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Measuring yr 1, imo DeVries is right now very much on target, and while starting late with a completely bare cupboard of 0 players and assistants didn’t do him any favors, and the roster isn’t good (athletic, balanced, deep) enough to compete at the top, his choices and coaching show promise. - Identified, focused on and beat UK for Wilkerson. such a key decision and effective move, a fantastic addition. What he’s doing in lighting up the outside including setting IU records is also good for future HS and portal recruiting- that shouldn’t be overlooked. Shooters now will look hard at IU - The season after 4 years of Woodson’s complete disregard of perimeter shooting- the impact of that is completely ignored in this thread. - while he couldn’t otherwise land top tier portal talent, for reasons which should be obvious (late timing, IU’s image after 8 years of mediocrity, 0 players on roster), he built a core of winning veterans, guys who stood out and won at their level and who were high character guys who would play well together as a team, and including Alexis, championship experience and toughness up front - his value was on high display against Wisconsin, and strong point guard play. - Adjustments, late game play calling, winning in OT against good teams and on the road in the B1G — and unlike prior coaches’ end of season collapses, we’re watching the team win 4 of their last 5 including the road and in games which together we’re probably necessary to make the tourney. Not there yet, important games still to play, but as of now? Definitely a tourney team and DeVries’ coaching, lineup decisions, and the roster he built is all part of that. I think (and hope) the team will close the season well enough to make the tourney, they look tourney quality right now. Under all these circumstances, that’s a good 1st year for me. Next offseason is going to be important for sure. Returning probably Dorn, Sisley, Miles — maybe Harris, with Alexander- Moody, Karvala and Manhetz is decent, and particularly if we make the tourney and look decent in it (I think we will), ability to land higher level portal players is right there, and this time DeVries will have time to recruit the portal with an intact roster to complement the portal players being recruited. So all of this is why I just find the initial purpose of this thread ridiculous. The team is on the right path right now, gotta have at least some patience to let it play out.

Just spent the last 15 minutes catching up on the last 5 pages or so of this thread. Wish I hadn't...

I want success as well. I think IU has dug itself a hole that’s going to be harder than some think. Yes with NIL and the transfer portal it can make things easier but it’s not guarantee it will. A couple things make this sting even more then it should and when an IU grad and manger takes a mid major to a final 4 and the administration holds onto a coach 1 year longer then they should to hire the coach and he goes to an in conference team and is killing it in back to back years that hurts. IU needed to make up for the Archie hire (who at the time of the hire I was one that though he would work out )and they hire a coach with 0 college coaching experience. IU couldn’t get out of their own way. No one in the college basketball landscape thought IU was serious with that hire and I would guess 80 percent of ius own fan base thought the same thing. Having back to back coaching hires where in reality the program didn’t move forward was bound to leave a stain. Sure there was some bright spots but overall the program was stuck in the same mud they were in at the end of the Crean era. At least this time they hired a guy that sat on the bench of 2 really good college coaches and had success at the lower level first and looked to improve on that and was competing in his 1st Power 5 job. The Archie hire will make any IU fan gun shy on any hire IU was going to make that wasn’t a sure fire thing. Those coaches really don’t move anymore. I have no clue if devries is the guy or not but from my years of watching him at Drake and watching him beat Arizona, Gonzaga and at Kansas all in the same year gave me hope after watching IUs last coaches lose to these programs by 20 + in the last couple years and be non competitive. If he could do that in his first year at West Virginia of all places why couldn’t he do that at IU? I don’t think he will be another Archie but I can’t guarantee he will be the next Hurley. All I can do is do what I do for every new coach and sunshine pump the heck out of him and hope what I saw in watching him have success over the last couple years carries over to IUs program.

Woodson was an *** and his players were openly combative with the fans. Archie ball was miserable. Crean’s last season was miserable. It’s been a decade really since I’ve actually enjoyed watching IU basketball. Idk if Devries is the guy or not. Time will tell. But I like him. He’s a normal guy. I think he’s good enough that he can at least get us back to making the tournament every year if he can land adequate talent. I like the guys on the team. They’re all easy to root for. I’ve actually had fun watching the last few games. It feels good, it feels good hearing a loud Assembly Hall, it feels good seeing the players interact with the fans. We won’t ever get back to where we were in all likelihood, but hey I wasn’t alive for that anyway. Just making the dance most of the time would still be better than what my IU fandom has been.

