RaceToTheTop

Unfortunately that's not the case in NCAA tourney selection. Point spreads make a difference in efficiency ratings.

I'm not sure what the argument is on Woodson's NBA career is here. 1. I'm not sure what is wrong with being a mediocre player. 2. Personally I would not describe a player with a guy who played 786 games and scored almost 11,000 points in his career as mediocre. But to each his own. I think the Ricky Davis comparison is pretty on point although I would say Davis was a little better. But I also don't consider Davis to have been a mediocre player. IMO he was an above average or pretty good player. Had a five year string in the middle of his career where he averaged 17.5 points/game. In terms of his three years coaching at IU so far, I think Wayne was fair in his ratings (see Wayne, we do agree sometimes). Okay year one and two, not a good year last year.

I obviously am in the minority here….but I can’t stand Boston. Think they are really vanilla. I was in college when Third Stage was released and still can hear songs like ****in’ Amanda getting played from dorm rooms while I walk down the hall. Stones, Beatles, Rush, The Who….i’m there with you. But Boston? Ugh. Flame away, but it’s not going to change my mind on them.

Seattle has been 141, 139, and 107 in Pom the last three years. That would have put them 6th out of 11 three years ago, 7th out 11 two years ago, and 4th out of 10 last year. They should be a middle of the pack in the WCC.

Moussa Sisse (Ole Miss) commits to Memphis. #5 ranked remaining center in the portal according to On3. He will split time at the 5 with Dain Dainja.

We all understand your opinion of Hatton. A lot of us — including myself — disagree with it. saying that Hatton couldn’t be a ‘playable backup option’ to me doesn’t gel with what he can do. And it doesn’t match up with others who are rating players in the portal think either. On3 has him as the 4th best remaining center in the portal and the 28th best overall center in the portal including those that have already committed.

Ware played 16 mpg at Oregon.

I'm not sure we even agree on the statement that we never agree on anything, LOL. We have back and forths when we disagree but when we agree, there really is a need for a back and forth. :) I never said that there shouldn't have been a backup big already in place via a recruit/transfer previously; what I was simply saying was that at this point all the staff can do is deal with what is currently on the roster. The fact that Sparks did not pan out IMO was not as apparent in advance -- check your post history and see if you thought having him as a backup was a mistake when he committed. In the past two years, Duncomb and then Sparks were brought in. Duncomb was the 68th ranked recruit, so a guy who was ranked way ahead of where Burgess is now. Payton Sparks was an All-MAC team level performer (think it was 2nd team) who had two years of eligibility) the following year -- personally, give me sight unseen him over Burgess ten times out of ten. So it wasn't as if the backup big spot wasn't address prior, it was that the backup bigs brought in didn't pan out. That's why I call the issue a retroactive one -- the spot of backup 5 was addressed each of the last two years. Call it a miss on the staff's part of identifying the right guy for that position but on paper those guys weren't mistakes. On the court they were.

But would you take him as your backup big next year? Would you be comfortable playing him 10 to 15 minutes per game? Personally, I will go on record as saying that Burgess and Peterson will neither see the court much and I would not be surprised if Peterson redshirts. Of the three players I listed, I will go on record as saying that none average 15 minutes per game and the only one who might average 10 is Berg. I fully expect that Kaufman-Renn and Furst will be getting the lion's share for Purdue at the five. Painter likes his bigs but Purdue's talent is mostly at the 4 position next year and Furst not leaving IMO says he's going to be getting an uptick in minutes. Painter is going to want Catchings on the floor which means I think you see Kaufman-Renn and Furst at the 5 when then can do so.

My point is simply that you can't retroactively change the issue of not having a HS recruit in the past and all the staff can do right now is deal with what is in the portal. None of the players you have brought up -- other than Onyenso and Cyril -- are currently available. Onyenso IMO isn't a realistic option because he will be able to latch on somewhere playing big minutes and getting paid -- we can't provide the big minutes -- and my assumption is Cyril is a option that most schools touched base with and he's already narrowed his list. There have been a couple of bigs that Woodson has gotten commitments from (or at least kept the commitments from Miller) -- Logan Duncomb and Kaleb Banks (whom I would classify as a 4). Neither worked out.

