BGleas

I agree with you. But at the same time we'd be using this as some big red flag against DeVries if it was reversed.

Thanks for explaining! My bad, I misinterpreted or misread your post. Makes sense now!

I played D2 and it can be easier at that level, depending on how the school supports it program. I know nothing about the school McCollum was at, but I can tell in the conference I played in the scholarship money was extremely uneven. Some schools had a roster of full scholarship guys and other schools might have 2-3 full ride guys and then have to disperse the rest amongst the roster. It's a huge advantage. The top teams in each conference would almost always have 2-3 D1 transfers. My senior year the best team in our conference had 3 D1 transfers, one of which was a 6'9 250lb center who was Newcomer of the Year in his D1 conference the year before. Got into some trouble and had to transfer down. If you have a financially supported D2 program, it can be like having the most NIL money at the D1 level. You can stack your roster and almost walk into the D2 Tournament each year. Again, I don't know how McCollum's program was supported. I'd guess pretty well. I'm also not suggesting his D2 National Titles were easy and not impressive.

I love a coach that isn't tied to a specific style. Coaches the roster he has and builds around their abilities. Of the realistic options (though not sure he was actually realistic), I think Otz was my #1 hope last hiring cycle for Indiana.

It was more than just the OG injury though. That definitely hurt, no debating that. But that team had lost to IPW, to Butler, at home to Nebraska, all before the OG injury. The team still had Thomas Bryant, JBJ, a developing and future NBA player in Juwan Morgan, Robert Johnson, etc. I don't expect an Elite 8 or Final Four without OG, but still should have been a tournament team. After the strong start, that team wasn't playing great even with OG. Then add it to recruiting slipping (missing all of the top Indiana players in a strong class that season), and it was time to go. The administration just screwed up the following decade about as bad as it could.

Multiple things can be true at the same time. Tom Crean is a solid-to-good coach. But it was also time for the program to move on. It was the right move, the IU administration just botched the subsequent moves like it has for almost 25 years. You don't achieve what Tom Crean has achieved without being a decent coach. He's been to a Final Four, an Elite 8, 4 sweet sixteens and has two outright regular season Big Ten Titles (in years when the Big Ten was really tough). You don't stumble upon that type of success. He also has a long list of underrated guys that he's helped develop into legit NBA players, while also having the really hyped guys he's put in the NBA. He's not great, but he can coach. But again, it was definitely the right move to go in another direction, the administration just screwed it up, like they typically do.

Agree on the roster building. We absolutely need a top flight PG. That is a must. Can't "Enright" or "Conorway" that position. Get a long, athletic big, and then surround those guys with dogs, athletes and playmakers. Add a shooter or two around them. This offseason needs to be a big swing. Were like an NBA team that's in the play-in every year. At some point this program needs to make a leap and get some momentum. It's needs to happen.

Agree with @WayneFleekHoosier that it's very important to be ranked preseason, it's important to always be ranked. With that said, I'd put it at about 0-5% chance that IU is ranked in the preseason poll. I'd be surprised if we're even close to the top of "others receiving votes."

Yeah, complicated issue but one that needs to be figured out. Like I said IMO, the transfer thing is a much bigger problem than players getting paid. But also realize both issues are sort tied together a bit. It's just ridiculous seeing these players transfer essentially every year, and I think that's hurting the product much more than players getting paid.

I get the issues are kind of tied together, but I think the bigger issue is the transfer portal and transfer policy. That's a bigger issue than NIL or players getting paid. The problem is that we essentially have free agency for every player every season. It's absolutely ridiculous when we have guys that have played 5 seasons at 4-5 different schools. That's the problem with college basketball. Way bigger negative for the sport than players getting paid. But again they're sort of tied together. Seems the only/best way to fix that is to have multi-year contracts or something?

This is an area you'd hope Carr should be a real asset. Not just getting a head start on portal recruiting, but as part of that managing whether we keep guys like Dorn and Miles for example. It's now not just whether they can help, but it's also whether we overpaid for them last year. Analyzing what's on the market and what it's costing. You of course want some roster continuity, but if we overpaid (just for discussion, not saying we did) role players last year, then maybe you let some of them walk because you can get better role players this year for less. It's essentially cap management at the college level.

