lillurk

I’ve been thinking about Pack since it trickled out that IU had made contact — I actually really like the fit assuming there are some pieces put around the roster we haven’t seen yet: bigger, dogged perimeter defender, and rim protecting center. Being able to stagger minutes w/DeVries, and theoretically Bailey and Pack should give your offense a really high floor for shot quality and TO avoidance

Yeah would say he’s a skilled 4 big enough to play some spot 5 — interesting fit, given the rim protection #s. Think you probably still roster two 5s with Bailey, DeVries, Sisley, and Goode.

One thing worth thinking about as the transfer portal matures is that in other sports’ free agency markets, the places where you get the most value for your dollar are the very top of the market, and then much farther down the scale. This is true in leagues largely regardless of the nature of their salary rules — Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Nikola Jokic, SGA, Pat Mahomes, and Saquon Barkley all provide surplus value per dollar to their teams than they actually make versus the average win/dollar in their league, even though they’re among the highest paid in their sport (ps — not an argument about athletes’ salaries, just a point about relative value vs. their peers on the field). But the non-superstars who get paid at the top of the market often end up as a “bad investment” on a win/dollar evaluation. Think about Zach LaVine, late-career Dame Lillard, Paul George: inarguably good basketball players, paid beyond what they contribute to winning. Below the highest tier, you’ve got to scout (draft), identify underperformers who will thrive in other circumstances, develop, capitalize where others where too deep or whatever — think of the Cubs getting Cody Bellinger cheaply two years ago, the Knicks realizing Jalen Brunson could be a superstar while the Mavs wouldn’t even pay him like a 3rd banana, the Pacers turning Aaron Nesmith into a guy who won’t get cooked out of a playoff rotation at wayyy below market for wings, etc. Not totally clear how that’ll work given the strange idiosyncrasies of the transfer portal but I think there’s still a lot of truth in the principles.

Andersen was originally part of Michigan’s ‘24 class under Howard. Don’t survive their coaching transition last year.

Up thread someone ( @Herotime(?)) asked who to watch since some of the early deciders went another way. I’m sure the final roster won’t all be represented here but I’ve been keeping my own notes to track where everyone ends up and here’s who’s on it right now. It includes some folks I’m confident are going elsewhere but who haven’t landed yet. On the bus: Tucker DeVries and Luke Goode, pending waivers; Conner Enright, Trent Sisley Of interest: freshmen — Harun Zrno, former IU commit. Braydon Hawthorne, Kelvin Odih, and Trent MacLean, former WVU commits. Nyk Lewis, former Xavier commit. Transfers: Amani Hansberry and Sencire Harris, former WVU players (think these guys are more likely to follow Chester Frazier to VT). Flory Bidunga, Elyjah Freeman.

Sure, I may have been sloppy with my phrasing. Your HC and 3 ACs can recruit off campus; if someone is unable to a la Woody while he rehabbed a surgery, you can assign that to someone else. What I was trying to say: Moikobu and Adams seem likely to be two of the three full/normal ACs. They’re not leaving AC roles elsewhere to be in lesser roles. Norton is going to be in some role. If they get, say, Murphy (or an equivalent if that dream is over), then Norton’s role is not going to be one of the three bench/off-campus recruiting ACs. Surely he can sub until the 3rd assistant is hired, or someone’s health prevents them, etc. If those options above Norton don’t materialize, he’ll be in a full assistant role (and not “player development” or whatever).

I inferred this might be the case from announcing Norton last night without a secondary title (e.g. asst coach and director of player development). That’s what WVU did under DDV for the Cheaney/Hulls types who couldn’t recruit off campus. Obviously they could always change later but to me that says the three traditional assistants will be Adams, Achoki Moikobu, and Norton

Right, IMO this works defensively if you play Dix/DeVries with two guards. Woody’s predilection would’ve been to have them alongside a PG, another forward, and a C, and then we would’ve given up tons of dribble penetration

Might’ve missed this discussion but I think there’s a good case that Fran may do pretty well at Penn. Punched above his resources at Iowa, has an eye for less heralded talent, seemed to work well in his region at Iowa, he’s a Penn alum so there could be some fundraising upside, probably a more level playing field with the other Ivies, really prioritizes shooting and it’s likely the athleticism sacrifices he made at Iowa will bite him less there… IDK. Not convinced it’ll work, but also wouldn’t be shocked if they’re competitive and even win the Ivy a couple times before he hangs them up.

Not ignoring your question but they’re also watching uncommitted Dante Allen, right? Not sure if there’s mutual interest.

My guess is he’s your fourth forward behind Tucker DeVries, Transfer Starting 3, and Luke Goode. Others would know better but he seems well suited for that.

Bummed to miss Conwell but there are no shortage of efficient scoring 2s. Not a criticism of him but it’s who you get that matters, not who you miss

IUanon posted about dominoes over the weekend. Feels like Drew Adams and Enright are valuable in their own right but also among the earliest dominoes.

Plus defender at guard, career 36% 3pt shooter. He’s not perfect but he’ll play with like 8 guys at IU better than anyone he had alongside him at DePaul last year. Not sure why anyone feels like disparaging him.

Context matters, Enright was stretched too far on a bad DePaul team. He’s played three years of college basketball and looking at just one — the only one he didn’t play for Darian DeVries — is evaluating him with less than full info for no reason. I don’t expect he’ll be the starter, barring injury, but he’s totally capable of 12-25 minutes that help you win, especially on a team with the other talent that’s visiting

If I recall correctly Elyjah Freeman was committed to LMU, got some D1 offers very late last cycle (like this time or later) and stayed committed to LMU.

Part of it was injury luck, part of it was development, part of it was you don’t get every kid you want. But I’ve been thinking about how they ended up getting so many of wrong Georgia guys. Not that they were bad kids, but that they let familiarity cloud their ability to be objective in evaluations, and then especially that they didn’t scheme to their guys on either end, and failed to do much to develop any of the GA crew.

From WV, too, so they might be included as more than just a favor. WVU folks were very excited about him

Me too and it would follow that they haven’t been too aggressive with any other PGs of that caliber. Could also be explained by “it’s early,” of course I like Enright but you can happily use both.

Well yeah I’m familiar with how that looks

Good rim #s, promising from 3, was 129 on the 247 composite, huge defensive box plus/minus (haven’t seen him nor read a scouting report). I’m intrigued!

I follow some draftniks who really like him but that doesn’t necessarily mean you might only have him for one year. Depends somewhat on what the actual teams see, and on now on how much you can make in school, too. My guess would be he’ll have an option next year and the choice will be dependent on whether he really thinks he’d go higher with another year of school.

My strong hunch is The Crown is probably not keeping too many coaches in their seats. Maybe he finishes Cincy’s season with them, though.

Yeah I think he’ll have a career, but can make more $ next year in college than as a 2nd round pick

I understand that. WVU called like 9 people “assistant coach” last year but the three traditional assistants were Frazier, Barnett, and Ostrom. I'm very confident Norton is coming to IU too, just not sure if he’ll be one of the three permitted to recruit off campus etc., or if he’ll be in a player development role (a la Cheaney under CMW). I assume someday Norton will be on the bench, but whether that’s next year or not may depend on whether some other options join the staff.