OKHOOSIER

Hes going to be in a different jersey next year, and I will be happy for him.

One of the guys on AC last night did a nice analytical breakdown of what it was going to take to solidly be a tournament team before the LM news. And from a numbers and production perspective, it would have taken the greatest portal haul since it became a thing. Post LM, it’s essentially impossible based one the amount of production even in a portal year to year. We already had to pull the best 2-5 players which LOL. Now we are going to fill the roster with players that are not high major contributors. Think Sparks, but different positions. We have to move on. Full stop.

4. Just not going anywhere. Joke was on us though, he didn’t just mean as coach, he meant it literally, as in, not going to sectionals.

This is why you don’t name buildings after living rich people who have nothing to do with basketball other than being rich. We are beholden to the donor class beyond say if it was just Kroger Assembly Hall. Or *gasp* just Assembly Hall. Kentucky- Named after Rupp, Kansas— Named after Phog, UNC— Dean Smith etc, etc. if we weren’t a poverty program we would have told them, respectfully that AH would not be named after a donor and found something else like we did for Cuban. Kinda hard to argue with the families on the marquee.

A lot of hand wringing last week about “Woody as a person” and what appropriate levels of hostile attention are. Well Woody as person thinks all of us are morons and don’t deserve or need any explanation from him. It’s arrogant, it’s hubris, it’s offensive, and I am with you.

Didn’t Woody say at some point he would not recruit people who were interested in NIL first or something to that effect? Or am I thinking of someone else? Team Mercenary™️ would seem to run counter to that, although it is a great AAU team nickname.

Oh boy, we were going to have to overpay to fill the roster beforehand. After? This will be the most expensive roster since NIL started. Not that I think there is much hope but same could be said for a new coach. Someone like May could certainly ask for more as he would be risking his future earning potential by coming to a studs level rebuild. Same with Pearl and his legacy. We are cooked. This has just started a minimum 3 year rebuild and that’s with whoever the coach is.

I meant it more from an evaluation standpoint. If we are still trying to get signatures after that 45 day window to enter, depleted won’t begin to describe the roster. While I agree with you there were still players available, the top players had narrowed their options and OV lists really really fast. Like within a couple weeks. Wasn’t super clear, my apologies.

That aged like milk, and wasn’t great to start with lol

Another fun tidbit for people in case they don’t know: the NCAA has shortened the portal window from 60 days to 45 days. So we are going to have to recruit 4-8 players at a minimum. And of those, 3-4 need to be starter level players and we have 45 days to do it and build almost an entire roster. In short, we are cooked my dudes. edit: half a sentence got deleted

This is kinda where I’ve come to over the last hour. Seems more like some sad attempt to keep him versus the other way around. Because the optics of it coming 24 hours after the vote of confidence are just atrocious. Why not wait if you knew? Doesn’t matter anyway it was poorly received with him committed, and now we look like a clown show.

Also in case anyone doesn’t know this tidbit, the BTT is limited to 15 teams starting next year. Forget the NCAAs or NIT, imagine IU not making the BTT. Hello darkness my old friend…

Well if reports about him not staying in contact with Liam or his family are true he may not even know his name.

I bet what happened is Liam found out a bunch of random internet fans were calling Woody lazy.

I looked it up and the answer is none other than IU.

We did just free up some much needed cap space.

I wish I could give credit to whoever said this earlier but I am not scrolling backwards… that said, we have officially landed at 10: I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend.

Have to think that’s the case.

I don’t care what anyone says, bring me all the hump jokes!

Kids don’t decommit because of toxic fans. They decommit because they don’t want to play for bad teams or not play at all. I’ve been worried about this for months, because anyone with eyeballs could see this offense isn’t designed for a player with his skill set. It literally couldn’t be less of a fit. Go spend some time at rupp rafters if you think our fan base is toxic. Doesn’t hurt Kentucky recruiting in any way shape or form.

I only have myself to blame for actually starting the think MM and LM on the same team could happen and be nice. Lol this entire roster is hitting the portal. Thats the only thing this means.

Are we allowed to go back to being negative or naw? What an absolute joke of a program. Where is my dude NGW at who went around HAHA responding to every post about the portal plan being a guaranteed fail?

I haven’t watched a second of him play live, only highlights and he doesn’t look like a 2 to me. MVA is weird in that they are so ludicrously loaded this year there really isn’t anywhere else to play him. His length and being a freak in HS allows him to guard a 2. It’s less his offense, more about guarding B1G caliber 2 guards. Not saying he can’t, I don’t know, that’s just my read. Mack is a good example, his length and size against average high school players would make up for lack of quickness— that’s been exposed at the D1 level.

100% except the problem is they play the same position sort of, except MM is more of a four. LM and MM at the 3 and 4? REALLY EXCITING…. But, and this is the huge but, do you believe with Malik entrenched and the obvious need for rim protection that would happen consistently? Because I don’t. Then, we end up where we are again playing someone out of position, but instead of Gallo at the 1 it’s LM at the 2. The overall roster construction just has so many issues, then it gets exacerbated by needing to play two centers because Malik would foul out in 10 minutes consistently playing the 5.

Except they are mortgaging the programs future. Unless this works (I’ll go on record saying it won’t), this could crater us from a personnel standpoint for the next hire. It is a risk our program cannot take— and as I mentioned earlier there is already an example with a far better coach— Arkansas, and it hasn’t worked but Muss is also still committed to HS recruiting. We have 24 years of mostly mediocre or bad basketball and we are leveraging an attempt at a new style of portal free agency. It’s risky at best, unconscionable neglect at worst.