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Oh? Over the past 20 years, Indiana University men's basketball has a conference record of 182-184. So to be Nostradamus when predicting how IUBB will do, if you simply go with "not great" it's a likely winner, not some outlier revelation. Constantly taking credit for being the primary true realist/pessimist is not accurate; lots of us are there. Having expectations of a top tier roster and accomplishments is the real sunshine pumper/pipe dream, until and unless proven otherwise. It's not that people think Fru is extraordinary; it's that he's an excellent get for IU. Expecting us to swoop in and get top of the top portal recruits is just plain wishful thinking. You want some realistic pessimism? Why in the heck would any top of the top portal recruit want to play for IU right now? We haven't accomplished jack in recent memory; hell, we haven't accomplished jack in distant memory Our current and recent coaching staffs haven't developed any NBA players We have plenty of money? So do the teams that have accomplished something. I can easily name 25 teams that can come calling with a similar financial offer that players would prefer to IU. We have a chance to poach the starting center from the Power Five #23 ranked team. He was relatively productive and is relatively athletic. We have a chance because he has a relationship with our new assistant, not because we're Indiana or have a strong budget. When/if our current staff shows they can develop and succeed under the current conditions, then we can have expectations of getting top tier players. Until then? I am gonna be grateful if a player the caliber of Fru chooses IU, and I'm gonna hope like hell that the coaching staff is talented enough to develop players like Sisley, Prince, Manhetz, and Karvala so that we have more results to show when we recruit the top of the portal.

The portal really needs to open up so we can argue about an actual team instead of the hypothetical team we have now

The minute some big school jumps in on Fru and gets him it will be a huge miss for DeVries. It will be like clockwork on here

Painter

Sisley officially back.

I liked Fru early in the season and if is one of 3 bigs that we need to compete in the Big Ten I'd be excited to have him. I'm not concerned about landing wings that can shoot, they're a dime a dozen. Bigs, a talented point guard and athletes that want to defend is the must if we want to evolve.

The past is the past and can't be changed so not sure why we're relitigating the WVU transfers situation. Anyways... Last year the transfer class was rated #10 by 247. Per 247 transfer portal rankings, we signed: #18 overall, #45 overall, #63 overall, #102 overall, #105 overall, #112 overall, #160 overall, #198 overall, #412 overall, #505 overall Sam Alexis was the #412 overall ranked player, Reed Bailey was the #63 overall. Enright was #198 and Conerway was almost unplayable at the end of the year ranked #105. We obviously have the money to pay "top" players... Do we have the chops to 1) scout them accurately 2) land them when other schools have a better pitch Rankings mean bupkis in the grand scheme of things if we can't do #1 And we won't know the answer to #1 until we see the team on the court. Everyone can cope differently while we wait. At least until then, we all can enjoy football season

IMO, good points in these recent posts. My gut is the realistic best case coming out of this portal is a ~#30 KenPom team with no glaring construction issues. I doubt the talent will look like a sure thing due to the reasons Stu and sk pointed out. Just a prediction, maybe I'm wrong. I can't help but think this still all comes down to sharp scouting and player dev. A program either does this or they don't. If a program doesn't, no amount of money will save them. Like Kentucky. If program does, everything starts falling into place -- culture, identity, execution under pressure... all that good stuff our football program does. The thing that gives me the heebie jeebies is the lack of sharp scouting and player dev we saw last season. I've got to hope the root cause of like 80%+ of that was the hurried portal last year for all the reasons we've discussed (timeline, slow staff hires, etc.) and we couldn't tell who we wanted and we scrambled. Not sure I buy that explanation, but it's possible. We need our high school recruits and whoever we get in this portal to be strategic and targeted additions that fit what IU wants to be vs. something more like taking whoever looks the best on paper and praying it works. Kind of a no-duh I know. Ryan Carr should help. We're in a tough spot. We'll see if this staff can start smartly building a program in season two. We won't know for sure until they play games, but I'm really hoping for a decent looking portal haul that doesn't raise any serious red flags.

My youngest brother is a freshman at IU. I told him what Lettice on Twitter was saying. He goes, “Not trusting anything until he actually leaves. You told me we were hiring Brad Stevens” Kid got me there…

Fru was the starting 5 on a team that was ranked throughout the duration of the year. What the hell are you talking about? You’ve b***** for 3 months about getting bigger and longer positionally, if 6’11 250 doesn’t cut it, what will?

