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Yea, that seems to be true -- one really rich person could seriously fund FB/MBBs programs. Though if a school doesn't currently have big boosters, it seems like it's pretty tough to find/convert them. If a school's handful of super rich alumni aren't interested in donating to NIL, it appears tough to get them involved. And very few billionaires even if they're boosters will act as aggressively as Cody Campbell or Phil Knight. An example is how long it took us to get Cuban on board, though my understanding is our athletic dept shot themselves in the foot several times with him. Hard to believe, huh? A place like Miss St... they could, but man it would be hard. They're 20% of our alumni base and generate small levels of athletic dept revenue. They would need their one big donor to go wild. It would be tough for a place like Purdue too, who just doesn't have a big boosters, which has been evident as they've struggled to get Matt much money despite his pretty darn good results. If a MBB coach was winning B1G titles and making FF's at IU, they would have $5M more than what Matt gets, easily. Fortunately, IU has a lot of fundraising potential. Our large alumni base is cited often, and they help a lot, but the real key in my opinion is the Cook family. We're fortunate to have a very active billionaire booster like them, and they've been going wild with their efforts since Cig got here. Then we have another active billionaire booster in Simon, and now Cubes. Three billionaires. Plus another tier of very rich and active boosters like Pfau. And Scott with his Varsity club background was the perfect guy to get them all as engaged as possible in this new NIL world. I'd agree a lot of schools could level up athletics support pretty quickly, I just think IU was a place that was pretty uniquely positioned to do it. And honestly there are schools we'll never match, but we're close enough now. Now, if a school actually wants to do what IU did, you need a Cig. To my knowledge, there is only one (1) Cig. No Cig, no natty. Vanderbilt-like results is probably a more realistic goal. I guess to tie this back to this thread, if CDD can finish strong this season hopefully he can get our boosters believing and get more money for his roster.

I'm sure Paul Finebum is probably demanding that Alabama get in next season!

With an entirely new roster and coaching staff, my response and opinion boil down to one thing : We're getting better. Improving. And have won a few games late we wouldn't have previously. That improvement didn't happen under Mike Woodson. Is the roster perfect? No. Not close. But I can't find great fault in DeVries because we're improving and he is likely going to make the NCAA Tournament with a very different set of circumstances than Woodson had. DeVries didn't have the luxury of a group that had spent ANY time together. TJD, Race Thompson, Phinissee, Galloway, Leal, and Geronimo were all at the very least familiar with each other. DeVries isn't perfect like Cignetti has been, but I am definitely encouraged.

The big worry about Z is her health. She has the talent to be a relatively high level starting center in this league, but only if she can stay on the court. This is now three knee/leg issues in two seasons and none of them were from any obvious fall or something that should cause weeks of absences. Mack had the same issue with her knee cap keeping her out at times, but the difference was it was one injury that kept popping up and her availability was still way more often than not. Also, its much easier to wait out injuries on a generational player like Holmes vs. Z who is developing into something solid down low but not elite. IU needs to figure out if Z will be available enough to be a worthwhile investment. She is a starting center in this league talent wise, but only if she can be available. Zoe Jackson who is redshirting, has the talent potentially but is a complete unknown. If she has the skills of Z and can stay available that's your answer. If not, and Z can't stay healthy, got to go get a starting level player in portal or recruiting as Moren's system relies on it. The games Z has played is when IU has been competitive against the top teams. Without her, no chance.

I'm sure this has been noted, but I realized something when Drew Brees was elected to the HOF. The Toiletmakers like to refer to themselves as the "Cradle of Quarterbacks," and no doubt, they've had some exceptional ones: Len Dawson Bob Griese Mike Phipps Gary Danielson Jim Everett Drew Brees Kyle Orton Do you know how many of those guys won the Heisman? 0 Yet IU -- the one-time worst power conference program in the country -- has had a QB win the Heisman. So, to sum up ... National championships IU 1, PU 0 Heisman Trophies IU 1, PU 0

McCollum got better crowds at Drake.

As someone who is not a IU football fan, but enjoyed them winning, the Cignetti comparisons are funny to me. I see national people saying every school think they have e chance bc IU did it. Um no they don’t. Cignetti is a unicorn, once in a generation coach AND he went to a school with deep pockets to help fund it. Kansas St can’t do that. Arizona St can’t do that. I agree with you on being encouraged with DeVries. I’m not even upset we didn’t get Dusty. College basketball can have multiple good coaches and I think DeVries is a good coach. Let’s make the dance and see how he cooks in the portal this offseason. But I’m looking forward to a March Madness with IU in it.

Finally some sanity. From On3 - Former pro Charles Bediako has been denied a preliminary injunction against the NCAA and will no longer be eligible to play for Alabama this season.

Well earned. God, if DDV doesn’t fly down there and close that kid and he ended up at UK we would be Rutgers right now….at best.