Back to Hatton -- teams said to be recruiting him (this was a little while back) were Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio State, and Clemson. Minnesota has since signed a big from Texas-SA; today Clemson signed Christain Reeves. Have no idea what has went wrong with him but in two seasons he's barely seen the court at all for Duke after coming out of high school with accoloades. So two of the schools in contention have recently signed bigs. So in terms of PT available, IU and Ohio State would be Hatton's best opportunities on that list. The Ohio State fit is a little tough to figure out -- they've had a lot of players in and out. They brought in Aaron Bradshaw to be their starting center and Sean Stewart to start at power forward; both have good upsides but underwhelming freshman seasons. They are bringing back one power forward who was in their rotation last year and another combo forward plus a center who were freshman last year who were not in the rotation. Some it would seem they would have room for a backup center. They are down to one scholarship.

Correct. Nelson almost exclusively playing the 4 and Wolf likely spending half his time there (until, IMO, they find out he can't defend the 4 for any long stretches and his PT gets cut). Should also be noted that Wolf goes completely against the definition of 'athletic big who can't dribble'. In terms of 'which of the 3 Purdue bigs will blossom'....I do have a question for Wayne: which of those three would you want to IU's backup big next year? Burgess, the 137th ranked recruit, Jacobsen, the 149th ranked recruit, or Will Berg, who redshirted his freshman year and only played 55 minutes last year? It's a serious question, because the guy you pick would have to be the guy taking over for Ballo if he got hurt.

The young guys you are talking about ‘molding’ are top 50 recruits, some even McDonald’s All American’s. Tarris Reed, at worst will be splitting even minutes with U Conn’s Johnson. And I’m willing to bet he plays more than Johnson. Arrington Page? I like him. But he’s also off the board. Committed to Cincinnati where he will likely get what IU can’t give him — tons of PT.

why do you keep bringing Bidunga up as if he were an option? And now Xavier Booker? They aren’t options. And now you are bringing up Edey and Duncomb — neither of which meet the criteria that wanted in a backup big which was being an athletic freak. Edey was a 300ish ranked player with no foot speed….and regardless of what he actually did in college, you would NOT have been happy coming into freshman year as our backup big.

so you are asking if I’d rather have Onyensu — the best post left in the portal — or Somto Cyril — the best available uncommitted high school post — or another post who a McDonald’s all-American who is off the board already instead of Hatton? Seems like a pretty loaded question. it’s not Madden. You don’t get to just put a guy on your team. I mean, cool, let’s just add one of the guys you listed. Heck, let’s add two of them. Or we can deal with the fact that one of the three you listed is committed elsewhere and the other two aren’t looking to come in and get not as many minutes as they will get elsewhere to go along with $.

I would say your memory of guys who filled out the rosters of teams pre-NIL days isn’t reflective of what those players abilities were.

And I’ll take skilled guys as a backup over athletic ones without skills. I’ve seen enough Hanner Peres’s in my lifetime.

But it also hurts other individual players and REALLY hurts high school recruits. There are winners and losers here outside of the money aspect.

‘Overrated’ based on what, though? Put money aside and he’s a fit for what we are looking for IMO — a backup 4/5 with experience. we don’t actually even know what kind of NIL deal he commands at this point…it’s all speculation.

The market in this case is an unstable, growing one due to how much NIL has grown in the past three years. It’s much easier to predict value in a more stable market.

I like Hatton and want him on the team, but until he’s signed he’s not signed. Staff likely knows where they stand but things can always change.

I hope he is a Hoosier, but all three links are based on one prediction by Travis Branham. It's a valuable prediction, but right now it's all anyone has to go on.

Haven’t heard much at all except the crystal ball to IU by Branham. Truth is some guys have visits and you never hear about it. I believe he visited Minnesota some time ago but they have since signed another big.

adam Howard tweet.., no idea what it means. https://x.com/adamhoward0/status/1788279819827872205

Two more bigs off the board — Koba Keita stays in state and goes from Utah to BYU while Ryan Mutombo goes from Georgetown to Georgia Tech. would like IU to lock up Hatton before choices getting really, really slim. FWIW, one suitor — Louisville — is hosting the #31 overall player (who is a power forward) in the 24 class after he devommitted.