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Punting work today and hitting the Missouri Valley Conference qtrs. The friend I’m going with and knows way more about that conference than I do, gave me 3 names to watch for portal purposes: 1) Sam Orme(Belmont)- Carmel kid who’s busted out this year pretty good. Averaging 13 and 5 on 38% from 3. 2 years of eligibility. Given the 2 ‘26 kids, Dorn and, presumably, Sisley can’t imagine a 6’7” wing shooter would be a high priority, but who knows. 2) Jaquan Johnson(Bradley)- averaged 17 and was 1st team all conference and 1st team all defense. Averaged more steals than to’s. 2 years of eligibility. Since Norton was there he feels like at least worth checking into. 3) Drew Scharmowski(Belmont)- The one I really want to see. 6’10” and apparently possibly still growing. Averaged 11/6 with a block and a steal in 19mins a game and was 1st team all conference and 1st team all defense. 2 years of eligibility. My friend loves him. Says he’s a straight up winning player. At minimum, anyone coached by Casey Alexander absolutely knows how to play. That guy is as good a developmental coach as there is. Should be fun.

probably pencil one in for the next 3 years if you want. Would be shocked if he left

I was soooo happy to see this. He hit the freshman wall. Nothing else to it IMO

Haralson doesn't seem to be a fit for what IU is trying to put together. 25 attempted 3s all year, more TO than AST. What am I missing here BTW Bidunga is a Hoosier in 30 days

Maybe we luck into a Roy Williams situation. If I remember correctly, UNC tried to get him to leave Kansas a couple of different times before he eventually made the leap.

Surprised with your high standards you would be impressed with a coach 10-9 in conference. 3-7 on the road with losses at bottom feeder Penn st and Maryland

My favorite time of year. Every announcer in these small tourneys telling the audience that whoever the 1 seed in these conferences are all getting at-large bids when in fact there is about 0 chance of that happening for 98 percent of them. lol

I expect it. He’s close. He does things that help us now. He’s got to get the shooting improved from three but more importantly from the charity stripe. I think athletically he should be playing more but he’s a real liability shooting the ball right now. Rooting hard for Trent! I’m convinced he will work his tail off this off season.

Both Ben McCollum and Darian Devries brought one key player with them for their first year this year. Devries brought his son, who is an above average, skilled college player. McCollum brought Stirtz, who is an experienced college player and a likely NBA lotto pick. That is in no way a criticism of McCollum; having an outstanding relationship with Stirtz was McCollum's doing. Iowa is 20-10, IU is 18-12; different but not markedly different. IU now runs an offensive scheme that I really like; Iowa runs a slower, to me less creative and effective offense. If I could turn back time? I wish IU would have fired Woody and hired Dusty May a year earlier; he was there for the having and it's pretty much consensus that he was the perfect hire. But McCollum vs. Devries? At this point (subject to hindsight later on) I'll take Devries.

Iowa is fouling so much its slowing down the website

He’s got an interesting skill set. Hes fast and above average handle for his size. However his handle isn’t tight enough to attack at this level and it would be his biggest strength. He lacks the strength needed on offense and in defense. This is his 2nd biggest issue. His 1st biggest issue is his grip strength/hands. The scout is to dig and swipe him constantly because he losses the ball so easily. and 3rd. His finishing ability. I think if he had a great rebounding big he played with he could release in transition and use his speed to get cheap buckets. We never use him that way but I think that could be a strength if he wasn’t our only big on the court. People say Sparks was better. I don’t agree there. I feel like something could be unlocked with Bailey, but we can’t seem to find it.

Smart to hold out for something better. He's in a good enough spot until then.

Working with Mahomes wouldn't be all that bad. LOL

Expect Trent will work his arse off over the summer and will pay big dividends next year.

I know I'm speaking with local bias, but if either Jalen Haralson or Tre Singleton have interest in IU, we should be 100% interested. Both have had outstanding freshman seasons and will only get better. Both are athletic and have defensive length for their positions, and both should be able to step out to the perimeter as their games mature.

