cthomas

Kinda like when you went somewhere and had to sit with your parents instead of hanging out with your friends.

Yes, and this applies to so many other things as well. It's not about what's right or wrong, if that discussion even exists anymore, it's about what is legal. How long before we drop the pretenses and just call them the professional basketball team that represents Indiana University for a given number of years. It really feels like that's the direction we are headed.

Of course it does. The NCAA either couldn't or wouldn't effectively police it, so it became legal. Kinda like marijuana, the authorities couldn't stop its use so more and more states are making it legal. Doesn't make it desirable, just eliminates the enforcement issue.

Still not sure that I fully embrace the new landscape, but you are exactly right. The coaching staff has to on the same page. Anything less is unacceptable. Further, you cannot have a loose cannon who just expresses his personal opinion to whomever whenever he wants.

I see your point, I just think it's going to be really hard to put that genie back in the bottle.

Agree, the relative expectations were completely different.

How it's supposed to work and how it does in reality are completely different discussions. It feels like the wild, wild west right now with portal players going to the best NIL deal. I have no idea how this can be policed, never mind by who.

They will find a way to be competitive. They get more out of players no one ever heard about than any team I know. We think of this last season as a failure for them, but they still won 29 games and made the sweet sixteen. Pretty sure we would have been happy with that this year.

At least the buying players aspect is out in the open now. We can all be in the market without being called dirty.

This is my point. I know in the corporate world being a good/nice guy gets you absolutely nothing. But these are kids who commit to a school out of high school and then stay committed through a coaching change. Leal has the ability to play a lot of places. He wants to play here. I don't want IU to turn into just another place where integrity doesn't matter. Where the next better thing is all we care about. Admittedly, I'm a little old school in my thinking. If this can be worked out in a mutually beneficial manner, then I'm OK with it. Otherwise, we're just another school that uses kids and throws them away.

Of course, circumstances matter. If a kid wants to do something like that, it's his choice. Just not a big fan of pushing a kid out who is doing everything asked of him.

I know all the arguments, but I'm not a fan of this approach. I understand that scholarships are a one year deal but I believe that commitments should be a two way street. If a kid gets a scholarship and fulfills his end of that agreement, then we should honor that. I want to win as much as anyone, but not at any cost. This all seems a little contradictory to the things that CMW said when he was hired. He was about family and being there for the kids on and off the court. Getting rid of kids who committed to you in a time of need just to marginally improve the roster does not seem right to me. A good culture should start with loyalty that goes both ways.

We are going to love these kids at IU. Beginning of a new era.

That's a whole lot of "ifs". I guess we could say similar things about everyone on the roster. Speculation is fun, but I suspect the players will sort all of this out over the next few months.

Yes, and thank you. CMW knows what he is looking at in terms of who can play where. If he doesn't use JG on the wing there is probably a good reason why. Because we want him to be something doesn't mean he is. Maybe he can develop those skills, but right now the coaching staff doesn't think he has them. Therefore we are still recruiting for the position. I love his potential at the four. We saw a glimpse of what he can do there toward the end of the season and it was pretty impressive. I think the best approach heading into his third year is to maximize what he does best and not to try to transform him into something he isn't.

That's exactly true. I didn't want go into that part of the discussion at that time. We currently have more likely capable guys than we have minutes for. Another impact addiction pushes a current rotation guy into the end of the bench group. If we do that, we had better be certain that the addition is worth the subtraction.

I'm not so sure that he does. There won't be many minutes for those last three or four spots on the roster. Guys filling those spots who are also good for the culture are hard to find.

There are two ways to move up in the BIG. One is to wait for those ahead to fall back and the other is to take the spot from them. I think I know what CMW intends to do.

Ahh, the wisdom of that comes from age and experience!

I like that we have him on campus with a committed teammate. But, you know the other schools will get their sales pitch in as well. Promises will be made whether truthful or not. I love the optimism, but there are miles to go before this is over.

True, and as much as hate to admit it, I actually like him and his demeanor.

Our wish list Is crazy and a little unrealistic in terms of players and minutes. In order to gain what we want, we may have to give up some things we like.

Straight from college to Social Security.

With the likely number of new guys, getting them all on the same page and making fit is going to be a challenge. Just the growing pains of advancing the program I guess.

That story illustrates the complete polarity of human beings. One kind and compassionate and the other an absolute monster.