Leaderboard

Given the huge amount of money spent on the roster, which will be near $20M, we should be thinking Sweet 16. That's not unreasonable. Everybody in this program is getting paid a lot, from coaches to players. Time to earn it and win.

Woody is going to randomly flip on ESPN next year, see us playing two seven footers and absolutely lose his mind.

Here’s our boy diving for a 50/50 ball during a travel ball game in April. Follows that up with chasing down a loose ball and just casually burying a corner 3. If that doesn’t do a little something for you not sure what will.

I could buy into “baby steps” if our roster spend wasn’t one giant leap for IUBB. We went from around $10M spend to close to $20M, nearly doubling it. We are probably close to #5 roster spend in the country. And we brought in a GM and another assistant. I’m almost certain the internal expectations are second week of the tourney and much more than just beating NW and making the dance. That said, I don’t see how this program is ready to do more than that. Maybe in season three if we develop and retain well — then we really have a nice situation to sell in the portal.

We are not going to be in NC conversations. On an expedited timeline—like the one May took—maybe next year. We wasted last year and started over this year. If you want to be optimistic think of this as UMay Yr 1. Contend for a B1G title, win the BTT, and make the S16 and everyone will be over the moon.

This coming from the man who said Aaron Craft should have been picked #1 overall in a draft.

One thing I’m hoping for is Samet benefits from the prison ball nature of the B1G. He beats the hell out of teams, doesn’t get called for many fouls, and the opposition cries about it. That would be a nice change.

I get your point here, and you could be right. But, I'm not sure we know enough yet. - Anything around the program's "thinking" is getting pretty presumptive. None of us really know, including the Rabby's of the world. - We might be low on money like you said, and that combined with minutes availability may limit our ability to get another obvious "impact" guy - Let's see who we get. If the final additions are really gnarly, then I'll jump in the concern boat I'd guess these last three spots aren't quite what we hope, but at some point this staff is just going to have to prove they had a plan and made it work despite what it looked like on paper. If they can't do that, we've go a serious issue. Like with IUFB right now, I'm looking a TE spot and I see six young guys with limited experience. I'm pretty surprised we didn't pick up a vet TE in the portal, we easily could have. But, I'm sure the staff knows something I don't. I'd like to see some of that from the IUBB staff this season -- the old upside surprise that explains something that looked iffy on paper.

Hmm not often you see duke blow an offer that badly. Because there’s no way Dakich is right about him

Hey all— let’s migrate this roster expectations convo to that thread please.

The Scharnowski commitment to Duke came desipte Dakich chewing on D-Rock's ear about him. I'm sure DeVries appreciated the input ... LOL.

Saint Mary’s transfer Andrew McKeever has committed to Iowa. The 7’2” sophomore center appeared in 30 games, averaging 8.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game. McKeever is 11th in the country in offensive rebounding averaging 3.79 per game this past season. Duquesne transfer Jimmie Williams has committed to Ohio State. The 6’5” junior SG started all 33 games played for the Dukes, averaging 15.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. Williams is good at getting to the basket, and an effective finisher around the rim. Shot 34% from 3 on the year, hitting 62/183 shots. On defense being 6’5” he can defend multiple positions. Kentucky transfer Jasper Johnson has committed to Oregon. The 6’5” freshman guard appeared in 35 games, averaging 4.9 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. Was a former top 25 recruit. Miami Ohio transfer Eian Elmer has signed with Wisconsin. The 6’6” junior guard started all 34 games played, averaging 12.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.2 steals per game for the MAC regular season champs. The Badgers land a very good shooter, Elmer shot 42.9% from 3 (72/168).

To me Im interested in who our dog, and or leader will be. This team hasn’t had a player to rally the troops to help keep them in a game, much less win a tough one.

1. 11+ conference wins 2. At worst an 8 seed…even though the talent is there to be a 6. 3. Win your first game and don’t get blown out in R2

Thinking sweet 16 and expecting it are 2 different things.

23rd seems about right to me. I don’t think people should expect a sweet 16 or final four team this year. Make the dance. Develop the team and then in year 3 add the pieces for a run.

We could never win another game and the pure joy the past 20 months have brought me would make every cent I’ve poured into this program in that span and before worth it.

100% agree. Making the tournament without being on the bubble and getting a ~top 6 seed would be a successful year IMO. We are not sniffing a national title next year. Should be contending in the B1G. As you said, in the optimistic case, maybe the year after next because we will finally have a foundation on the roster and after manageable attrition we can hit the portal hard for highest end talent available to fill needs.

Given the roster as it stands now I’d be pretty surprised if this one’s a thing.

I think we're a top 4 Big Ten team as is if: Coach has the playbookk to match the skillset of the team. Burton stays healthy Harris is similar to the player he was expected to be out of high school. One of the freshmen is ahead of the curve and contributes when we go 4-out. We should be pretty competitive at the top of the conference. Michigan will still be tough and if Illinois figures out the point???? After that it's wide open. I think 14 conference wins is doable.

https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/sports/college/sec/2025/03/30/alabama-basketball-big-man-aiden-sherrell-clears-the-air-about-height/82730972007/

Hans?

100%. And not second week because you finished 8th in the conference and eked into Dayton and then upset a couple of teams. 2nd week because you were solid all year and were a 4/5 kind of seed at least.