In real time I thought Blackwell pulled on his arm and dragged him forward. It was an awkward movement. This explains it well. Seeing all the Wisconsin fans crying on X while being so clearly wrong is enjoyable. lol

Where things stand with a month left in the regular season IU has put themselves in position to where if they win their home games they should be comfortable in the tourney. If they start losing home games then they will have to make it up on the road games where 2 of them are top of the bracket road games and the other is at a bubble team. They always have the conference tourney to build their resume if things fall through in this last month. I’ve seen teams completely fall apart in the last month and fall out of the bracket completely and I’ve seen teams solidify and improve their seeding in the last month. Not sure what IU will do but the schedule suggests they will have a shot to solidly their seeding and have bonus road games to sky rocket up the seed line if they win any of those games 18-6 (7-6) NET-33 Sos-33 Non con-212 Results based metrics WAB-40 KPI-53 SOR- 41 Predictive metrics Ken Pom- 35 Torvik-25 BPI- 29 Q1a(2-7) Q1b(0-3) Q2a(2-0) Q1b(0-0) Q3(5-0) Q4 (7-0) IU has 8 losses which are all in the Q1 area breaking it down further 5 losses are Q1a( 4 away from home ) 3 losses are Q1b(2 away from home ) IU has an sos of 33 with 2 away games left against the top 10 in NET and another road game against a top 37 team with another home game against a top 12 team. How much higher will their SOS jump up with those 4 games? They possibly could have a top 10 SOS when it’s all said and done. Is IUs roster perfect? No it has some flaws and room for improvement next year. if IU makes the tourney while playing a potentially top 10 SOS with this roster that would be a heck of a start for this staffs time at IU. I think everyone knew after the first couple games that the roster had some limitations that would hold them back from being able to compete with the top teams in the nation. As of today 8 of IUs 20 conference games will come against top 18 in the NET. Buckle up for the last month.

Oregon is 1-11 in conference, and had lost 7 in a row by double digits until today. We need to take care of business Monday.

IU most definitely DID NOT whiff on Dusty May. BoT Chair W Quinn Buckner refused to consider moving on from his boy, the arrogant one, Michael Dean Woodson. That's a vastly different scenario. Buckner stacked the deck and refused to allow AD Scott Dolson the ability to do his job. The fix was in from the start. I will never forgive Buckner for his inbred nepotism, and it will forever mar his (and Woodson's) legacy as members of the Indiana basketball fraternity. With that said, I have no real issue with CDDV and his progress. He got a bit of a late start with building his staff, and that resulted in a slow start with the roster build. But to see where we are today, I can say that it's a darn sight ahead of where the arrogant and incompetent Mike Woodson was at this point, and will DeVries far surpass Mediocre Mike's results in short order.

High profile target '26 Sara Okeke is on an OV this weekend and word his they made a point for her to be at SSAH for yesterday's game and to meet with a few donors.

I have no idea about glimpses of greatness, but I seldom see this year’s IU team dribbling into trouble (it’s almost always Bailey, who is no longer a starter), I see less and less chucking up bad shots (it’s mainly Lamar, who takes a ton of good shots also), and for over a month now I have NEVER, even in losses, seen this team fail to hustle/play hard.

Not that KenPom is the end all, be all. But, UConn was 98th in a way weaker conference (still in the AAC) in Hurley's first season. DeVries has IU 35th and at least at this point positioned to make the tournament.

So was the charge. We stole a win in a lot of ways, but not via those two calls. Nice to see correct calls being made without the situation interfering.

Unfortunately, for Devries, he is not just being compared to our two previous coaches. Devries is also being compared to Dusty, who many of us wanted after 3 years of Woodson. I Ilke Devries and I think he will be solid, but it will be frustrating if Michigan has a better program over the next 8 years.

I think by most projections that gets us in easily. In fact, I think most projections probably have us in by just winning the 3 games we’ll be favored in at home as we will likely be a slight underdog to MSU at home. That makes this game and NW and Minny really important while the other ones bonuses if we pull one out. This probably the first time we’ve been in this spot since TJDs senior year.

If they win their home games and finish 11-9 in the regular season that would be a wrap and the BTT game would be for seeding. Winning the home games means another top 11 win (Sparty) which would give them 2 massive top of the bracket wins with 0 bad losses. I don’t even think the committee could leave out a team that finished over .500 in the second toughest conference this year.

Make the tournament and all arrows are pointing up. Especially with this flawed roster. Return Dorn, Miles and Sisley. Add the incoming HS players, and fill out the roster with some key portal additions. We’ll be cooking with gas.

Right now we are projected to make the tourney as a 9 seed or so. There is a big difference between "this is as good as it gets" and "this is acceptable for a new coach in year 1".

Josh decided back in December that DeVries is a bad coach, and he likes having strong opinions that aren't widely shared by the board. Kind of an odd time to be on a bender like this after we just won for the fourth time in five games, but to each their own.

