Stuhoo

Seems like we need a thread to monitor and comment on the summer progress of the current IU basketball roster. So there’s this!

If a really good player hits the portal at the semester there is no way in holy hell they would want to be IU's 13th player. If there were significant injuries and a really good player wanted in with no scholly available, we would just have hem pay tuition and compensate their NIL accordingly.

Thought that Brian Walsh deserved his own thread, because it seems as though he is crushing it on behalf of the program. Before this season he appeared to be a young guy that followed Archie around and stayed in the background. However, people in the program who stayed into the Woodson era were apparently big fans, and when Archie left he got a substantial promotion. He's got a great background as a player, and both Woody and recruits have been mentioning him as a key figure in our recruiting. In fact, as soon as an assistant job opens up I fully expect he will be the natural choice. • Brian Walsh is in his fifth season with the Indiana men’s basketball program and first as Team and Recruiting Coordinator after serving four years as the Director of Basketball Operations. • Prior to IU, Walsh spent three years on the staff at the University of Dayton with Archie Miller where he served as the Assistant Director of Basketball Operations for one year and a graduate assistant for two seasons. During his time at Dayton, the Flyer’s went 76-25, the most wins in a three-year span in program history. While at Dayton, the Flyer’s advanced to three straight NCAA tournaments and claimed back-to-back regular-season Atlantic 10 championships in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. In the summer of 2015, Walsh earned a master’s degree in educational leadership. • In his role at Dayton, Walsh assisted with every aspect of the program, including underclassman recruiting, on campus recruiting, day-to-day administrative duties, academic services, housing, player services, community relations, and team meals. He served as the director of the Archie Miller Team Camp and had responsibilities related to video, team travel, and summer camp operations. • Walsh graduated from the University of Akron in 2012, earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration, before earning a master’s in sports administration from Akron in 2013. While at Akron, he led the Zips and the MAC in three-point field goal percentage as a junior hitting 44.2% from long distance in league play. Overall, he finished second in the conference shooting 43.4% from beyond the arc. • A two-time academic All-MAC honoree, Walsh shot 40.9% from three-point range during his collegiate career. He averaged 8.3 ppg as a junior and 7.2 ppg as a senior captain, helping the Zips to 48 wins in two seasons and securing a regular-season and conference tournament championship in 2013, advancing to the NCAA Tournament. • Before transferring to Akron, Walsh was a member of Xavier University’s basketball team from 2008-2010 where they advanced to back-to-back Sweet Sixteen appearances. • A native of Moon Township, Pennsylvania, Walsh averaged 19.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists as a senior at Moon High School and was named Gatorade Player of the Year in Pennsylvania in 2008.

Oh for F's sake.

Because it is damn near impossible to have the 13th guy on a roster be a guy who will play. Feels like he's a (maybe less hilarious) Tijan!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4rg4K6NZC7/

The totality of the evidence. And because I said so.

Unless, of course, we get Micah Shrewsbury. With IU’s NIL he will be elite from day one.

Wanting to leave an IU assistant job for the same role at OSU? If true, that’s not a good look for Woody.

In four years at South Carolina State he was never good enough on the court to get significant playing time or accumulate any significant stats. I cannot imagine he would ever be a rotation piece or be counted on to be a first line backup. But a 4.0 student in electrical engineering is a good way to fill an unfilled scholarship with a high culture guy.

Would be a 7'0" one year player who would, based on this article about his academics, clearly be a high- culture fit: https://scsu.edu/news/2024_dallas_james_graduation_05_09_24.php

Great album cover. Criminally underrated album:

C’est la faute de Woodson s’il n’a pas entouré ses grands de meilleurs gardes la saison dernière.

Yes - understood. But the point I was making is that other than JHS (and Gallo as a nice defensive and complimentary piece), for the last two years our guards have really been subpar. In college basketball that is a death sentence for serious success.

Jalen Hood Schifino was pretty good but not great as a point guard. He was an inconsistent freshman who shot 41.7% fg, 33% 3pt, and a 3.7/2.8 A/TO rate. Pretty damn good and a whole lot better than anything else the last two years, but there's no reason Rice and Carlyle shouldn't improve on that. With JHS we were ranked, tied for second in the conference at 12-8, a top 20 team most of the season, and a top 16 seed in the NCAA tourney. Not dominant, but solid.

Are we talking the all black Smell the Glove cover or the original? :)

Playing Heretic Pride by The Mountain Goats on Spotify while at work (what a great listen it is!). Yes; there's an album cover. Unlike 30 years ago, it's not a relevant part of the experience.

And yet the year before when he had one really good guard it was soooooo much better.

A tough last exhibition today against a pretty good, medal-worthy German team. USA wins by four. In the fourth quarter the game was taken over by the 39 year old (!) US Captain, LeBron James. In a game of stars he was clearly the best player on either team down the stretch. US needs to stop turning the ball over 12-18 times per game. If we can fix that we're looking at gold; if we cannot we're looking at an upset loss.

Woody can win 19 games with ... Leal, Cupps, Gunn, X (for 20 of 33 games), and Galloway ... as his guards, so apparently coaching was not the problem. Roster construction was the problem in a very big way. If he cannot win 25 withMyles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle, Gallo, Newton, Cupps, and Leal now as his guards? Then coaching can be identified as the problem.

True, but far easier said than done. Some other countries have teams that are flat-out stacked, and no country, including South Sudan gets "out-athleticized" by the USA anymore.

I really don't think Woody was afraid to "recruit over" anyone with our guards last year. Instead, I think Woody vastly overestimated the abilities of the guards he had, and suffered because of that.

This is Jeopardy? Okay... I'll play. Question: Which of the Howard boys never got into the Three Stooges?

And since this is the anti-Woodson thread, let me add the reminder that the crap-tastic roster construction was entirely the fault of Mike Woodson. But he has solved that (I think). A prime example is that his marquee portal acquisition, Oumar Ballo, is an extremely effective player on both ends who will rarely have offense run through him. I would imagine that if we play with Ballo and Malik on the court at the same time, Malik will get the vast majority of post touches and Ballo will be the perimeter screener who then rim runs.

And who were supposed to be our volume three point shooters last season? Mgbako ...?? ...?? ...?? The roster construction sucked big-time. Adding Goode, Carlyle, Hatton, and hopefully Rice as players that at a minimum at least need to be guarded at the three point line was critical.