Aaron

Nothing is guaranteed but she reminds me of Shauna Green who was elite at lower level and has thrived in Big Ten. NW is essentially Princeton of Big Ten academically. Just as I predicted Green would succeed at Illinois and Gearlds at Purdue and Coquese Washington at Rutgers would fail at time of hires in league, i have a very good feeling Berube will succeed at NW while Tanisha Wright at PSU and Gary Redus at Rutgers will fail. Nothing is guaranteed, but the coach who build a mid-major into power (not inherited it like Archie Miller which often fails) at their level like Green or Berube always has best chance at success while sentimental alumni hires, failed p5 coaches, or someone with no head coaching experience at D1 level almost always fail.

Unlike the other two hires by Penn State and Rutgers which are a huge risk of could be horrid or great, this hire by NW is amazing. This is how you hire a coach and take the one from elite mid-major who built a program. This will almost certainly succeed similar to Shauna Green at Illinois with zero risk.

To me a mid-major coach with actual head coaching experience in college would be better. Hiring guys with no head coaching experience rarely works. Remove his Butler connections and zero chance he would be a candidate. As we saw with Woodson here at IU, it is important to ask ‘would this guy be a candidate if not an alum’. The answer is almost certainly ‘no’ and it’s the trap schools fall into.

Well we have exhibit A of Mercer era issues last night in one game. Its was not one big thing but a bunch of little ones that cause a loss. 1. 4 runs on a weekday pitching staff 2. Your own pitchers not executing late with walks and wild pitches 3. Errors All small stuff that adds up.

Dont like his hire at all. Seems to be the typical ‘Butler way’ and in Big East hiring a guy with no college experience is asking for trouble. If Butler wants to go back to A10 or Big East ‘Butler way’ and family hires work. If in a p5 league, have to swim with the sharks with high quality coaches. Can’t have it both ways and be successful and Butler is struggling with that concept unfortunately.

If Shelstad prefers Florida and has no interest, nothing you can do or get upset about. I am taking about if there is mutual interest with a true difference maker and then getting outbid as presumably happened with Conwell. For a player like that, you may need to outbid and way overpay what other teams will even if its 7-10 mil. Better than what happened instead that IU decided he was to expensive and paid less for several mediocre guys. Paying ‘market value’ for mediocrity is why team struggled so much and cant be repeated

Depends on the player. If they are a must have like Wilkerson and mutual interest, you pay whatever it takes and find donors like Cuban to write checks for more money. Otherwise you will be cycling coaches every 2-3 yrs. If its a good but not great player like DeVries or Alexis than pay accordingly and indeed dont ‘overspend’. However, once you identify a true difference maker and mutual interest, no amount of money is to much. If IU doesn’t do this, they will be cycling through coaches every 2-3 yrs if they keep sticking to market value and paying for avg.

If IU identifies Shelstad as a must have, then you pay him whatever it takes to get him to Bloomington even if its 5 mil+ or more. If they think Shelstad has someone equivalent for less, go there. Bottom line though is I would much rather have an elite PG like Shelstad and an elite big at 5 mil each and round out roster with minimums. Don’t spend 1-2 mil on mid players as IU seemingly did last yr rather than dumping 5-6 mil on Conwell and Wilkerson and being worse off. An aggregate of mid players like Dorn, Enright, Conerway, Miles etc. makes you far worse off. Four mediocre players does not equal one good one and roster management needs to be handled accordingly. You win because of 1-2 stars. You may need to way overpay to be competitive or else you will be stuck in loop of mediocrity firing coaches every 2-3 yrs. If Shelstad or anyone else is uninterested so be it. However, once you identify a prospect with mutual interest and you think they are a difference maker you pay them whatever it takes to come.

I hope Iowa fans don't ‘lose hope’ over their program by getting upset at home in the second round as can happen in tourney like our fans supposedly did. Hawkeyes have the best fan base in the country and will continue to sell out no matter what in the sport. IU fans need to take note of what supporting a good but not elite team means. This year was unacceptable for IU as a whole but not a reason to run away from program. Especially, with elite class coming in. In all seriousness, I have UCLA winning it all and Michigan in Final Four in my bracket. Great yr for conference.

Shonda Stanton ball at finest and I mean that as compliment. Elite power and offense, mediocre pitching, atmosphere of joy in dugout. it sometimes mean giving up an absurd number of runs against an elite team, but always gives them a chance and a great record overall and playing in a Regional yearly. She has built an amazing culture that puts the team in a place they have not been in 40 years. We are lucky to have her and some of our other sports need to take note of what building a system and culture means.

