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Anyone that knows this program, knows the most likely scenario this week. - We beat NW or PSU and look good doing so. - There will be excitement that follows the next 24 hours about the possibility of beating Purdue and making the NCAA Tournament. - We proceed to lose to Purdue (and it probably won't be close).

I'm reasonably sure that there is a roster building plan in place that will satisfy all but the most jaded. If I'm wrong? So be it. But the odds of a pretty strong roster build are very good.

I'll play: Why should we be top 5 in basketball NIL, especially in light of our big money donors giving their attention and money to a proven-extraordinarily successful football team? And I don't want to hear about historical bball program success; that hasn't been true for many decades and for the last ten years not even remotely apparent. Big money invests in winners. Cig took a smaller budget and proved to big money that he was worth their investment. Big money that wants to invest in IU sports is giving a million and getting sideline access to football instead of courtside seats in basketball. Oh, that same donor should give to both football and basketball? Nope - gonna give almost all to football until basketball shows it is worth it. In summary, as mediocre as we've been for decades, it amazing that we may actually be top 20 in basketball NIL.

Brad Underwood said the exact same thing after year 1 at Illinois. He was the ultimate spread offense guy, built a roster around that style, got straight hammered physically and the next year he brought in Kofi Cockburn and completely changed what he was doing. The difference for DDV is that, thankfully, he shouldn’t have to change much schematically.

Bad leaders: Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and It's merely lip service to keep the barking dogs at bay. Good leaders: Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and Make appropriate changes to improve based on what they've learned. Archie and Woody fell squarely into the first category; hopefully CDD will fall into the second category.

I was more focused on offense, which has sucked for eight years. Better spacing, more movement, emphasis on open threes/inside out when available. But for an offense like that to succeed there needs to be a lengthy, physical big that rebounds long misses outside of his immediate space, and there needs to be a guard that can get in the lane and finish, thereby opening up kick out opportunities. When Enright penetrates no one leaves their man.

Raiders just pulled one of the best centers in the league out of free agency. Great start for the Mendoza Era in Vegas.

I’m going to keep reminding people then that we're a program that spends top 10-15 level resources and we’re in an era where resources matter more than history. Byington is going to finish top half in the SEC and so is Odom in the admittedly weaker ACC. Devries just did a poor job this year. It’s ok to admit it. If he lands one of the best portal guards of all-time and two pro-level bigs this offseason, maybe he’ll turn into Todd Golden.

I would hope so. I don’t use the WAB metric for anything so I don’t know it very well. But from my brief look at it a win over Purdue would be like 3x as valuable as a win over UCLA. With other teams also getting a chance to add good wins, I’d rather take the metric bump of beating Purdue than any perceived advantage of playing UCLA, of which I’m not sure there are any. NW should be an easy game. Purdue is the most valuable/easiest team on that seed line we could’ve drawn (and if we get UCLA we have already beat them), and then Nebraska as the 2 seed. Nebraska is literally the only team out of the top 4 we could possibly beat. I honestly don’t think things could’ve lined up any better for us.

Oregon vs. Maryland at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday in Chicago ... What's the over/under in attendance for that one: 1,500?

And Underwood basically reinvents things every year. Not many guys at all who can do that. The B1G and the Big 12 are so insanely well coached and scouted. Just obviously better than any other conferences. That DDV was able to do what he did at WVU last year with that situation demonstrates clear as day that the dude’s got the chops to do this. But you gotta have Guys to do it night in/night out and this team has basically 1 1/2 Guys and some useful complimentary pieces and that ain’t gonna get it done, doesn’t matter how schemed and scouted up you are. The ‘26 kids are different animals talent-wise, will be really interested to see what they prioritize in the portal.

I used that example as well. Plus he changed his defense up as well. He aggressively overhelped and just a a very aggressive style D his first 2 years and got completely shredded with 2 of the worst years in Illinois basketball history. Corrected the mistake and know he is rolling at Illinois. That was back in my younger days when I gave a crap about what other fan bases thought and went to their boards and they wanted him out after year 1 and really wanted him gone after year 2. Luckily for them he stuck around

Didn't the clock mysteriously "pause" during that final Iowa possession?

