Maedhros

I think WBoD had a different definition of "blown" in mind, by bringing up Pitino's name.

Ah, but how important is he to Bryce Drew? This recruiting class would be unprecedented at Vanderbilt, and after just one season they'll all be gone. Drew has one shot at this: to make as big a splash as he can next season, and leverage that success into a better job at a better program. Bill Self doesn't have that pressure at Kansas; he's already at the top, and will have another top five class again in 2019.

Heard third-hand from another message board, from a guy who knows a guy who knows the kid who got the "Vandy" signature: Apparently the kid is a Kentucky fan, and wanted to be a troll because he didn't like seeing all the IU stuff being signed. True or not, like you, I assume Romeo was just honoring a specific request from someone waiting in line. It doesn't need to mean anything more than that.

Ha! Lots of people live right outside New Albany, including those who cover college and high school basketball as a profession. They don't know where Romeo is going. His buddy has the scoop because he lives in the general area? This is nothing. It might happen to be correct, but not because this guy knows anything.

Emmitt Holt was better than 12 points and 5 boards last year, playing over 27 minutes a game for a very good Providence team. He'll get a medical redshirt this season and have two more years of eligibility remaining. Holt was a legitimate find, and like OG, his low ranking is only due to the scouting services playing catch up. Max Hoetzel/Montana has been a solid rotation piece for San Diego State. He's not a star, but you need to recruit bench depth, too. This year's team would certainly benefit with someone who is shooting over 36% from three on nearly five attempts per game. That number would lead our team, and he'd be second behind only Newkirk at 75% from the free-throw line. There's no defense for Jeremiah April or Tim Priller.

ND Kendrick tweeted about half an hour ago that he was sharing his gut feeling, and has no intel.

Quoting only the part I want to address. I agree with most of the rest, particularly that results in the first year don't tell us much about which coach will find better success in the long term. I think we're considering two different situations. In this specific game, yes, the injures to Davis and Hartman certainly did affect the talent we could place on the floor. The transfer of CuJo at the semester also affected the talent available Tuesday night. But the subject of my previous post was the season on the whole, and those are all developments that have happened since the start of the season. Ohio State has been outperforming us from the jump, so it's not as though the injuries to Davis and Hartman are sufficient to explain the difference. I mention the transfer of CuJo, because that's a player who could have helped this team with a needed scoring punch, if Archie had been able to reach him. Instead, whatever broke with CuJo last year stayed broken, or at least we have to assume it did because he wasn't getting minutes. Maybe that relationship was never going to work out, and their styles were never going to clash. But it's an example arguably within Archie's control of talent not being harnessed at Indiana.

I'm seeing this narrative a lot lately, all over the internet and not just from yourself, especially in the wake of the OSU loss. It's easy to say in the moment, but it's also true that literally no one, local or national, felt this way in the preseason. It's quite a bit revisionist to act like talent is obvious reason for the difference in our teams this season. To the extent that you believe Ohio State has a more talented roster than Indiana, credit has to go to Holtmann for developing and utilizing that talent. Variables like improvement, environment and effort certainly do matter, but if they are happening at Ohio State it's fair to question why they aren't happening here. The answer I always get is that Archie is implementing a brand new system and results will take time. Maybe that answer is sufficient, but then only time will tell. Until then, the question will still be out there.

Has anyone checked this insider's batting average lately? Rabjohns tweeted a few minutes ago Bill Self will be in New Albany to visit Romeo tomorrow.

I'm not asking Archie to win the Big Ten his first season, or even finish in that next tier. But I imagine I could find a few coaches who would have beaten Indiana State and Fort Wayne at home with this roster, or at least kept it within 20. I'm tired of "talent" being used as an excuse. We had more talent than that Wisconsin team missing half its rotation.

I'm going to add to this. Crean had his head-scratching results to be sure: losing at home to Eastern Washington. Losing on the road to Illinois and Penn State. But those were all at least close games, where the team failed to execute in the closing minutes. Last year's loss to Fort Wayne was an overtime defeat on the road. This year's loss to Fort Wayne was a 20-point thrashing on our home-court, with the team getting boat-raced in the second half. And after we'd already been beaten by 20 at home by another in-state mid-major earlier in the season. Last night's second half looked a lot like those two games, or the first halves against Youngstown State, Tennessee Tech, and Michigan. This is happening far too often for me to not look in the direction of the guy running the practices.

