lillurk

My fit concern is that Arch clearly wants everyone, bigs included, to hedge ballscreens hard, and I worry De’Ron, even when healthy, may not have the quickness to hedge and recover without creating seams in the defense. Recall how Michigan gashed Purdue, specifically Haas, with high pick-and-roll. Despite being good interior defenders, the weakness is so crucial it weakens team defense. Forrester may not be ready to contribute much as a freshman, but in many ways he seems closer to the ideal five in the long run for the scheme, assuming you have scoring elsewhere.

In the spirit of offseason Tuesday daydreaming: I love Smith, and I’m sure lineups like this will get some serious run. I’m in wait-and-see mode about whether he and Morgan can play the forward spots alongside a traditional five for long stretches, though. They’ve both flashed the occasional range, but I worry a bit about floor spacing on offense and quickness on defense with this lineup. I hope they make these concerns laughable. As I said in the Romeo thread, I think defense, shooting, and turnover avoidance are paramount for PGs playing alongside a high-usage 2 like Romeo (and Juwan, too); for front court players, add rebounding. McBob starting at the 3 maximizes those attributes and lets Smith’s deployment respond to the game situation: go small/big? Is Morgan/the 5 in foul trouble? Etc.

Good point. I would assume Romeo will spend plenty of time on the ball, so defense, limiting TOs, and shooting will be paramount qualities in your PG. Nobody in the mix has shown all three consistently at the college level, so it may take some time to establish a hierarchy.

Porter?

Hit me

Ok, @Yogi's Picnic Basket, if your fingers aren’t tired, I’m curious too

Brian Snow said on a winter episode of Mind Your Banners that the staff thinks Hunter can eventually be a 2. He disagreed pretty strongly — and I question if the quickness to guard 2s will be there — but I don’t think it’s crazy to see what he can do.

I haven’t seen enough of either to comment definitively about who’s more of a 3 or 4, but I’m sure they can coexist at the forward spots.

Brooks’ AAU program was making some comments on Twitter about playing the three in college (see below, as well as the tweet at the top of the same thread). So if TJD is a 5, that leaves the 4 for Watford, which seems reasonable.

Yeah that account was loudly claiming Billy Donovan would be IU’s coach. So....

Here’s what Slater said in response to a question about Langford on Friday afternoon:

This is how I eventually read it, too. We’ve known that, though. (I guess maybe the occasional potential transfer asks for release but ends up returning but given his options, that seems unlikely in this case.)

Thanks for sharing...am I crazy or is Baumgart’s meaning very unclear?

Glad you brought this up, as I almost mentioned it but figured my point was long enough already.

I keep thinking about this in comparison to Archie’s seat courtside for two games last weekend. It obviously doesn’t mean we know anything about the outcome of things, but I like it. I’d guess either Arch is smarter or better connected or both, or whoever assigned coach/media seating at Seymour is using their limited power to advance an agenda — maybe all of the above. Recall that Arch even got into the locker room after the regional semifinal win.

I think Langford would make IU clear B1G contenders next year with the possibility to reach greater heights. No knock on Phinisee, who will obviously be important from day 1, but I wonder if national contention might be more likely if Langford plays a somewhat ball-dominant role at the 2 with Green growing out of some foolish mistakes to be the starting point.

There would definitely be some equity issues to work out if players were paid, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a Title IX issue for revenue sport athletes to make more than non-revenue sport athletes. Coaching salaries are subject to TIX and that doesn’t prevent football and men’s basketball coaches from making much more than their coaching colleagues. I don’t handle athletics compliance, but I’m a Title IX administrator (not at IU) and, of course, have colleagues in athletics who make sure we’re compliant.

Right, I don’t mean to say I know anything about Bagley’s involvement or lack thereof. Duke’s making an announcement that he’s healthy and playing, contrasted with MSU’s announcement, that they’ve cleared Bridges.

The Duke player implicated was Wendell Carter, right? I think this announcement is injury related.

Here’s the Jay Williams/Kevin Love story. They paid his AAU coach: https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/jay-williams-admitted-his-former-sports-agency-paid-kevin-loves-aau-coach-250k/

Another consideration is that typically the ranking philosophy is about long-term projection; e.g. the #1 player in a class is the player with the greatest potential + likelihood of stardom on the highest level. Thus ranking ~100th perhaps is less about Phinisee’s success or impact at IU, and more about his chances of making an NBA roster or whatever.

https://mobile.twitter.com/draftexpress/status/860133141897457664 “Nike EYBL stats have translated really impressively to NCAA over the years. Competition level is strong. Some interesting sleepers emerging.” - @draftexpress Not a comparison to IHSAA 4A, of course, but apparently top-level AAU stats are a good predictor of college performance.

Thanks; this seems right. The ITH schedule is wrong. I'm sure he wouldn't announce on BTN but FS1 at least seems possible.

IU/Seton Hall is on FS1, for what it's worth.

As conspiracy theories go, this is both more pleasant and more plausible than the idea that IU is doomed because he's announcing at his high school.