Yeah. You can acknowledge there were factors working against DDV in the portal last year and still admit that even with those factors in mind, this was not a good year. Money isn't everything, but to have as many resources as we do and not make the field of 68 is really, really bad. Easier said than done but he is one of the highest paid coaches in the sport, he's supposed to get it done. Year 1 didn't have to be a showstopper of a year. The minimum was making the tournament and that seems unlikely to happen. And we don't have much returning talent to speak of, so we have to hit the portal hard again, which is probably a blessing and a curse. It's not impossible at all to bounce back from this start, but it didn't get any momentum going like you'd hope to see. Based on results alone, I don't see how our regular season is any better than a D+ or C- most generously. If we want to convince ourselves a program is being built, we've gotta pay what it takes to land 3 studs and then nail the scout on 2 or 3 multi year guys IMO

I doubt we beat Northwestern. Collins has our number and we look like a team that's ready for its season to end. Even if we win, it will likely be another grind that makes watching it feel like more of a chore than a pleasure.

Your hope needs to include the caveat that you have reasonable expectations. For instance; our current incoming class of three kids all of whom are composite ranked from 51-80 should 100% exceed reasonable expectations. I'd be hard-pressed to find another mediocre program with that kind of incoming haul.

Reviewing bubble team resumes, including IU’s, reinforces that expanding the tourney to 70 something teams is absolutely ludicrous. When looking at quality of play none of the bubble teams are truly “tourney worthy” (yes, I realize they are tourney worthy according to the 68 team criteria).

Lose to NW/PSU and we are out. Beat NW/PSU and lose to Purdump and we are unlikely but possible as a play-in at 19-14. Win two BTT games and we are in, and probably not as a play-in team. 20 wins with an excellent strength of schedule and no bad losses is a tourney team this year, barring something truly crazy happening.

Exactly. Bring me Puredoo. This un-mightly yet proud band of Hoosiers shall destroy them!! (Or, I will continue to primarily be concerned with the upcoming college football season. Either way... it's cool).

Northwestern has to win their first game also before IU can play them Pointing out the path isn’t looking ahead it’s just laying out the path IU would have to take

The "NBA" commentator teams don't do it for me!

I wish they would have these smaller conference guys call some of the Madness games!

USPS been saying this since at least the last 2 hires! Need a grinder to get us back to consistently making the tourney, winning record in the B1G, and then move back to the "Big Boy Table"!

starch madness is the Big Skys slogan. That’s awesome

Hope you got the sound on because you would be listening to the best announcer for any small conference during champ week. You put the brown thing in the round thing

@Rico wins the Ohio St game with 142 pts. @mamasa got IU's score right. @Josh is still the overall leader. That 'useless' basket at the end kept @IUHoosierJoe from winning the game, getting IU's bonus and taking the overall lead. Overall Game 31 91-78 OSU Rank 2025-26 IUBB Points Rank IU/Ohio St Points 1 Josh 2806 1 Rico 142 2 IUHoosierJoe 2769 2 Josh 113 3 WayneFleekHoosier 2753 3 IUHoosierJoe 111 4 Class of '66 Old Fart 2748 4 tkbbn 111 5 5fouls 2710 5 BottomLine 109 6 BannerVille 2709 6 Jeff Flabjohns 108 7 LIHoosier 2676 7 Class of '66 Old Fart 108 8 str8baller 2655 8 WayneFleekHoosier 105 9 BottomLine 2648 9 Redcamaro 104 10 TadQueasy 2641 10 TadQueasy 104 11 Home Jersey 2627 11 Average 75-72 OSU 103 12 Naturalhoosier 2621 12 Naturalhoosier 102 13 Dave from Dayton 2606 13 5fouls 101 14 LamarCheeks 2601 14 LamarCheeks 97 15 HoosierHoopster 2591 15 Crazy about IU 96 16 Crazy about IU 2590 16 BannerVille 95 17 AZ Hoosier 2585 17 jefftheref 92 18 Redcamaro 2564 18 cbp4iu 90 19 jermhoosierfan 2545 19 Hoosier987 89 20 Jeff Flabjohns 2527 20 mamasa 77 21 tkbbn 2522 21 HoosierHoopster 59 22 incrediboy 2520 22 JF87 59 23 Old Friend 2509 23 Napleshoosier 57 24 Napleshoosier 2496 24 HoosierCoop 55 25 Rico 2482 25 jermhoosierfan 55 26 HoosierCoop 2416 26 AZ Hoosier 54 27 DChoosier 2369 27 Dave from Dayton 53 28 RoadRage 2346 28 str8baller 53 29 Henryville Hoosier 2324 29 LIHoosier 53 30 mamasa 2283 30 RoadRage 51 31 CrossboneIU22 2128 31 incrediboy 46 32 ALASKA HOOSIER 1835 32 Old Friend 43 33 JF87 1800 33 ALASKA HOOSIER 31 34 taco corp 1703 35 Parakeet Jones 1612 36 thebigweave 1517 37 Scotty R 1515 38 RaceToTheTop 1433 39 Stuhoo 1405 40 Pipedog 1258 41 jefftheref 1130 42 johnsoniu 1114 43 hper50 1082 44 choosierred1 979 45 cbp4iu 932 46 Dhop 903 47 Kentuckysucks 764 48 Demo 742 49 Hoosierfan1901 500 50 Coach Robby 446 51 HoosierDaddy87 440 52 OKHOOSIER 311 53 monskisprodigy 238 54 BA47591 171 55 Hoosierfanyuh 127 56 IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy 121 57 JaybobHoosier 116 58 piratehoosier 115 59 MartintheMopMan 114 60 AH1971 113 61 Evariste Galois 113 62 sirhoosierlot 112 63 mdiu28 112 64 coonhounds 110 65 Gnet550 104 66 Hoosier987 89