One of those days where everything goes wrong. As I have been told by a very wise coach, everyone wins one third of their games, loses one third of their games, and its how you do in the other third that are tossups that matter. Mercer and this team are not good enough in that tossup third it seems, but today was the third even the best teams lose. Brayton Thomas simply didn't have it today with location early with his pitches and it snowballed from there. Move on and flush it after the best week of the season so far where you still took the series from Minnesota and beat an SEC team in Vandy on the road.

I'm not getting my shorts in a knot over McCollum vs DeVries yet. I have seen to many instances where the one who appears better in the beginning, is worse in the end or both end up being equally good by the time its settled. McCollum could be the much better coach, but I'll judge that down the road and not on one year from both. In the meantime, good for Iowa and the Big Ten for their performance this year.

Rarely do I root for Purdue, but happy to finally see Miami pay off its debts to the State of Indiana from 2023 when they knocked out our best men's and women's basketball squads of this decade with legit Final Four aspirations within 48 hours in second round as inferior team both times. Nice to see script completely flipped now with IU taking the football title from them and now Purdue ending the basketball team's season two months later. Definitely don't want Purdue winning a title over it or going to much further, but for today I am glad to see Miami's 'debt' to the state of Indiana settled from 2023.

IU wins opener 8-6 in what was both one of the most positive and frustrating games of Mercer era at the same time. Positives: 1. IU had second and third one out in sixth in a 6-6 tie and scored the game winning runs against an off speed specialist out of pen they have often struggled with. Decker worked a great at-bat for a walk to load bases and Carerra pinch hit and also had a great at-bat frustrating the Gopher's guy into a wild pitch for a run and a high chopper that added on. This was the situational awareness that has lacked so many times in the last few years and handled beautifully tonight. 2. Gavin Seebold has the best stuff out of the pen I have seen from an IU guy in a long time. Was flawless the final four innings (just as he has been all year) to hold on for the win and Gopher batters had zero chance against him. His fastball and wipeout slider in perfect locations were a thing of beauty. The fact Dustin Glant struggled with this guy shows how incompetent he was as a pitching coach and it took the new guy Matt Myers literally no time to fix him. Seebold is absolutely a pro who will be drafted on his stuff alone. 3. Somehow despite 8-11 record, RPI is in the 60's again after the two huge wins over Vandy and Minnesota. It shows like in the Lemonis era, schedule is tough enough that even something like eight games over .500 might be enough for at-large bid given strength of conference this year. Just not sure IU can even clear that low bar despite all the talent. Negative: 1. Thank god Myers has finally given Mercer a couple guys he can turn to in a close game with confidence, especially when Mercer's own lack of logic caused the nailbiter in the first place. Losing Jackson Bergman for the year sucks but Myers has given Mercer two other competent starters finally which is one more than Glant usually did. Only Mercer could decide to do his bullpen game Friday and 'save' his starters for Saturday and Sunday. You beat up their ace which is one of the things Mercer thrives at, but because he did his bullpen game today, it was unnecessarily close and blew through your best arms. This is Tommy Sommer over Gabe Bierman on Friday night in 2022 all over again and it probably cost them a regional that year. Mercer's lack of understanding that Friday is the night you throw your best starter (Neubeck this year) like everyone else does has been one of the most frustrating parts of his tenure. 2. Pinch hitting Aiden Stewart with second and third one out in seventh when he has struggled all year, is bad management. Everyone thought Stewart was supposed to be great and his struggling with the bright lights at this level is not really Mercer's fault. However, pinch hitting him in a high leverage spot is the development for his future over best thing for team we have seen to often with Mercer.

Still struggling to close on top-tier recruits but this year's class is a step in the right direction. Just have to hope Z stays healthy now.

If only every game was a midweek. They are 4-0 in those and look like a contender in them. 4-11 in weekend games and look like a bottom tier team.

Cant score six runs in first three innings and then offense dies, especially on a Sunday when pitching is running low and it often takes double digit runs to win. Pitching has battled and finally has three starters but the offense has gone in toilet. Last years offense with this years pitching easily wins league. Its like football pre-Cignetti where one thing would be fixed and then another hole opens. Dolson is going to have to take a serious look at program's direction in offseason. Its inexcusable Big Ten is having one of best years ever RPI wise and IU's at very bottom of league.

