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With Conwell being a combo, and Rice a PG (right?) then hopefully we add both.

Interesting comments from Leal on the recent HH podcast. When asked about portal recruiting and roles the players had in that he started to laugh I guess because Eric paused and asked why he was laughing. Leal said that they see these tweets about kids going into the portal and how they would be a great fit for IU but most of them are kids we have not contacted and are not contacting. Then a little later made a comment about how the team is encouraged heading into the offseason knowing they have so many key players returning but then he added a comment about a lot of people were saying we were going to have a lot of kids leave IU for the portal. According to Leal, the players knew all along they would be back. Sounded familiar. I wonder if he has Tyme to tweet himself or friends that do?

I thought the NCAA frowned on schools making the announcing during the championship game day or FF weekend. I know we made an announcement once but thought it was earlier in the tournament.

Did we have the dead period last year soon after the portal opened?

It is even better if they shoot and make the basket ; >

https://magazine.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2021/culture-joy Baylors AD is a Christian as well. Still always felt Drew would leave Baylor if we called. Not sure about Kentucky

True but Woody tried to use a deep bench last year and it drove us crazy. Maybe if he has talent on the bench he can sell "look i tried last year to even out the minutes but did not have the talent and had to scale it back". I agree it will be a tough sell.

Not like it was an important reason to consider firing Woodson this year. I mean if we have no recruits and everyone is leaving why keep him? It certainly got me ready to make a change now. He still has a lot of work to do to build a roster that can compete for a BT title next year but keeping the core was a key part. AH 1972 summarized it pretty well. We can be for a change and also interested in making the decision based on accurate information.

We all like to discuss who we seem to be targeting right? That is still news. I mean if a kid reduces his list and we are not on it, if we assumed he was a major target we get frustrated but if we knew ahead of time who the staff seemed to be targeting it is not a big deal if a kid who is not on that list goes elsewhere. If we nab Rice, Wolfe and the Iowa kid good for NGW if we don't then he either does not have connections or the staff missed on primary targets. If the latter, that is important to know right?

I think wolf might have been mentioned here but his early tweets focused on those guys where we had a more shot gun approach here. I don’t really care tbh just what I saw

He was giving hints who Wolfe and Rice at least far before anyone else. Who knows whether he guessed well, had a connection or if we will land them but he was pointing at them when most were thinking our top targets were the first guys we had visiting.

To be fair he was giving hints about Wolf and Rice before others. The ITH angle is interesting but if we bring in those 2 you have to think he/she is connected

I think it would be good for Cal. Go where appreciated

If Wolfe can play D for the 5 and then spread the floor on offense to give room for MR, Gallo and Tucker to operate inside the ARC that could greatly help our offense.

https://indiana.rivals.com/news/jakai-newton-could-be-one-of-iu-s-future-leaders-waiting-in-the-wings quick update. Some video too. Would love for him to stay healthy

Heard Rabby talking and it was also related to time with staff. During an official they get like 3 days but an unofficial visit is just a day. I am sure he has seen campus but being able to see get a better feel for who the other coaches are, support staff, food, drop ceilings, weight room etc

So i presume that if he has rescheduled he has a date now for that visit? Do we know when that is? Did not see the date listed on Rabby's post but if rescheduled that would be good thing

But MM's camp called to make sure Woody was going to be the coach next year (per reports) and did not go portaling so they felt there was reason to stay. Maybe they saw how he struggled early but somehow developed during the year and is on the brink of having a great year.

I know people want to be convinced Woody can never change and maybe they are right but the staff is recruiting far more guard/wings than bigs. To compete in the BT only Gallo should be expected to contribute meaningfully to our success next year from those returnees. If Cupps, Leal or Newton contribute in a meaningful way great but I would assume those 3 would be further down the bench

Not sure we will know what promises may or may not have been made about playing time. Bates and MR did not start. I put Tucker more in their camp than in MM's camp. But honestly, I don't worry about that. I think most of us initially thought Woody would bring in kids with 1 year remaining via the portal and we would have to completely rebuild the roster again next offseason. I am glad to see the addition of Tucker but less for next year and more for the year after. Rice also has 3 years left I believe. These would be great additions! If we are not a sweet 16 team or better next year we probably have a coaching change and adding guys like this may be attractive tools for the next coach.

With regards to how much we are paying, IF say we made a coaching change and the NIL went up for this coach and he were dropping $ for recruits like this, we would all be celebrating how we are now getting serious about becoming great.

He definitely is (currently) a bit of a black hole. Definitely frustrating to watch. However, TJD became a much better passer his last year and I am hopeful MR can improve as well.

I am willing to let it play out but I am glad my job is not on the line (unless I had that huge buyout). If MR, MM and Gallo all improve from last year then we need to add 2 more starters. Maybe one is that dynamic PG we all see the need for but the other spot may dictate what style of offense we run next year. If we get a back to the basket 5, well we know what that means, but if we get a guy like the Evansville 4/5 who can step out to the perimeter then that creates room in the lane for MR, maybe Tucker too. Fun to watch, but if we are hoping to sit at the table with the big dogs and they say no again, could be ruff.

Is there any assumption that Robby Avila will enter the portal. He isn’t a rim protector but would be a stretch 4/5 and give MR room to operate

If wrong he will just delete the account and or resurface under a different name. I am morbidly fascinated by this offseason. Tyme/NGW is pretty much on an island with his take but I will give him credit for being confident in his ideas. If he has ears within the program and knows things we do not AND if he is right in stating we will end up leading the pack in building a powerhouse via the portal then cool. Him being solo in this crusade and the recent deleting of tweets about players that did not list us as a finalist lead me to believe he will be trying to convince people that average players we sign later are going to be great. I am open to the idea that this may be the new way forward much like Cal and Duke did initially in the one and done era. They rebuilt year after year with high end freshman so there is certainly a way to do this with more veteran players via the portal. Can our staff pull it off, seems questionable but we will know soon enough. If he is wrong and we swing and miss mightily then that should get us a coaching change. I am fine with either scenario and am just sitting back wondering which one will materialize.