinator, they said, is the opposite. "He has not talked or had a conversation with most of the guys on defense," a source said. "They don't even have his number." https://www.wral.com/sports/belichick-coach-culture-chaos-oct-2025/

I believe that Rabby has stated that he estimates we are between 10th and 15th in basketball NIL. That is plenty to build a strong roster.

From Alec Lasley - Indiana is one of three programs to keep an eye on for 2026 safety Khmari Bing following a decommitment from Maryland,

Side note on Karvala. Although he transferred to a prep school in Arizona for his senior year, he's originally from Oregon, WI a town located south of Madison, WI. Playing in the B1G and the number of games within reasonable distance of family could have a bearing on where he ends up.

I won't panic if we miss on our 3 top targets, but it would really feel great to land at least one (ideally 2). Personally it would feel like the program has some juice again if we refuse to allow ourselves to be outbid for Allmond and Taylor, but I appreciate that the staff will need to factor in $$ allocation as they build the roster. No use crying over spilled milk but this is a moment where it feels like the new staff would've really benefited from coming in last year (when we all knew it was time for a change). Before revenue sharing we had a golden opportunity to build some momentum behind the basketball program. We're gonna have to do it the old fashioned way. Luckily we have a college basketball lifer / grinder in the HC seat now.

I am just going to run down what I've gathered from the following: Maryland Terps media like Inside Black and Gold, MSU media sources (Justin Thind and Jason Killop), and, yes, some Trilly so take it for what it's worth: Allmond: Maryland has been trying to get LA on campus, but were not getting much interest from his side. It sounds like a MASSIVE NIL offer was put on the table from Maryland as a last attempt and this is what prompted an upcoming visit, though this visit has not been super widely reported/circulated. There seems to be some skepticism that it will 100% happen and if it does not, then there may be indications where he is headed by the end of the week. Taylor: MSU sources are sort of all over the map here in trying to flex on IU but the facts not quite matching their intended story. They want to say that they lead IU because relationships matter more than money to Taylor and that Izzo has a longstanding relationship with ET and his parents. However, they seemed to also say that MSU has a larger NIL offer out than IU does for him and that makes them the clear leader. Honestly, this Izzo recruiting cycle reminds me of what Self is doing and makes me wonder if both are milking their respective donors for putting together one last 5-star studded recruiting class for a last hurrah--or last couple. Karvala: Assumption seems to be that there's some ground to make up on Xavier. This should be obvious given he was not really on our radar until this week. I do think the fact that he already had Xavier and Syracuse, dropped Syracuse, and has visits to IU and Cal scheduled for the upcoming several weeks means his Xavier visit is more and more in the past and there's opportunity to cultivate this relationship a bit and he's not sold. If he has a west coast preference, that may keep Cal in the game but as an ACC follower through my divided loyalties my understanding is Cal is a bit of dumpster fire. Thompson: Crickets! Really not much here even from the OSU side...which maybe a no news is good news? Of course, that would also hold for OSU as well.

And if we win out there? We will have the single best win by any team this season, will have beaten three top 40 teams, including two of them on the road, and will be undefeated. One would think that would mean we will be top five and ranked higher than Oregon. One. Would. Think.

I tend to doubt our MBB rev share/NIL has changed from whatever it was planned to be when CDD signed. I’m quite sure Scott made $ commitments to CDD and CDD required those to take the job. I doubt Scott has reneged on those commitments seven months into CDD’s tenure. It’s not his style. We know Scott exceeded the promises to Cig, notably before Cig had coached a game. So far this is mostly coming from Rabby saying our NIL is down and we aren’t among the top schools. Maybe he is right, maybe not, I haven’t found anyone to corroborate this yet. And what does this mean? I agree we aren’t top-5, that’s fairly obvious. Are we #8? #12? #15? Don’t know. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions yet — there isn’t enough evidence either way that I am aware of. This is just my viewpoint, I could be wrong.

I unfortunately think, outside of a loss at the buzzer, we'll fall like a rock if we lose out there this weekend. Luckily, we have a bunch of winnable games in between this one and PSU to work our way back up.

If PSU runs the table, with a win at The Death Star, and is left out of the CFP this whole thing is more of a farce than anyone could imagine.

Branham had is weekly report and said it’s a toss up between IU and OSU and won’t put a crystal ball in yet but said he would lean OSU if he had to pick.

We're ranked ...

Whizzo: “Kid, I can turn you into the next Xavier Booker.”

Here's our schedule in graphic form -- with the lovely Trent Sisley!!!

I feel a cold coming on February 4th

6'6" attends Slinger HS in Slinger, WI. Played AAU on the EYBL circuit for 16U Team Herro. Slinger is located roughly 30 miles northwest of Milwaukee. @kohnen_jack AAU Stats High School Stats 247 On3 Hudl Instagram

Really great back and forth on this topic, good points on both sides. Not sure about who would get leap frogged based on the merits/criteria the CFP committee shared in August. But... I think the PSU brand would give them the nod over most schools vying for the last CFP slot. Maybe I'm too jaded but I think once the decision makers weigh the financial projections of PSU vs a school like IU or Illinois, they're going to be the choice as long as the decision makers can half azz an argument for it. EX: 2023 leaving out undefeated FSU in favor of 1 loss Bama because of injury. Also, though not directly related, UNC getting the last seed for last years tournament when everyone expected WVU to be safely in the field. Would be best for IUFB to take care of business and leave them no choice :-)

https://www.wral.com/sports/belichick-coach-culture-chaos-oct-2025/ UNC is a dumpster fire and have only themselves to blame. Unsurprisingly the in-season Hulu special was scrapped. Blowout losses make for repetitive film

The current state of recruiting.

