BGleas

The bottom line is that at the end of the day this is absolutely not a team that will go into tournament play untested.

Meh! Lot's of way to build toughness, including playing numerous top 10 teams both neutral site and on the road. We have something like 4 games against the preseason top 5. One of those on the road and two in tournament style neutral site locations.

Couldn't care less about how many true road games we have in the non-conference. Would rather have neutral site games anyways. It's a smarter way to schedule. We'll have tons of tough road games in conference. Last time I checked the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament are neutral site, not road games.

Yeah it probably won't, though probably should at least for stretches.

I think Indiana is best suited to have more guys playing together that can handle, make plays, shoot, push the pace and defend multiple positions.

I doubt we'd do it, but I'd rather see: XJ TG Forbes MM Reneau/Ware

I dont really think that's it. They were horrible at the charge/block call before the semi circle was introduced in the college game. College refs reward the defense way too much for crappy defense. The benefit of the doubt should always go to the offensive player on those bang-bang block/charge calls. But college refs love to call charges.

There is no worse officiating in sports than a college basketball ref calling a charge. They're absolutely horrendous at it. It's worse than NFL refs trying to figure out what a catch is.

I mean, they're pretty educated guesses, not just random guesses. There's a reason Trey Galloway started 25 games last season and averaged 28mpg. There's a reason CJ Gunn only played in 20 games last season and only averaged 7.5mpg. Can CJ Gunn improve? Absolutely. But, we also know he's starting with a pretty wide gap between he and Trey Galloway. We also know that Woodson tends to lean toward veterans in these cases and that Woodson definitely believes in and trusts Galloway. Things can change for sure with improvement, but we know heading into the offseason that the coaching staff thinks Galloway is clearly ahead of Gunn. If not, Gunn would have been in the rotation last season and Galloway wouldn't have played 28mpg. By your posting standards on this topic then we can't project any starters for next season. I guess we can't project or assume that XJ will start at PG? He and Gabe Cupps are starting at a level playing field? We can't assume Mgbako will start? We can't project anything?

Agree as well. He's very skilled and had good footwork, and while not always a willing passer he showed strong skills there, especially out of the high post. Agree with him being strong as a small ball 5 as well, sort of what I meant by the square peg, round hole thing since he'll most likely spend most of his time at the 4. But, with his handle and passing when he does it, he can be a great player if he also comes back and can confidently knock down shots in the pick and pop. A ton of potential and value with development.

My thought on all of this that the lineups are going to be interesting. Completely agree Woodson wants to run a more open, guard oriented offense, as he's directly said. I'd imagine a lot of the sets you've mentioned will be in play or similar. The player I'm most curious about at this point is Reneau. Great talent and I'm a fan, but I also think he's a bit of a square peg in a round hole in terms of what Woodson wants to do. He's still more of a post-up, paint big. He showed some flashes of a perimeter shot early last season, but if I'm Reneau I'm making 300-500 3pt shots everyday this offseason. I see us running a lot of ball screen action with Ware, and Ware is not a post-up, paint big, he's more of a rim-runner, which is great but you also don't want Reneau standing in the paint while that's happening, so would be great if he can knock down spot up 3's while that is happening. I think Woodson prefers 4's like Mgbako (not saying he's playing the 4), Anthony Walker, previous IU guys like Troy Williams and Watford, or like how he deployed Josh Smith and Carmelo in Atlanta and NYC. Again, if I'm Reneau I'm spending all summer becoming a reliable spot-up 3pt shooter. If I'm Kaleb Banks I'm working my butt off all summer with the mentality that I'm beating out Reneau for that 4 spot so we have an ultra-athletiic, interchangeable lineup of Ware, Banks, Mgbako, Galloway and XJ. Not saying Banks starts, just saying if I'm him then that's my mentality this summer. But again, a very wordy, long way of saying Reneau is the wildcard here in my opinion in terms of style of play.

I wouldn't categorize Ware as an "under the basket big". He's not a post player. He's a long, athletic PnR big that can pick/pop as well as rim run. This isn't a dump into the post 7-footer. He'll be out on the perimeter setting ball screens, flaring and rolling to the basket for lobs and put backs.

Yup, and I'd be selling that hard to MM right now. It doesn't even have to be 100% accurate to sell it. At IU, we've got 4 guys at the 4 and 5, you're a straight up wing here.

If I'm Woodson I would have called MM right after that Kansas player announced his transfer to remind him he's absolutely a wing at IU and looks like he'll be playing in the paint and defending 4's and 5's at Kansas.

It's not a possibility though, it's a certainty. It might not be Mgbako, but Woodson has made no secret that he's looking for minimum 1 and most likely 2 guards/wings that are starter caliber. Gunn and Banks both know this. They've had 6 weeks+ to enter the portal if they were uncomfortable with that. Friday's decision is sort of irrelevant to it, those spots are getting filled.

Why? Those players know IU is recruiting Mgbako. They knew we were recruiting Ledlum and others. They know Woodson is trying to fill at least one, if not both, open scholarships with wings/guards. They've known filling those spots was not only possible, but probable, and they've had 6'ish weeks to enter the portal. These aren't secrets.

The most likely scenario is that he actually has no real information.

Matt Carlino's response...

First, the staff is capable of multi-tasking. Because Walker is visiting and if he commits it doesn't mean the staff thinks that is the #1 priority. It's just the timing. But, do agree we need to address those guard/wing issues. On your 2nd point, I'd rather have this guy than a freshmen. It's the equivalent of an NBA team getting a vet minimum guy as their 10th guy vs an undrafted free agent. I'd rather have a kid who, albeit in limited minutes, has played at Duke, at UNC, in the Final Four, etc., etc. to replace Reneau when he inevitably gets in foul trouble on the road in the Big Ten as opposed to some freshmen big ranked 147th in his class.

Funny. I played bball in the same conference as Slippery Rock. Played them twice each season.

Yeah, the program I coach in (my team is 13U) all of our older/HS level teams are at a live period even in Pittsburgh this weekend.

It's also a really big AAU weekend, so while that doesn't impact transfer visits, it does impact hs recruit visits and also probably has our staff on the road and not on campus.

We actually got better after he went down but I get what you're doing.

And having 5 future NBA players around you that the defense is focused on. That team had way more talent than this years, it's not really close.

It's about overall talent and guard play really. Zeisloft was surrounded by 5 guys that eventually played in the NBA, and that doesn't even include Robert Johnson and JBJ. That team was pretty stacked, making a guy like Zeisloft even more valuable. That team had multiple guys that could break a defense down and get a bucket. While we certainly need guys like Zeisloft, we need those other pieces (guards and wings that can create and score) much more.