WayneFleekHoosier

This man knows he needs 3 of 4. And he isn’t counting on @OSU. Smart man, but a nerve racking predicament.

I thought Dusty would be great, but I didn’t know how great. Thought he might struggle to recruit to the B1G level. Then the fishbowl crap talk narrative started going around. But I still wanted Dusty if it wasn’t Brad Stevens. Knowing we won the championship in football is still unbelievable to me. The number of effective years would sway me towards May. However, if I had to pick one that I think falls back to the pack first, I’d guess Dusty. Both are tremendous. Can’t go wrong. We need DeVries to get on that Dusty May Swag level soon then we can have best of both worlds.

I hope so. I want so badly to build a roster that gives confidence of a strong team. Makes the off season so much better to be amongst the teams being talked about.

I was at the IPFW @PFW loss and the Butler loss the year we were #1. Both of those are still strong memories for the wrong reasons.

I was there too. Didn’t see that one coming. lol. Should have. Tried to pick a game Indiana would win. The following year I picked Minnesota.

Seems he’s a lifelong fan and previous student manager. So it means something to him. Pay must be at least in same neighborhood if not more though. I love this move, and think it shows we know how important portal season is about to be.

Need to start winning games like this one.

He definitely did well keeping the puck out of the NET!

Incredible goaltending. The best I’ve ever seen in 40 years as a hockey fan!

It’s why we have 17 wins. Wouldn’t have that otherwise.

He’s shooting 50% from the charity stripe. And he’s playing like a freshman. He had some good mojo early against the easier competition and the nerves have gotten the better of him. BUT he’s smart, athletic, and really hustles. I’d like to see him a bit more. Dorn offers the allure of a better shooter. Miles plays sound, athletic defense. This is the comp. I think DeVries knows Dorn can really shot it and hopes he snaps out of it. But this is a long funk. The free throw shooting I think is an indication of nerves. If he’s patient, his time is coming.

Sounds like self inflicted. Very sad to see this stuff regardless of age, but particularly with the Youth. Fort Wayne has had a few of these situation with young kids and notably a young hockey player this year. Always so sad to hear about.

My son played against Thomas for years. Glad to see him having success at Indiana. Could really be special if things come together. Tons of potential.

Maybe we should have hired Kevin Willard. lol. TIC. I can’t stand the guy, love to see him lose but he’s having far more success than I anticipated.

I suppose. The 3 freshman help. The rest cost what they are worth. And they aren’t worth much. Sisley and Dorn might be bargains. Idk. But in general the roster needs such massive upgrades, we need space for them. #ballingonabudget

Jordan Smith is gonna be a handful. Calipari made a smart move on that one.

Yes. Exactly. It was 10-11 million by most reports. Lamar was near 2.5. Bailey was near 1.5. Maybe Tuck was near 2, I’m not sure on him. 750 for Conerway. On and on. About 10-11 total. Which puts us around 10-25 most in the country. Which should be a relative scale to where expectations can fairly lie. I think we got outspent by a lot of teams that we didn’t expect to pony up. I think we thought 10 million would put us around 10th but in reality we ended up closer to 20th. We should have built a top 25 roster. That’s the goal when you spend that level of money. Otherwise it’s a relative failure. Then getting results is the next step. Get more out of less or less out of more is the big coaching evaluation. Jury is out on DeVries both on roster building and team improvement.

Agreed. But he built a roster to win now by taking so many Seniors. He was a Baller on a Budget. And he made some pretty rough choices. 5 scholarship guys that are worthless. I mean, what are we doing? Will they be a build for future? (Are they good enough for that?) Im not sure any of these guys return or we even want them to return. Sisley. I think we could do better at about every spot. Im not sure how much it helps, for next year with the path he chose to take this year. But Portal SZN is always my favorite SZN because it’s filled with hope. But we are behind so many programs in desirability. Money isn’t heavily on our side. And I’m not convinced DeVries is a good recruiter. So, uphill challenge incoming.

15 rebounds total. 1 offensive rebound. Zero steals. One of the worst efforts. For the history books. Nothing we can do about it but try to win 3 of 4. Making the tournament will be cool. But we all know this team has no real chance to do anything. But the excitement of seeing your team in the dance is worth it. Hope our admin finds an extra 5 million or so to put towards the build. Or our talent eval magically improves. Will need at least five meaningful players.

Judgement should be NIl budget related. My unofficial estimate based on Norlander and others that try to follow this stuff is we were between 10-25 in NIL spending. I did a breakdown earlier this year. I think we were 15-20 probably. Plus his son should have come with a discount. We are the 40th best team. Maybe the 30th if we go on a little run. So, DeVries isn’t doing too great.

Wilkerson 78 Martinelli 69

Terrible metrics loss. But it was always gonna be a loss. Same scenario applies. Gotta win 3 of the next 4. That was always gonna be the case. Now will we? Idk, seems 50/50 to me. Just piss poor planning to not build a better team from jump. Wilkerson has said internally they think they are a top 10 team. That probably comes from top down. Did DeVries really believe that as he built this? Or is confidence building coach speak? Idk. But this team was never gonna be top 10 good and that’s just crazy. We were 2 A level Players away. Get the right 2. Might cost ya 3 or 4 million.

Gonna need that at 4 or 5 positions tbh. And paying what we will need to pay, we can’t miss much. Not a single projected returner/freshman that projects to a starter on a top 20 team. I could see Dorn/Sisley with a lot of improvement or maybe Prince as the 4th/5th option. (Maybe). Lots of teams are gonna return dudes. Because the pay is too good to ignore.

There was a poster that saw this season coming as it was being built but was told he’s too much of a pessimist and just loves being negative. Never understood the vision. We are exactly what I thought we’d be. I thought DeVries would be better. Besides that, this is what I saw coming as it was being built. Not sure who is knocking down the doors to play at IU next year after what we’ve put together. Really gonna be a challenge for the staff this offseason.

But Jasai can maybe shoot it. Dorn can shoot it. Sisley can’t. But I think his hustle and IQ would give us some spark we don’t get from Miles or Dorn. Dorn has been broken. Jasai is mostly just a defender. Streaky at best shooter.