MikeRoberts

All good, you might have been one of the few people that wasn’t gushing over the haul we had this time last year. It was almost unanimous that we won the off-season, best team we’ve had in a decade etc. I’m seeing these almost verbatim posts here again much like the 2021 and 2025 coaching search posts. i hope this one is different and that the pieces do work well together but that’s tbd. On paper it looks good so far but it did last year too so I am in wait and see mode. Glad to see you are feeling good this go around!

I love the optimism but this is really a reach at this point in time. We don’t know that DeVries is ten times the coach Woodson was…. we don’t know that DeVries is building a team of compatible parts instead of collecting stars and handing out bags etc etc. Without going back to read your posts from last year I would be shocked if you were calling Woodson out for the players he was bringing in and the amount he was paying them. In fact I bet you were wildly excited. the fact is most of us know very little about our coach or these players. I’m excited we are landing some players coach is prioritizing (5) but none of this factual yet

Not sure I can change your perception but as someone that has done media/marketing for some of the biggest brands in the world and my wife does too I can say with 100% confidence that Duke is getting an amazing ROI. coca-cola, AB-InBev, McDonalds etc are massive brands that are world famous but they continue to dump money into media/marketing to ensure they stay there and also to invest in their future, fueling a pipeline of love and fandom from younger audiences that will payout for the rest of their lives. $4.8m is a drop of piss to these brands and a brand like Duke. The amount of media coverage alone via Cooper Flagg is worth 10s of millions and his presence ensures a whole new generation of fans. My 8 year old son asked me for a Cooper Flagg jersey for Easter. I’m not getting it and going to force him to be a Hoosier fan but there are kids everywhere that are becoming Duke fans because of him and the lifetime value of a fan is immeasurable. Think about every dollar you have spent related to IU over your lifetime and then multiply that by every new fan Flagg brought to Duke this year. just because you are a big brand doesn’t mean you will stay one, you need RTBs and there is no bigger one this year than Flagg.

WAYYYY more. Duke is a brand and basketball is the window into the institution. They are world famous for basketball and academics. Cooper Flagg is THE biggest ambassador to the brand they have currently and that will carry on for a long time. Players like him help with viewership, butts in seats, apparel, merchandise, contract with Nike, donations, rev sharing, tournament payouts, licensing, applications/enrollment etc etc.

I recall the post game interview and Calipari mentioning Bryant but recall it differently - more like Calipari mentioned recruiting him but was surprised how good Bryant ended up being. Regardless, they definitely went after another big that same year and landed him, could look it up if I wasn’t so lazy. As I know you know, “recruited” is a very broad word. A school will “recruit” a hundred guys each year, but only prioritize and really push to close a handful or so. I don’t think Bryant was one of those handful they tried to land but was more of a backup plan for them.

Both Bryant and Blackmon were recruited by UK but both deprioritized. They fell to us when UK prioritized others like Booker and can’t remember who the big was

Laws/Rules keep things in check. That said though, some laws/rules are so stupid and devoid of reason. I jaywalk daily without a second thought

Anyone making memes about coaches and players skin color is racist. In what world is that acceptable? f em

If a coaches or players skin tone is a determining factor for anything we do we are doing it wrong

The F’s came after his firing. They were loyal to him. Don’t bring up drugs if you plan on being a fan of this years IU team

He didn’t do anything any other top coaches weren’t doing - IU f’d IU and set us all back for snitching on one of our own, who does that?

Haha, that’s why IU fans get a bad wrap. Nobody is calling Houston’s teams thugs. IU did though, same type of kids

He was interviewed the other day, talked about his decision to come back to college after 5 years in the nba. He said he had a lot of interest but wanted to be at a school where he could trust the leadership and know they had his back. he never had that at IU, in fact they snitched on him when no other school would have. Every coach in the country was doing what he was doing, it was a nothing burger and was even nixed as a rule. IU f’d him and all of us

You mean the one that has been to 6 straight sweet 16s, 2 final 4s in 4 years and maybe a national championship here in a few minutes? That one

Do you think we could ever get a guy like Kelvin Sampson here at IU?