RPI is 59 in NCAA's debut of the metric today. Right in the right range for a fourth straight NCAA Tournament despite all the turnover.

Clearly we are at the point where the offense is at a point where it is as big a problem as the pitching. Two games the pitchers have given up eight runs. That should be more than enough to win at least one but not when you score three in that time.

To me the most important thing is not getting ‘outbid’ if you have a player you like. I would much rather have 1-2 premium players and a bunch of minimum guys than a bunch of mediocrity. Last yr if you pay Ryan Conwell his asking price and pair him with DeVries, Wilkerson, Alexis, and a bunch of roster fillers you are probably a tournament team. Much rather that, then spread that same money amongst Conerway, Bailey, Enright, Miles who have flawed games. It is critical this yr if you have the same 10 million dollars, you give 2 stars 6-7 million and spread the rest out amongst the others. It does no good to have a bunch of mid players at less. Better off to have two 10/10 and a bunch of 3/10 than a lot of 6/10 outside Wilkerson as team did this yr.

Shonda Stanton’s power ball culture at work. She seems to be a program builder with a strong identity.

Another game where the offense failed. Its why people who keep wanting to blame only the pitching are not seeing the whole picture. Especially when offensive production is at all time high in college baseball. Its a ‘not doing the little things’ across the board despite a lot of talent. Nothing egregious shows up in box score, but hitting a batter yesterday on an 0-2 pitch with two outs that later led to a run, is the type of small issues that are leading to losses.

I put my trust in several coaches who have said to my face that they see the system will work when better players are there. Certainly, over fans on here who don't know the game at that level. Also DeVries has admitted his mistakes in last week, which is a lot more than I can say about either of the two previous regimes. If things are this bad at this time next yr, have to cut bait immediately. However, cannot judge the staff on this roster of mid-major All Stars. They certainly deserve blame for putting THIS roster together, but need one more chance in my mind to see what they can do with correct talent. The bottom line is West and Martinelli have more complete games than anyone on Indiana's roster. Love the hustle of Reed Bailey and Conor Enright but reality is they have no business on a Big Ten floor and that is where our problems begin. Also parts of our fan base who want Dolson fired for bringing us a national title in football because god for bid we are mediocre at basketball need to have their head examined. Yes, we need to fix this basketball program, but fans attitude of men's basketball is only thing that matters has got to stop if we want to stay as a high-major team across the board. Football is the driver and that's the reality. Abandoning every non-elite team in every other sport and wanting coaches fired immediately when they fall out of top-25, is part of problem. While I think our fan base gets branded as 'toxic' unfairly for most part, there are corners off it who need to look at what they like about IU. If it's basketball only, and not any team with a Hoosier logo you may need to reevaluate. The national media may know less on a day-to-day basis, but has no bias said IU would be 10th in Big Ten and miss tourney and roster was not talented enough. They were right unfortunately. Definitely not happy as a whole. However, DeVries ran out of answers this season after teams adjusted no matter what he tried. It's ok to be disappointed but don't overreact.

See my previous post about development and the non-existent "Bloomington Limestones" model Mercer uses and you have your answer.

Washington dominates IU 13-4 to take series. This program has way to many issues but I am not sure I am addressing it if am IU quite frankly. Mercer has essentially built a minor league team where top players come to campus, develop, and get to the pros. However, a million mistakes happen in the process whether its approaches at plate, pitching mistakes, and defensive errors. Our fans want to blame pitching, but frankly its small issues everywhere, which is signature for a developmental program that emphasizes development over results. That's exactly what the Hoosiers have become and if this team were rookie ball or Single A, everyone would show up for a nice day and throw results aside. If the administration were confident IU fans would not expect a top-15 team in essentially a mid-major league, make a change. However, given attendance drops yearly when they made the tourney nearly every time (8 times in last 11 years) and fans no longer have interest, its not necessarily a wise investment to do anything but less Mercer run his minor league development program. Players seem to like him and he gets them to pros so why make a change. To be clear, IU should make a change in offseason and the Mercer era has run its course. I would very much welcome it personally and would help the results potentially at Bart Kaufman Field. However, if IU decides money is better spent elsewhere based on our fans unrealistic expectations, I get it. If only these were the 'Bloomington Limestones' of Single A baseball, you would have a perfect model and fans would show up for a fun night in the summer where results don't matter. However, Mercer's contract may be up after this year I think, so if you can make a clean break from essentially being a Single A team go for it no matter what.