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177 days until North Texas has to answer for this.

I think in addition to Dusty May, we're gonna be lamenting letting Josh Shertz get away.

I put my trust in several coaches who have said to my face that they see the system will work when better players are there. Certainly, over fans on here who don't know the game at that level. Also DeVries has admitted his mistakes in last week, which is a lot more than I can say about either of the two previous regimes. If things are this bad at this time next yr, have to cut bait immediately. However, cannot judge the staff on this roster of mid-major All Stars. They certainly deserve blame for putting THIS roster together, but need one more chance in my mind to see what they can do with correct talent. The bottom line is West and Martinelli have more complete games than anyone on Indiana's roster. Love the hustle of Reed Bailey and Conor Enright but reality is they have no business on a Big Ten floor and that is where our problems begin. Also parts of our fan base who want Dolson fired for bringing us a national title in football because god for bid we are mediocre at basketball need to have their head examined. Yes, we need to fix this basketball program, but fans attitude of men's basketball is only thing that matters has got to stop if we want to stay as a high-major team across the board. Football is the driver and that's the reality. Abandoning every non-elite team in every other sport and wanting coaches fired immediately when they fall out of top-25, is part of problem. While I think our fan base gets branded as 'toxic' unfairly for most part, there are corners off it who need to look at what they like about IU. If it's basketball only, and not any team with a Hoosier logo you may need to reevaluate. The national media may know less on a day-to-day basis, but has no bias said IU would be 10th in Big Ten and miss tourney and roster was not talented enough. They were right unfortunately. Definitely not happy as a whole. However, DeVries ran out of answers this season after teams adjusted no matter what he tried. It's ok to be disappointed but don't overreact.

The worst part is that this year was a completely wasted one. No culture. No player development. No real vision for the future. We have to start over from scratch once again.

No bid stealers, rest of the bubble teams lose, Devries cashes in his IOU from last year, Wilkerson buys someone on the committee a cadillac and I think we’re dancing.

If there’s anyone who has proven they know what it takes to succeed as head basketball coach at IU, it’s radio personality Dan Dakich.

In hindsight, this team would have benefitted from Luke Goode getting another year of eligibility. He would have started in front of Dorn and Goode would have provided some much-needed leadership to this roster. This team had no one to take charge when needed. Goode would have also given us a reliable third scorer.

That was awful. No argument. But.... we had kids who were not capable of playing in the Big Ten. We had players from Elon, Davidson, Sam Houston State, etc. We had no size. We had kids who thought they were far better than they were (Conerway) and didn't value the ball or defense. We had kids (also Conerway) who were just happy to be here. Blame the roster on DeVries. I get it. Ryan Carr was hired for a reason. Blame him for underestimating the talent needed in the Big Ten. But also give the guy credit for winning 18 games, 9 in the Big Ten, with a very average mid major roster. DeVries will be a better coach without Tucker on the team. Nobody is going to be patient beyond next season. I get that, too. But anyone calling for his firing now? Who do you think we'd be able to attract after firing 3 coaches in 6 years? Watching that garbage was painful. Truly gross. I get all of it. We can't fire him now, and I hope Scott Dolson is in his office tomorrow and all over him. If you haven't heard it, do yourself a favor and watch Kent Sterling's post game video ion YouTube. His description of how that meeting should go is gold.

We fired Sampson. We passed on Dusty May to keep Woodson one more year. IU bball is cursed by terrible decision makers from the top down.

This was as bad or worse than any Archie or Woody loss. Embarrassment

Will Wade lost

A couple guys got tights on too. The Iranian women’s team wears less clothing.

He’ll always be part of the IU family.

I feel like some of the focus on "mid-major players" is missing the point. Some very good transfers come from the mid major level. Almost half of the guys on the All-Big Ten first and second teams are first year transfers from mid majors (Lendeborg, Wilkerson, Stirtz, Boyd). We need to do a better job scouting and identifying guys, regardless of where they come from. Ryan Carr should be all over this.

As always thanks @LIHoosier for the time and effort you put into running the prediction leagues.