Finally the CAA makes an appearance on tv. Semifinals on cbs sports network

This post is really responding to Athlon, not you. Something is getting misinterpreted by Athlon, and/or they have a bad source(s). I just don't follow what they're saying at all. I'm positive IUFB was not top-10 in roster spend in 2025. And there is no way we outspent Michigan, or PSU, or USC in the conference. I say this just from chatting with folks, but also Cig even said it himself: "There's five or six (programs) out there that have unlimited NIL resources. It's kind of scary for everybody else. Our little pot of gold (at Indiana) is pretty nice, but we're not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million." I think $21M was about right for our 2025 roster, but other schools were spending $30-35M+, some maybe $40M. I'd guess we were around #20-25 in the country last year. I'm just posting all this because IUFB in no way "bought" a title. Our 2025 roster spend is often exaggerated. And Athlon is annoying me with their claims. Now for 2026, IUFB is close to or in the top-10 for roster spend. It's amazing, I didn't think it was possible. Just so folks know for 2024 (pre-rev share) and our roster was around $4.5M when big programs were $12-20M. As for how this relates to IUBB, we can see how IUFB ramped up. IUBB was already around #15 in roster spend this season. That's pretty good. Regardless of what we think is the best path forward, I think it's going to be hard to get much more NIL without showing some better results on the court. If that $12.5M number is true for 2025-26, that's some amazing support for IUBB in my opinion. But, I'm not sure what the roster 2025-26 budget is at this point.

I think a lot of coaches can misjudge the B1G when they first coach in it. The physicality and especially the center play is different than most others. Underwood brought his overplaying defense that worked before at SF Austin and his 1 stop at Oklahoma st and had terrible results and admitted he had to change the way he coached and recruited. Next year or the year after he land Cockburn and switched his defense. Willard hated coaching in the B1G and couldn’t get out of the league fast enough. B1G isn’t for everyone

7 out of the 11 IUs road games were Q1a games (Highest value quad) 1 of the 11 was Q1b. So overall 8 of 11 games were in Q1 range 1 of the 11 was Q2a range 2 of the 11 was Q3 range I’m sure the staff can see these numbers and compare them to other bubble teams and see that if they get left out other bubble teams have easier chances for cheap Q2 road wins throughout their conference. Schedule better in the non conference and you can overcome an evaluation misses. Or it shows what kind of roster you need moving forward to compete with that kind of schedule. margin of error from getting left out to making it is small. For instance if Maryland and Rutgers wins fall in the Q2 range this year IU is probably in the last 4 byes territory heading into the BTT.

Really? That’s been the worst part for me…lol. Defense is in an absolute free-fall and just looks incoherent at times. Defensive PPP has just been absurd in some of the games down the stretch. Trouble with presses. Late game collapses. Inconsistent effort. Swapping out two starters throughout out the season shows a willingness to adapt, at least, but you have to wonder what was going on to get to that point—especially Bailey over Alexis. I have no doubt Carr can get the roster straightened out and with IU’s resources they can get to the tourney. I mean every coach we’ve had could do that when the roster fell right for them including Davis, Archie and Woody. You kind of have to wonder where we go from there. I certainly like some things—sound defensive philosophy (even if execution has been crap), good set plays and oob Xs and Os. But overall, at our lowest he’s looked as lost as Archie and Woody. For my own personal happiness, I’m joining you in the optimist club. Everyone gets a second chance and next year will be huge. So we’ll bank on Devries positive attributes really flourishing once the other duties like roster construction are taken over by Carr. I’m ignoring the little part of my brain that says we’ve basically done this dance with every other bad coach we’ve had where we say “if only he were good at [insert important skill that almost all great coaches have] he could be successful here.” Maybe it’ll be true this time. Step 0 - slip into tourney this year Step 1 - Carr builds bullet-proof tourney roster Step 2 - Devries stewards them well next year Step 3 - ??? Step 4 - Banner #6 (A plan so simple a caveman could do it!)

