pumpfake

Not sure who CAM will want on his staff - but that's totally his decision. I hope he's licking his chops at having the resources and budget for recruiting that he'll now have at his disposal.

If that's true, I'd call it a lose/win. LOL

Very good point. Personally, I feel Marshall has proven himself more but has apparently proven be a difficult guy to have working for you (AD). Either one of those guys would be generating equal amounts of griping, I suspect. Maybe not from the same posters (although there are maybe a couple who would have complained no matter what). After the longshot of Billy D, I'm not sure any of the names mentioned would be consensus choices and each would come with question marks. We got a got a guy acknowledged to be on most everyone's list. I know many want to poo-poo 0708, but he said there were talks with BD and he turned down a lot of money (and that his wife was a large factor in him turning it down).

Wouldn't it have to be considerably better, considering their respective conferences?

CAM was at OSU and Arizona with his brother. It's my understanding that he helped (was lead recruiter?) at both places when they brought in high-level guys. If he can do that at IU, this will turn out pretty well I think.

Seems to be quite a few of these around here:

Well, that's that! Very solid choice, IMO. It would be interesting to hear the backstory to this process. Looking at a couple of rivals boards it's kind of funny, many are saying Donovan was a delusional choice while others are saying they were relieved because they thought we might hire him. One thing people need to understand and that is that there are only a handful of coaches that are currently 'elite' and none of them are going anywhere. If we did go for Donovan (or Stevens) that was swinging for the fences, albeit a long shot. There are 8 teams left in the dance at this time and how many are elite? How many are head and shoulders above Archie? We didn't "shock the world" or hit the proverbial 'grandslam', but I'd say we did pretty well. Now let's see how the new staff comes together and what happens with the roster - I'd expect a defection or two and that's OK. CAM needs his type of players and hopefully much more talented versions of them than what he's had at Dayton.

LOL. I knew something would break when I decided to eat lunch and do a little actual work. Whoever it was on the other site that said this morning we would know today and be pleased not happy kind of nailed it. Personally, I'd call it a solid hire. Maybe even a home run, but not a grand slam. It will be interesting to see the PC and I'll bet we hear "we got the guy we wanted all along", LOL. They always say that. I certainly feel that AM is an upgrade over FCTC. I think he's a better X's & O's guy and almost have to be a much better recruiter seeing as how FCTC pretty much alienated Indiana HS coaches. That said, Archie isn't inheriting a stacked roster, nor anything close to a depleted one like 9 years ago. I fully expect to see significant improvement in year one and to starting meeting expectations in year 2 or 3 - if not, I'll be disappointed.

To be fair, he did use a disclaimer "entertain the thought please". All we have is rumors and speculation. Hopefully, no one is taking any of it with 100% confidence. It's like playing cards waiting for a baby to be born - something to keep you occupied.

I'm not going to discredit your argument, but UK fans are probably even more rabid and the media sucks up to them (despite the fact they've shown themselves to be OK with cheating). Much of the criticism I've read about our expectations has been from rival fans whose teams haven't done squat, historically.

I know anything shared by various "insiders" has to be taken with some measure of salt, but given that at least some of them have some indirect connections to the program, I hope when it's all over we can get details of what all has really been going on these past several days.

It is March Madness after all - gotta go nutty one way or another. However, and take it however you desire, Hickory has never been one to troll. If anything he's been cynical about other's claiming BD rumors. That's why it's an interesting development. Of course he didn't indicate what the significance of that plane is/was.

To summarize: Someone posted the flight information about a flight that went from OKC to Chicago to Bloomington (and then went to FLA then UT). That person wasn't claiming any insider info and finished the post with "..it could be something or nothing". Hickory then said "It is SOMETHING. Hang on boys". Obviously internet speculation, but Hickory is probably the most trusted "insider" and hasn't been spouting much if anything about BD (or the search in general).

Said it is "SOMETHING" Hmmmmmmmm

Yep, that's how it would seem to me. Whatever the case we'll know it is BD when he's announced and we'll know it's not BD when someone else is announced. I don't think we're going to hear anything until next week no matter what the final choice is. That's just my two measly two centavos.

Four really fun games to watch (3 close and 1 broilee bashing). Some odd thoughts: - Happy to see PU do what they do, but it's kind of B.S. that teams (KU) end up getting to play what amounts to a home game after the first weekend. - Gonz v WV: While I preferred to see Gonz lose, it is somehow satisfying to see that little things like FT shooting are still important. - Gonz v WV: Maybe just semantics, but characterizing that critical FU as an 'inadvertent' whistle is baloney. It didn't appear to be an accidental whistle - it was a blown call by the looks of how the official right there reacted. Still, they got it right in the end. - PU v KU: Parts of that game were like a 3 point shooting clinic (same as Mich v Ore). Makes me believe, more and more, that maybe the line needs to be moved back to NBA distance. - X v AZ: Very good game, but didn't seem like the same level of offense as the other 3 games. My impressions are incomplete because I didn't see all of the first half and only parts of the early second half. (I fell asleep. Knew I shouldn't have stayed up until 2 am the previous night)

Exactly correct. I will say this, though: If a person DID have some accurate insight and went around spilling it on message boards, once the ultimate source found out (or the intermediary), I'm sure they would be irate and send such a message. Also, that poster would not get anymore info. Thirdly, I don't know why someone would be so careless as to go around disseminating sensitive info other than for personal glory (the same reason someone would make up such secrets).

Beating out Duquesne for a coach would be as epic as beating out Incarnate World for MSB !!!

I'd add that it probably wouldn't be simply a case of offering more money. The coach's desire (or preference) to come back to college ball and near and long term prospects for his current roster would have to be (at least) equally important. In other words, I doubt any school is going to lure an NBA coach to their school based simply on salary - the closest you could come would be if it were an alumnus or that coach's long time dream job.

Excellent piece.

Insane for sure, but it was a Fort Wayne station so I think a little 'homerism' is at play (still stupid, though).

Yea, he was one of the two 'hard sells' I was thinking of. (Stevens & Donovan the two unanimous ones).

I suspect the consensus choice has been a different guy for the last 3 days (Donovan, Alford, Bennett). It's a testament to how these things tend to go (and probably just how those conducting the search would prefer). Based on the trend, tomorrow's choice du jour will probably be somebody I don't want, ha.

LOL. True. There's only two possible choices that would get near unanimous approval. I think there might be one or two that might be a hard sell to some. The other half dozen or so will get most of us on board. I've watched the ILL boards for their last two searches and it was remarkable to see an out of left field selection immediately become a home run hire. (I also saw Kevin Wilson immediately annointed a 'home run' hire too).