Aaron

Nope. Yarden was gone regardless. The Merkle and Yarden situations were not related. Merkle going there may have swayed her to join Terps, but if Merkle chose IU, Yarden may have headed elsewhere besides Maryland, but it would not have been back to Bloomington. Where Yarden was headed in a different world I cannot say for sure, and had no heads up as to where she was going now. However, it was not going to be IU regardless of what Hoosiers' brought in. That I am sure about. See last few threads with explanations for more details.

Yarden situation could end up being best thing to ever happen to Moren if it causes her to change as she says she wants to. Supposedly Yarden wanting to leave was wake up call to Moren to finally get with the program with NIL as I described recently. Her choosing Maryland as much as it sucks for IU makes perfect sense and matches her wanting to chase a title and no amount of money keeping her. As I told everyone, IU could have raised more money than anyone else for her from Jewish community who wanted to help, but she was not gettable with way everything went down. Maryland makes perfect sense as they are ready to chase a title and also is one of few campuses with larger Jewish and Israeli community than IU. As I have stated, Moren thought culture she had built overrode NIL and was unnecessary. Whole Yarden situation was wake up call and now NIL is being raised for future and Moren is finally embracing it but fairly behind. For this year, just going for decent players like Stotijn to see what they can pull together. However, if all goes well, should have competitive NIL for future seasons. If Moren is really ready to change as she seems to want to, Yarden situation will be best thing for program. Ironically Brenda Frese a couple of years ago had Moren's attitude, and lost a ton of players over it and now has adjusted and killing it again. Moren needs to follow same path and hopefully will as she promises to do. Proof will be in the pudding. Either she will be like Frese and adjust to be a top program again or she will be next Coquese Washington at Penn State and Rutgers who refuses to change at all and went from being a winning coach for about as long as Moren did, to being completely unsuccessful. This is biggest test of Moren's career and if she is willing to change with modern NIL game as she claims she wants to, everything will be fine. We are either going to look back at Yarden situation in a few years and say "Fortunately this really woke her up to adapt to modern game and NIL just as Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu situation did at Maryland for Frese" or it will be "This was the beginning of the end of Moren being an effective coach as she was to stuck in her old ways." From everything I hear, it should be the former. However, we will see in the next few years when proof is in pudding. Either way though this Yarden situation will be program defining moment for better or worse. See further back in thread for other info that has been whispered to me about what is going on.

It has for a long time thanks to Moren but that sounds like it is about to change. See below in a few min.

Not related to emails. See below in a few min.

No IU home game vs. Maryland this year.

You are not totally wrong here. Adjustments coming from her though it seems. See below in a few min.

Nope. I will explain below in a few min what happened.

I would say it’s relatively accurate to say Moren was out of touch with modern game and NIL until very recently. At least unlike Woodson though she seems willing to change and Stotijn pickup is biggest evidence of this so far in a couple ways. Shows Moren wants to get bigger and more athletic as she talked about and also NIL situation is slowly improving that they were able to secure a player of this level.

Clearly not. I explained above how it more or less went down and it was far from this. No coach would ever turn down dollars handed to them on silver platter.

Its not so much turning it down as it was feeling like she didn't need it and saying she was OK as things were. It wasn't administration or Hoosiers Connect saying "here is NIL dollars" and Moren saying "no". It was more like her being told 'your program should raise more NIL dollars to get better players' and Moren saying "I have built a culture a culture that is bigger than NIL and not sure we need it". These may or may not have been exact words used but this is more or less how it went down. However, Yarden situation late in season was a wake up call to her and now she has asked Hoosiers Connect to fundraise more NIL dollars. They had enough for Yarden with lots in Jewish Community wanting to help specifically for her only. However, by this point she had made decision to move on for final year and turn down a very strong offer to chase a championship elsewhere. It is very possible she will get less money wherever she goes next compared to what IU offered. It was because Yarden saw that team would be rebuilding she didn't want to be a part of a rebuild in last season. If Moren had acted earlier when warned mid-year and they had raised enough funds, they could have put together a high level team Yarden would have been a part of. Top players are still out of IU's price range with such a late start. However, the next level players like Stotijn are obtainable and enough of those can at least get you fighting for postseason play. This whole situation has been a wakeup call for Moren as I have said but fundraising will take time. End of yr presser was her basically admitting she needs to change after Yarden situation went down and you could hear it with how she discussed things.

