Stromboli

Oh yeah! Best Bryant memory was beating Kentucky in the Round of 32, and Thomas holding out his jersey saying "This is why I'm here!" Awesome day. Loved that team.

Maybe he's ready to turnover a new leaf.

Hoosier Guy is one of my favorite posters. No shame in positivity! As long as you know his style

Oh right on. Yeah two IU picks, two say foggy, all in the last two days. I thought maybe you read a thing on a forum, but maybe this is better. Combined with our own resident insider/savant, I like it.

Well share you dork

He helped legitimize the program, and was a big part of making us relevant again. He still comes back, he has a good NBA career, and is one of our success stories. He continues to be an ambassador for IU ball. This question is foolish, and a dumb thing to debate when a current local stud is considering committing.

This was obviously fake news. But Grantland isn't necessarily all fake news. It's by a contributor "Spike Friedman." Also funny that back in 2013 Crean got lumped in with "all the best coaches."

“I could just feel [Indiana head coach] Tom Crean looking at me as I was at the line,” said MSU guard Gary Harris, who missed a chance to tie the game at the line after being fouled on a 3-pointer. Harris went on to explain, “I’m from Indiana and the guy recruited me hard, and I really wanted to go to IU, but then you see him smile, and it’s not a real full smile, it’s like a creepy half smile. And you start looking at his hairline, and the way it goes way back but he still gets all that volume in his hair, and you start realizing something ain’t right. And then you realize Tom Izzo looks kind of the same, and so does Calipari, and so does Pitino, and you start to wonder whether your trapped in some sort of nightmare, where all of the best college basketball coaches out there are the same guy. Or maybe avatars of the same demigod? And that maybe there is no free will, and you’ll always end up playing basketball for Tom Crean, or whatever it is that Tom Crean represents, assuming it’s supernatural, which I now do. So, yeah, I missed some big free throws, but I had a lot on my mind.”

I don't need anything to happen for me to know how far we've fallen. The Mastodons beat us last year. We gave up home-court for a first round out in the NIT. There is a legitimate debate across the country as to whether or not our blue blood status should be revoked. Flip that. We landed Archie, the prodigious young coach that turned down a bunch of offers to P5 schools until a worthy offer came along. That we landed him legitimizes that we are still one of the programs with pull. That we have an entire starting 5 of promising recruits already signed on for 2018 shows that we have not lost our luster. Recruiting isn't just some allocation of players to the best programs. There are a ton of other factors. The fact that we are even in on Romeo has everything to do with our proximity to his hometown. Honestly there are a number of fortuitous circumstances that have put us in a good position with some great recruits. On the same token, Vandy is very lucky that the Garlands moved to Nashville with their talented middle-schooler in time for him to connect to the city and have interest in the program. I think the "slap in the face" comments are unwarranted. The program earned its lessened statute in 1,000 decisions since 1987. We're lucky that we have enough capital to work with to rebuild this thing. I agree with you regarding the possible decommitment. It puts a din on what is otherwise an upbeat time for the program. It may even cause one of the Indiana recruits to leave, and create an instant reputation of Archie that could hurt him. Just the same, I'm not going to view this in a vacuum, either. There are a million factors. Two months ago we had zero recruits, and weren't sure that we'd get any. We watched Robbie Carmody, Darius Bazley, Brandon Johns, Cole Swider, and I'm sure others I'm forgetting choose different programs that we view lower on the totem pole. We weren't desperate, but we weren't sure about anything. Obviously, things changed in a hurry. We started to adjust expectations somewhat from Top 100 guys to Top 200 guys, and the Aaron Henry offer came through. At this point, we got swiftly assured that we're not dead. Race. Jerome. Damezi. Then Robert. Then Jake. You can't fault Archie for having these offers out there, and rather loose restrictions on acceptance. He didn't know (just as we didn't) the strength we'd have. Did we end up with 5 quick recruits while two 5* players are on the line? You betcha. But I can see why it happened. And you have to wonder, if we were sitting here without the other 5 commits, would Darius and Romeo still see the luster with the program? Maybe not. Dang I'm long winded. Anyway, I think Archie is a straight shooter. I think he does view success of the program as his #1 objective. And I don't think he's going to work to achieve that objective by screwing over his players. It's just a situation that we'll work through.

I will not get too excited about this recruit. I will not get too excited about this recruit. I will not get too excited about this recruit.