Somto Cyril:

Please

Fru is a high major player with a 76.5 efg %. He is also 6’11”, 240, bouncy, runs the floor really well, and started for a top 25-ish team. Looks like he doesn’t play with his back to the basket—lob dunks, transition run outs, and basket cuts when he scores. Holy hell; if that doesn’t fit the high major big description I’m not sure what does.

Sounding like Fru will be a strong possibility.

Message received Mason.

Then he said "Maybe not actually". I wouldn't take much of what these guys say too seriously. Is it fun? Yes. Are they accurate? Not when you look at what they miss on.

Not really. The only person from last years WVU team really tied to DeVries was his son. Everyone else was either out of eligibility or were tied to the assistants he hired, that team was thrown together in a hurry like this years team. He didn't bring any of his assistants with him other than Norton.

Fine by me. He has a single skill and no other way to help you win. He’s the 7th or 8th guy on a good team.

Damn you lettuce guy.

Not that great, but if he’d done that to Kaufman-Renn in AH I’d have bought a Somto jersey.

I think we are looking at Caffey or Yarden entering the portal in the wrong way. If we look outside the IU bubble, every team is losing 1-2 contributors to the portal every year in this climate. The issue was this yrs portal class was inexcusable and didn’t replace the lost talent. Prior to last yr, the portal was a giveth and taketh away for Moren. Last yr it simply taketh with no give back. Whether the program is healthy, will be decided by who they bring in and not who they lose in portal. You need to be bringing in a Sara Scalia or Shay Ciezki in every portal class if you are competitive. Losing people is inevitable. If this portal class busts again, then its time for Moren and IU to be up front with fans as to whether either Moren is burnt out and can’t relate to modern kids or if program has serious NIL issues. One of two is true if the team can’t bring in impact players in portal again. Next few weeks will tell us a lot about program health. If things go south, its time for a frank admission from IU on which of these two issues above is holding program back.

Powell wasn’t going to turn down a North Carolina offer to come to IU

As I tell the board every year the margin between teams 9-11 seed and the first 4 out isn’t the wide. Iowa was a 9 seed after losing 7 or their last 9. 0 roads wins against tourney quality teams(IU was their best win from their 3-8 road record) and finished 10-10 in conference. IU was first 4 out losing 5 of their last 6 had 1 road win against tourney quality team in their 3-8 road record and finished 9-11 in conference. Flip the home game IU lost to them and IU is probably the 10 seed while Iowa is in the last 4 in or first 4 out. However for most college basketball is on what you do in the ncaa tourney and Iowa is the good example of just find a way in to the tourney and you can make noise. Before the tourney they were 0-6 against kenpom top 40 away from home. Their first 3 tourney games resulted in top 40 kenpom wins

Without the two Big Handsome years, our 20 year conference record is 147-173. If you include the Zeller/Oladipo years and go back to since Kelvin Sampson left? 158-188.

JFC eventually there has to be a "this is who we can actually get" element to all of this At minimum this kid played high major ball this year---- was incredibly efficient, has a good rebounding rate, assist rate, and a very good block rate. He's easily a step up from Alexis.

Generally, I agree with you on most of what you post but I am curious...why do you think we are attractive to high major more talented players? What do we have to offer besides money and playing time? While I really want to see us build a competitive roster with better players, I just don't see what is better about IU if they can go to UK, UL, Texas, Arkansas, UT, etc. Those were tournament teams. We had a meltdown and couldn't beat NW twice. Being a tournament team seeded 6-10 would be a feat for this program right now IMO. We are not the IUBB of old. We cannot just attract any players we want unfortunately. Money isn't the only thing that attracts these high major players especially when other programs have the SAME money to offer and a more attractive winning program. I am not saying CDD/Carr shouldnt go after the big fish. I am saying I don't think there is anything at this point to believe we can get those players over others save for money (and those that are purely after money aren't going to create the right culture that is needed to build this program).

Wayne...I'd like to offer you a hug. May I give you a hug?

Oh look, UConn’s ‘26 PG just hit the portal.

Will be a nice add as a bench shooter for someone. Deep range and plays his a$$ off. Will serve the same role for someone that Dorn should fill except I like him better because he plays much harder.

