hoosierbgh

Somebody has to be in the Top 10 even in a down year. Neither Gonzaga nor Duke were as good as they normally are last season. Duke was solidly in bubble territory mid way through the conference season. They were also a better team at the end of the season than when Purdue beat them. Gonzaga improved as well. Purdue's biggest problem wasn't that their guards were freshman it was that their guards are extremely limited. That won't change this season. Their second biggest problem was that Edey was never going to get away with the BS in the tournament that he got away with during the conference and pre-conference seasons. They're a one trick pony whose one trick can easily be mitigated by officials. That hasn't changed either. If Purdue ends the season in the top 5, that says more about the season than it does about Purdue.

If he commits, I'd be happy to have him. If there's one thing we can be confident in, it is that Woody is not going to promise starts, playing time or otherwise blow smoke. A commitment would indicate he's at least open to coaching and competing for playing time. The kid definitely has some tools. If he is willing to accept coaching and works hard, he could be a dynamic player capable of making things happen on the court. My biggest concern would be his lack of strength, if he can improve any in that area and learn how to use the strength he has better, he could be a matchup nightmare for opposing teams.

The one bad loss doesn't invalidate their squad but their squad was never as good as it was hyped to be either. They got a tremendous amount of hype mileage out of beating subpar Gonzaga and Duke teams early and then were gifted a Charmin soft first half of the conference schedule. Worse for them, I don't really see that they addressed their glaring weaknesses in the offseason.

I don't see the square peg, round hole comment. If anything I think Reneau is the Yin to Ware's Yang. They both have things that they do well to complement each other but can be somewhat interchangeable depending on what is needed in a particular game. As of now, Ware is better on the perimeter and Reneau is better in the post. I think Ware spends more time at the 4 and Reneau more at the 5 on offense. Defensively, Reneau is almost certainly going to be guarding the opponents 5, unless Ware adds a lot of strength. Even if Ware has the strength, having him come from the weak side for blocks and using his length and athleticism to cover ground is a more effective use of his talents than pinning him in the post against the bruisers in the BIG.

It also seemed longer for Cardinal because he looked like he was 30 as a freshman and in his mid 40's by the time he graduated.

I like Ian Eagle, Jim Jackson, Benetti. There were some younger/newer guys that I thought were good during the tournament this year that have the shown the potential to be elevated to the favorite category but only time will tell. Hummel is good when he isn't whining but he has a tendency to whine at times. Still better than many though. Settles is always entertaining. It is a lot easier to name my least favorites, Burke, Dykes, and Walton are easily the bottom three and in that order.

We have two back to the baskets bigs on the entire roster and Reneau is versatile enough to spend some time out of the post. It is a stretch to think that both of those players will spend much time at all on the floor together but if they do, Reneau won't likely be playing in the post. Beyond the post and backup post, we have 3 tall guys that can play out on the perimeter to varying degrees.

Most people who are just starting a career or still in training(kind of like college basketball players) do.

Too much drama for them!

He's too quick to play SG at Purdue.

It'll probably be: "Come to Michigan and you can be a great decoy on last second plays"!

I see those terms exactly opposite, shooters make shots and scorers score their points no matter how many shots it takes. That said, I prefer scorers that can shoot.

I started to say that the Wooden Award probably shouldn't be named after the biggest cheater and fraud ever involved in the game either but it does kind of make sense if you think of it as an award for the player most worthy of some Sam Gilbert cash.

IMO, his ability to challenge shots both on the perimeter and in the post "moves the needle" regardless of his offensive production.

IMO, that sounds like a great plan in abstract but you start adding names to those lineups and it can quickly illustrate why that strategy is not always as good as it sounds. For example, if there was a game where both JHS and TJD started sluggishly and the opponent started really hot, are you really going to leave your only real PG and your AA post on the bench to start the 2nd half because the subs were able to cut into the early lead?

I grew up in the area so I don't doubt that you can find people that will espouse that but they are wrong. I don't doubt that it added elements to his game but to say playing pick up ball was what made him into the legend he became is patently absurd. A better argument could be made that going to ISU and carrying a whole team did more for him than playing with other talented players would have but that is still a big stretch.

It's plausible that the kid really liked what he saw at IU(enough to get people at IU excited) but wants to take the last visit to be sure. Afterall, his first school choice didn't work out, which makes it even more critical to get it correct this time. It is not very plausible at all that he committed verbally and is still taking the last visit.

NIL shopping or bidding war brewing?

Ware can do a few things that TJD didn't but there's absolutely no way that Ware is going to have the kind of season that TJD did. TJD's season this year was generational, we won't see anything like that again for a long, long time. That is not to say Ware can't or won't have a very good season but I'd be ecstatic for a Jeff Newton as an upperclassman level of performance.

That's pretty much the realistic side in a nut shell. Form an opinion with little or no info, then ignore anything that doesn't fit the opinion.

If someone were adamant that IU was going to make the Final Four next year would you find that realistic? I think that would be considered to be unbridled and unwarranted optimism and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that would think that is a realistic opinion. Even an extremely optimistic person would struggle to make that leap with an incomplete roster that is missing almost 1/3 of eventual team. Yet, without a single shred of additional evidence, the opinion that IU will definitely be terrible next year is realistic? I could see that being an honest opinion if the team were actually complete and things went as bad as predicted. To consider that a realistic position now though, you have to make some pretty big assumptions based on facts not in evidence. You would pretty much have to assume that IU is A) not going to land players from the portal, B) any portal players IU lands won't be any good, C) no one currently on the team improves significantly, or D) some combination of all of the above. With absolutely no insider information, I can confidently say that situation A won't be the case. IU will fill the roster spots or at least most of them with players. They may not all be players that fans love at first sight but the spots will be filled. How likely is it that all or most of those players do not contribute? I'd say pretty unlikely. It is no more reasonable to assume that all of the players we do get will be misses than it is to assume they will be hits. In fact the data is heavily trending toward transfers being more likely contributors than all but the most talented recruits. Nor is C much more likely considering that even under Archie we had players improve during the off season, if only by accident and despite the coaching staff.

Don't worry, any optimism generated by zoom calls to recruits or even commitments from those recruits will only be temporary and short lived. We will return to the regularly scheduled pessimism and anticipatory b****ing shortly.

Depending on how things play out, it could be a big miss... or it could be a big dodge. Way too early to tell at this point.

I don't know, Reese and the faster centers may be a problem but I think Sparks will handle Edey better than anyone IU had on the team this year. He's strong enough and gets low enough on defense that he can force Edey farther out and prevent him from getting the positioning that makes him hard to stop.

Yes, are you new here or something, LOL? After 4 more commits in fairly rapid succession, it's only going to get worse. We all be addicts by that point and gnashing our teeth for the 24's, 25's and 26's to quit screwing around and commit already!