Aaron

Rubber has met the road. No pitcher has developed this year to be solid. Right now you have inconsistent arms who are sometimes good and others who are unusable. It needs to be told to Mercer by athletic department after the season he has two choices. He can make the necessary changes to the pitching program and be safe for a while or if he maintains status quo its his head that will go in 2026 if things go poorly. I have been very clear that I think Mercer is a solid coach. However, Glant is an awful pitching coach and if Mercer stands by him they can go out together. Otherwise I think Mercer can have a long solid career here if he brings in a different pitching coach. The rubber has met the road here and this has been teetering. You threw away a season with two high draft picks and elite offense. You have a ton of elite freshman to form a core for a while with the bats. However, not sure they will want to stay if pitching problems are not addressed. Bottom line is Glant is Darren Hiller and if Mercer stands by him like Tom Allen did its curtains on his career here. Mercer has a choice to make in offseason for the future of the program as well as his own. We will see what he does. When Glant cannot find even one trustworthy weekend starter, you can't be continued to be employed. Every season he has been here he has had zero or one long inning guy as his ace and no other reliable starters. Any good pitching coach should be able to develop two if not three. Also no depth at all and no one in bullpen developing to be good. Its time for a change with Glant and if Mercer keeps him they can go out together in 2026. We are about to find out how smart or Loyal Mercer is. I think he is a pretty good coach but he has an anchor around his neck he needs to get rid of (Glant) or drown.

Would hope so and will certainly tell us if the recruiting struggles were mostly on Sayavongchanh. It should be noted she took Glen Box's place (after he went on to become a head coach) who got far better results here despite less success on the court when he started.

New assistant coach named in Colsten Thompson who is also now the recruiting coordinator and was previously at Alabama. Had a couple top-15 classes in last few years with Crimson Tide. Replaces Linda Sayavongchanh who is no longer with team. https://iuhoosiers.com/news/2025/4/23/womens-basketball-colsten-thompson-named-assistant-coach-recruiting-coordinator

Jerni Kiaku commits who seemingly no one knew IU was after: https://goduquesne.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/jerni-kiaku/12628 Started every game for Duquesne (They were 21-13 and 126 RPI). Averaged double figures. Against power five had 13 against PSU, 20 against Pitt. Not a good long range shooter but more athletic and may have driving ability. Really hard to know how a player at this level translate. Could be great or nothing and fits into team being a huge unknown that could make team 25-10 or 10-25 and no one would be surprised. Also, the continued foreigners show IU not where they want NIL wise. Doesn't mean that won't work. Teams have loaded up on foreigners and thrived. Just speaks to the continued shopping on budget

Glad they won series but at point of Big Ten Tourney championship or bust.

A split is more than OK on the road against a ranked team. Team is very much in contention for third straight NCAA Tournament still. This is the same top 35-40 team with an elite offense we have seen for three seasons now. More than acceptable given history in this sport.

Glant has been teetering for a long time and the dam has finally broken this yr with no trust worthy pitchers. This year they clearly are not finding reliable arms down the stretch. Mercer has a choice. He can replace Glant after the season with a competent pitching coach and have a long career in Bloomington or he can do what Tom Allen did with Darren Hiller and sink with him. Its Mercers choice and will tell us a lot if he is a long term fixture here. You have thrown away Devin Taylor's final year and would not blame these good young players if they enter portal if Mercer doesn't make some major changes to the pitching staff. Huge offseason for program and we will see if Mercer is willing to make some tough changes. This year its to late to do anything now unless team wins Big Ten Tourney.

Moren is clearly spending on a budget (a big part of it her own doing with NIL as I described earlier in thread many times) and hoping to make lemonade with lemons. Noyan is another player who is more athletic and had huge games, but not consistently. Someone asked me if team will be good next year and I truthfully told them I have no idea. Given the athleticism and Moren's coaching, team could be better then last year or much worse and we won't know until they take the court. Socka, Noyan, Stotijn, and freshman all have potential to be elite or mediocre and until we see them play, team could literally be anywhere from 10-25 to 25-10.