Trying to find optimism in this, the “best recruiting class in Purdue history” won’t have the opportunity to get a winning record against IU

Mike Woodson

Look at it this way, we never have to watch Reed Bailey fail to finish an and-one opportunity ever again. And that rips.

I think this season gets a flat D in my book solely because we did beat Purdue at home. The recruiting class I'd give a B. Weight the season more heavily than the recruiting class... overall I'd give the start of the DDV era a D+ maybe C- if I'm generous. We need to hit some home runs in the portal. Next year should be much better. We spent poorly on the roster and the coaching cost us a few games IMO. Hopefully a lot of learnings have already been getting applied behind the scenes in the portal. And hopefully there's a lot of reflection and constructive feedback for DDV to take with next year's team. This season was a little better than the last 2 Woodson years for me, but not by much, and mainly just because DDV isn't an arrogant dipshit like Woody

Yep. Based on numbers being tossed around: We paid Devries like an all-conference player, and got a solid starter. We paid Bailey like a solid starter, and got a mediocre backup. Scouting misses will happen, can't get too mad about it. The thing that still frustrates me - if you know Tucker is going to play 90% of the minutes at the 4, it's pretty obvious you need to get a glass eating rim protector as a 5 to play with him. Even in an alternate world where Bailey translates better to the Big Ten, he's just not that style of player. That was such a self-inflicted wound.

Coach Cignetti......

Canton?

So when do the Brad rumors start?

IU can now recruit “Come to IU and help make it a basketball school”

Game threads that extend over 20 pages because we're losing.

Least confident I’ve ever been in my Indiana basketball fandom. I used to think we can attract a top coach. The past 3 hires have proven that not true. Faith diminished each hire. With Woodson, he had some swag and could attract talent. Sucked as a NCAA basketball coach, but he has something to sell. DeVries can’t recruit, can’t scout, can’t do much. No swagger. No identity. No enthusiasm. Portal SZN is usually fun but with this staff? Meh, I guess we’ll see. I’m not expecting much. The death of IUBB one blow after another.

When you consider how we likely could've had Dusty May at various points, as most Michigan fans will readily admit, it's easy to go kinda nuts. I can't get over that. I've really wanted DDV to show he can win too but there's just no reason to believe that coming out of this year. Hopefully he proves people wrong next year. Lot of work to do in the portal. Starting to think more than 5 spots may be flipped. Goodness gracious. We have plenty of time to get a jump on the portal now. No excuses...

Honestly, neither would matter. We’re likely looking at 14-15 new players on the team next year. This was a one year project. It didn’t work. We didn’t build momentum for next year or develop a couple guys for a sophomore jump. This season of Indiana basketball was just this season of Indiana basketball. And now it’s over. Really never felt a connection to this team in any way. It was mediocre basketball played by players who I barely got to know, and will not remember in six months That part hurts to admit. It hurt seeing balconies empty all year. Hurt that we didn’t have a brand of basketball that was interesting. Probably watched the fewest games in a season in my 35 years as an IU fan. I just hope they can get my attention back somehow next year. Because losing interest in one of the things that has been a part of your identity and a source of hope and sometimes joy, feels weird. I just want them to make me care. We’re at a point where that would be an achievement.

There really isn't a single player I'd be torn up to lose. Not saying I want to kick them all to the curb, but none would be a terrible loss. I'm higher on Miles than most - I think he's good on defense and rebounds hard. Needs to shoot a ton of shots every day this offseason. Didn't get a chance to get into much of a rhythm this year. Has a lot of good physical tools. Dorn can't be counted on for much more than a catch and shoot guy IMO which there's definitely a role for that. Sisley nice hustle guy. Otherwise not fascinated by him at all. Harris was injured all year, maybe (?) he could be decent depth. Andrej apparently came cheap and he's a 7 footer, I have no issue retaining that depth. Ristic couldn't crack the rotation with this team, he's not going to help next year. Don't think Drake will be up to the task needed from an upper class bench guard next year.

I know nothing about Carr but Brian Evans knows him and said (on Hoosiers Hysterics) that Carr knows all the agents, is very organized and most importantly is a great talent evaluator. Hope he is right. I am hopeful, but not confident, that next season will be better.

