lillurk

Good point. Also I’d encourage everyone to sit back and get used to this. Not crazy to imagine years to come watching JG, TB, JHS, Jakai, Gabe, etc. doing exactly this

The staff will be fine. You can field a team with 12 scholarship players if it comes to that. But they’ll know more than us, and there are always late commits, other draft-withdrawing players who will hit the portal, midyear transfers where you might benefit from having an open scholarship, and so on

Or, I mean, I can keep a secret if someone hits the DMs

I would guess this, too, but do we know it? Can someone FOIA it?

@ KU is the perfect time for a new crimson script Indiana alternate.

Agreed, right now it seems clear a Scheyer Duke offer is the most coveted one (not speaking for Booker — though probably — but more generally). Possible UK wasn’t a great example. They get dudes but the recent classes haven’t been the heyday Cal ones.

Those seem like easy fixes, relatively speaking.

Also think IU stands to benefit as much as anyone from that particular trend. Michigan too, I assume. If you’ve got alumni NIL $, nice town/campus, and recruit guys who end up in that range, you could really capitalize.

I think Demo’s probably right that he’s a “best offer” prospect, so MSU, or UK if they jump in, maybe. But it’s possible if he’s a late decision that IU has a good, noisy year, and he thinks joining Cupps, Newton, etc. has buzz. Assume only one of Bidunga or Booker is a Hoosier, so the staff will have to figure out who they want most, if the Bidunga blowup is real.

Nebraska home game, too

Jakai’s HS teammate Stephon Castle is rated more highly right now, but sometimes having teammates that good artificially deflated at least one’s rank. Big pic, I think, both Cupps and Newton have positive roles as frosh, and I’m verrrrry excited about their soph year.

I’d recommend this week’s edition of the Assembly Call radio for a discussion of how IU might be better offensively next year.

Correct

the burger place here: very good, but I’ve only had the half pounder

I will reiterate that, based on what we know, it would be virtually unprecedented for a scholarship athlete to be kicked off a team for this (even with a one game suspension earlier this year).

With Pack as an obvious exception, IU’s portal outreach has been for two spots: 1. Bigs as TJD/Race/JG contingencies and 2. wings that either shoot or defend. This fits with the two ‘22s they’re in with, too, Reneau in group one and Thiero in 2. I infer that they don’t anticipate additional attrition aside from possibly the frontcourt trio, they’re set at point, and they really want a wing who can shoot AND defend, but everyone wants those, and they’re scarce.

I think the question even in this scenario for PU is defense. This plus Gillis, Furst, Morton etc. is a good offense in Painter’s hands. But Trevion was their preferred 5 for D. Hunter got all-conference defensive recognition, deservedly. Ivey could at least flip an athletic switch. Pack’s many things but probably not a plus PG defender right now. So dial back Purdue’s national-best offense a little, and dial back their suspect defense even more, if this comes to pass.

I know IU fans have had lots of disappointment over the last twenty (heck, thirty) years, so there’s plenty of fatalism around here. But Butler’s been in a pretty bad spot for awhile now. If Matta’s there a couple years to right the ship, they’re not going to suddenly overtake IU

If you’re wondering why he wasn’t much of a scoring factor in the final, check his fingers in the last pic of this slideshow

Even in these days of higher levels of semi-professionalism, college coaches are educators. CMW clearly sees himself that way. IU can have high standards and still have Xavier Johnson after this, assuming there’s not some really bad ish hiding here.

I was dreading coming over to BTB after I saw this on Twitter but the discussion is largely fair and level-headed. Thanks to @stuhoo and other mods, I’m sure, but thanks to the lay posters, too. As someone who’s worked in student conduct and dealt with my fair share of athletes, I’ll add a couple thoughts: 1. Without all the facts, we can’t say definitively, but even with the one-game NW suspension as a prior, my strong hunch is this probably falls FAR short of deserving a lengthy suspension. The season’s far, maybe he sits a game or two. 2. As stated up thread, this isn’t good, but we also don’t know how bad it really might be yet. 3. College students, even really good folks, do unwise things. I know I did then. 4. don’t assume that discipline that happens in private is weak or “getting off easy.”

Would recommend checking the page of this actual lawyer

Gotta have guards. They won’t all be on the same roster but X, JHS, Bates, Jakai, Cupps…IU’s staff knows

We do not deserve you

I love Raf, the man-to-man thing is goofy but he’s hard to beat