Read that Diop goes wherever the assistant that brought him to ASU lands.

Maybe we luck into a Roy Williams situation. If I remember correctly, UNC tried to get him to leave Kansas a couple of different times before he eventually made the leap.

Same. Even early in the season he was getting abused against tougher competition. He plays so slow and has no idea how to control pace and tempo as a point guard. Enright has his own set of issues, but his tempo with this team is miles better than how Conorway plays. He walks it up the court and takes forever to get into any set or offense, then add in the bonehead turnovers. Seems like a nice kid, but just didn't pan out at this level.

I didn't mean I wanted last year's guys back specifically. Just meant generally you'd prefer to walk into a situation where you don't have to start completely from scratch. That's not an ideal situation.

I don't disagree with you. Identity and culture are as important as anything IMO, and you develop that through players being in your program for 3-4 years. Completely agree. The flip side is, coaches don't have the luxury in this day and age to slow build for 4-5 years while they restock with freshman each year. Unfortunately for DeVries, he had to completely start from scratch so had to build with portal guys. Next year we should have 4-6 returners, along with 3 freshman, which is a solid base, but we'll still need our best players next year to be from the portal.

Yeah, the free agency comparison sounds good in theory, but it is a different mindset. We're probably taking Carr's comments on that too literally and seriously. But for the sake of discussion, the portal is a bit different. In the NBA you might have the salay cap space to sign one impact free agent every few seasons. You're really supplementing your roster around the edges most years. I'm college, the portal needs to be game-changers most every season. You now supplement your roster with high school recruits and land the impact players in the portal.

Yup, so frustrating. Years of losing at home to some combination of Northwestern, Rutgers, Penn State and Nebraska every season.

Could be pr spin, but according to this article and Carr's comments, it sounds like this was a DeVries, not necessarily a Dolson move. Sounds like DeVries and Carr have been talking and texting somewhat regularly since DeVries got the job. https://www.insidethehall.com/2026/02/25/new-iu-executive-director-of-basketball-ryan-carr-excited-for-opportunity-ahead-in-bloomington/

The IU Basketball administration has been so inept so I won't give them credit for this, but maybe they've stumbled into something with this Carr guy? Everyone is raving about him and he's a proven NBA front office guy. Maybe put him in charge of the entire operation, including the coaching staff? Build a real, NBA-style front office with a department of scouts, recruiters, analytics people and NIL experts, and put Carr in charge of the entire thing. You then minimize the need for the coach to be the "face" of the program and university, and you just need a real coach. You no longer 'need' an Izzo, Pitino, Coach K, etc, etc. The coach doesn't need to be a recruiter, NIL experts, scout, fundraiser, mouthpiece and all of that stuff and can just coach. It widens the available talent pool because you no longer need a personality, you just need a coach. Make it a pro operation. Outside of the players, the face of the program for the Celtics is Brad Stevens, for OKC it's Sam Presti, for the Eagles it's Howie Roseman and for the Seahawks its John Schneider. I don't know, just trying to come up with something.

That would be good! Hoping they take care of business today with Iowa.

Thanks! Appreciate it! That's kind of how I was viewing it too. Go 3-1 and we should be solid. Would love to snag two more quad 1 wins.

@Uspshoosier Curious your opinion on this in terms of what the better outcome is for IU's tournament resume. Say we finish the regular season 3-1. Which scenario is a better outcome for us? NW - W MSU - W Minn - W At OSU - L Pretty chalk. Big quad 1 win over MSU. Quad 3 home win over NW and quad 2 (at the moment) home win over Minnesota. Avoid having a "bad loss" on our resume. NW - W MSU - W Minn - L At OSU - W Two quad 1A wins to really close the gap on our poor Quad 1+2 record. Probably a higher WAB ranking (OSU win helps more than Minn loss hurts that ranking). But, potentially a "bad loss" on the resume. Minnesota is currently quad 2, but that home loss could be quad 3 by end of season. Curious your thoughts. Would the road OSU win help more than a home loss to Minnesota?

Kind of depressing watching this Michigan-Duke game and seeing where Dusty May has them in year 2.

Crazy finish in the ACC. Reneeau with a circus layup to tie it with 10 seconds left, then Miami fouls with on 3 with 3 seconds left.