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I don't think CDD should be fired, but this team is not worthy of my time and money. I'm curious to learn what can be done in the transfer portal this spring. CDD can coach. He proved it at two previous stops. This roster was very poorly constructed, but with a full stable of assistant coaches here (which wasn't the case last spring) and better commitment to NIL perhaps we'll have a more pleasing product to enjoy next season. If IU isn't remarkably better next year CDD is toast (whether he's fired or not), because it's been proven my multiple coaches across different conferences that during the portal era it doesn't take 3-4 years to build a winner.

Seems there are at least 20 schools who claim to be top 10 in NIL. This fall I heard a lot top 15 talk from IU sources. At some point we're talking a couple bucks here and there that separates the 15th from the 16th biggest spender, and so on. I think college athletics and the various sources who report things like top 10, 15, 20, etc. need to be taken with a grain of salt. It's very difficult to know precisely how much money the school you are covering is spending let alone 20 others. IU may have spent poorly, but then again maybe IU didn't have the funds to be top 10 like the athletic department thought it would last spring.

Any word on if Payne will play?

I think he got some time against the Utes. Unless he reaggravated last night, he may be in Bloomington with the team.

BTN needs to find an IUBB alum for our games. I'll never stop missing Laz and Ted.

A lighter finish to the wood.

Congrats to the young man and his family. Congrats to CDD and his staff. Nice pick up late in the cycle.

I've had the displeasure of slipping into Sleepers pods on and off for a couple of years. Sometimes I break a little bit when overexposed. I know not to take them seriously, but it does peeve me that they take themselves seriously . . . and some of their listeners do too. It just feels good to vent about them.

The lack of intelligence or unbiased projection in this episode is astounding. They say they'd pick UH because their best big will be gone and the other really good big may choose to leave, but it's not as if he's prevalent on draft boards. They put down IU for not having big. They don't mention that because IU doesn't have a quality big returning that Arafan has a better path to more immediate playing time. Another thing, and this is really interesting to me, is that they say he should go to UH because the way Arafan plays fits with the traditional way UH plays their bigs. What if Arafan wants to develop his game beyond the traditional big man role? IU offers greater development. IU can make his more versatile, which in a few years will make his more appealing to NBA teams. Also the, "Come on man, it's Houston." argument is flawless. Arafan may very likely go to UH, but this episode does nothing to expound on the rationale for either UH or IU. It's just a ignorant hottake, which is par for the course for them.

From my outside perspective, I could see paying more for Diane as he's at a greater position of need with rare similar talent--and he is more likely to stay at IU multiple years--compared to Anthony Thompson.

This came from two different sources in two separate interviews: a recent former assistant college coach and I think from Jeff Goodman. Maybe they're wrong, and maybe you're right. Just passing along what I heard.

@HoosierDevils and @Hardwood83 - This came up in a couple of college basketball podcasts in the last month or two. I don't know the ins and outs, but essentially Big Ten schools (and the like) will be giving 80-ish percent of revenue share to football and slightly less than 20 percent to basketball (in most cases). However, even though the Big East won't have the same total dollars as the Big Ten, because they can give 80-some percent of their total revenue share to basketball it will equate to more basketball dollars. Essentially, 80-some perent of the small pie is more money than the not quite 20 prrcent of the larger pie.

I'm not suggesting he picks Xavier, but just to pick up on your mention of dollars to give athletes, Big East schools have plenty of money. Even without outside help for NIL, Big East schools have a potentially larger share of revenue to give basketball players because they don't have to split it with football players.

I don't like these changes, but at least these are stated rules. Ed and boosters like him are still the seedy underbelly of college athletics because that was bald-faced cheating. Nothing about it is romantic, quant, or cute.

Putting this in traditional position terms, LA is more of a 4 (who could play the 5 in small ball). AT is a 3. I think they would complement each other well. From a money perspective, IU should be able to get both too. It's just a matter of if they want to spend it this way.