Maedhros

This past weekend I attended the Indianapolis Scottish Highland Games and Festival. Ate some fish & chips and scotch eggs, drank some scotch whiskey, and watched big beefy men attempt a 145 pound caber toss. So it's nice to log in this morning and read a No True Scotsman retort as to why Trent Sisley doesn't count as a successful recruitment of a 4* target.

I don't know Woodson, but I know the Hysterics will do and say whatever is in their interest. They should have been cut off a long time ago. The how of it doesn't concern me as much as I'm glad it's finally done. Jeff Goodman out there tweeting support of the Hysterics, as if I needed to feel any better about taking the opposite side.

I think if you give me two sides to a story, and tell me the Hysterics are on one side, I'm going to assume the opposite by default and it's going to take a lot of convincing to get me to switch.

For this rebuttal, you'd have to assume the only change to D1 over the past 40 years has been backfilling teams at the bottom. It's more likely that the same dynamics growing the number of schools capable of taking on a D1 schedule are also working on the schools competing for tournament bids. It's hard to measure, because sports is a zero-sum game, but I'd contend there are more schools of Tournament-quality than ever before. It's why we can have the debate about including power conference schools vs mid majors. There's talent everywhere now. A Final Four team can come from the Horizon, or from a power conference AQ that wouldn't have been in the field otherwise. How we pick teams is a different conversation. Frankly, there are ways to do it which don't involve a committee at all, as John Gasaway has long argued. But you're not going to harm the NCAA Tournament by adding Indiana St, even if it means adding Oklahoma, Seton Hall, and St Johns from power conferences.

In conclusion, where a recruit ranks between the different services is a land of contrasts. Thank you.

Preseason projections for 2025 are up at Torvik, and updating regularly. Indiana currently ranks at 21. It's a huge jump from finishing last season at 83. If that holds, coming in at 21 on the S curve gets you... a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. That's from an objective ranking system based on roster alone. Mike Woodson as coach has nothing to do with it.

It was $25 at the door also when I went to see the 3SSB event in Westfield. Definitely steeper than when I've gone to EYBL in the same facility. My big gripe was their web presence, which appears to be next to nothing. I only knew Indiana Elite was playing at 12:40 because of what was shared in this thread. I couldn't find a schedule online anywhere, so I ended up paying that $25 for just one game.

Thanks for sharing! Didn't see this until now, when there were picks on Twitter from the first game. I'm going to get up there for the Sunday afternoon game.

FWIW, Torvik projects Luke Goode for 36% of available minutes if you add him to the Indiana roster. That's 14.4 MPG.

We all want guys who can shoot from deep. But judging a freshman off just his three points percentage, as though that's all he'll ever be, is a mistake. Ryan Conwell shot just 30% from three as a freshman and you wouldn't have wanted him a year ago.

I always appreciate your work on this. If you have the information readily available, can you share those targets we have on the EYBL circuit (and the team they're with)? I love going to Grand Park for this event, though I don't yet know who to scout.

Yes, I would say judging a player's worth off just one statistic over a seven game stretch is being a hater. He was 33% the rest of the season, and that's as a freshman coming off chemotherapy. He's also a point guard that can affect the game in many ways other than just shooting, such as an assist percentage over 22%. He was first team All PAC 12 and conference ROY after all. And the great thing about freshmen is they get better.

Quoting this post, for being the most concisely stated, lol. I generally agree with your larger point, that fans have become quick to find fault in damn near everything. Something must be done. Landing a top guard like Sanon is certainly something. Therefore, it must be done. This isn't a smart approach for every individual recruit. But there's a larger trend that's not nothing. With Sanon, and Davis, I think you're begging the question. We don't know if they're too interested in money, guarantees, or are just bad eggs. Sanon could be asking for the moon, but that didn't scare off Kansas, recent national champion, preseason number one, and the most consistent program of the last 40 years. Davis visited Shrewsberry at Notre Dame before committing to Kim English at Providence. He's still ranked outside the top 100. Doesn't seem like he's one to be asking for a bundle. Maybe his is an attitude thing, but that's something I can't know. What I do know is we backed off Coen Carr, only for him to be snatched up by Michigan State and Tom Izzo, the most accomplished coach in the Big Ten. We backed off Jaeden Mustaf, whose weakness is admittedly shooting, but a 6'5" CG who does everything else well sounds awfully useful. It's not that Sanon, and Davis, are make or break for Woodson. It's that I have no idea what the plan is at the position. We (ostensibly) went all in on Fland, missed that one too, but had no other targets left on the board. Now two names have surfaced, yet we've backed off both of them as well. What's the strategy here? I could trust that Woodson is sagely avoiding potential headaches if I could see the vision, but right now I just don't.

This is perhaps what you risk with this coaching hire. Mike Woodson: is 65, having spent a lifetime in a world where college players can't receive payment for their services played under Bob Knight, who was famously outspoken against schools that violated this norm was a star player himself who presumably did not receive compensation for his talent while still in school still made millions in his career as an NBA player and coach None of this suggests a coach who is going to be forward thinking about the new realities of college sports. There was talk early that Woodson would be comfortable in this environment having dealt with free agency in the NBA. But in that world nobody bats an eye if a player's camp asks for as much money as they think they can get. Why balk when the Sanon family does the same? Zion Williamson's family is well-known to have received a new house. Duke got a NPOY in the exchange. And that was before NIL was even a thing. If you're going to keep targeting Top 15 kids, almost to a fault, these are the waters in which you might have to swim. Matt Painter gets to talk about recruiting guys to his system, who want to be there and are willing to work. Purdue also does most of their recruiting outside of the top 80. Perhaps the pause in the Sanon recruitment is just a negotiating tactic. I hope so. Because I can't imagine prioritizing instant impact guys, then backing off when their camp asks for money, is going to be an effective strategy on the recruiting trail.

We thought Phinisee was going to be good because of what he did before a concussion derailed his season, and ultimately his career. In those first twelve games, Rob shot over 44% from both 2 and 3. After the concussion, through the rest of that year, those numbers dropped to 32% and 24% respectively. That's how you end up will the full season stats you quoted. Fletcher Loyer was healthy all year, and played with the gravitiational force of the NPOY.

No Indianapolis weekend? That's unusual.

I've checked in on a RI message board too, and it's all remarkably familiar. It's the exact same posts I read for years. Optimists saying Archie was absolutely the right his, but needs time to up the talent on the roster, put his system in place, bring in shooters. Others are seeing warning signs that the offense doesn't move, shots are just thrown up at the rim, and the defense gets beat too often. I've briefly thought of making an account, just to let them know what they're in for in the years ahead, but I think some Indiana fans have already done that.

Woodson was also there at last night's game, per Rakease's Twitter.

This argument doesn't hold up now that NIL is permitted and open. The market has already demonstrated that these athletes are worth well more than what the NCAA previously permitted. On a recent podcast, the CBS guys said estimates of Drew Timme's earnings are at $2 million. Sure, he's a multiple AA and possible preseason NPOY, but it's now impossible to claim that he was receiving a fair deal before NIL.

Yasir and Kenya both watching Arrinten Page in the third game of the morning session

I'm excited for the weekend, it's been a few years and will be good to be back at Grand Park. Found the schedule for EYBL, time to plan who I want to see: https://nikeeyb.com/eybl-schedule-2/

Is there a roundup posted of our recruits/targets and for which AAU teams they are playing?

Spring basketball is here, and apparently there's an AAU event in Indianapolis right now of which I was not aware. Does anyone know if EYBL will be returning to Westfield this year? I went up the road to Grand Park the past couple years, until COVID ruined everything.