lillurk

Tristen Newton was the best player on a very bad East Carolina team last year. I don’t recall any but about him when he transferred to UConn last year. Keep that in mind during this offseason. Not every big name is the right fit.

Yes — would fit if Shedrick doesn’t pan out, IMO. Good player.

MSU aside, hard to feel confident at this point which B1G teams will be good next year. I have better guesses who’ll be bad.

And plenty of teams have made lovely backcourts out of players who weren’t particularly headline transfers.

In my mind there are some programs that fit into a “you can win a title here but probably need something special.” SF, Georgetown, Villanova’s titles came with truly amazing talent OR arguably the best coach of his era. Florida’s probably in that group, but in the way LOTS of power 5 programs are.

My one question with IU’s portal activity thus far is at the 3. I think it makes sense to take Shedrick and Sparks, even assuming Malik plays mostly at the 5. They clearly need guard depth. At least one of Ledlum/Battle fits at the 4, too, but IMO they’re not really 3s. Knecht or, should he transfer, Johnell make sense there, but so far there’s not a lot of movement on the former and who knows if the latter goes anywhere. The logical conclusion here is they feel alright with Trey, Banks, and Gunn there, I hope, not that the Ledlum/Battle minutes are at the 3.

Thanks. Checked Hoop Math but they don’t have it (maybe with a paid acct?), I’m sure Synergy does but I don’t have access.

Was going to look for c-&-s breakdowns for him, Ledlum, Love. Awesome, this sorta fits my eye with Battle. 80% of Ledlum’s 3s were assisted so it seems unlikely he’s drastically better off the catch.

People were mad he was in FL instead of at the IN state championships. They got real quiet when he brought back Malik Reneau.

I absolutely do

Raftery rocks, I mean this, almost impossible to top. I like Walton, too — I like someone having fun, I can see what’s happening with my eyes. Both know the game, and bring some style.

Yeah, as a long-term prospect Tarris Reed from UM is better. He might be a better player next year than Sparks. As a true backup, not a lot of teams have a 5 as dependable as Sparks will be. Depth can be overrated, but after a year where it never materialized, some bench dependability would be really nice.

As much as I agree, I’d also add the offense ended up Kenpom top 30. We all wish they’d taken more 3s, but the O hasn’t been this good since the Crean years.

Did anyone in the B1G have a better backup 5 this year?

Even their football fans/media have indicated they’re a little slow to adapt. Their fb recruiting has been good but maybe a little below what they’d hoped (until this week).

Jett’s gone, and Juwan gave HD a glowing review out the door he didn’t have to, unprompted. Seems to me he wants $, which may come easier away from UM, and to win, which probably has a better chance of happening elsewhere next year. Maybe bring closer to home matters, we’ll see. Wonder if Nimari Burnett has any regret. HD was on one great team, but it had 3 wings/fwds who’ve started NBA games (one of whom was a lottery pick who should’ve gone higher), plus two really good senior guards. Kentucky or Maryland can put a winner around him…not sure Syracuse or Georgetown can in ‘23-24

extremely funny, I think we can agree

I think a couple of things are at play here. One is you can only pick from who’s actually in the portal at the time. They may have reason to believe more wings are coming within the week. Two: they ain’t taking all the bigs they’ve contacted.

Miami was not far from this last offseason. I could even imagine some retirement-age alum/wealthy fan selling off a lucrative business to just bankroll a team for a few years if it was a huge passion.

I made a qualified defense of Doughty somewhere on here and I stand by the basics of it: if the staff thinks he’s it they’ve earned our trust. However. Checked his twitter and all his recent offers are middling mid-majors: EKU, BSU, etc. Sparks may be instructive here: if he’s good for a year or two, well, the portal may be our friend again.

Probably true in re: @HoosierFan1994’s question about whether Battle/Leslie couple play together. I would say yes, as a small-ball 4/5 more than a forward combo. But I assume WFH’s right, it’s an either/or proposition for IU

Some more connected have indicated the possibility. The point was more that he, or Knecht, or whatever could be a great player at the 3.

Right, he can be a defensive pest as your least-important offensive option as a starter, or a high-minute bench guy on a good team. E.g. If you start X/Love/Johnell Davis/Leflum/Reneau, Trey can be your best perimeter bench player and you’d be prettttttttty good

LOOKING RESPECTFULLY

Seriously my heuristic for every transfer is: Dude or Not a Dude? As I wrote elsewhere you need 7+ dudes to be a final four contender. IU’s 3 returning dudes: X, Trey, Malik. Gunn and Banks may turn into dudes next year (eventually both will, the question is whether they would as sophs). Sparks can be a dude as 3rd big. Love? Absolutely a dude. What CMW has done with X? JR Smith? Josh Smith? Love would not be a unique challenge for him.