BGleas

And on top of all of that, he's been amazing supporter of IU basketball even after being fired.

I think you'd get more of what you're looking for if they did another one of these in maybe a month and a half or two months when the staff is filled and at least most of the roster is filled out. Then DeVries could speak on specific staff members and what they'll bring to the table and talk specifics on players and how they'll be used in his system. Would love to see another one of these sometime in mid-May or something.

Can we throw a bag at Bennett Stirtz and steal him from McCollum?

Completely agree, especially on the not IU part. He's just not a winning basketball player.

Quick Mbako story. I took my oldest two kids to the game at the Palestra this season. We had a few hours to kill before our train so hung around in the gym afterwards and were able to work our way down onto the court while the players were coming out postgame. My kids got pics with every player, except I think Carlyle. The guys were so nice, all smiled, said hi and took pics with them. This is a small thing, but I think still shows his character. We get over to Mbako and he agrees to take a pic with my son, but refuses to actually look at the camera. I was waiting to take the pic an awkward amount of seconds and saying, "ok ready?", until I realized he wasn't going to look. We have all these pics of the kids with each players where they're all smiling and engaging, and them this random pic with Mbako where he's refusing to look. Again a small thing, but to me it showed his character.

It is pretty nice for us as fans and for DeVries that he automatically brings a stud with him just by having his son. It's a great start before you even have to do anything as a coach.

Saw that. Was hoping Pagliuca's group would win the bid to minimize change, but glad to hear the winning bidders are from Massachusetts and are lifelong Celtics fans. That is great news!

I'm cautiously optimistic. I was hoping Dolson had a bigger fish, and I had become partial to McCollum. But at the end of the day I had said consistently that I wanted IU to hire a real, legit college basketball coach that is a grinder, is a winner, and has a history of building culture and identity. I think we've got that with Devries. I'm not 100% sure, but I think we do. I also remember watching Drake in their conferences championship game last year and thinking, "i wish IU played like that and i wish we had players like that (Tucker Devries and a couple of their guards)"

Go hire the best basketball coach available. That's it. This is embarrassing. 9 of 22 years in the tournament!!!! https://x.com/daily_hoosier/status/1901408172809531427?t=yDJGcEccrTunmMx1Ssuqgw&s=19

I still maintain we're going to be happy with this hire. I still don't believe it's Stevens, but this search has been too weird and quiet (up until today) for it to be Brownell. IU has too much going for it (resources, NIL, etc.) for this to be Brownell. I think Dolson has something up his sleeve that will make us mostly all happy and surprise us.

Agree. Can't imagine OSU is in, but I still think that comment bodes well for IU.

I think we're in. Gavitt is being interviewed on CBS. Said injuries during the season will be a factor (we didn't have Reneau for several games) Said people often don't realize they look more at Q1/Q2 combined more than just Q1. Said when looking at victories in the top 2 quads, not every win is created equal. Road win vs a highly ranked team (we have the @MSU win) is better than a home win. Finally, he was asked about how they'll handle the SEC with seeding since conference teams aren't supposed to play early on, and he began his answer with, "well the SEC isn't the only conference with 10 teams in the tournament." I think all of those favor IU, and that last one almost confirms it. Am I off here?

All good! I didn't think you were calling me out or referring to me, was just using your post as a jumping point to clarify where I stand.

LOL...no :)

Haha, no definitely not KathywithaC. They give specific info on what their department thinks of guys like Cronin, Brownell, McCollum, McMillian and other coaches.

Yes, very safe. They give very good insight into the process of how departments operate in these searches, and also how their department views and evaluates certain coaches.

Yeah, I haven't ruled Pearl out in my mind. If Insiders were right that he was locked up last year (if Dolson had been allowed to make a move), then I'm not sure what would have changed so much in 1 year that those same people aren't really discussing him? I get Auburn is having a good year, but they were good last year and Pearl probably knew last year that he had another good Auburn team coming back.

Yes, have read that. He's been a really good, informative poster on HSN.

Just to make my stance clear, I do think Dolson has something up his sleeve. I think there is almost no chance that it's Stevens, but I do think there is a good chance he's got something lined up that we're all going to be happy with. I have hope that we're going to be looking at someone like Pearl, Otz, May, or someone in that range that's off our radar at the moment. I'm not a "we're doomed, it's Brownell or a mid-major coach" guy. With that said, i would still be somewhat excited if it was McCollum or someone like that.

Yup, played D2. I'm not going to say that I wouldn't have reservations about McCollum making a D2 to mid-major to blueblood move in one year. I think it's a valid concern. Coaching D2 and IU are completely different things. But with that said, the guy just seems like a winner. 4 (many people think it would have 5 the Covid year) National Championships and then a historic year in his first year at Drake tells me McCollum has something special and can flat-out coach. Obviously there are proven guys I'd take ahead of him, but I think if you can coach, build identity and culture, and are a winner, then you should be able to win at IU. He's not my #1 choice by any means, but if the top guys aren't interested, I would very much be in favor McCollum over some of the retread (Buzz, Cronin) guys or someone like Brownell. McCollum seems to have an "it" factor.

Maybe. My experience is only one experience. Maybe IU is doing this, and you definitely have more insight into how IU specially operates (i mean that genuinely). Seems like an utter waste of unnecessary time, though. Not sure why people that don't know anything anyways would need to be coordinated to drip misinformation to donors. Just seems silly.

That makes complete sense. It's similar to the big season ticket holders in the NBA having sales executives at the team that they can call and contact for various things, and the ticket holders often try and get info from them. We're probably just talking semantics here, but I don't think those contacts are putting out planned "smokescreens" directed by the organization. Those contacts don't really know anything either. They're just trying to schmooze their season ticket holder (donor in this case) and have polite conversation. I don't think It's like coordinated misinformation.

So then we can safely assume all of the "insider" info we get here is completely false?

Exactly! Beyond it mostly being a waste of time and energy, that's why teams don't need to send out false info or create smokescreens, the system creates it on their own. The vast majority information out there by fans and media is almost always comoletely wrong anyways.

Could be, there are definitely real differences (ie. in the NBA you're not really poaching active head coaches from other teams). Honestly, makes me lose a bit of faith in the process if the athletic department is spending time on those types of things. There's plenty of misinformation out there on its own, without the athletic department spending time on smokescreens and misinformation.