I so thoroughly loathe Izzo that I am arm in arm with the wife rooting for the Illini. Do you know how much of a piece of trash you have to be to get me here?

I watched in person as a bad IU team coached by Archie Miller beat a bad Dan Hurley team in Madison Square Garden. DeVries has looked far more impressive in year 1 at IU than Dan Hurley did in year 1 at UConn. Will DeVries become the next Dan Hurley? No clue. Dan Hurley wouldn’t have become Dan Hurley if he was fired 20 games into his first season. That I do know.

You started a thread imploring to fire a coach during his first year less than 20 games in. “Realistic” isn’t a word that should be in your vocabulary. Dan Hurley was 12-8 and 3-4 in the American Conference through his first 20 games. Maybe sit the rest of this one out.

Not his fault they wanted North Carolina in the tourney and his team was the team that had to pay for it. Beat Arizona, Gonzaga in the non conference and road win at Kansas and home win against Iowa St with a SOS of 26 and non conference SOS 62. West Virginia getting left out might have been the biggest snub I’ve seen in quite some time. They said it was because of injuries but the Kansas and Iowa st wins came after the injuries

Winner:

I agree that it probably won’t impact roster construction but man o man the program needs a little juice. IU basketball needs to be in the field of 68. I’m living off the fumes of the glory years and still can’t get used to making the tourney being a reach/achievement. It’s 68 teams…..Come on!! Please, please, please let me watch an opening Thursday or Friday tourney game. Please.

I dunno, I think there is some value to making the tourney. It helps with the improvement narrative and removes something that needs explaining (we missed it because of XYZ excuses). That should make things easier with fans/donors in terms of NIL, and also selling recruits. I’m not saying making the tourney is a must and our future depends on it, just that it materially helps with the whole program building thing.

The 3:38 mark of this video says it so so well:

2028 guard

100% agree. Just worth noting at every opportunity what Quinn Buckner has gotten away with as BoT chair at the expense of the basketball program. Defining part of his IU legacy to fans who didn't witness him as a player.

That's what I'm saying man. IU should have gone and brought Dusty home, and we didn't. But it's water under the bridge. Nothing to do now but support the guy we have, and enjoy the ride.

IU whiffed on Dusty May. That is not debatable. I was also screaming to move on from Woodson and go get May. Even when much of this board was focused on "established" guys like Bruce Pearl. That being said, Devries had nothing to do with that decision. He should be compared to not just May, but all of the guys hired by major programs in the past few seasons. And he's pretty much right on track with most of that group.

While I appreciate your outlook, a word of caution: Some folks have been known to have severe allergic reactions when exposed to external optimism, sometimes in the form of spontaneous human combustion.

Very well said! I’m cautiously optimistic.

Reading this thread, it's worth noting no one on this board has any influence over IUBB. Perhaps this will come off as harsh, but posters' expectations/standards (high or low) and feelings (good or bad) do not have any real world impact on IUBB. Unless someone is a serious booster, IUBB and IU athletics is basically take or leave it. There are only two options: (1) watch, and enjoy or be frustrated, or (2) don't watch. There is no option (3) where a message board poster sets the standard. This place is purely for fan entertainment. Discussing and debating is fun, as sharing in the experience of success and failure. But this place has zilch real world influence. So, it makes sense to debate CDD, that's very interesting. But if someone is enjoying IU athletics because we dominated the college sport that by far matters the most (CFB is 4-5x larger than CBB) while our bball program is just "okay," I don't see why it's worth getting upset over that, because again, no one here has any influence over anything in real world IU athletics.

That’s some weak-@$$ reading comprehension. Allow me to say it again: WE JUST WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP WITH AN UNDEFEATED FOOTBALL TEAM, so if we have a basketball team to go with it that is (as I JUST TYPED) “reasonably successful,” as an IU alum and fan I am thrilled and satisfied.

I most certainly did not say that, and frankly I have no idea what a Dan Hurley Jr. would look like. An arrogant Hall of Fame coach? Devries isn’t arrogant and in less than one season I have ZERO idea how successful he’ll ultimately be. What I DO see is a team that has 1. gotten better as the season has progressed, 2. has excellent body language, 3. is easy to root for, 4. is mentally strong, and 5. that consistently plays hard. Do you see those things?

All of us here were alive a few weeks ago!!

Glimpses in year 3 not year 1 when Hurley went 16-17. Remember the IU/Uconn game that IU won during Archie’s year? That game was terrible for both teams but someone had to win it. not sure about greatness yet in year 1 but I’ve seen some ofcoaches out of bounds plays that have scored some really nice baskets. Too early for me to go all in or all out

Regardless of who inherited a worse situation and the realistic turnaround time for the era, there is something about that UConn program that produces serious results, even with several different coaches. Basically the opposite of IUBB since the late 90’s.