The Mercer quirk of struggling with mediocre pitching while pounding elite guys happened yesterday with all the mediocre ISU arms paraded out there. As I have said, these occasional losses and this issue could be overlooked if IU had its own pitching in order since this cancels out on offense. Once again this loss in isolation is not awful, but given where team is at due to its own woes on mound, and overly hard pitching program (see above), yesterday was pretty much a must win and season is going down the tubes. Larger picture, if all this talent enters the portal after season I would not blame them. Mercer's tenure going forward will likely rest on what he decides to do with Glant. Glant has become to Mercer what Darren Hiller did to Tom Allen and Mercer has a choice. If Mercer wants to, he can make the move Allen refused to on Glant and save his career here or fall off further and likely be fired in a couple of years. Mercers legacy could either be like the Tom's (Allen and Crean) with some success and not a terrible coach but also too much of a roller coaster and gone. However, if he makes the move to the pitching that is needed, he could be here a decade or more similar to Moren and Yeagley with more ups then downs.

I don't totally understand it myself but somehow it consists of spinning the ball and focus on locating it perfectly for strikes. When it works, there is no better way as it makes the pitches pretty much unhittable. However, if the location and spin are not perfect, it can lead to a lot of walks and wild pitches or getting shelled if thrown in wrong spot. In other words it is very boom or bust and is harder to grasp hence a lot of strikeouts but also a good amount of negative. With top talent, it could work great. However, as northern baseball with second tier players who need to be developed, it can take more time to figure out for some, hence the slow starts.

You can thank Glant for Seebold’s inconsistency and lack of pitching depth. He is a great talent but the inconsistency is direct result of Glant’s hard to grasp system. Until Mercer realizes this, IU baseball will always be a rollercoaster.

No doubt. However, as of this moment that would be their projected lineup.

The first two games of this series are a perfect example of why starting so slow each yr is such an issue. Losing a close low scoring game yesterday with a dominant victory today, is nothing to be ashamed of on the road against a decent Illini squad. However, with RPI stuck around 70, it places an unnecessary premium on tomorrow to stay in NCAA Tourney contention realistically.

Definitely a risk, but given (potentially improving but still behind) NIL situation, best IU could do at center likely. She was stuck behind Lauren Betts last year which is nothing to be ashamed of. However, needs to prove it at college level but talent clearly there given she was top-30 recruit and McDonalds All-American out of high school. Moren has never had a player that high straight out of high school (Makalusky is closest five spots behind her in current class). Only higher ranked transfers out of high school that eventually came to Bloomington were Patberg and Parrish who were hits and Danielle Patterson who busted. Projected starting lineup in general of Shay, Lenee, Stotijn, Socka, and either Spreen or one of the freshman carries a lot more risk than past. However, the talent potential and athleticism is higher then previous.

No one is safe from portal madness. Even South Carolina's star MiLaysia Fulwiley just entered portal: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/sports/college/usc/2025/04/11/milaysia-fulwiley-transfer-portal-south-carolina-womens-basketball-dawn-staley/83045762007/ Granted they got FSU star Ta'Niya Latson who is best player in portal and plays same position but still shows best teams can't stack talent as easily now.

I mean I had a couple people now tell me NIL situation is improving in last couple of days while a couple of others telling me it is still not great. Until the last couple of days I had heard nothing but that NIL situation was not great.

Update: NIL situation may be improving although heard both ways on this from a couple different people. However, proof will be in pudding if IU can get visits and lure in some better prospects than we have seen so far.

Fair enough. My bad! I made a mistake.

I'd rather role with Faith. Her ceiling is much higher and Lily only has one year left. Bringing Lily back does little and with Faith's development, you are no worse off then what Lily brought you except Faith has the talent to be a great big down road and stunting her growth with Lily makes no sense. To be clear I'd rather find a portal big to start with Faith as backup. However, would rather throw Faith into fire and play big minutes then bringing Lily back which accomplishes nothing.

They still might if we are all patient. Its just not an overnight process.

Right now lineup would be: C Faith, Fenn F Makalsuky, Valentina G Sotijn, Spreen G Lenee, Caffey G Shay I actually think you can win at solid level with that guard rotation. Its that current frontcourt that scares me to death and could well hold team back. The lack of traction with any bigs implies NIL still not quite there yet although I have heard nothing new in last 3-4 weeks to indicate either way nor would I expect to hear anything again. Like I said, who they can visits with and commits from will indicate how quickly NIL situation is improving.