Much bigger pickup then Spreen. Spreen is symbolically important being from state. However, ideally Spreen is a back up on a postseason team. Stotijn on other hand can absolutely be a Big Ten level starter on a good team in the back court to go with Shay and Lenee. Also shows Moren is serious when she says she wants more athletic players as Stotijn def meets this criteria. Now need to find that starting level big with missing on Merkle. Also, good to see Moren got two of the three known visitors to commit and hopefully means she is identifying the players she wants and mostly getting them to commit. Curious to see where team goes next.

The win today should surprise no one and is the most positive aspect of the Mercer era. IU faced easily the most elite pitcher in the Big Ten and arguably the best in the country and had the perfect plan and hit him hard with small ball in a way no one else has. Say what you want about Mercer, but a top pitcher should be scared to death to face his teams as he always comes up with a brilliant plan to make sure they have their roughest start of season. The problem though is by the same token, Mercer offenses have a penchant to struggle at times against mediocre arms far worse than anyone else. This series with any other team would feature MSU's opponent winning two out of three, losing today against the ace and sweeping the doubleheader tomorrow against much more suspect arms. However, with a Mercer team they will still win two out of three. However, they will beat the ace up as no one else has and then almost certainly inexplicably struggle and lose one of the games tomorrow and look totally confused and be shut out by one of the lesser guys. In the end this evens out and you will end up with a really solid offense that arrives at same spot as every other team in a different way. This is a somewhat acceptable but inexplicable quirk of a Mercer team that I have learned to live with since he has been here as it gets you to same point in end. Its the lack of pitching depth and spin ball program that Dustin Glant has created that holds the team back and needs to change. Mercer's success or failure here will be his actions or inactions of Dustin Glant and his employment here. There are some quirks to the Mercer system as described above. However, he is a hitting guy overall and gets this cooking always, albeit in unconventional ways to same results anyone else would. These offensive anomalies are very much livable to deal with if he has a good pitching coach as he did before this with Justin Parker. How Mercer does or does not deal with Glant in offseason regardless of how this season finishes, will ultimately determine if this era is a success or not. The rest of the strengths and weaknesses of his program even out and can easily be dealt with as a fan since it gets to same point in end as any other head man.

Because she is old school and thought her culture was strong enough that she did not need it. Sometimes when coaches are used to doing things a certain way for a decade plus it can be hard to adjust. The fact Moren finally gets it and has, speaks to her ability to adjust on the fly and be flexible. Many great coaches have never learned and end up retiring.

Not sure here. Sorry. The fact they are finally getting some of the best player in Indiana though would seem to be a good sign.

It doesn't hurt when going after others as portal season goes on. Whether they get Stotjin or not I have no idea.

IU has wanted to up NIL for women but coach has to agree. This one is not on administration but Moren and was warned about this. At least she gets it and is willing to adjust which is the mark of a pretty good coach. Many would not. Just will take patients to raise the money now. Sometimes stubborn long term coaches get to prideful and Brenda Frese who is even more successful them Moren did just that and had really rough 2022-2023 but much better since and adjusted. Moren sounds like she is ready to do same fortunately.

Pretty much at this point they may well be forced to do that. Also it would be WBIT for women (where finals are in Indy) as primary tournament behind NCAA now that Minnesota just won. WNIT is a ring below that now and would probably decline a bid for that. Gonna have to build back up what has been so successful for a decade. Sometimes an 11th yr coach has to adjust with times and seems finally willing to do that.

