Stromboli

It’s been an amazing journey bros!!

Glad I’m not the only one more excited about TOTK! It’s been a looooong wait. And yaaay Mgbako :)

YESSSSS

Yeah I love this stuff. My job very often involves valuation of goodwill. There’s an article I saw years ago that changed my perspective on all of this. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-university-louisville-basketball-player-192239747.html Using dated numbers (2016?) the average IU basketball player provides $870k value annually to the university. Note, that’s attributing 49% of the revenue to players and spread across 13 scholarships. So the school still gets theirs. I know people say “it’s amateurs, it’s ruining the sport.” Eh. The money already exists. Just the old system screwed the talent, many times the talent coming from an impoverished background. That doesn’t sit well. I like to think water will find its level. It hasn’t yet. And yeah a national personality and talent like HD is right to help move the needle here. Who knows what regulations may eventually come to pass. At this point an annual reshuffling and renegotiation doesn’t seem ideal. The NCAA is pretty obviously ill-suited to handle this. Aaaand so yeah maybe we are heading towards two independent super-conferences that will do it better. Aaaaanywho. My most objective self thinks Kansas will get Mgbako. Dude went Duke first go around. We have a great pitch and situation. If we get this I give huge credit to Woody and the staff for making the family feel good about Indiana, and for flashing enough promise to show this isn’t a slouch of a program, either.

Kansas boards are making the same point. They have no players at that spot with any college experience. I’m not confident or pessimistic about this one. Just hoping for some good news. My whole theory is you need 4-6 “plus” players to do anything in March. Getting Mgbako would add one more.

Man this has been a fun one. If he wants to develop as a wing we sure have the minutes.

The program prestige thing is always a slippery question. Kansas is one of the undisputed Blue Bloods and now finally got that elusive 4th title. Self is proven. Buuuut program prestige really comes down to whether fans give the prestige or not. Indiana still ranks 3rd in fair market value, behind Kentucky and Louisville. Kansas comes in at 5th. We still have major pull, somehow. https://graphics.wsj.com/table/COUNT_0330 Who knows how adidas weighs in here, but NIL goes well beyond that. I think Woody and his ability to connect with families is huge here. PT and team need is awesome as long as Mackenzie sees himself as a wing. No surprise, the Kansas insiders say he’s a Kansas lock. Funny how that works. No idea who wins. Woody does have a knack for being the best option at closing time.

See, and we all know this would be freakin delicious. Might I suggest you elevate your recipe with a diagonal cut (triangles have better flavor) and then sprinkle with salt.

Gonna go ahead and disagree. They can choose on their time. No one is on the pot.

Just read about little Ender a couple weeks ago! That was a good one

Awesome. I just put a hold for the audio version through my Libby app

I’m looking for a sci-fi author I like as much as Andy Weir. There’s a ton of it out there, but few hit the story-telling plus geeky stuff well like him. Didnt you say your handle (Brass Cannon) is from a sci fi book?

Bro you’re one of the more active posters. This is the second sanctimonious and hypocritical post in 3 days. Why do you feel like putting down the people who (like you) enjoy this? Here’s the deal. Alllll we fanatics on sites like this create the market. We sit here and consume it. The market (of blogs and insiders and forums) will fill up to saturation. Same as recruits posting their top 10 or whatever, and some fanatics have the flippin audacity to vilify them for it in the same moment they consume the content. Like it or not your views are getting sold. You are the product, and you’re not some victim. You’ve personally created this dynamic. Just enjoy it without simultaneously acting like you’re above it.

