BGleas

My question would be, what would they have to do with this? It's not like athletes hangout as a team 24/7.

This is not a "sour grapes, we didn't want him anyways" post. I absolutely wanted Fland for both his talent, position and the perception of getting two 5*'s in one week against KU and UK. We need to be stacking high-end talent in these classes, and especially in the backcourt. I wanted us to land Fland. Just making it crystal clear. With all of that said, I am perfectly comfortable with a sophomore Gabe Cupps as our point guard next season. I was hoping to have Fland and Cupps together, but I'm perfectly comfortable with Cupps running the show next year. I'd even argue a sophomore Cupps has more potential to impact winning at the college level next year as a point guard than a freshmen Fland. Now, we need to add more talent in the backcourt. More playmakers, more creators, etc., but I'm good with Cupps

I can't stand Cal as much as the next guy, but Wall was a muti-time All-Star before suffering a slew of injuries. SGA was 1st All-NBA last year. Jamal Murray was the 2nd best player on the team that won the title last year. DeAaron Fox is the best player on the Sacramento Kings and got them to the playoffs (an amazing feat in of itself). Regardless of how ready all of these guys were coming out of high school, Cal's UK players have made over $1B in the NBA. Players don't look at it like, "well those guys were already good, who has he develop?"

I would love it if we had the guard/wing depth to play Mgbako at the 4 in smaller, more skilled and athletic lineup.

Subtle thing, but I like that these are pro basketball titles. Shows we're serious about creating an atmosphere to prepare these guys. That's attractive to the top players.

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.