I don't think they're that thrilled with the commitment. They're building a team, no hate. I'm really pumped to see what becomes of Forrester as a Hoosier. Let them be excited about getting ED. (hehehe) This guy is 6'11", and so they'll just hang onto this notion that you have to have a 7' center to succeed. I think they're now just hoping for Eric Hunter to commit, and they'll have a fine 3 man class. As I understand it, Hunter is likely a Purdue lean, but OSU was looking very good but less so now with some other guard commitments expected. Minnesota is still in it, and Hunter goes there this weekend.

Durant himself says he didn't like playing for Billy Donovan. Silver lining!!

Maybe you were trying to focus the conversation away from true love and on Mr. Garland... Or maybe you were trying to link the post from ITH with that picture. http://www.insidethehall.com/2017/09/19/indiana-has-terrific-in-home-visit-with-five-star-point-guard-darius-garland/

Miss u

I just rewatched some videos of him yesterday. The dude has length! Ever since Chris007 said something about one of our current recruits possibly backing out, I've been pretty anxious to get Jerome's signed LOI. Everyone's wishlist for 2019 has Watford and Brooks on it. Emotionally, I get it. Objectively, I don't know that there is a need for both if we get one. I think I'd prefer a TJD (assuming he adds another inch or so), and then get some more guards. Guards make the engine go. Final Four teams always have an excellent pair of guards back there. Best case scenario, I guess, would be that Darius Garland is then returning for his sophomore season, and CuJo has rounded out into a weapon that can be relied upon. Then just a Watford and TJD may do it. That's just me. Tuesday musings. I'll change my mind tomorrow.

Also this. Blind luck that Adidas's ascension coincides with the rise in influence shoe companies have over commitments. I can remember 6 months ago, when this place was a total powderkeg, posters were saying IU needs to dump Adidas and rebrand to be cooler, so we could have some hope of getting recruits.

Cole Anthony's post yesterday.

Treesh could use a guy like you as part of his operation.

Oh, we do.

Yeah remember Crean hadn't even contacted the family yet about Trendon! Dude is a 5* with connections to IU! Archie reached out fast with an offer, and Trendon was thrilled that it came through. I'm not saying he's a sure thing. But his family is big on IU. Seems like a great family, too.

Yogi and Troy are on campus this weekend, too. Having some of the old guys there that earned themselves NBA contracts has to be good!

Getting waaay off topic here, I realize. But here's the article I was referencing in support of your point. It is Carlisle who says it's important for a rookie to demonstrate an "NBA skill" early to get a shot. "The long-range shot is more important than the around-the-rim stuff, though, at least in his immediate future. He came to the NBA with an “NBA skill,” as Rick Carlisle likes to call it. Young players must establish themselves as soon as possible, in any possible way. Ferrell’s nine-trey explosion on a Friday night in Portland gave him a reputation as a dead-eye 3-point shooter, and he backed it up for the rest of the season; he connected on 40.3 percent of his triples for the Mavericks, on 149 attempts. Below is a chart showing the most prolific 3-point shooters among rookies from Jan. 29, the date Ferrell debuted for Dallas." Here's the whole article: https://www.mavs.com/on-the-inside-yogi-ferrell/ Excellent read. I don't know why it's so hard to find in-depth writing like this. I was living off of Yogi's success last year, just as the Hoosiers were turning out to be an awful basketball team.

Yeah I agree with your premise. There was an interview with Rick Carlisle talking about Yogi carving a spot for himself in the league. It was something along the lines of "he's found himself a spot in the league because he has demonstrated an NBA skill." I think he was talking about either creating and knocking down a 3pt shot, or maybe driving the lane.

Yo not to get all nit-picky but Steph is one of the most athletic people in the world. ESPN did a cool article about it last year. Basically his core/hip strength is off the charts, and helps him be one of the shiftiest players in the league. From the article: "In each of the past two seasons, Curry has careened into the paint -- a forest of lower-leg dangers -- and shot more often and at a better percentage than all but seven players, all of them bigger. No one is better than Curry at misdirection through hip gyration, as when he thrice juked Kawhi Leonard on Jan. 25 before hitting a corner 3, transfiguring the defensive player of the year into a viral chalk outline. And yet that play might not have been more impressive than one seven days earlier, when Curry found himself the meat in a Kyrie Irving-LeBron James sandwich in the lane. He judo-tossed the 250-pound James onto the floor, broke free of Irving's grip, sprinted past a screen and drained a 3 in the time it took for James to stand back up. "The way Steph moves, 98 percent of the world would hurt themselves trying to run like that," says Warriors assistant GM Kirk Lacob, son of owner Joe. "I think people would pay to watch Steph work out." Link to the whole article: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/14750602/how-golden-state-warriors-stephen-curry-got-best-worst-ankles-sports Totally worth a read. These guys like Coach Clif can really impact a team's ability to stay healthy.