Demo

Unless OG has undergone a major growth spurt, awesome if true, I think that picture might be a little misleading. When I saw them at the end of January Juwan was clearly taller. Juwan is also much thicker. The part of OG you can't see in the picture looks a lot like Troy when he first got here. Juwan is thick all over.

Really want to see Huntington play Oak Hill. Daniel Giddens isn't the most skilled guy, but he's a big strong grown man. Very physical and aggressive. Watched him beat Skal Labissiere about half to death physically in a game. Watching TB and him go at it for 32 minutes would be a blast. Give'em both a good taste of B1G physicality.   

Yeah, no inside knowledge, but I live in St Louis and can't imagine any reason he would go to Mizzou. Program is a complete abortion. Lousy facilities. Don't draw at all. Had 5k for the Florida game. Might have had the worst guard play in the country. Players quit on Kim Anderson last year. Lead asst has already left. And they're oversigned by 1. I think we're good here.

No, nothing we talk about on here is worth getting lathered up about, I wasn't looking for that all. I did see that comment and it hit me as a wild bit of snark from some random dude. But you know this board way better than I do and if the poster is someone I should be giving weight to, ok. That being said, if Crean was willing to go there, we would have had Trey Lyles this year, wouldn't we? It just seems pretty wildly out of character to me.

You're right. That's why I'm not bothered by this one. For his other faults, Crean has clearly tried to run a clean program. I don't see him blowing up a rep he's spent close to 20 years building over 1 kid.

I agree. Do you know of something specifically shady that we're doing here? I assume you do if you're worried about Crean but not about Self, K, Sean Miller, Izzo or everybody else who's in on him. Or is anyone willing to take this kid desparate by definition?

Ridiculous. He's got offers from everybody. Coach K has never struck me as being all that desperate.

This thread has become absolutely hypnotic to me. I keep trying to leave it, but I just keep coming back. It really speaks to the greatness of IU basketball. Really, how many subjects out there provoke such passion that they can provoke a full blown mass existensial meltdown from a collection of, I assume, otherwise rational adults. God, I love our team and I love our fans. We are out of our freaking minds. But back to the point, I don't really see a connect the dots that ends in Coach leaving on his own. If he believes, and I'm confident that he does, that he has an ascending team coming back and he believes that we really are going to sign Bryant and/or Maker, then he has to believe that he has a team good enough to win a N.C. If that's true, and I don't think that's much of a stretch, does Coach really stike anybody here as the kind of guy to walk away from that? I don't see it. With the exception of Bill Frieder leaving Michigan I can't, off the top of my head, think of an instance when a guy left a really good team at a high profile program to take on a lesser team at lower profile program. Competitors at that level just don't do that. And if Coach is nothing else, I think we can agree he is a flat out percolating competitor. I could be completely tone deaf on this one, but I think if the AD doesn't do the deed. Coach isn't going anywhere.

Dave Loos, Coach at Austin Peay. He must have been a pretty freaking dazzling interview to hire a coach named Loos.

Couple of things: 1) Are you arguing that Crean would have kicked Stan off of the team in November if he didn't "need" him? If so, what do you base that on? Also, are you arguing that doing so would have been better for Stan?  If so, I don't see that at all. Unless I'm misunderstanding you I would ask you to expand on those points. 2) Crean pushed him out. First, I'm pretty sure we don't know that, but it's certainly fun to speculate about when we hate the coach, right?  2nd, I don't think it's too long a stretch to think that Stan can look at the makeup of this team going forward and realize that his role will probably be limited. If he then decided that he would rather try to play 25 mins/gm somewhere else than 10 mins/game here, then looking elsewhere seems like a reasonable conclusion for him to draw. And even if CTC or another coach told him that he was going to have to improve a bunch to expand his role or he was looking at shrinking minutes, that strikes me as a perfectly reasonable conversation to have with a scholarship athlete and that, to me, is not pushing him out.     If you have more information on this, I would appreciate it if you filled in the blanks.

The one I don't get at all is Georgia. Everyone's got'em in easily. Their best wins are Ole Miss at home and at Texas A&M on the road. Seriously, those are the best. They lost to Georgia Tech, Minnesota on a neutral court, got beat home and home by South Carolina including a 17 point beatdown in Columbia. They haven't beaten a single decent tournament team. Their best credential is giving Kentucky a good game before LOSING. Their resume doesn't remotely resemble ours. Putting homerism aside, I can't come up with any argument for them over us and yet I've seen them as high as an 8. Can anyone give me a hand on this one?

   It was pretty incredible. All of these high D-1 kids completely deferring. Total respect. Have never seen that before at that level. I usually don't buy the whole Pied Piper thing at all. But in this case, I think a Bryant committment could have a really significant effect on the Jones and Bridges recruitments. We really could be looking at a pipeline situation. This one needs to happen.

I've posted a couple of times before about how much I love this kid's game. Think he's perfect for us. Quick story about him: Was at the Marshall Coounty Hoopfest in December and Huntington is playing Arlington Country Day, which has a really nice team. Huntington jumps on them early and is up DD. Huntington plays a couple of really sloppy minutes and lets them back in it. Coach calls TO. The five on the floor never made it to the bench. Bryant pulls them into a circle at the free throw line and and just lays into them for lack of effort. Loud enough that half the gym could hear it. Looking every kid in the circle dead in the eye and is lighting them up. And every kid in the circle, Jones, Bridges, Levi Cook and Jon Kabongo, never took their eyes off of him. There was no question, none, who the leader of that team was. Absolutely floored me. Kid is just a bada** competitor. Sets a completely different tone than what we're used to seeing on the floor. Huntington won the game by 8.

