AKHoosier

Thanks for that, thought it was Tuesday. Based on their last game I'd say Swanigan is off to a good start; he had 23 and 20 in a game against some cupcake. He'll be quite a force this year, that's for sure.

Morgan would (and should) start in that rotation, and either Newkirk or Jones would be first off the bench. Just my opinion though.

I know this is the wrong place but I'm not sure where else to put this (sorry in advance) What is with all the broken images on this site? It has gotten pretty bad. I'm not sure if they're ads or what, but if there's something I can do on my end to fix it, I'd appreciate anyone with technical know-how.

At some point during his junior year, he'll look up at the 3/4 empty stadium during a game at Washington State and wonder if playing a couple summer pick-up games with a few NBA players was worth it.

Pretty good assessment. So the question is - do we root for Purdue to beat Villanova on Tuesday so we can leap-frog them too after next week's rankings? I probably won't be able to bring myself to do that.

Our last 2 wins have come against Kentucky and Kansas. If we go ahead and beat North Carolina and Louisville this year, that's a big step in becoming a "sexy" program for recruits again.

Keep in mind this is Newkirk's first game in like 2 years. It's also against a pretty good team.

Anyone want to call an Illinois loss? Screw it, I'm calling it.

Hey Kris Wilkes, it's not too late to change your mind. From the ESPN article currently front and center on their main page, Ultimate Guide to the Return of College Basketball: 8. Because you're going to love UCLA It's about to go down at Pauley Pavilion. Freshman stars Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf join a UCLA team as stacked as any program on the West Coast. They could reverse all the drama from last year. 9. Because you're going to be annoyed by UCLA Steve Alford's track record of molding promising young talent is lukewarm right now.

We've got the talent and coaching to win this game, but my main worry is how many turnovers we'll have. We usually have a lot of turnovers in our first game of the year anyway, but this year it's against a top 5 team instead of some sub-250 RPI team. Could be trouble.

And yet KenPom has them ahead of us. I don't get it either.

Wow I had no idea we were still in it with Tucker. He's really good, could end up being a better get than Wilkes since he'll probably stay a few years.

It would be nice to have an early season resume-building win on our resume. Ideally we win 2 of 3 against Kansas, North Carolina, and Louisville. All 3 would be fine too, I wouldn't complain.

I'll be amazed if we keep our number of turnovers under 15. If we do, I think we'll have a pretty good shot. Really, I don't think Kansas is that much better than us. But if we do get the win, we'd probably jump into the top 5, which would be nice.

Between him and Cliff Alexander, heck throw in Andrew Wiggins, I can't figure out why 5 star guys keep flocking to Kansas like they do. I mean of course it's a good program and Bill Self is a good coach, but still. None of those guys seemed to develop at all, and I'm probably missing one or two too.

Wow that's interesting, can't say we really missed on him since he didn't pan out that well, but he would have been helpful for us around the rim for sure. I just want to make it clear that I'm not bashing Crean though. I like Crean and think he's a good coach and recruiter. My issue seems more with kids these days I guess. Crean works his @ss off in recruiting, no doubt about that. It seems like despite all of that hard work and advantages/attractiveness IU has, Crean's message seems to fall on deaf ears with the elite top 10 guys. For whatever reason, IU just isn't a sexy destination right now for those kids every year.

This is the most upsetting thing for me. We were able to get in late with an out-of-state top 10 talent like Vonleh, get him on campus, and sign him, most people like myself thought it was going to be the norm from now on because we were a few months away from putting Zeller and Oladipo into the top 5 picks of the NBA draft. It's upsetting because rather than that being the norm, Vonleh has proven to be the exception to the rule. We've tried with guys like Pinson, Marcus Lee, Michael Porter, Cliff Alexander, Mario Kegler, etc. but it just hasn't worked for whatever reason. That's the frustrating thing because I really felt after Vonleh signed in 2012, the floodgates would open up and we'd have more success with out-of-state guys as well as Indiana kids, but that frankly hasn't been the case at all. Worse yet, it's not like Vonleh was a bust by any means. He was a good player and was drafted in the top 10.

I think it's pretty obvious he has removed the coaching element from his decision-making process. He probably has a great relationship with Crean, and likes Alford well enough, but in his head he thinks simply the act of going to UCLA is going to put him into contact with high-rollers and bigwigs in the NBA and entertainment industry. That's based on reading the tea leaves from people on this board and others, and if it's accurate or pretty close, I wish the kid luck and all the power to him if he makes it. But I don't want him here if that's his mindset. His goals are unrealistic and his expectations are not going to be met. He may be a 5 star, but he has a lot to improve upon if he wants to get drafted, and that ain't happening under Alford.

Yeah he's a 3/4 star guy, he seems like a good player and all but is far from the headliner we could use in this class. I'd love to be wrong, but I have zero faith in getting Preston. He'll end up at USC and we'll never hear from him again.

Highly likely our recruiting class will look like this: ***Justin Smith ***David Beatty ***Clifton Moore ****Justin Smith That's three 3 stars and a 4 star coming off a B1G championship and beating UK to get to the Sweet 16, and going into the season as a borderline top-10 team. If you told me that would be our 2017 class, I certainly would not have called that a success. That said, it's pointless to judge a recruiting class before they ever step foot on campus. We'll know in a few years if it's a good class or not.

How is UCLA and Steve Alford the best for being a one-and-done?

Then it's safe to say he's comfortable with the idea of not getting drafted, not improving his game, not going to the NCAA tournament, living in a less than spectacular city and subpar college town, and losing to IU twice a year by 30+ points. If that's your idea of fun, then hey, more power to ya.

I wonder if this counts as the in-home visit.

Hopefully that's a good sign, but it probably means pretty much nothing.

Swanigan hates playing the 5 though, it's why he went to Purdue so he didn't have to slug it out with bigs in the B1G. Haas is ok but when he gets winded or in foul trouble, they'll definitely take a step back when he goes out. The luxury of having two massive 7 footers isn't there to fall back on anymore.