Magnanimous

Drake is hosting Bradley today on ESPN2 (2 pm ET). #1 vs. #2 in the MVC.

Random question while we wait for the latest rumor - is World Wide Wes still a thing or did NIL and Kentucky basketball no longer being cool move that guy elsewhere?

Yes, we won’t hear anything official until Drake’s season is over. So it won’t be at least until the second weekend in the NCAAT.

Ben McCollum is both a better coach and NBA executive than Stevens. Don’t bring him up again.

The only slam dunk hire IU has made in the last 130 years was the second time Branch McCracken was our coach. No one is saying McCollum is a slam dunk, but I think he’s a unique coaching talent within the “up and comer” crowd of the last 10 years. And it sounds like folks’ biggest concern is his ability to handle the stage, not his basketball acumen… I want the best coach, and I have yet to see anything indicating he shouldn’t have that argument made in his favor. He runs a very efficient offense and his teams grind on defense. Will he start landing Cooper Flaggs with that type of play? Maybe not, but he will bring in talent here and also make the most out of the players who will actually stay 2-4 years and who are the types of players that win championships for other programs, yet our previous coaches cause to plateau in year two…(e.g., Robert Johnson, Armann Franklin type players)

Bump for Valentine’s Day rumors and ruminations.

Candidate B’s Year 1 story is not over. Candidate B also has a .920 D1 winning percentage with a D2 roster. Candidate B also has three wins over P4 schools with players who would lose an intramural game at the HPER. How many P4 wins does Candidate A have?

1. He does not have a significantly better D1 resume. 2. Ben McCollum is the Nvidia of today’s college basketball landscape. He will dominate the entire market for the next 40 years.

The landscape has changed with NIL and the portal. Most currently employed P5 winners do not need an IU-level position to be successful. There’s a reason the SEC is the best basketball conference right now - excess football money being thrown elsewhere. Kentucky didn’t get the pool of coaching candidates last year that they would’ve 10+ years ago. I don’t think UNC and Duke would have the same pull these days either.

I said we should’ve considered him four years ago. He’s the best X’s and O’s coach in the country. Glad he’s passing his Drake internship for folks to come around.

There is another element / added bonus for Stevens this time - college basketball has become drastically worse since this job was open four years ago. There are no great teams anymore. The only household coaching names left are Self and Calipari, and they’re both winding down. Despite winning two NCs, no one cares about Hurley. CBB needs to be saved nationally, and Brad Stevens would bring immediate attention to the game again. That may increase the “pressure cooker” element of this job, but he would also garner immediate sports celebrity status on Day 1.

Scout, barely, back when I was in college. My username was different (initials/numbers), didn’t post much on scout. However, I was on the receiving end of some nice “lectures” from the old guard of Gocolts (now Old Friend?) and oggyiu. Some of the other old faces included some names still here and guys like milehiiu and ccgeneral - who were both great guys and I believe unfortunately both passed away…). Never touched peegs, but I went from scout to the original Hoosier Sports Nation, which had the same design as this page. This was during the Crean/Watford era, and I was on that with many of the folks currently on this site. I took a little break from posting on the original HSN, and I don’t remember what happened to it. Was it funding issues or something? Anyway, when I started posting again Btownbanners had the same exact format and design as the old HSN, so I came over here. I only post here and have not gone back to HSN. I check it out occasionally during big moments (like we’re currently in) to see what extra perspectives may be shared, but I don’t post there given this site has a fuller community of posters.

Those are fair points and is why he should have Thad Matta and Dane Fife on staff for the first year or two to navigate this fishbowl.

Good offense doesn’t always mean flashy offense. FWIW, Synergy Sports, which quantifies efficiency in college basketball across all levels, had his 2019-20 NW Missouri State team at the highest offensive efficiency (114.6) in the 16 years of Synergy’s database. For comparison, the best Division I offense during that time was Villanova’s 2017-18 national championship team that posted a 110.0 efficiency. I’m obviously high on the guy regardless, but his teams play very smart basketball. I would imagine that with a more talented roster he won’t have to kill time through offensive possessions the way he is at Drake with a D2 starting lineup.

Dusty May is a good coach, but I’m not ready to hand the keys to this program over to him. I’m not convinced he will transform this program into anything more than being in the top six in the conference more years than not. I know he has a FF run, but one run doesn’t make a prime candidate. “He’s been to a final four” = let’s hire him! ”He had a four game winning streak against Penny Hardaway’s Memphis team, Fairleigh Dickinson, Tennessee, and Kansas State” = big deal… May should keep Michigan competitive enough, but he’s a “can-miss” candidate if there ever was one, and if he didn’t go to IU he would be about 8th on this list. Brad Stevens, Chris Beard, Ben McCollum, Bruce Pearl, and Nate Oates are the five guys with enough of a demonstrated pedigree to be the real candidates here. - Stevens will be a long shot no matter what. He also hasn’t coached college in a decade. - Chris Beard is an alcoholic who abused his wife. He’s a perfect fit at Ole Miss. - Bruce Pearl is about to be 65 years old and has no reason to start over. If it isn’t Stevens, get Ben McCollum (who is the best coach in college basketball), or go get Nate Oates, who is a very good coach with a little more of a pedigree at this level (and an $18m buyout…).

I think it’s been 8 years since I saw IU play a basketball game I was sincerely impressed by.

Too soon?

I didn’t get to this board until after 9 pm tonight. You guys have no idea what it feels like to read through 85 pages of posts while listening on repeat the only appropriate song to listen to when someone gets canned - the second half of “Layla.”

21-2 with a D2 roster.

17-2

There hasn’t been a great college basketball team in like six years. Most teams today can be beaten by competently average teams on most nights if they let up a bit.