It's crazy to think that if IU could have just beaten stinking Northwestern twice (and maybe even once!), we'd probably be dancing given the state of the bubble..

The above bolded is the key, IMO. It's Cig's secret power. I understand that CDD was late to shop the portal, but wasn't he and his staff at WV scouring & scouting it throughout last season? Some act as if he was dropped into the position out of thin air. Also, knowing Woodson was a lame duck, why didn't Dolson have someone on board to bridge the gap like Matta was supposed to have been or Carr is supposed to be? Feb/Mar last year was a clusterhump in retrospect.

Yes agree but most of those mid players besides Stirtz were picked to fill a hole in the roster. They had other high major players surrounding them. IU had a whole team of mid major players. Big difference in my opinion.

Goode played in the B1G on a championship level team and spent his whole career in the B1G. Goode experience alone would have been massive for this team.

Agreed. People are quick to pull their support and then wonder why media and other fanbases say our fanbase is delusional. I still 100% support DeVries. I think for a variety of reasons he didn’t put together a good enough roster. That’s on him. With the roster he had he did well but not where anyone wants us to be. I also am giving him a free ride for year 1. He literally started over like Crean but with NIL and his over rated kid. Now he has full lineup of assistants, a GM, and a NIL war chest to spend. The next 6 weeks will tell the story for next year. Even if we don’t know the names of the guys they get, we will find out how they did this fall/winter. I do like the freshmen coming in as well.

Two things. DeVries isn't going anywhere yet. Brad Stevens is never coming. Can we just give all that crap a rest? DeVries recruited a poor roster for this season. There are easily several reasons for it, including missing on some guys and being late getting his staff completed. Let's see what he does this off-season with both staffing and roster. I have no problem saying that the whole basketball program was a hot mess this year, and I bagged on the team, their effort and their overall lack of skill across the board. But this is year one with an extenuating situation. I'm gonna give CDDV a pass and see what he does next year before we break out the torches and pitchforks.

Yep. The whole situation was 100% on Sampson - not on IU for not covering it up. There are many factors in the disintegration of IU basketball and Sampson's cheating butt is but one of them.

no matter how bad things get, Brownell is never the correct answer.

Most disheartening aspect of this game - really, the last month of this season - is how disjointed this team looked. Were there chemistry issues? Seemed like when Conerway came back around the time of the Wisconsin game is when we started to struggle.

That's the problem. If we were going to suck, it may as well be with freshmen and sophomores. Build for next year. Now it's a reboot.

The body language from the coaches in the last 10 minutes of that game was something. DeVries couldn’t get that game over quick enough. First guy on the bench was very demonstrative. Between Sisley, and Conerway, some chemistry stuff has been going on with this group/staff. Not as dramatic as other teams, but sine stuff. How are we gonna win recruiting battles in portal without overpaying now? Lol. Pay more to pay less later. We screwed up so badly by not recruiting a winning roster in year 1.

Sampson, while an elite coach, absolutely had to be fired. You can argue the rule he broke was dumb (and I would agree with you), but it was still a rule for which he continued to break even after the Oklahoma infractions dropped. He received a 5 year show cause for the violations at IU, so there was no way in hell we were keeping him.

This is precisely why I KNEW we needed more on this roster. 1st year success is so important. I was freaking out all off-season because I could see this coming. I knew what we needed. Indiana Basketball and DeVries fumbled this season so hard. F……………….

If you can get a well timed technical you might be over qualified

Welp. This is my feeling about our season.

This is the problem. He's not even coaching that well. So even if we excuse the roster construction, which is hard to entirely do with the sheer number of evaluation misses, we've got this coaching concern. And a player dev concern too -- there was very little of that this year, which I hate. I'm just not seeing it. There is so much to fix and so little progress made in a year. On the bright side football practice starts in two weeks.

Yea I think I’m out on Devries. The bubble is begging for IU to get in and he can’t get his team up to beat a crappy Northwestern team. Just a pitiful end to the season.

The hump is back.

Alexis might get a flagrant 1 for flooring Conerway