As quick as they can raise money. If they get it tomorrow they could be big players in portal going forward. Could be several months. Like any fundraising it depends on how much money you can raise how fast which is often out of your control. Its why it would have been good to start a few months ago like other programs and Moren seemingly understands now in retrospect but can't change past. I don't think I will get any more info on this going forward then what has already been whispered to me by a few people. However, evidence will be if they get start getting visits and/or commits with higher end prospects. So far the lack of visits suggests they have ways to go. As fans, best thing to do is be patient and have minimal expectations for this year. However, if things go well from NIL fundraising, could be big players for 2026-2027 as happened to Freese as they raised throughout 2023-2024. You would think donations would go up if IU struggles a bit this year and they can go back to people and say they need $$$ to keep program strong. My advice for this yr is expect less and and treat anything more as a surprise. Then reassess in 2026 when hopefully a lot more NIL should hopefully be there to swim with big fish.

That's part of it combined with Moren not realizing the increased prices until to late and needing to try to get additional $$$ like many others did earlier. Being worked on now, but takes time.

IU was not getting McMahon regardless of situation given player types Moren wants and system. You can complain, but if they had more NIL it would be more like Kneepkens and Merkle type players they could afford and fit Moren's system. McMahon was never an option nor would Moren want her. Hot headed alpha's don't fit and that describes McMahon. However, great kids who are both alpha's (ala Holmes, Berger, Scalia etc.) or role players (Parrish, Ciezki etc.) would fit and that describes players I mentioned above as well as several others. Moren has made it clear she won't compromise her standards but wants to get bigger and more athletic. McMahon would compromise Moren's system agree or disagree with pursuing her. However, plenty of portal players match what Moren wants beautifully such as players I mentioned above. However, don't have funds for that right now (see my above and below posts).

As I have said, it was not 'refusing' in in terms of outright refusing money as some have claimed and is beyond ridiculous. No coach would outright decline NIL money handed to her It was more being warned by Hysterics and several others she needed more NIL for building a stronger roster and asking Hoosiers Connect and other for donations specifically for women's basketball and fundraising. Instead of doing this, she thought her culture would be strong enough to maintain players and underestimated how much NIL was needed. The Yarden situation was a bit of a wake up call to her. They did blitz fundraise from what I understand for Yarden and had enough to match Maryland. However, she did not want to be part of a rebuild for a final year. Furthermore, these donors were only willing to pay the reported 300K for Yarden and not give another couple million to fill out roster. They also were unwilling to give any if Yarden was not on team. As a result, Yarden is gone and NIL fundraising had to start from scratch with smaller donations and it woke Moren up to reality. They will get there but with such a late start, this roster is unlikely to have talent of past for this year, unless a last minute donor step ups which would be evidence if IU were connected to bigger names. So far not seeing that which means fundraising efforts are slow as expected and can't swim in NIL waters for top players. Also, see above as I said that IU is in a particularly unique situation of having football just getting good and needing extra $$$ to stay there as well as extra $$$ to build a whole new men's basketball roster. Rightly or wrongly, given Moren's attitude towards NIL until very recently, all focus was on the big two sports as would be the case at any other school. Most coaches saw this on women's side and asked for women's NIL months ago. Moren didn't until last second. Sometimes when you are stuck in old school ways as Moren was, it takes being hit in the face with the real issue (Yarden situation) to realize you need to adjust. Those who still refuse such as Joe McKeown or Coquese Washington are no longer viable coaches. Those who adjust as Moren sounds like she wants to might have a down year similar to Freese a couple yrs ago and then be really good again. Also I think IU and Moren were caught off guard by asking price increase this yr. This goes for all sports but it is much easier to shake donors for extra cash in football and men's bball then women's bball. I am using imaginary numbers since I don't know amounts but lets say Strip and Shay cost 50k each this year, that level of players might cost 100k this year. With money program had, they could still get 50k players but that is now someone like Spreen who is a risk. Sort of like if I buy groceries for $200 and assume I can get same amount of food for that price indefinitely and then suddenly the same groceries cost $400 without warning (although someone mentioned to me job might not be sustainable with inflation at current salary which is kind of what Moren had happen) but I have only the funds to buy $200 worth of groceries. Mean's I have to cut back and get less food for same amount of money and try to make it work or find a better job for more money. For the interim, I would probably have to buy groceries for the same $200 and get lesser amounts or less fancy stuff and make it work (Spreen Type player) with maybe springing for a decent treat (Stotijn) instead of something else I really wanted. However, once I can find a better paying job finally (raising NIL funds) I can go back to buying the same groceries I always bought for $400 Instead but it takes time to do this. This is more or less where IU is at.