I recognize the phenomenon to which you are referring, of fans turning against a recruit only after he commits elsewhere. But in this case I'd argue there's a tangible reason for the turn. Garland didn't get suspended for an action that caused his school to also cancel a game while he was unsigned. That's a real event that only happened after he committed to Vanderbilt. It doesn't help that there's still some ill will out there, after a recruitment that seemed to have been handled the right way became something much different in the final days.

You're attacking a straw man; I made no such claim. Yes, of course Wisconsin needed all those guys. Five star recruits don't get you to the Final Four on their own. Ask Ben Simmons or Markelle Fultz. But I was responding to the notion that we can recruit exclusively those caliber of players and achieve satisfactory results. Wisconsin's recruiting approach - landing players like Hayes and Koenig - allowed them to be consistently good, but never great; not until a brief window of luck when Kaminsky surprised everyone with Oladipo-like development at the same time a top ten recruit decided to stay home. Those conditions are unlikely to repeat for the Badgers with any regularity. Maybe shooting the moon like that is the most our program can hope for at this point. But I think most of the same fans holding up Wisconsin's recruiting as a model to emulate would also be disappointed if after twelve years under Archie we have only one Elite Eight appearance to show for it.

Wisconsin made it to just one Elite Eight game in twelve years under Bo Ryan. They needed Sam Dekker on their roster, a five-star top ten recruit from in-state, before they were able to twice win through to the Final Four.

I'm guessing someone at ESPN hit submit on that story before they were supposed to. I'm not surprised Darius gave the interview and that Biancardi had the quotes ready to go, but I'm surprised it hit the internet before the scheduled time. That's what you get for trusting ESPN, though.

He has only three Crystal Ball picks for 2018: Darius, Shittu and Romeo all to Vanderbilt. He has only two picks for 2017: Victor Uyaelunmo and Aaron Thompson to Vanderbilt. They committed to USC and Butler, respectively. He must be new to covering recruiting.

The last three Crystal Ball picks for RoJo went to Virginia. Including Jerry Meyer and Andrew Slater.

Not at all. Jerry's said his gut feeling is Vanderbilt, but made it clear that may be because he's around Vandy people. He has no solid information. No one does. Jerry could flip his pick to match his gut, but it wouldn't necessarily mean anything's changed. Follow Jerry on Twitter. He's usually honest as to whether a pick reflects his best guess or something more. A Crystal Ball pick by itself tells you next to nothing.

That's a reasonable take, and I'd normally agree with you. Someone's going to miss out on one of their priority targets, then come calling after a top ten forward still uncommitted. But the Vandy writers are awfully confident here. On his own podcast, Chris Lee said it was almost a "bet your house proposition" Vandy would land one of the three top ten recruits they were targeting. Then on Jordan Wells' podcast, Lee made it clear he was talking about Shittu. He also said this was something Vanderbilt writers had known for some time, and was based on some information he couldn't share publicly for journalistic reasons. Maybe Lee is putting too much faith in his sources, but I've yet to see any reason to doubt what he's been told. Though I do agree: the longer Shittu holds off on committing, the better for us.

The result of the game probably mattered less to Zion than to anyone else in the building last night. Barring an unforeseen redshirt, not a single player on the floor would still be on the roster by the time Zion suits up for his first college game. Yesterday was about meeting the staff, and I'm glad to hear it went well.

Even if Meyer changes his pick at this point, by itself it wouldn't mean anything. Jerry's already on record saying he doesn't have a firm hold on the situation. He was hearing Indiana, now he's not, but he's neither is he hearing Vanderbilt. And as close to the vest as the family has been, no else is hearing anything either. Jerry's gut says Vanderbilt. Unless he says something different to explain his switch, I'll assume he's pulling a Hoosier Guy, and his sources are himself.

Yes, but they're at Belmont, which is located in Nashville, literally next door to Vanderbilt's campus.

Darius himself retweeted Rabjohns just a few minutes ago. But he tweeted the now outdated article with his original announcement time! Oh no, what does it mean?!

Because he met those guys on his visit and made some friends. The simplest explanation is usually the best.

Because after you announce your commitment, you want to talk about it. Think of all the Q&As that get posted at ITH and Peegs right after. With Darius, all the Indiana media will be in New Jersey and completely occupied for the next several hours covering a game taking place. To say nothing of the coach to whom Darius would be committing. Maybe this really was the best time available for the Garlands. But it sure seems like if he was going to commit to Indiana, a more convenient time slot could have been chosen.