Rutgers scored 19 points in the final 1:11 yesterday! Izzo had to sub all the starters back in with about 30 seconds left.

Iowa just fouled Michigan again

18-1, in this conference. Wow

Coaching God falls to 10-9 in conference after his fouling every play defense didn’t work. 3-7 on the road and they didn’t even have to on the road to Illinois or Michigan. Did get road games at Maryland and Penn St but lost them. Luckily he did beat IU on the road for a nice quality road win or they might be on the wrong side of the bubble

They started calling some but Iowa still fouls on about every play. I’ve slowly over the year of watching them play begin to hate the way they play and am glad IU didn’t land him as coach. Interested to see how he does in the B1G next year without his everything man

Belmont's 26-5 season about to crash and burn in ArchMadness. Drake up 15 with 8 to play

Dagwoods 10000%.

I've gotta go with Village Deli on Kirkwood and Dagwoods on Indiana. Fat Dan's is a little further down Kirkwood, but fantastic!!

I cant blame her for wanting to be on a team that has depth and could go deep in the NCAA Tournament for her final go. She would have helped IU win 1-2 more games maybe but it still would have been sweating the bubble and she wanted better. Yarden’s game is essentially what Makalusky became later in yr once she developed. If Yarden had taken that spot all yr, it would have sacrificed Maya’s growth that has us so optimistic for the future. Having Makalusky play that role this yr probably sacrificed a couple wins this yr for better tomorrow. Definitely wished we had Yarden in many ways. However, in end I think it worked out best for both her and IU.

To me, that is a pretty likely sign that his representatives are pro-actively letting schools know that he is still open to non-IU options.

I’d bet against it for a couple reasons. 1) our alumni is way more fractured. Even if Knight were alive, it’s not like he’d be calling Dusty saying “ hey you were always my favorite manager, we need you to come home and fix this” like Dean did. 2) Roy was really kind of getting to the point of “can’t win the big one” with Kansas. They would’ve never got rid of him, but the narrative was out there. He went to 4 final fours, bunch of 1 or 2 seeds, and a bunch of teams that ranked number 1 during the season. So I guess we need to root for Dusty to go to a bunch of FF’s but never win one, and in about 15 years we make our move!

I wonder if Jalen Haralson will be portaling and if that is a guy DeVries would want. He doesn’t seem like the prototypical DeVries recruit. I love early transfer portal time when it’s recruiting in hyperspeed and ultimate impact. Seems like 4-5 high impact targets will be needed.

Just way too soon to make any read on next season IMO. Entirely depends on who we bring in and we don't know who they are yet, or even who is available. In the article, the range of players who could feasibly get 4M is between 10-25 players. There are way more than 10-25 impact players in the portal. In the article, an all conference caliber player would be between 2-2.5M. We have plenty budget for the high end of the market, just not the ultra high end like Duke and BYU and UK, who can afford to spend 4M on a single player without blowing out their entire payroll. I believe Carr was saying it would take time to get the roster where they want it from a balance perspective between HS recruiting and portal because we've been so overly reliant on the portal the past two years. I don't think he was saying it would take time to get things where they want them in terms of winning. There's no reason to lower expectations at this point.

A common refrain from coaches is that they feel in previous roster builds, money has been spread around too widely. They’d prefer, starting this year, to spend big on two to three top-tier players and fill in around them with cheaper role players with more defined roles. In NBA terms, those are your max contracts, a few middle-market players and then a bench filled out with minimum contracts. That’s something I pointed out last spring. I’m not sure why it’s taking college guys so long to catch on. All you had to do was look at other pro leagues. I suspect this is something a guy like Carr will have a good handle on.

I think the ship has sailed unless down the road he hits a rough patch at Michigan and needs a soft landing. The fact he has it rolling makes it really unlikely.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18EmcNz3eS/?mibextid=wwXIfr

And we'll see how he fares next year without his 'everything guy'.