Probably the three biggest difference makers that Dusty brought in the last two years were not power 5 players. Yaxel (UAB), Goldin (FAU), and Wolf (Yale)

Just saying... based on @Uspshoosier reminding us that IUBB has 4 above .500 conference finishes in the B1G in the past 18 years, a top half finish with a late-stage roster grab was a pretty lofty expectation. A better style of team play and future recruits with skills and character is where I agree with you. Generally I'm seeing that but time will tell. And yes; gotta go get that 22 year old point guard and some physical bigs for next year.

I feel like my expectations have been reasonable the past 10 years. For this year I wanted to see a team that competed with a better style of team play (Not the NBA make my own shot style), Finish in the top half of the BIG and make the tourney. Then build on that for the following year. I do feel that the incoming class is solid for next year, but we are still missing what I would consider a true point guard and BIG10 type center. Hopefully the staff is evaluating that for the offseason portal free for all.

I’m not sure if they’ve necessarily discounted it, but there’s so much data in the bank by now that, normally, one or two games won’t change the metrics much unless a team makes a really big splash. This year seems a bit different to me, with 10-12 mediocre teams fighting for 3-4 spots, and none have accomplished much lately, the 3-4 that win an extra game or 2 will make the difference.

Purdue has been terrible lately. And I’m not sure we match up any better with UCLA. So potentially Purdue is the easier game with the added benefit of their metrics being much better. I think that would seal a tourney bid for us.

Georgia Southern just won their 5th game in 5 days to advance to the Sun Belt finals. Sun Belt madness

If they can get him then get him. Multiyear piece that can be very good. Not sure he is starter ready as a freshman to start the year. But I’m comfortable rolling with the backups being young next year if needed.

For sure.

I would've rather played UCLa than Purdump, personally!

You have the answer.

I think we literally got the easiest and best draw we could’ve asked for if we’re trying to win a few for the tourney.

There are a lot of things DD has done, post-staffing disaster, to win me over. While putting temp hires Kenny and Drew in place he engaged Carr and stayed in contact while he muddled through forming this year's roster. Then he was able to get Rod Clark. He proved to me he could coach this year. Then next year started early with Carr. I expect an 80% reboot. I appreciate Lewis for his play, but we need a euro talent acquisition guy. (Geoff Alexander) and someone that can get perimeter athletes to compliment Clark. (Chin Coleman.) The talent acquisition group should go from an absurdity to a position of strength. I'm confident that Sisley and 3 freshmen will be back. After that, I'm not sure of anyone else.

Always a path. One of these years IU surely has to break through and go on a run in the BTT. You want Sad ius record in this tourney would be what i consider Sad

PR 101 - give the excuse everyone will be comfortable with and forgive you for, even if it isn’t true . My problem is, reality doesn’t necessarily back him up. Go through our conf losses. Which center led their team in scoring? I’ll give you the answer: None of them. It was all guards and 4’s (Tuckers man). Why doesn’t he say our guards can’t guard or my son can’t guard his own shadow in the B1G. Those are equally as true statements and just as much to blame for our losses. I guess the flip side of that is I don’t think our center position ever was our leading scorer in any loss or any game besides UCLA and Minnesota. So maybe our offense is going to be predicated on dominating the paint next year?

Idaho St. with a huge defensive stop and then a sloppy turnover! Still down 8 with 43 seconds left.

Top 20 recruits usually contribute in year 1 and if we can’t get one of the best shooters in the class to contribute then that’s on us. I feel like recruits in this range are the sweet spot since they’ll hopefully stay longer and you may end getting a discount the later years. We need talent. Trey mckenney for dusty was similarly ranked last year and is a key contributor on a team way better than us.

Ius phase 3 path Penn St/Northwestern winner, Purdue, Nebraska. IU finds a way to win those 3 and they would be fine. Likely? No but that is the path