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IU finished it non conference part of the schedule last night and will enter January 10-3(1-1). They missed out on 2 Q1a games away from home and a winnable Q2 road game. Moving forward they will have plenty of Q1 and Q2 opportunities at home and away. IUs predictive metrics are solid. Average around the 20s. Ius results based metrics are lower around the mid 50’s. Sos- 175 Non con-173 for an at-large team those are respectable numbers. If your non con sos is in the high 200’s or 300 then that could become a problem. IU didn’t do anything to hurt their resume however they didn’t do much to improve their resume either. They did get a win away from home which always helps( at large team usually needs 4 wins away from home to feel safe). They also didn’t earn any Q1 wins up until this point. Good news is that they play in the B1G and will have chances to get multiple Q1 wins. If you were expecting IU to compete with the upper level teams for a B1G title this year then in my opinion you are going to be disappointed. They don’t have the roster this year for that. In my opinion Sparty, Michigan, Purdue and Illinois are a step above the rest this year (Maybe Nebraska but I can’t go that far). IU has 6 games against the top 4 (2 home games). That leaves 12 games against the rest of the league which are more winnable games. Not saying they won’t win against those top 4 but those should be looked at as bonus games. Ius most important games will be against the other teams fighting for an at-large outside the top 4. IU gets Nebraska and Iowa at home and do not have away games against those 2. Those 2 games are probably the most important games on IUs schedule for now. Most on here and nationally said IU making the tourney would be a good start for Devries in his first year. That’s easily still on the table. Reminder even teams that are tourney locks (8-11 seed) always have flaws. 8 seeds are considered teams that are comfortably in the field and not on the bubble however if you look at some 8 seeds resume you are good to see a lot of red (losses). Are losses coming to IU? Yep but in my opinion some wins will be coming as well biggest surprise of the year so far for me IUs KenPom offensive efficiency-56 IUs KenPom defensive efficiency-16

Yep. Happy Heismendoza day to those who celebrate

I am good with paying these kids crazy money and even letting them transfer two times without sitting a full year, but the key word there is "kids." 22 year olds like the guy BYU added shouldn't be able to join mid season, play, and have 3 years of eligibility after burning out in the G League. College programs shouldn't even be able to entertain the idea of adding guys who have been drafted by the NBA already. I hate it. But as long as it's allowed I wish we'd exploit it to our advantage. Will be curious if any of these guys are difference makers when they start playing. Definitely makes it harder to maintain interest as a fan.

“Boys, we’re gonna be the best conditioned team in ‘Merica.”

Sounds like Louisville did enough to keep Brohm. Poggi szn in Ann Arbor baby.

Basically your overall performance in a game can be boiled down to Points Per Possession (PPP). For example, you shoot exactly 50% from 2 (ignore 3’s and FT’s for this example) and have 100 possessions in a game you would score 100 points in that game and average 1.0 PPP. Overall multiple games you would average out your PPP as a measure of how efficient your offense. One game it is 1.0, the next it is 1.1, and the next your offense is 1.2. So over your 3 game span you’re averaging 1.1 PPP. Not bad in a vacuum. The problem with college basketball is there are 350 teams all of wide ranging ability and also many that play at varying speeds of tempo which can make comparisons hard. So sites like Kenpom and Torvik try and adjust for the quality of opponent and varying tempo by assigning everyone a pace neutral number that reflects how you would preform versus an average D1 team. It’s always changing—and theoretically getting more accurate—because it’s using the game data from the games everyone plays against each other always adjusting a team’s efficiency number. A similar calculation is used for your defensive efficiency. Together they will give you a ranking and estimate of how you can be predicted to perform versus an average D1 team. Wins and losses don’t factor in. Just the score, because we would likely say a team that lost to a good Michigan team by 1 point would be better than a team that only won by 1 point versus a mediocre team like Siena. So it’s a measure of how you can be predicted to do going forward and not necessarily a measure of your resume, the latter of which matters more to the committee.