Should for both 26 and 27 class for high school and portal assuming they can raise the money. They are working at it but essentially starting from scratch.

They are trying to follow Maryland and having to reinvent. See my post above. Just takes time.

I have info on both NIL and Yarden via a couple things I have heard and putting some puzzle pieces together. I would advise everyone to not get their hopes up over big names in portal. IU is low on NIL and doesn't have enough cash to get the top players. Good news is Moren finally gets it and that her culture won't override NIL as she assumed for so long. Ironically Brenda Frese had this same issue at Maryland a couple of years ago and assumed her years of winning were enough, but now adjusted and getting biggest names in portal and has healthy NIL for Merkle and other stars she has grabbed recently. IU is behind in fundraising but going all in for donations now to program. Will use next season finally to up fundraising and NIL and would expect a bunch of huge names for 2026-2027 after there has been time to fundraise. Moren had to learn for herself as is human nature that no matter how good your culture is, money is needed today. Alarm bells were sounded to her midseason but she said she was fine and was afraid to ask for help. Unlike Woodson though at least she is willing to adjust and final presser was her more or less admitting that. However, will take time to catch up on amounts and get top players in again. This has a great chance to be a redemption story similar to Frese but could well be a rough season in the interim. As for Yarden, plenty in Jewish Community offered NIL to keep her but she was 'unbuyable' here. She saw situation for 2025-2026 was going to be rough and wants to move on to win a title and not struggle on a mediocre team her senior season. Whole situation here with Yarden is one of the reasons and catalysts Moren finally saw that her culture won't override NIL. This will take time to build up similar to men but will be a bit slower since getting needed NIL for women as harder to snap fingers.

Here is a different perspective. Maybe Devries is great and he is dealing with systematic issues within IU that other schools are not facing. Some potential thoughts although I have ZERO insight here: 1. Maybe IU does not have enough NIL (I know what is reported but no one really knows). 2. Maybe Woodson and his minions are badmouthing Hoosiers behind the scenes to important people making Devries' job harder which I could absolutely see. Most fired coaches would not do this but Woodson seems like a petty enough person who would. 3. Maybe the notion of IU fans hurting the program with 'unrealistic expectations' is turning prospects off. Note I don't think this is the case but sometimes perception is reality and that may have an impact on prospective recruits. My point is we don't really know what is going on behind the scenes and any of the following could be true: 1. Things could be great and a slew of prospects commit in next week or two. 2. Devries may have challenges others are not facing that he may or may not overcome in next week or two as described above. 3. He has no idea how to handle this and is in over his head. My point is lets judge at the end of the month when we see where state of the roster is at and it is to early to say. In election terms "race is to early to call" and needs more info before we start analyzing 'returns'.

They have been among the best 'midgets' in the Big Ten in the Mercer era and finished 1st, 3rd, 8th, 2nd, 3rd. Outside of that atrocious 2022, they have been competing for the title at or near the top of the conference ever since Mercer has been here and been to the NCAA Tournament. Iowa is a top competitor in the Big Ten each year like IU which has led to a great series every time they play and the Hoosiers have dominated Northwestern each yr who is indeed bad. Don't conflate this year with the rest of the era which has been as amongst the very best in the Big Ten.

They can ‘afford’ this level of player and are already recruiting two of this talent level we know of (Merkle, Stotijn). Poster is blowing smoke. Not sure if IU is interested though.

Whether we get her or not I can’t say. However, someone avg 8 pts a game is not outside IU’s price range. I’ve watched her. She’s good not great. Definetely not someone who IU could not afford though. She is on same level as Stotijn so if Hoosiers can afford her and get a visit, they can afford Howell. Zero idea if IU interested but this level of player is not a money issue. It would be about fit.

For so long people complained Moren could not get the best players in state of Indiana. She seems to have solved that. Makes me optimistic she can adjust and get more length and athleticism like she says she wants there.