Rabby and the Hysterics said we were going to be close to $20M. Maybe we end up high teens. All we can do is ballpark estimate. While I agree budgets went up, it sure looks like ours went up a lot more than most. Rev share is basically unchanged this year, so the difference is all NIL, an area we excel at. The national recruiting guys are talking about huge spend for IU and few other schools are getting that kind of talk. I'd say consensus is IU is around #5 in roster spend, maybe #5-8 to be safe. I'm trying to be reasonable in that we're still in program build mode with a whole new roster. Making the round of 16 seems pretty reasonable goal. If we have a good season and get like a six seed and go down fighting to a strong team in the round of 32, that's not the end of the world. But with this much money spent expectations sort of have to be somewhat in line with the spend, at least in my opinion. That's certainly fine, to each their own, and I'd be lockstep with you if we only spent like $13-14M. But with nearly $20M roster spend... I just think that changes things. I suspect the AD has higher expectations when they gave MBB at this much money. But I can only guess...

Rancik reportedly headed to Florida State.

He just needs to attend the Cig school of training humble and hungry warriors..

Dittos. And in my view this is only way to win big, we can't be rebuilding every year. I don't think our roster budget can go any higher than it now without some serious results. Though i was surprised at how much we just spent, so what do I know? The $20M for the roster this year was a shot in the arm or a big blast of lighter fluid to get this going. If we can have a good year and develop and retain players, that means we're in the portal after next season needing only a few guys. And we can sell stepping into a winning team, which would probably open up the universe of players we can get. Then we can potentially start dreaming big. But, we have a long way to go. CDD has a lot of work to do getting this brand new team to gel. Some of these guys got big paydays -- as Marvin Hagler said: “It's tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5am when you've been sleeping in silk pajamas." I don't want to see anyone out of shape, or being pouty, or talk of players not going what the coach wants. I think CDD can do this, but it's not easy. We'll see.

If it doesn't, just put a big "Edey" patch on the back of his jersey to confuse the zebras. lol

Probably a good landing spot for Faith. Wish her well in Kazoo.

Make the dance and...BEAT NORTWESTERN! I thought that should've been the goal this season, but I'm willing to look past that if we see progress next year. This program is broken, it won't be fixed in one season. #Babysteps

She's finally free.

Seems like Trilly hinted something about Julius Halaifonua..maybe Kenny has the Georgetown connection there.

College money is now officially ridiculously out of hand if a kid whose floor in the draft is no worse than late lottery would even consider going back to school. Don’t care if there’s a good developmental argument for a kid like Ament to stay in school, and there is, it should be a complete financial nonstarter. The 12th pick in last year’s draft signed for 4/25.

Is Cook Hall open to the public anymore? I remember when Crean was here the public was allowed to come anytime it was open. If so, maybe someone can stop in and see if anyone is on a visit? lol

Good stuff 66. These capsules are helpful!

Home ice always seems to matter less than other home advantages, but would like to see data on it. Either way, those matchups are very balanced. Pens and Flyers have the same amount of regular season points. And while Dallas was home, I could absolutely see the Wild making a Cup run.

It was just a comment about him, not him being connected to IU. I believe he announced he was staying and then a few days later entered the portal so the conclusion there is that he was lured and has a spot in mind. Both from a cash and minutes availability standpoint, it would be very unlikely that spot is IU. At least in my opinion

Goal should be to see what this team is made of. Retain everybody capable of a NC run then add any missing pieces next year. Or if the guys just need development who knows

Women sweep today's doubleheader winning the second game 9-7 scoring 2 runs in the top of the 10th via RBI singles from Mannon and Ketteman. 5 IU pitchers allowed 10 hits and walked 4. We had 11 hits with 4 women getting 2 each. Bird, Strader & White each with 2 RBI. We had to battle hard today. It was tied at 2 after 5 complete. Iowa scored 5 in its 6th; we scored 5 in our 7th and then won it in the 10th. We go for the series sweep tomorrow at 1:00 ET.

Women take the weekend opener 2-1 and have a 2-1 lead in game 2 with Iowa batting in the 4th with Taylor Hess on the mound. In game #1, Hooks started and went 5 innings giving up 4 hits and Iowa's lone run. Troutt pitched the final 2 innings allowing just one hit. We had 7 hits led by VanBrandt with 2. She and Goins each with an RBI. Iowa walked 7 Hoosiers and as a result we left a total of 11 on base.

Watched Parker against Temple this year. Dominated the glass. Looked way more physically imposing than 225. Wouldn’t call him a guard at all. Broadcast mentioned he was FAU’s highest rated recruit ever and that his older brother was an assistant on staff.

I don’t buy for a second the assertion that IU’s scheme is vanilla. It’s very much not. Maybe I’m misunderstanding him. Do Gracie Bear’s boys pound you into submission physically and with flawless technique? Yes. Is it complex and leaves you guessing pre and post snap? Also yes. If Ty knew what they were actually doing before 5 broke him in half he may have thrown for more than 60 yards or whatever. The only thing he knew was coming was pain.

Saw that. I know most you don’t care but this stuff is important for a variety of reasons. Have to follow up with enough on court success too, of course. But changing of narratives need to happen and you have to start somewhere. Offseason winning is the first step.

Last week, people were talking about Dorn possibly starting next year. Now we’re talking about getting someone as good or better to be somewhere around the 9th man. Crazy.

Tommy likey, Tommy want wingy!

MSU board was pretty entertaining. Some good posters over there. The best sequence over there was someone asked where their Rabby and a board insider was because they had been silent for days and someone posted they had committed to IU as well. If I could post on their premium board I would of gave him some props because that was funny