I'm sure you noticed this, but the metric the tournament committee appeared to rely very, very heavily on last year was Wins Above Bubble. The selections tracked those rankings with the lone exception of Xavier (#49) jumping over West Virginia (#43) and Indiana (#48) to make the tournament. (So, Xavier getting in over West Virginia was the only deviation). With just a few exceptions, the seedings generally tracked the WAB rankings as well. Right now, we have a lot of the season left, and we have some work to do, as we rank #62 in WAB. Of course, there are a ton of opportunities upcoming to improve that.

Interesting tidbit from the Hoosier Huddle guys on Rose Bowl ticket sales: Per TickPick's data, ~25% of tickets purchased have been from Indiana, ~18% from California, and ~12% from Illinois. I'm not seeing a certain state in the top-3 at the moment. I think we're going to have a pretty darn good Hoosier fan showing...

It seems like Bryant was at IU 15 years ago but he is still only 28 years old. At the end of this year he will have earned $37,443,000 in the NBA. Not shabby for a 28 year old.

Enright family member hoping/hinting for a Center on X. Me too brother, me too! They need was there to begin with and we brought in an unplayable 5. I mean, what are we even doing?

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/47369719/inside-penn-state-college-football-coaching-search They got a lot of coaches paid during their search and only kept 2 of the recruits Franklin had. The Crumbl element is kinda funny.

I purchased tickets from Illinois, and I think it’s safe to say that contingent is made up primarily of IU alumni in the Chicago area.

CDD needs to call Josh Smith and Eric Gordon to see if they want to come and play this 2nd semester. Gordon would have 3 years left and Smith all 4 years.

The only way this Michigan situation could get funnier is if they hire Ryan Walters

Matt Barnes making sense on the current college landscape. Kyrie Walker, you’ve got to be kidding me?

I hope that Paul BaldTrollDumb@$$ gives Alabama a pep talk. If so, they'll probably go into the game overly confident and thinking IU isn't very good.

Wow. Good nugget there. If that’s in the bio I totally missed it.

And his dad played at IU. This kinda has IU written all over it

Had seen this reported previously but now coming from Talia Goodman, lends it credence. Australian women’s basketball commits Callie Hinder (Arizona) and Zoe Jackson (Indiana) are both joining their respective teams this semester, but both plan to redshirt the season, sources confirmed to On3.

Got to give credit where it’s due, when the portal stuff popped up Calipari basically called exactly what’s happening and said something to the effect of, “We’re gonna find out quick which coaches actually like developing players.”

Michigan striking out would be unbelievable really. Already missed key targets. Seems with their resources and moral compass they still poach a winner from somewhere.

Nice article and filled in some gaps. Of all the coach/school marriages that popped up this cycle Penn St/Campbell always seemed just straight obvious. Couldn’t figure out the deal there. Now we sort of know.

He needs a Bro or a Manzier!

The only threshold left to cross is a kid who’s actually played NBA games. Such a shame.

It’s too late. The landscape and game has changed and there’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube, I’m afraid. JMHO. No need to beat up an old guy. :)

Keeping Josh in the IU family could finally pay off.

Totally overlooked this particular offer as I believe he's the only IU offer playing in Overtime Elite for the City Reapers team. For 11 games he's averaging: 18.9p, 8.3r, 2.6a, .5s, .6b, 2.1t 42.9% FG, 20.5% on 3s, 71.1% FT 29 min./gm

Sounds like a good Michigan hire then.

A serviceable Center can make a decent living in the NBA. Good for him.

That’s the profile of a tourney team. Like you and the rest of the universe we expected that to be flipped. Therein lies the problem for me. You have to think the eye test supports that Deff number holding during B1G play and I’m not convinced it will. Otoh, I hold out hope the Oeff gets straightened out. The other problem there is our “luck” number still hangs around ~300 meaning we can expect to win a little leas than a typical team with those metrics.