Michigan wins. 10-0 on the road in the Big ten….pretty darn good I’d say

Fouling the heck out of Michigan

Big wins have proven to outweigh bad losses. TCU lost to New Orleans at Home Q4 loss, Notre dame at home (Q3 loss) but have some huge wins Florida, @Texas Tech and others and they are projected comfortably in for now

I’m a big fan of Wilkerson so I hope this is taken in with the spirit it’s intended. If college athletics are to mean anything in this new era, I hope it at least means they get a little help in financial management. We have the KSOB. I saw Dusty May sit on a podium and when his players were asked what they we’re going to buy with their NIL he chimed in “annuities.” Funny but probably apropos. I don’t know Wilkerson or his mom’s financial situation, so I’m not making a judgement here. But if college athletics are to mean anything in this age of NIL rosters they should endeavor to help these 18-22 year olds make wise financial decisions.

This season has been fine/solid/good enough: First year of a new coach sitting at 18-12. Bubble tournament team - currently 50-60% likely to get in. A bunch of very likable players - Sam Alexis, Enright, Lamar especially for me. Incoming recruiting class for next year is already strong. Finally playing modern offense. First time in eight years for that. Much of the program buzz is gone because for decades we have been a middling program, we aren't exceeding expectations, and because the fan base is understandably much more into our undefeated national championship football team. But overall? This is better than the past two years of Woodson and pretty much all of the Archie era.

76 71

IU having to beat Ohio St for a spot in the tournament. Rules How does this work? For each game, I will create a Prediction League thread. It's a simple concept: Each game you start with 100 points (only if a prediction is made, otherwise 0 points for the game) + 25 pts if you guess the winner - 25 pts if you pick the loser + 25 pts if guess IU score correctly (Up from 10) + 25 pts if guess Opponent score correct (Up from 10) - The # of points different between the actual and predicted score of IU (over/under doesn't matter) - The # of points different between the actual and predicted score of opponent (over/under doesn't matter) Also, the highest scorer(s) of the game gets 25 pts for a new maximum of 200 points. *** Reminder if you post a prediction and want to change it, please just POST a NEW Prediction, do not edit a prior post as I may miss those edits. The person with the most points (MINUS FOUR (4) LOWEST GAMES) at the end of the season wins. ONLY POST PREDICTIONS IN THIS THREAD, THANK YOU

Well, that would be a welcomed addition. Lol I kinda see that with Haralson too, but he seems like a kid that will portal imo, not because of him, but because Notre Dame is a wasteland. I think with his skill set and a big and 3 shooters, it would work. He could offer a lot offensively and defensively.

Yeah, QB didn't think he would be a good coach in the B1G.

You never count your NIL, When you're biddin' in the portal, There'll be time enough for countin', When the roster’s done.

I agree with this. I think there needs to be a profile for each position on the court they are trying to land. Then go land the pieces that fit this. It’s what Painter does, Dusty May is great at talent evaluation and how it fits the team, Wisconsin does this well. I learned but need to verify still that IU will be the 2nd team with a GM for basketball in the Big Ten. The other team is Michigan. As of a week or 2 ago all the top 5 teams in the country had GM’s. The rest of the ranked teams didn’t. The conclusion that was made was elite teams are operating at a new/higher level in this era bc they have the correct structure. Some programs have NBA players as ceremonial GM’s. Those shouldn’t count. Steph Curry isn’t scouting and singing players at Davidson but is their GM. LOL. Duke has had a GM for several years, same with Florida, Arizona, and I think UCONN.

There’s a big difference between “best” and “favorite.” Ponds and Mendoza are the best. Fisher and Kaelon are maybe my two favorite players I’ve ever seen in an IU uniform.

Sun Belt bracket is back. lol. 6 way tie for 2nd wrecked some havoc