I have quite literally no idea of whether Jason Drake will be a winning basketball player, but there's something I've noticed about him that is far more evident than with Harris, Ristic, or Acimovic; Drake is a constant positive presence in huddles and during and after games. And it's true whether things are going really well or not well.

Everything about this one just screams that if you get out and really put it on them early and give them no oxygen you can get them to quit.

If you've ever been to Starkville you'd realize it wouldn't be as easy as it is to convince them to go to Bloomington lol Although, they do have a Cookout. It's not just one alumni at IU. Cuban, Cooks, and others. Back to the topic... assuming we will finish reasonably the rest of the season, I've been pleased with CDD, style of play, etc. Especially factoring in losing Conerway for a bit, no Drake/Harris all year, and Dorn was out for a while. Key things moving forward--- development. The recruiting will level itself and really... with the 4 HS kids we have committed or signed, it's pretty solid now. I want Sisley, the 2 Euros, Harris to be solid contributors next year. That's how programs thrive. Find 1-2 studs in the portal, another portal starter, develop the rest... and we should be solid again next season.

Agreed with some comments on Twitter. With a blowout like this, it’s time to stop giving a Super Bowl autobid to the AFC.

It’s absolutely proper and planets-aligned that the only touchdown of the Super Bowl is scored by:

In fairness... 1) The game ended like 1/2 hour before the Super Bowl 2) Caitlin Clark wasn't there.

Yeah, it was pretty bleak a few weeks ago… The 1-2-3 punches of Neb blown lead, 28-7 MSU run to end the game, and then being thoroughly beaten at home by McCollum’s squad felt like a knockout blow. During previous regimes it would have been. Credit to the staff and these players for turning it around

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.

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.

Seems incredibly early to even be thinking about next season but 2 non-con games locked in. Bellarmine - November 5, at SSAH Kentucky - A December date to be determined at Lucas Oil Stadium https://www.insidethehall.com/2026/02/08/report-iu-basketball-to-host-bellarmine-for-non-conference-game-next-fall/

Conerway over the flu

This has been a test of the Old Fart screw up system. You may now return to your usual afternoon whatevers. Good help is really hard to find these days.

Bad Bunny has gained more yards than the Patriots.

Sold! For $112,500!!!

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.

"Have you watched Nick Marsh block? He's a warrior." Curt Cignetti

30 min Cig interview with Yonkman. Good stuff as usual.

Nate Biddle is a problem. i am not nearly as optimistic as the betting line.

Hopefully we can add Drake to that list as well. If he doesn’t play this year I would assume he’s still eligible next season. Not sure what he would’ve brought this year, but depth at guard has been an issue, especially when Conerway has been out.

It was a joke on my part. Part wishful thinking. I guess the Oregon team came to Bloomington early and the he and the team were spotted having a good time at the bars. Seems to just be that.

Our 4-1 Hoosiers will be in Tempe, AZ for 5-games in the Littlewood Invitational. All times are ET. No indication on our softball website that any of the games will be streamed or any live stats provided except for the AZ State game. That could be updated closer to Thursday. Thurs: Portland State @ 2:45 Thurs: AZ State @ 8:15 available on ESPN+ Fri: Pacific @ noon Sat: Nevada @ noon Sun: Nevada @ noon

Hoosiers 82, Ducks 70

Fernando is going to play for a really good young coach and offensive mind in Las Vegas. Klint Kubiak is a great choice and Fernando with Bowers and Jeanty is a few solid offensive linemen away from being in a fantastic situation.

AJ Barner has more receiving yards than NE has net passing yards. The IUFB train just keeps on rollin’.

I know Cig is a busy man but he’s been a part of beating Oregon on the road and on a neutral field. Maybe go for the trifecta….

Iowa City is notoriously fanatical New England Patriots country?

Someone has likely already said this in the thread, but interesting to see Ole Miss sitting at 11-11 after how hard some were clamoring for Beard last off-season...

Playing Bellarmine November 5th, per Rothstein. I imagine that’ll be the regular season opener.

Talented and inexperienced. She’s only gonna get better.

That wasn’t the case several games ago when this thread was started. We had lost to Minn, gave up a big lead at home to Nebraska, and just got smacked at home by Iowa of all teams. (All covered up by Cig and the football team winning the championship). They were headed in the wrong direction. It has been a very nice turnaround since that time. Almost as if CDV read the thread and said “oh chit.” :)

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.

I probably shouldn’t be but I’m surprised at some of the negativity. Year 1 of his tenure and with 7 games to go DeVries has us in a solid spot to make the tournament and playing some good ball with a chance to improve seeding while also already getting 4 solid high school commitments. He had to put together an entire staff and roster on the fly because of this new era of college basketball and the roster clearly has some holes and yet down the stretch of the season we’re playing meaningful basketball. Who wouldn’t take that in year 1???

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.