That Lettice guy on Twitter is saying Dorn is out

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/compliance/recruiting/calendar/2025-26/2025-26D1Rec_MBBRecruitingCalendar.pdf coming up on a Dead period Apr 2nd- 9th. No visits during this time

then it would have been why the heck did he bring these unsuitable players with him from WV. He should have known what he had and he brought them anyway. That’s on him. Unacceptable for a place like IU that has only had 1 time with back to back winning conference records in 18 years

This is it. Buying a roster rarely works, and doesn't work long term. You have to identify and develop. Hopefully that is what Ryan Carr is there for -- do the grunt work to identify the talent. Then CDD and staff can try fitting the pieces together and developing them from there.

Fru is currently rated by 247 as the third best 4 or 5 in the portal.

I’d probably fall close to this camp or with WFH. Bring in Fru as a rotation piece or backup? Excellent. Try and plug him in as your 30mpg answer at center? We’re probably trending pretty close to bubble team territory again. I guess the exception to that would be we hit a homerun at all of our perimeter portal spots. Because that’s basically what Lville did. Brown was one of the top 3-4 freshman PGs in the country. Conwell was probably a top 2-3 combo guard out of the portal, and McNeely was probably a top 3-4 shooter in the portal. They also returned a pretty good player in Hadley. Even with all that they finished 6th in a fairly mediocre ACC. Could we nab Fru and a bunch of good portal guards and finish 8th in the B1G and be a 9/10 seed? Sure. Could we land Fru, miss on some guys and have to pair him with Sisley in the front court and end up on the wrong side of the bubble again? Yep.

No way, but it would be the funniest thing ever. It’s like someone looked at the ‘21 IU hiring process and thought, “Yeah, we GOT to get us some of that.”

Former Purdude Jaden Ivey is in the news with some notable public comments; likely mental health issues. Just got cut from the Bulls; likely because of them. I’d like to think that I can mock Purdue with the best of em, but this isn’t a laughing matter. Hope he gets help and gets right.

Yeah correct. Iowa took advantage of their easier B1G and overall SOS. They took advantage of schedule in front of them and most importantly won the games they should. They did get a 9 seed this year but was closer to the bubble then most 9 seeds before them I had ever seen. The bubble was crap. Basically you flip the away game at IU and even being a 9 seed that one game probably was worth 2 seed lines. If they don’t beat IU they are 2-9 on the road with 0 wins away from home against any team close to tourney quality. I definitely can admit they had the better year but I can also point out how razor thin their resume actually was on selection Sunday. Kudos to Iowa and McCollum for taking advantage of the tourney restart and winning games. Iowa fans were getting restless with how the regular season was ending

Lighting up IU is not such a high bar these days. UConn won't even sniff in Mack's direction IMO. They want the Furman kid. Georgetown went 18-16 and 16-18 with him playing 30+mpg ... this year 38% FG and 29.8% from 3... not super exciting and don't think we will be involved

I disagree about Mack. He’s too small and can’t shoot. He did light us up that day but hes been underwhelming for gtown

Makes me want him at IU juuuust a lil' more.

Gets to the free throw line A TON. Any reason to believe that IU is pursuing and/or has a chance?

Why? Woody brought in Ware and then Ballo-two of the top ranked bigs in the portal. You guys are pinning last years Devries failures on IU as a whole. Even Devries got Wilkerson to IU last year. There’s no indication top talent won’t come to Indiana for the right price or the right coach.

If he comes he is a piece; not the whole puzzle. If CDD can’t coach up talented players into a hungry, cohesive group it’s all a moot point anyway.

I am rapidly losing interest and hope for women's college basketball in general, and IU in particular. I heard Caffey on a radio show. She was either lying through her teeth then, a sharp agent has gotten a hold of her lately, or her so-called friends have convinced her now she can do better somewhere else. On another note, Lilly Meister and Kansas just lost in the semi-final of the WBIT. Lilly had 12 points and 9 rebounds. But I suspect Lilly had fun playing for Kansas this year.

Doubt this will interest anyone but me much, but saw Fielder play a couple of games in HS and liked him pretty well. Unlike a lot of stretch big types he’s got enough bulk and leverages well enough to hold up against most traditional 5’s and good enough feet to chase stretch 4’s and hedge pick and roll. He’ll help a good team.

This has been my impression as well