lillurk

Would imagine the U of A budget issues may be a concern too: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2024/01/31/u-arizona-takes-steps-address-financial-woes

ASU is a good place to go if you’d like your HS All-Star games to be the brightest your star ever shined. Anyone other than Lu Dort played for B. Hurley make an impact on the P-12 or NBA yet? I love Dort’s game but he was there one year as a top ~35 recruit and went undrafted. Not sure I’d even want my son to visit ASU if he was lucky enough to be a coveted prospect.

This AND/OR they have proof of concept that their track record gives them a good shot at the best big in the portal each spring.

If, oh, Northwestern was starting the following lineup and had a typical (read: bad) NW bench, how would you expect them to perform? (Please spare me the coaching discussion, pretend the coach is League Avg B1G coach): Grey Talloway Tony Teal Tyson Brucker Hugh Loode Monmouth transfer C

Also: he’s not scheduled any other visits or even had one of those tweets from a national guy listing contacts/interests

Not sure the best place to put this, but can Dusty May’s first offseason at UM PLEASE put to rest the worst criticism of low- and mid-major candidates for big jobs: “how will he do at big boy recruiting?” Don’t mean to burst any bubbles or say there’s no specific ability involved. But of course a guy who put FAU on the map and only spent one season there after their big breakthrough didn’t have Mark Few’s recruiting track record. If you have any juice at all at a top ~50 program, you’ll get your share of guys. Is it an open question whether he’s more Crean, Archie, Jay Wright, Juwan Howard, or Matt Painter on the trail? Of course. But let’s not pretend that hiring a May-type means you have to settle for unknowns, lowly ranked, transfers only, or punt on the current class.

Illinois went 7-3 in the ten career games Goode played 25 or more minutes, and two of the three losses are @ #1 PU this year and the E8 blowout L to UConn. That’s a high-floor piece to have as your ~7th guy.

Celtics are obviously much, much better than the Heat without Jimmy Butler, but watching that second quarter yesterday I was thinking: Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard are a great reminder that if you can shoot and try on defense, you’ll get on the floor and have a chance to help your team more than many flashier guys

It looks to me like Goode is a cleaner fit — the guard depth makes it harder to find a spot for e.g. Hickman/Essegian. Whereas Goode can play 3/4 alongside Mgbako, spell Mgbako, play small ball 4, he’s high-level insurance if you need to patch up even up to 25-30 mpg if a starter is dinged up or Tucker isn’t quite as ready as you’d hope. The Kopp comp @RaceToTheTop made is cleaner than lots of player comps. He’s more rugged and capable defensively and on the boards than Miller, and probably a bit less of a shooter (but career 38.8% on 219 attempts is about all you can hope for). Also had a year when he only played 10 games, so I wonder if there’s any chance he petitions for a 5th year after next.

Oh I know the parallel is imperfect, to be sure. The personnel difference is encouraging, and they’re both stubborn guys. Harbaugh’s stubbornness led to some changes but in many ways their offense since then was TRUER to his smashmouth ways than before. They just got incredibly good at it. Maybe we can do a version of the same, though I’m not holding my breath.

Some stray thoughts that fit here: 1. We know less about the non-conference schedule at this point than we usually do. Kinda itching to see what it looks like aside from the Atlantis tourney. 2. There’s a class of transfer candidates that will know their ability/level and be LOOKING to squeeze into a potentially winning roster. Think Anthony Walker last year, Max Bielfeldt in 2015-16, Lance Jones on the high end…often an upperclassman/grad who could get minutes at a lower level — and maybe he did — but he wants the big stage, and is looking to fit into a strong roster. I think IU has positioned itself well to grab one or two of those in the wing shooter, stretch big, backup C roles it might still fill. 3. I think @Brass Cannon said this in another thread but here’s hoping there’s a Harbaugh/UM football parallel here. He was BEYOND the hot seat in 2020, and took a pay cut, and had it been any normal year he might’ve been fired. But he’d had success relative to the recent baseline of the program in his UM tenure before then just couldn’t get over the hump (lol) of OSU. He humbled himself, changed DCs, got some culture pieces who happened to be quite good, and turned it around. We have to see it but broadly, that’s the hope. And the roster difference year-to-year shows some growth/learning, not just a talent upgrade.

I’m with the emerging consensus here. My roster fit concerns are already much lower than last year, the top of the B1G does not look as formidable as recent years (even if the median team is better), the level of proven production is much higher and requires fewer players to break out.

When I was in HS we (boys team) always 1) measured in shoes and 2) surely rounded up from at least .5. So you can easily get an extra 1” or 1.5” from those two in concert, as I’m sure you know.

Two things to add here: 1. Pretty sure I recall someone connected saying in Feb/March that Gallo had gone to the staff and said something like “I’m staying, I’ll be the 6th man if that’s what’s best, just go get Dudes.” Of course I can’t find that now, and can’t independently verify it, but that seems plausible (as does an inversion of that condo — coach tells senior “you’ll play plenty but as a gap filler”) 2. Gallo’s soph year — CMW’s first — is good proof of concept here, and was the design in ‘22-23 too until X’s injury forced their hand.

247 had him 66th, 78th in their composite. 16th center in both.

Looks like a strong defender from the #s too. Shot well at the rim — hit about 2/3rds of his non-dunks, about the same ratio assisted — but was 3/12 on other twos. So offensively, basically a center. Terrific rebounder on both ends. IMHO a good fit if he’s willing to play ~20% of minutes again as a sophomore while he grows his game…but if he wanted another year of that he could stay at Duke for it. Bet he ends up somewhere with a chance at a job share at least, maybe more.

In touch with Sean Stewart, the 247 scout on him out of HS has him as a switchy, strong, athletic 4 who has work to do to develop his offense and especially shooting: https://x.com/247hshoops/status/1781735192069132578?s=46&t=amyLA-ibyLT69zYMzsU5bA Didn’t take a 3 all year at Duke, pretty clear red light from Scheyer. But the 247 scout seemed to indicate he’s been working on it. Shot well from 2 in limited minutes, was a McD AA

I should add that while I like Walker for a bench guard role, it would not shock me if he looked elsewhere. He and Cupps play differently but I can’t imagine there are lots of PG minutes left after Rice, Trey, and Carlyle (? — not sure how much even KC will play the point). Cupps as a sophomore can probably handle what’s left.

Anderson’s one!

Yeah I am intrigued by Malone and I just outright like Anderson and Walker for the roles they'd have at IU. Don’t know that any of those three would have more $ elsewhere but could probably find more PT. Would be pretty pleased with the overall haul if it’s the three I named, Carlyle, and the two already in the fold.

Really interested to see where he lands. Early post-May hire, UM folks said it was M or FSU. Then Rooths tweets he’s 100% open. Probably bad news for M. I wonder if IU sniffed around before getting Tucker.

I think this was a classic “only takes one sucker” thing with the wizards. Not sure anyone else takes him lotto

Love his game. Feel pretty confident from the finalists and the publicly available info that a big rule is a priority and there’s nothing wrong with that — he’ll do great with a big role — but even just MM, MR, Trey back and a PG, it’s easy to start to see more competition for shots and PT

If I’m not mistaken the Michigan visit either hasn’t been scheduled or keeps getting pushed back. The mgoblog confidence level that he ends up there has diminished considerably in the last week or so.

Yeah no player is perfect, and I get the fit concerns w/Malik, but I think Ballo has the possibility of setting a really high floor for your team on defense and the boards almost by himself. IU hasn’t been as good as you’d hope in THOSE areas recently and not every player plugs every hole.