Hardwood83

I hope you are right! You can cook me breakfast anytime...if you know what I mean (wink, wink)

No, I'm making wild assertions based on minimal information....like virtually everyone else. However, to make it interesting, if Bailey makes first team conference all-defensive team, I will buy you and +1 a nice meal at your local IHOP (or Dennys, if you are fancy)

Did you really 'lol'? If so then this was all worth it! I know he is technically 6'11" but he plays defense like he's Danny DeVito so he's in the honorary sub-6'8" club.

If there are no more "transfer portal w/IU interest" players, we have to argue about something. I'm in the camp that prefers a post defender over Leal v6.0....but all indications are that the roster is complete other than the pending Goode & Leal waivers. Hope I'm wrong. IU has a self-imposed 6'8" and under limit. :(

I don't get it with this roster. Not a position of need. If Leal plays much then the guys we brought in aren't what we hope. If he doesn't, what's the point? I could get on board with Goode OR Leal, but both? With the lack of size, this is a puzzling move to me.

Where is this 'list'? Just because I'm irrational, doesn't mean I don't like to be prepared for my freak outs. I can't say that I 'want' Leal back, but I wouldn't be angry about it either. I would feel much better about adding someone over 6'9" though.

Yes it would! I would add playing smart would be refreshing. The idiotic decisions got so tiresome of the last 10yrs. It's easy to blame the coaches, and we should, but all these palyers have been playing year around basketball for 10yrs, how they could still be so dumb is mind-boggling. Tired of watching good teams take good shots and not turning the ball over constantly contrasted with IU playing below rec league level. Also FT shooting! If you are a poor FT shooter it's a character flaw, you are lazy, stupid or both. Prove me wrong. Rant over. I still want a defensive center from the transfer portal and with at least one scholarship left can't imagine how that doesn't get done.

If we start having paternity test reveals, that would be awesome!

Eh...The Pacers would beat Univ of Florida by 60pts, right? Even thought they are a mid-level NBA team, they play an exciting style (I guess) and had an incredible win last night. I am a Pacer "fan" in that I don't like any other NBA teams and I loved the Pacers as a kid (Pacer pride is the pride of Indiana, am I right?) Having said all that, I didn't watch the Pacers game last night, nor have I watched them all season, or for the last several. They are GREAT basketball players, but I have opted out for a handful of reasons. I am not stating that I am typical but pointing out that I didn't 'have to adapt' instead, I lost interest in NBA basketball 8-10yrs ago. Will that happen to "college" athletics if the model continues to radically change? Dunno, maybe it will grow in popularity....but I suspect that once the association with the schools are severed and it's just a pro minor league it will be as popular as the CBA, AAA baseball, XFL, etc. Might have a niche, but just another option. You are correct, you can't put the paste back in the tube, so it might just get thrown away.

Yep, won NC in 2021 then has struggled the last few years: Story

Agreed, if we could add Harris then say Scott from Louisville and Curtis as a developmental bench piece there aren't a lot of obvious holes.

This assumes the players are employees. I suppose people should get paid for 'donating' blood too, but not everything has to be a financial transaction. However, that is an entirely different discussion for another thread. I think what Scotty is saying (and I agree with) is that we like traditional, amatuer college sports. Was it ever pristine? No, I know Kentucky and Alabama and plenty of other schools have been cheating for generations. But Pro sports already exist, I don't want a junior pro league that is just pretending to be associated with my favorite school. So, I am fine with kids getting what they can, while they can and I want IU to win basketball games....but It's ok to lament that the sport we all loved, is for all intents and purposes, completely dead. The current zombie of NIL/Mega conference/Unlimited transfer 'college' sports shambles on, but it's not the real thing.

This is spot on. There wasn't cheating because the rules were unfair, there was cheating because the cheaters wanted an advantage. It's a lot harder to do in the current enviroment, but they'll find a way.

What If Indiana Athletics Was Separated From The University? The times, they are a changin'

You are the BB social media coordinator, YOU are supposed to update the rest of us luddites!

Great, so how do we get that line-up via the portal? J/K, it's certainly possible to win with ..... let's say a 'less than elite' post defender, as your example shows. There are other examples too. Problem is you have to be elite at other positions and really have a system. Will this season 1 roster have that? Will it ever approach 2018 Nova levels? I sure hope so, but in the meantime, I'm gonna go with the more common approach of having a solid post defender that can hold his own and maybe even clean up a few short-comings of his team-mates.

I don't think he is an adequete post defender, regardless of his measurements. I am basing this off my limited observations. Apparently you do based on yours. It's April, so nothing will settle it for several months.

You might be right on the direction of the conference, but no one (that I have seen) is asking for Ballo 2.0. Also notice the guys being discussed for a post are Federiko/Miller, etc, who barely weigh 200lbs, but are athletic. Which is just like most of the Sweet 16 teams this year. I don't happen to think Bailey fits that role. Wanting to have a legit defender at the 5 doesn't = 'post-centric.'

That would be outstanding.

True, but does Costco have Tom Crean and Luke Jimenez?

Are you including Bailey? I am fine with 2 (defensive) centers. I am not convinced Bailey is one of those though.

Yep and either way, get them a sandwhich!

I would go a step further and say that is beneficial. We know you can't play 13 (or 12, or 11....) guys. So having the last 2-3 scholarships for developmental players is great roster building. Obviously the recent transfer portal mania has diminished that model, but doesn't change how you need to construct a roster. If you have 12-13 guys expecting to play meaningful minutes, it's probably gonna be an issue and several are gonna bolt after the season anyway. If you have a few guys that are working to earn minutes in the future? Positive in a number of ways. Might to be tough to implement that in year 1 that requires an entire new team, but should be the goal.

You're right, I don't think any conference is big dominant anymore, but the B1G usually has solid post players. Not necessarily 20 & 10 types, but big bodies that can rebound, defend and score a little. Maybe I've gotten spoiled with TJD, Ware and to a lesser extent Ballo recently, but from the little I've seen of Bailey he doesn't seem like a 'center'. Certainly not in the mold of most of the teams in the S16 this year.

This is a worse insult than what RTZ called you. Hurts, man. Really hurts.