ziggyiu

Interesting to see if Scott did the right thing by passing on Buzz. Not envious. Just curious.

Austin has walkable neighborhoods. Great city. Fun place with lots to do. Travel through town is tough. Unstructured not in place for how quickly it has grown.

Burners now saying Dix down to Creighton and Illinois.

UCLA has infrastructure problems and for the first year or so of NIL lacked, but last year Mic was able to rally the donors. They no longer have NIL resource problems. They may not be UK, KU, etc. with resources, but it's not bad like it used to be.

You all focused on the incident with EJ. Frazier continued to trash IU after that--on social, above and beyond negative recruiting, etc. I'm not trying to change hearts and minds, but you've missed the point. Frazier never let go of what happened in 2006, and because of his inability to move on a decade and a half later, I'd prefer another coach. So many continue to comment on this without any knowledge of him and his vitriol for IU throughout the years. And if anyone of you were actually privy to the stuff he'd say, you all wouldn't want that person representing your program. It's like how all of you would take a offense--some slight, some major--to an obnoxious jerk spouting off about how terrible IU elsewhere in your life.

Frazier's behavior at that game and his subsequent negative tweets and other public comments about IU have me hoping we don't hire him. It wasn't just the incident with EJ. He doesn't deserve to represent Indiana.

Wow. He's not a good coach. Great timing to coach a school near where Queen grew up though.

I'm not excited or optimistic, but I also don't think this was a terrible hire. Partly I'm skeptical because IU has made horrible decisions for a quarter of a century, so nothing too much against DDV, but I have little reason to trust IU. Also, my expectations were kind of slanted. I had started to believe in the possibility of a "big name" so this hire pales in comparison. Again, I suppose that's really nothing too much against DDV. That's more about my inability to stay level-headed and accept the trend in college basketball. I hope he's amazing and is everything we've missed the last 25 years.

Uh-oh pack line can like a four letter word with some after watching Archie "install" it.

Or it could be that people on the outer reaches of the inner circle are only now getting confirmation that everything is finalized. Or it could be that some insiders or some people who get updates from insiders sometimes get a little excited and suggest more has been agreed to/finalized/etc. then really is at the time.

Which is it? Did IU start working back channels in Feb. and secretly land a coach? Or at least start back channels to narrow a pool of quality candidates that are ready to accept the job? Or has IU done so little since early Feb. that they are just now engaging with candidates and having to fight Iowa for McCollum or Devries? I'd be shocked and saddened to learn if it's the latter.

I'm not inclined to support the idea of McCollum as head coach. While he may be a great tactician, there is so much more to the IU job in particular and high-major college basketball in general that he has no experience with. And I am more interested in the number of possible candidates who have proven he can handle all the other responsibilities that are part of running a successful high-major program. McCollum could be great, but I'm not excited about IU being his testing ground.

Easy on the Willard kudos. We'll see if he drops back to his mediocre/less than mediocre Maryland ways after Queen goes pro.

Anyone else listen to the Sleepers podcast talk about the off-court issues with Greg McDermott? They said like Beard, there's a host of issues with Gregg too that the public doesn't know about. (Not the same issue, drinking too much and physically abusing women, but they alluded to different skeletons.) Then there's the awkwardness around what some other coaches have intentionally side-stepped when asked about Greg. One interview recently that comes to mind is with Crean. Then there's the complete inability to even reach .500 in four seasons with Iowa St. when the season before Morgan got them to the tournament and the coaches after him--Hoiberg, Prohm, and TJO were at least able to do that. Plus Creighton has a winning culture. It has for so long. Remember all the success Altman had there. It's kind of like Dayton. Greg probably wouldn't flame out at IU like he did at ISU, but his success at Northern Iowa pales in comparison to what has come after him, he flopped at ISU, then landed in a place that has a structure and a culture that has produced winning coaches previously. Listening to the Xs and Joes podcast about the criteria/formula for finding a successful P4 coach, and he doesn't measure up. Generally speaking his teams have great offensive action--defense, not so much. Again, I'm not saying he is terrible or that he wouldn't do better than Woodson, but I don't think his resume is such that he should be considered an upper tier candidate. Plus, Im really curious what those skeletons could possibly be. And, no, it's not just the "plantation" comment.

I do appreciate that. I've worked in athletics. My curiosity is specific to Brad so as to get excited or not. ; > )