Just got home from the game. Interesting to me that Rabjohns didn't mention that CTC was there. Was actually a pretty painful game to watch. Other than our kids, no one else could play dead. First thing that leaped out about Juwan is his size. He's a legit 6'8", but he has a huge frame. Thick all over. Will fill out to 250 easily. Average length. Really good footwork. Terrific hands, made several tough catches in traffic. Finished with both hands. Made a couple of threes, but doesn't have much lift on his jumper, so will need space to get it off. Solid handle and made a couple of nice plays off the dribble. Nice timing on blocks. Body language was not good. Seemed frustrated throughout, though it must be tough to play with no talent around him at all. Did not run the court hard a single time and did not make a single hustle play. Really like his skill level, but effort is going to have to get much better to get rotation minutes. His body and game reminded me a lot of David West. OG is just absurdly long. Full 6'7" but he's got to be every bit of 7'2" or more reach-wise. Got his hands on a ton of passes. Bigger frame than Troy and much longer. Good quickness, particularly laterally, and can really run end to end. Effortless 3 point range. Was making NBA 3's in warm ups with no problem. Really lifts and extends on his shot. Handle needs a lot work. Played almost exclusively on the perimeter. Length made him an absolute defensive menace and it's easy to project him as a big time defender eventually. Loved his demeanor, played hard throughout and never changed expression. Dating myself but the best comp I can come up with is Ricky Calloway. I don't see minutes next year but I can see him just exploding late in his Soph year or as a Junior.

Ok, just to clarify, if Thon Maker busts out an IU hat at some press conference the next thing I'll be busting out is the single malt. The kid is an extraordinary talent and anyone takes him. Maybe he comes in and in his 1 year of college dominates to the point where he helps carry us to the promised land. Could absolutely happen. But based on the times I've seen him live, small 2 game sample size, the kid is pretty poorly coached, highly ball dominant, and not very sound defensively. I can see him stopping the ball on offense a lot and I can see him spending a lot of time sitting with fouls.I can see us struggle to fit his offense in with what we have. I can see our staff doing a great job of developing him both physically and skill-wise just in time for him to head to the League. Long way of saying I can see him being brilliant or a little bit of a heartbreaker. I watch Bryant, bigger sample size, 5 games, and I just see a perfect scheme and skill fit. I can see 10 and 7 as a Frosh, 15 and 10 as a Soph and off to the lottery. Love the kid. But if we get Maker, yeah I'lol be ok with that.

Don't have that good a feeling about this recruitment, but this is the kid I want the most right now, even over Maker. Gotten to see him play live a couple of times and absolutely love him as both a system and need fit. Legit 6'10". Great, not good, rebounder both in area and out of area. Super competitive on D. Can hit the spot up 3 off screen action. Plus, might be the best rim running big I can remember seeing in High School. Got a serious crush on this kid's game. And I doubt he's a one year. Plug Bryant into what we assume we have coming back and I think we're top 5 next year.

I live on the west side of St Louis and have had the 27th blocked for the Waynesville-Jeff City game for 2 months. Literally gave my wife and her best friend a trip to Ft Lauderdale for the week so nothing comes up. Does that make me a good husband or a bad husband? Seriously, can't wait to see our kids in person. Friend of mine who's pretty well connected locally swears we absolutely stole OG.

I got to watch him play 2 full games last month at the Marshall County Hoopfest. His skill set really is breathtaking. Full 7' tall. Can really run. Shocking quickness, particularly laterally. Clean handle with both hands. Legit 3pt range. Has a little jump hook over either shoulder. Shot blocking instincts. And to top it off the kid just competed his ass off in both games. The issue I saw that you can't see in clips is that the kid really doesn't know how to play at all and isn't being coached up. Took a bunch of terrible shots. Tended to float to the wing when he was just unstoppable down low. Drove into traffic repeatedly. Brings the ball to his waste in traffic. Committed multiple bad reaching fouls. And at no point did his coach say a word to him. He needs to reclassify to 15 just to get coached. Don't get me wrong, I'd take the kid in a New York freaking second. With a point like Yogi getting him the ball in the right places he would be a monster eventually.

I'm at the Hoopfest now sitting about 50ft from Bill Self watching Braxton Blackwell against Lalumiere. Kind of hard to really evaluate him when his next best player is a 5'10" 8th grader and they're getting slaughtered. He reminds me of a more competitive Hollowell. Good frame, pretty good athlete. Decent handle left and right. Goes to the rim hard. Hasn't looked for his jumper much at all, but made 1 deep 3. Competes hard. Might be one of those guys who's a really good piece for a good team but not a primary option.

First post here. Been lurking for awhile. refreshing to find an IU site populated by honest to God IU fans. And, really, Troy's mom. Just plain cool. Anyway, been thinking about this last couple of days, glad it was brought up. When Fulford was there we couldn't get a sniff and now we get visits from there top 3 guys in 2 weeks? Gotta be some king of history or relationship between Arkell Bruce, their new coach, and someone on staff, I would assume Coach Martin. Been trying to find a link, nothing obvious, If someone with either better contacts than me or better research skills took a look at this, seems like there has to be something. Glad to be here. Looking forward to throwing in my 2 cents now and then.