He visited OSU last weekend. In this recruiting class OSU already has a 5 star safety committed plus another safety that is the 6th ranked safety in the country! At some point you would think that Cig’s (and the staff) ability to turn zero star guys into players would have more appeal to a recruit than battling multiple highly ranked guys for playing time.

Interesting how the Blueblood programs with money never take a long lull in recruiting pre or post NIL. Indiana pre-NIL had excuses. (Holier than thou mentality type stuff). Post NIL we ponied up enough to be top 10 for 2 years. That well seems to have dried up, particularly with Football’s success and our decision to rely on revenue sharing. DeVries came here with top 10 resource expectations and I don’t believe he’s getting that. Now granted, maybe that’s not what we need. Maybe we need guys with chips on their shoulders. Maybe we just need to outwork everyone as much as one can. But then again that’s what the Iowa’s of the world do and Indiana shouldn’t theoretically be in that spot. It’s always been a Me problem. I have viewed basketball as fringe Blueblood with top 10 resources and believe we should act like it. But I guess the proof is in the pudding and we just aren’t that.

And it likely won't until we can start being a competitive program on the court.

I get a similar read but haven't followed the recruitments super closely, so who knows. If "$$$ wins out" is an accurate description and we go 0/3, I'll be very curious to understand the profile of a recruit this staff finds worthy of shelling out top dollar to get. I don't hate having dry powder for the portal at all, tbh. But I would find it a bit concerning/confusing to prioritize guys we know will want to get paid, then hold our hat in hand when it gets to decision time. Not saying that's what's happening at all, don't pretend to know. I realize it may not happen in the 2026 HS class, but it would be really nice to target and land some top talent.

I'm not usually the downer type, but I have a bad feeling we aren't getting any of the three. Just reading the tea leaves here. Taylor to MSU, Thompson to OSU, and Almond to Maryland is my guess. $$$ wins out on this one. I will gladly eat crow if I am wrong.

Wouldn’t think that will have that much to do with it. Taylor and Medlock are both 1st year Link Academy kids. Taylor’s from Kansas and Medlock’s from Michigan. Taylor was Nike and Medlock was Adidas. Doubt if they even knew each other 3 months ago. Imagine if he picks MSU it’ll be because Izzo’s Izzo.

I just watched that game not long ago and pretty sure they said IU was the top seed. Also IU wore their white uniforms which goes to the higher seeds

Splitting hairs here but I would guess unlv was the number 1 overall seed that year. They only had 1 loss heading into the tourney and IU had 4 and shared the B1G regular season with Purdue. Unlv was the AP 1 team heading into the tourney. IU was 3rd. I know if you google it AI will tell you IU was the 1 overall but from watching the old tapes I have I’m pretty sure it was unlv. Unlv was favored in the IU game. Again splitting hairs because they were both really good that year

Conference TV schedule. 9 games total - 6 on BTN and 3 on Big Bird.

Probably. Rabby had said for some time that Oklahoma St mattered. Allmond has a relationship with an assistant coach for them like he did with Clark. Most ignored it and probably just thought since IU was involved against Oklahoma st it wouldn’t matter in the end.

Jamie Shaw put out his predictions within the past hour and went 50/50 between us and O$U.

This 100%.

I went back and looked at the recruiting classes of UL and UM for the 2025 class. These were classes that both coaches brought in for their first class which was before they coached a game at that school. This is the same scenario that Devries is doing this year. UL class was ranked 25th with a 3 high school players and UM was ranked 30th with 3 high school play. Both had one highly ranked player one being a 5 star and another a high 4 star player. Looking at this should have made us realize that getting all 3 of Thompson, Almond and Taylor was probably unrealistic. Getting all 3 to go along with Prince Alexander probably would be at least a top 20 class. I still haven't seen anything that makes it look like we won't get any of those players

Dipo's apparently playing for the Guangzhou whatever's (maybe just for one day) https://x.com/ClutchPoints/status/1975358451812589789?

Maybe we strike out on all our primary targets? But, We’ll have about 5-10 million to spend on some players eventually. Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners

Izzo’s a complete putz of a man. Can’t wait until he retires

IU 30 Oregon 27 No way I am picking against our guys in this game, let's do this!

https://www.on3.com/rivals/news/latrell-allmond-down-to-5-schools-sets-commitment-date-indiana-maryland-oklahoma-state-tennessee-virginia/ “a noted tough guy who consistently finds winning plays throughout the course of a game.” If you don’t like that description I got nothin’ for ya.

Of the 3 kids they’re in on hardest, Thompson is the one it would bother me least to miss on. Love his talent, but not sure he’ll be ready to be a top 2 option on a really good team next year. But I see him possibly still being good enough to go after 1 year. So I’m not sure he’s a building block. Allmond and Taylor are almost certainly not 1 year kids.

Let's go Hoosiers! us- 48 Them-21

Yes - if PSU runs the table they're in the CFP. But to run the table they'll need to beat IU, OSU on the road, a pretty solid Nebraska team at home, and Iowa on the road. If they run the table at this point? They will have damn well earned a CFP berth. Far more likely that they take two more losses.

12 days til Marian scrimmage 21 days til Baylor scrimmage 35 days til Marquette in Chicago

On that note- Parrish is a bit of a bonehead and hates Indiana fans and can be emotional. Norlander is a basketball encyclopedia and really knows his stuff and watches a lot of ball. I value his thoughts. But this poll was college coaches. Ultimately, just preseason fodder. Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners mobile app

Pretty sure I saw Kurtis in street clothes dapping Mac up right before kickoff, but we’re a bad MRI away from our boy suiting up next week.

I don't think Purcell is reclassifying to next year...