Heck yes. That team was incendiary. Get hot and just pour it in. I think Hova agrees, totally under-appreciated team. Glad we’ve shored up the 5 spot. Now let’s get some wings and change the look of this team

Yes. According to my (Urban Dictionary) research, we are “pushing P.” I understand this to be a good thing, in the parlance of our times. Let’s GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

It's a nice twist on the pizza threads these normally evolve into when we're waiting on news. And Stuhoo has awful taste in strombolis, for the record. On topic... not sure when this was last posted. Bates made it, no mention of Jordan. https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/College-Basketball-Transfer-Portal-Rankings-247Sports-Top-75-Hunter-Dickinson-Kelel-Ware-Taran-Armstrong-LJ-Cryer-207923553/

How many times this year did TJD win the tip, then just sprint to the hoop for a quick pass and easy layup? You knew it was coming every game, and it still worked more often than not. And I'm with you all. We won't replicate TJD. Especially his passing. Shoot, how many times did we see someone back off a drive after Trayce had already blocked him once? BUT, major props to the staff if they can land Ware. Pretty aggressively addressing the need. I am concerned that Malik at the 4 puts us back in the position of playing too big/two bigs.

Mmmmm y'all talking breakfast?? Inkwell and Runcible Spoon are my go-to breakfast spots these days. Back when I was on campus, there was a diner just a few spots to the west of Uptown, I can't remember the name. Best biscuits and gravy in town, but they shut down. Also you all have me refreshing this page a little too much this morning. Real excited to see what this team will look like next year.

Yeah I love this take. To me so often Point Guard just means Best Guard. The John Stockton model is really an anachronistic view of basketball, as is the old PG/SG/SF/PF/C designation that ruled for way too long. I think passing is still massively undervalued. Every player should see the floor and be able to set up a high percentage shot. No reason that is a skill that needs to be limited to the PG. Pretty sure I posted this before, but I still love it and feel like it helps to understand what’s going on in basketball. https://www.wired.com/2012/04/analytics-basketball/ So really in this discussion we’re looking for talented basketball players, not necessarily filling antiquated positions. Shoot, 5 out play can win against a good center and PF. Trayce was extraordinary this year because his game was an integral part of the perimeter game through passing. Purdue showed everyone what a POTY center means without perimeter play.

He went 0-13 in the tournament. No consistency. I still think about Damezi missing his last 18? 21? field goal attempts. This isn’t far off. Tamar was better this year, but still so far from contributing in a winning way. I think we all hope good things for Tamar. And also hope for roster upgrades.

I like the transfer portal optimism, but man I hope we aren’t playing two bigs again. Also hoping to see Banks compete for starter minutes. We’ll see what he does with more opportunity.

I moseyed over to a Purdue board. They compared their team to the 1980 Soviet hockey team. …no. Purdue wasn’t even the best college team, and had a real bad couple months aside from the tourney. They also threw around potential coaching replacements of Bill Self and Nate Oates. That’s just not happening, either from the University, or the draw of the program. The best shot would be Shrewsberry, but he’s already got a good thing going and has a big contract coming. He may already be out of Purdue’s reach. Painter has the program doing better than ever, even with the tourney disappointments. The unmet expectations were put in place by this coach, not the program’s prestige. As others have said, it’s more likely Painter dumps Purdue than Purdue dumps Painter.

Well you got me before I edited because Olivia already posted the graphic… Gonna disagree with you, Scott! TJD has regressed from sensational to pretty good. He wasn’t running the floor and fighting for position for high percentage shots. We didn’t see that electric first step or series of emphatic dunks. Maybe he’s fatigued in some way? I don’t know. I’d just love to see the return of dominant Trayce. If it doesn’t re-emerge until NCAA tourney, fine. But the dude deserves a good ending.

An X sighting would be awesome but I’m not banking on it. I’d like to see a get-right game for TJD. For his own confidence and mindset moving into the postseason. As we’ve struggled somewhat to find our other scorers, getting another good game out of Kopp and Galloway would be great. Kinda galvanize that starting lineup.

I’ve hated Vanderbilt since Romeo’s recruitment. Acting like there was no way he could say no to “memorial magic.” Then you watch a game and there are kids doing homework in the 3rd row. Place doubles as a study hall.