I know people here talk about how Bowl games are uninspiring, but I can watch a random Bowl game the way @Uspshoosier can watch a Directional Conference preseason game in August. UNLV vs Ohio has so many story lines right now I love it

Last year was the first year they used it and added it to the team sheet

Good point and worth watching— but my issue with the selection committee almost every year is lack of consistency in whatever metrics they choose to emphasize. 1 year it’s SOS. Etc. etc. and that’s ignoring how they had UNC’s dufus pick UNC when the entire world had UNC out bc they sucked all season. So, will it be WAB this year, do they consistently use that?

You know what me being in first again means. You guys really should do better.

Feel like this is most of Alabamas fans

Personal: Son of Joseph Simmons and Michelle Adams-Simmons Has a sister, Jessica His father played football at Indiana (1986-89) Majoring in business management

I can’t remember if it was an Athletic article or the guys on SiriusXM College today, but somebody predicted IU fans will double up Bama’s contingent. And I believe them.

And apparently was JMU’s best and most P4 ready offensive lineman. Hoosier? Yes—Hoosier.

In case you were wondering:

https://jmusports.com/sports/football/roster/joseph-simmons/22634 In the portal. I know a few guys who would know if he's cut out for this level.

https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2025/12/goodman-the-coach-who-nick-saban-thought-was-crazy.html?outputType=amp

Was up 26 at half and came out of the half like they were up 26 in the last game before break. They cut it to 15 at some point and then IU stretched it back out to over 20. Gave up 4 garbage points at the end and ended up winning by 21. 8 out of the 10 wins have been by 20 or more points. Lone one being Incarnate Word who IU won by 8. They have done everything you would want them to do to Q3 and Q4 teams and even beat a Q2 team by double digits. IU hasn’t taken advantage of their Q1a opportunities but both of them were away from home. Looking forward to see how the respond in those Q1 home game opportunities

Thanks for bringing this to the board. You are correct it is a really good listen. CTC seems to have a great insight into the current landscape of college BB and how much work goes into building a program. Tom also to me reveals a significant amount of personal growth through his work outside of coaching since leaving Georgia. Part 2 coming next week. Thanks again Demo.

That's our Thomas!!! https://youtu.be/s5IS9ZQAKwM?si=yKgkUf6plD1EnV-O

Couple of comments from today's Zoom presser. Curt Cignetti says emphasis for Indiana "was on the '27 team, retention and needs" before IU knew its Rose Bowl opponent. Hoosiers are in Alabama prep now, but he's got a firm idea of what the majority of his contributors' long-term intentions are. Curt Cignetti on handling 3 weeks off before playing Alabama: "Before we knew our opponent, we treated it like two bye weeks. And now we have almost two weeks to prepare for the opponent. "Would I like to play earlier? Yeah, I would, to be honest with you." Curt Cignetti on filling Stephen Daley's role at edge rusher: "We'll find the best solution that gives us the best chance to be successful." Curt Cignetti -- with a smirk -- on what IU will do to replace Stephen Daley's production on defense: "You'll see what we decide to do when we play the game, right?" Curt Cignetti on new deals for Bryant Haines, Mike Shanahan: "Bryant had some calls, had some people very interested in him... We also wanted to lock Mike up, who is very deserving. Very glad we did. As the season goes on, we'll work on locking up the rest of the staff."

I’m also a big fan of Scott Dolson women’s basketball and volleyball, and Scott Dolson men’s soccer. But yes, Scott Dolson football is amazing. Dem back shoulder fades him and Pam Whitten throw are exquisite!

Love this. From the 49ers locker room, love for IU from CJ, Rourke, and so so many more: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSdow_Sla3a/

There is a current QB on the IU team that just won the Heisman Trophy who also "bailed" on his team. It's not 2004 anymore. Getting injured in a bowl game can literally cost some of these guys 3 million dollars. I dont really blame anybody in line for a huge payday for sitting out.