8bucks

How do you know he was promised to be the focal point of the offense? It seemed to me that the focal point was generally MR at least early in the year. But wondering this is your perception or if you read that somewhere

It is tough as we may also need to be patient with the next coach. We expect to get someone in here who will have us a top 20 team every year but we also want to go to final fours. There just are that many of those coaches out there. Would we be happy with a coach like Matt Painter? The last few years sure but what about years 7,8 and 9 where they finished 6th, 7th then 12th in the BT. We would have run him out of town. Shaka is an interesting candidate. He took a little time to turn TX around but seemed to be making progress his last 2 years there finishing 3rd in the Big12. Not great but getting there but when Pearl became available he was jettisoned. Hopefully we get that top 20 every coach but if not, hopefully we can become more patient (easier with a younger coach) and it pays off in the long run.

We going to get a picture of them taking down the chairs at the yum?

I don’t know. It would not be hard to see the rumor that QB was not a fan. May or may not be true but it could definitely chill his desire to be here. Certainly might happen down the road but I don’t think it is a sure thing.

I wonder. Granted it should but if we had guys at the end of our bench making near $100k last year and If we have to overpay to keep current players that extra may get gobbled up quick. I think we are up $2mil from 23/24 and we lose Ware (who probably had a big piece of that), X who probably had a good size. Getting MR, MM and Gallo back could take half that $6 million. We are going to need to pay up for 2 starters and a couple top reserves.

Could you imagine the JMU fan reactions if we did that? Some were very salty about Cigs coming here which I kind of get but if they lost both to us they might invade.

But didn’t he recruit pretty well at Vandy? I know he got one we were after and I thought he had a couple more in that class.

I don’t think they are working hard to trash the program. In fact, had Woodson hit with DQ, LM and Boogie I think the board sentiment would be much different. But he did not hit. I think it just shows that the vision/expectations he had for recruiting missed in a big way and will probably sink him. But to suggest he is trying to sink it seems to be a stretch.

People will laugh I am sure but he has excelled everywhere except Vandy. Maybe it was too early? Maybe he could not get upper level recruits to play as hard as needed. Not sure but if you could augment any coaching weaknesses with a strong staff, his age and reputation in the state are probably strong advantages for him.

I worry more about our administration baggage more than any ncaa baggage he may have.

Even if he does not really contribute next year, I hope he can stay healthy. Guys like him and Cupps could be keys for us in 2 years and if we don’t recruit HS kids, can hopefully be pieces for the next staff.

Maybe in years where we are coming off a good season they would not need to but given our current situation I think MR letting us know he was going to return was needed info.

Yeah hopefully this gets some traction in the media. I heard DD bring this up about 10-15 years ago and if KathyC has any legitimacy she said the same. Hopefully Crean brings it up again next time on TV.

Just saw a replay of Iowa State during a TO and they have a defensive coach give instruction on D things, then an offensive coach steps in to coach on things to do on offense. Apparently they even have one coach who focuses on spacing. Interesting set up.

It will be interesting to see how the staff builds next years team. If they indeed bring in a new starting center then I don’t think we land 2 big time guards. If you can have one legit starting guard would you rather have a lights out shooter and let Gallo play point, a PG who is an average shooter and shift Gallo to a cutting off guard position?

Just about everything done by the staff/team that looks like a repeat of this year is going to generate legitimate criticism. If we start to see something that might being hope for a better outcome then criticism will slow.

I think there could be better players in the portal but if MR would have chose to leave and I was a portal kid thinking of Indiana I would be less interested if their better players left. At least with MR you know what his weaknesses are. Portal guys all we see are scoring highlights and numbers. Now, I do share concerns that the inability to see the double team coming and pass out of it may remain a big issue. If he fixes that and we get shooters to pass to, things could work nicely

To be clearer. MR said he would do some NBA evaluation it seems fully to be information gathering for him. Right after talking about that he said but I will be back at IU. As for MM, MR did sort of indicate that MM would probably be back unless he gets some news from the NBA evaluation

Yeah MR seemed to indicate MR would check the NBA evaluations but it seems more of an information gathering process for him.

MR sort of alluded to his return if he doesn’t get any NBA traction

Was surprised he didn’t list that as his favorite place to eat.

I agree. He would be a top talent in the portal. We already know him and he apparently does not hate playing here. Does he need to become a smarter defender, absolutely. But he is a solid get and IF Woody blew all his $ on his returning players he won’t have any left for new kids and that will be him.

Well we don’t know he would be willing to come off the bench. If he were willing to come and compete for minutes whether starting or supporting he would be a nice fit it seems.

Never saw AT. That would have been something. Scott May would play some. I remember driving on him once thinking dude I am going to score on Scott May. He clearly fouled me.

Worked with Lynn at the HT. He even played a little basketball over at the Y at lunch with us.