Demo

Love this. It really is what this deal’s about. And made all the sweeter by happening at Wisky’s expense.

White let that spurt go way too long.

Saunders was a bad, bad loss. And there may be some lessons there in roster building in this era. You spent a billion dollars on Dybantsa and Wright and probably to retain Saunders and not a lot on the rest and 1 kid gets hurt and you lose a 1 and done game and Dybantsa’s out the door and Saunders is gone and, yeah, you injected energy into the fanbase but did they actually build towards a sustainable program? I don’t know, but they’ll do the exact same thing next season with Bruce Branch, so I s’pose we’ll see.

His face is all over billboards in St Louis. Kid’s a star. My younger daughter probably doesn’t know which ball a basketball is but she knows who Avila is.

BYU paid supposedly giant money to get Rob Wright to bail on Baylor. The ROI in the biggest game of their year was really not there. Don’t care what his line looks like, he was lousy.

Purdue takes a commitment from ‘26(sort of) 3-star post Jamyn Sondrup. From the bit of video I watched he looks like a 6’9”ish below the rim kid along the lines of Trevion Williams. The reason he’s sort of ‘26 is that he’s a Mormon kid who’s apparently taking his mission straight out of HS so won’t hit the B1G until ‘28.

Sean Miller replying to “What can your team do to slow down Dybantsa?” ”I don’t think we can.” Has the virtue of honesty and he’s probably right.

Nothing I was looking forward to in the round of 64 more than Dybantsa/Dailyn Swain. Delivering early.

It took all of about 90 seconds of Bruce Pearl for me to really, really miss Jay Wright.

I vaguely recall us talking about him last year. Curious that DDV has already had 2 shots to bring him along and there’s no indication that he really tried. But his shear numbers from last year are pretty compelling.

Always wondered why Duke recruited Harris. He played at Paul VI with Jordan Smith and he was a good player but he didn’t project like their usual kind of kid at all. He was really physically mature and he had a very developed game but if he couldn’t just straight overpower a kid he needed help to get looks. Never looked like Scheyer’s kind of kid.

Hardest of hard passes. ASU was his 3rd school in 3 years. Technically his 4th because he was a KU signee but never played there. Also played at at least 2 and maybe 3 high schools.

It’s funny because it’s true

Baylor just did that with one of their kids. Signed Isaac Williams, whio’s a Soph, to a 2 year deal. Can’t imagine that’s not gonna evolve into a really common practice. At some point coaches/GM’s have to be able to make recruiting/portal decisions based on at least some reasonable roster assumptions.

Haven’t heard the name in a minute but apparently we’re still doing the thing.

Yup. Unless Congress gives the NCAA an antitrust exemption or some such and let’s them blow the current thing up I imagine we’re just looking at a long-term new reality. And as toothless as the NCAA seems in this whole deal, if Bama can cherry pick some local alumnus judge and get a Charles freakin’ Bediako eligible I really don’t know what they’re supposed to do.

Probably nothing, substantively. I don’t begrudge somebody like Underwood recruiting half the Adriatic League if that’s the structure in place. He’s not cheating. I’m just never gonna be down with some 22yo who’s been playing La Liga A for 3 years taking a scholly and an opportunity from a high school senior. I get why coaches do it, too much money and too much pressure to win not to, but I’m just never gonna be on board with it.

Uh huh. Was watching some stuff and reading last night about a kid who’s 21 and been playing in the top Italian League since he was 18. Supposedly would have 2 years of eligibility. And, yeah, Euro structure is just different. A kid like Ristic might be technically a pro, but he was playing Serbian B League which is where a kid like Sisley would have been last year. I’m fine with those kids. But some kid like, say, Muurinen who’s playing in the absolute top tier leagues and getting paid as such? C’mon

Doubt it happens, and anyone looking at his shooting stats at FSU isn’t gonna be down, but, man, did I love Daquan Davis in high school. Total alpha. Competed his a$$ off. Really defended. The energy was palpably different when he was on the floor. Played travel ball with Derik Queen and yet when you watched those games there was no question it was Davis’ team. Missed basically all of last year after knee surgery, no idea how bad, so has 3 years of eligibility left. A PG with 3 yrs of eligibility, I’d be forced to explore that one.

I imagine there are gonna be a fair number of coaches who think that way, at least for a while. And it feels like it could create a situation where HS kids with HM talent but who aren’t necessarily considered ready to play big minutes on teams with high expectations, kids perceived as 50-100 prospects, could become somewhat undervalued assets for programs willing and able to to develop along more conventional lines. Kind of like DDV’s ‘26 class. I just think building through the portal on a more than supplemental basis year in/year out is gonna be tough because you’re gonna be paying top of the market on every kid every time.

And Sam Orme, the Carmel kid, has been there for 2 years. 6’9” stretch 4 who averaged 13/5 this year and shot 40% from 3. Don’t know if it’s actually true but seem to remember hearing multiple places, maybe even around here, that he really, really wanted to go to IU out of HS. Suppose we’ll see.

Yup. Also spent the last 2 years being coached by 1 of the best developmental coaches in the country. At Belmont Alexander developed Malik Dia(15/6 at Ole Miss), Cade Tyson(20/5 at Minny) and Ja’Kobi Gillespie(18/5assts at Tennessee). Not necessarily advocating for Lundblade, probably fair to assume he’ll follow Alexander to K-State, just saying that where they played isn’t necessarily the thing. How well they’ve been coached is the thing.

Don’t I recall Winegar throwing a bit of a public hissy fit when Jalen Haralson left Fishers for LaLumiere? Hypocrisy, thy name is Garrett.

Penny fires basically his entire staff, including Mike Davis, at Memphis. ‘Cause clearly they’re the problem.

Hell, after the Darius Miles thing selling drugs seems positively quaint.