I can be talked into Woodys teams playing hard. But his defensive X’s and O’s were so poor it didn’t matter. I think this team gets lost at times offensively, but man they compete and have excellent strategy on defense. Probably the first time I could say that about an IU team since Sampson took over.

I see Izzo’s threat to bench Fears for his punk a$$ crap lasted all of 0 seconds.

Stunned that team got left out. I didn’t even have them near the cut line. Just mind blowing that a team went 6-10 in Q1 games and 4-3 in Q2 games and got left out for a team that had 1 Q1 win

That dude coached Brad Davison and has him on his bench. He can suck it.

What a day for Prediction League participants. I missed the final score by a total of 9 points and came in 27th place. How is that even possible? Congrats to those who got closer than 9 total points

I don’t think making or missing the tournament really means much for next years roster construction one way or the other. IU loses seven of its nine top players and has a ton of money free up. I think DeVries running a guard friendly offense with a consistent green light is more than attractive enough to prospective portal players, especially if IU commits to being competitive monetarily.

And it was including OT. Lol. Yikes

We have our first perfect game of the 2025-26 season! @JF87 does the honors and gets 200 pts for picking 78-77 IU. @Jeff Flabjohns @Rico and @tkbbn got IU's score while @BannerVille @BottomLine @Home Jersey @HoosierHoopster @IUHoosierJoe @jermhoosierfan got Wisky's score. @LIHoosier keeps the overall lead. Overall Game 24 78-77 IU Rank 2025-26 IUBB Points Rank IU/Wisconsin Points 1 LIHoosier 2103 1 JF87 200 2 Josh 2083 2 Rico 148 3 BannerVille 2073 3 Home Jersey 148 4 IUHoosierJoe 2069 4 BottomLine 147 5 Class of '66 Old Fart 2059 5 HoosierHoopster 147 6 WayneFleekHoosier 2056 6 Jeff Flabjohns 146 7 Dave from Dayton 2045 7 BannerVille 146 8 5fouls 2027 8 jermhoosierfan 146 9 incrediboy 2016 9 tkbbn 145 10 HoosierHoopster 2010 10 IUHoosierJoe 145 11 BottomLine 2001 11 Henryville Hoosier 122 12 Naturalhoosier 1999 12 TadQueasy 121 13 Home Jersey 1990 13 Crazy about IU 121 14 TadQueasy 1982 14 Average 81-75 IU 120 15 Redcamaro 1976 15 AZ Hoosier 120 16 CrossboneIU22 1968 16 WayneFleekHoosier 119 17 str8baller 1958 17 Napleshoosier 119 18 Napleshoosier 1936 18 HoosierCoop 118 19 Crazy about IU 1921 19 RoadRage 118 20 LamarCheeks 1911 20 Redcamaro 117 21 jermhoosierfan 1910 21 thebigweave 117 22 DChoosier 1905 22 5fouls 117 23 Jeff Flabjohns 1905 23 incrediboy 117 24 AZ Hoosier 1903 24 str8baller 117 25 Henryville Hoosier 1889 25 Naturalhoosier 116 26 tkbbn 1888 26 Dave from Dayton 116 27 RoadRage 1862 27 Josh 116 28 Rico 1856 28 Class of '66 Old Fart 115 29 HoosierCoop 1847 29 CrossboneIU22 115 30 mamasa 1825 30 DChoosier 114 31 Old Friend 1821 31 Old Friend 113 32 taco corp 1703 32 LamarCheeks 112 33 Parakeet Jones 1612 33 LIHoosier 111 34 ALASKA HOOSIER 1550 34 jefftheref 60 35 Scotty R 1515 36 RaceToTheTop 1433 37 Stuhoo 1405 38 thebigweave 1313 39 Pipedog 1258 40 JF87 1236 41 johnsoniu 1114 42 choosierred1 979 43 hper50 972 44 Dhop 903 45 jefftheref 765 46 Kentuckysucks 764 47 Demo 742 48 cbp4iu 654 49 Hoosierfan1901 500 50 Coach Robby 446 51 HoosierDaddy87 440 52 OKHOOSIER 311 53 monskisprodigy 238 54 IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy 121 55 JaybobHoosier 116 56 piratehoosier 115 57 MartintheMopMan 114 58 AH1971 113 59 Evariste Galois 113 60 sirhoosierlot 112 61 mdiu28 112 62 coonhounds 110 63 Gnet550 104