BTOWN

The fact that Vegas took Stevens off the list is about as telling of a sign as anyone should honestly need.  They aren’t in the business of losing money.

Everyone needs to go play the Pfau golf course at IU. If you see Mr. Pfau say thank you for loving IU

He is so friendly and personable to his customers.  He came up to my table a few months after he opened, and I had my wife and kids with me, and I said...."guys, this is an IU legend" (after my wife assumed it was just some old guy working at a fast food restaurant).  Laz talked to us for a few minutes, and gave my kids signed cards of his SI cover from 75.  Pretty cool experience.

There’s my Kelley guy.
Nice.

I seem to remember a quote from him where he said something to the effect that when he recruited players, he watched what they did during timeouts. He was only interested in recruiting the players who were engaged in what the coach was saying.

You are clearly not a Cubs fan.

Isiah Thomas is involved correct? Wouldn't he be in Atlanta for the NBA All Star weekend? And I'm pretty sure he currently lives in New York. There's just too many connections here. 

I wasn’t going to tell everyone but screw it, if it’s wrong it’s wrong.  The search is over!! Brad will be the next coach.  Same guy that told me the Sampson buyout sent me a text and said Brad is HOME! LFG!!!

At this point we'd all probably take him only committing to coaching 90% of our games and the rest were on us....

If true I wonder if the Celtics players have gotten word...which leads to Romeo telling all the IU players then it’s out cause they wouldn’t keep that to themselves.

There has been one post in BTB history that foretold this moment...

My Cubs fandom taught me the virtue of patience and has helped me cope with the last 20 years of IU basketball.

Mrs. Stevens certainly didn’t write that response. 

I can't think of anymore more dissimilar to Dakich as Titus. He's an IU fan and he's an entertainer. Posting a meme is not "provoking". 

Not sure who it'll be and I take this with a grain of salt but interesting conversation...

Individual A:  "you will like the new coach for sure" .... "verbal committment" ... "won't announce for a few days"
Individual B: "so you know  and every sports writer has no clue??"
Individual A: "sports writers best friends don't donate millions to the program, mine does...you'll be happy"
 
Could be blowing smoke....but it is a well connected Bloomingtonion.....we'll see...
 
 

Well in case anyone's wondering how the level of discourse is going over on the Facebook groups, one guys asked "Does anyone under 50 actually want Steve Alford?" and another guy commented that the post was "racist" because it "excluded people 50 and older."
That's why I limit my online IUBB chatter to basically just this site.

He left all his trophies!
 
 

Maybe I'm just a soft a$$ 40 year old but I felt bad for Archie during his presser when asked about the fire Archie chants. I like the guy. Just not right for IU. He just doesn't have the ability to get us right. Hopefully it works out for both sides. This hire has to be the right one. No questions asked(assuming Achie is gone).

Sorry, but if they can go anywhere in Bloomington to eat and they end up at Applebee’s or O’Charley’s, I don’t want them picking the Coach. That be some suspect decision-making right there.

Im sure the athletic dept is operating in the red. How much, none of us know. Them telling you they are down 40m could be a general reference to revenues, which is not the same as losses on a P & L. 
I would be shocked to hear that we spent anywhere near the same amount of money on operational costs. I'd be more than shocked actually. As inept as they are at running a basketball program, they are very shrewd from the business side of things. They aren't spending nearly as much in advertising, recruiting/recruiting travel, etc. 
I can tell you from experience that my business was negatively impacted by this last year. Between Covid, lockdowns, social unrest, the turbulent election cycle, and a very hard winter (hurts my business in particular) we were down. The one thing I cannot afford to do is quit spending! If I stop spending to improve my business and stay relevant in the eyes of the consumer, I'm insolvent in a matter of months. The university has a significant amount of resources that businesses like mine do not. 
If we are unable to hire a coach due to factors such as them having little to no interest, that's one thing. It would be insurmountable. But if the university wants to save money now and put another lame duck coach on the sidelines for the next 4-6 years, it will cost them multiples of what they were trying to save. It will start to rear its ugly head in a matter of a few short years. The entire university will be negatively impacted, not just the athletic dept. or the basketball program in particular. 
Organizations/Corporations have overcome much more dire circumstances than what the university is dealing with now. With the right leadership, finding the money to pay the right guy, is not something that is impossible. I hope they are thinking forward here. I will say that I don't envy the position they are in. 
 

I wish Terry Hutchens was still around. He would probably write a good book about why the Archie Miller era did not work out. It's the greatest mystery to me. I thought it was a really good hire. I loved the way his teams played at Dayton. He was recruiting the state. I thought by year four this program would be back in the mix. 

Not a head coaching candidate, but you know who should get a look as an assistant (GA first?) as soon as he retires from playing? Yogi Ferrell.
He’d be a great recruiter because both parents and players will like him. NBA experience. Megawatt smile. Young enough players will remember him. Knows the game. Got better every year, made his teammates better. Two conference title rings. Played hard whether he was the freshman earning his keep or the senior leader. Vocal. Seems to connect well with everyone.

RE: The Age Issue
I know we'd all love to hire a younger coach who could be successful here for the next 20-25 years but I'm honestly not sure how realistic that actually is? We tried that with Archie and it didn't work. We tried it with Crean and it didn't work. We tried it with Davis and it didn't work.
I just want us to get the best coach for Indiana that we can possibly get... regardless of age. Just get a good coach. I understand the hesitation for someone like Beilein and that's fair. But we've missed the tournament so much in the last 20 years that we need to make sure we can get someone in here to right the ship and put us on the right course of success once again. I'm afraid that trying to pick the next hot coaching prospect is a bit of a crap shoot and presents a high risk of experiencing the same thing we have just experienced.
I know some folks are reserved about picking a guy like Beilein or Matta for health/age reasons... but we know they can coach in the Big Ten. They have had MANY years of high-level success. Even if they were only here for 5-10 years they would most likely put us on the right track for success... at least becoming a perennial tournament team again.
People seem intrigued by guys like Musselman and Oats. And they may end up great coaches. But each of them have had exactly ONE year of Power 5 success. That's risky.

The only things to unite an IU fan base.

1. Winning Streaks
2. Coaching Searches

We can’t have 1, so we will unite again for 2.

It’s time.

PS-A big part of me gutwrenches for Archie because he’s better than this, and I hate to see someone fail so miserably. Self doubt and hate. Can’t be easy for him but I’m not empathetic enough to want him to keep his job. The 2021 recruiting cycle played out almost as though all the recruits already knew. Odd.


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