Honkyman

IU-Virginia would be a good match-up. Good time to catch them as they are rebuilding coming off the championship year.

Even better record than I thought against North Carolina. Maybe we should play them again.

Our best record against any team in the ACC Challenge is against North Carolina, 2-1. Our worst record is against Duke, 0-5. At home we are 5-4 (including the one game we played in Indianapolis which we won). We are 2-7 on the road. We haven't played Louisville in the ACC Challenge so maybe that's who they will match us up with. We haven't played Virginia Tech or Clemson either. So who knows? Maybe it will be Duke again because someone who is scheduling these game wants to give us another shot--or wants to give Duke another win.

Its a myth that Indiana's academic standards are too high for graduate transfers. By definition, a graduate student should be a better student than most wherever he or she applies. Also, they had to complete their undergraduate degree in three years which requires more than average academic work and achievement. That's why the six graduate transfer students we've gotten on the IU basketball team have generally been good students to begin with.

I'm not alleging a conspiracy. I'm simply pointing to the fact that there is no public information to support the claim that graduate transfer basketball players can't meet the entrance requirements at IU. Other schools, e.g., Notre Dame, have acknowledged that their admission standards are higher. IU has not. Nor have I seen any articles using even anonymous sources to make that point. Only as often happens people on this board making claims without citing facts to support those claims. It can only be considered true if there are fact to support it. There are not.

OK. I'll pretend like others here that it is we are losing graduate transfers who actually want to play for IU because it is so difficult to get admitted to an IU grad program even though there are absolutely no facts to support the supposition. I'll also pretend that IU is in good shape to win the Big 10 and compete for a national championship next year even though there is no evidence to support that supposition. Its easier to pretend than it is to live in the real world.

This is a totally made up story to try to explain why no graduate transfers are coming to IU. There is absolutely no evidence to back this assertion up. To hide behind privacy requirements is non-sense because if true it could be confirmed without violating privacy. Graduate transfers are not coming to IU for the same reason 2019 targets are not coming. We had a lousy year and players have better options.

Can anyone name one graduate transfer basketball target that couldn't transfer to IU because of high admission standards. It sounds like a totally made up theory.

Matta had two final four teams. He is being mentioned as a successor to Beilein at Michigan. He might be the best they can get at this late date. I don't see anyone from the NBA dropping down to the college game.

The Harrison Twins got plenty of game experience starting two years at Kentucky. They just weren't NBA material, although both played (sparingly) in the league two years. But I agree that Keion Brooks would have gotten considerably more playing at IU than Kentucky. Keon is a very talented player, he will get playing time at Kentucky, and in my opinion is definitely NBA material. Whether he can make it there in one year or two remains to be seen. He won't leave after one if he isn't a high draft pick. Keon would gone to IU if he had decided in the fall. After a few more months, he and his family came to believe Kentucky was the right choice for him and that's all that matters. He wanted to be on a team that would be ranked and get in the NCAA tournament. And, he wanted to play for a proven coach. After IU's performance in the 2018-19 season, he didn't see either at IU. I don't blame him. Time to move on.

Michigan cancelled the Lester Quinones official visit because Beilein knew he wasn't going to be at Michigan. He didn't want to mislead him nor did he want to take the time. Good move by Beilein to get out of the recruiting rat race.

This is why Michigan cancelled Lester Quinones official visit. Beilein knew this was in the works. It's a good move for Beilein. A new challenge, more money and doesn't have to bother with the recruiting circus. Besides, he wasn't going to win a national championship with the Michigan team he has. Maybe Cleveland wins the lottery and ends up drafting Zion!

Old Friend--Yes, in so many words, you did say that.

Thanks Old Friend. Any program needs talent to win. "Program kids" are fine but 4 year kids stay for 4 years usually because they have no place to go. Almost all of them--even the "program kids"-- would like to move up to the next level if possible. To win, IU needs a combination of 3-4 years kids and at least a couple of exceptionally talented kids who likely won't stay that long. Our problem right now is that until we start winning we're going to struggle to land even most of the top 4 year "program kids." So I hope a couple of our returning players show significant improvement in their shooting and that all of the players avoid injury so that we can make it to the tournament. BTW. Franklin moved up to 128 from something over 150. He'll be a good player in a couple of years. TJD who ended up ranked 27 will be a very good player though maybe not until later in the season. I've been a die hard IU fan since Lou Watson was coach. I've seen the good and the bad. The good wouldn't have been good without really good players. Quinn Buckner was the best guard in the country coming out of high school as was Isaiah Thomas. Both the 1976 & 1981 teams were loaded with talent--high school All Americans. Even the 1987 team had two McDonald All Americans (not Alford or Smart who turned out to be their two best players). It is pure fantasy to think that IU will be a top team without a lineup of almost all highly ranked players.

HinnyHoosier--Our coaching staff has been doing a great job reeling them in lately. Until IU finds better success on the floor, we will have trouble competing for many players. I think Galloway will be one of them (I doubt we would have gotten TJD if he had waited until spring to make a college decision). As I said, the best players from that part of the state usually don't go to IU--they tend to go to Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan rather than IU. And, as we are learning, getting the best players in Indiana won't be automatic as it seemed to be during Archie's first recruiting cycle. We'll see. I hope I'm wrong. Galloway is a tough player who will wind up hurting us if he goes somewhere else.

Alan Henderson is/was 6'9'', same as TJD. There are definite similarities. I agree that Henderson was smoother and a better shooter. He arrived at IU with a jump shot. And, he was an excellent rebounder. I think TJD will need to be brought along a bit. He might not be ready to start until conference play. I'm older. I remember the first year Scott May played--his sophomore year. I kept thinking "why is Knight playing this guy so much?" He didn't show much until the end of the season. And, of course, the next year--1974-75- May was the best player in the country. Not saying that will be the case with TJD, but he will be a special player if he sticks with IU at least 3 years. BTW, Ray Tolbert was one of the more athletic big men to play for IU. He didn't have an outside shot, but he could out-jump anyone he played against when he was at IU.

I hope I'm wrong but I don't think we'll get Galloway. I'm from the Culver area. Players around here relate more to Purdue and Michigan State than they do IU. Damezi Anderson was the first St. Joseph County player to play for IU since John Laskowski who graduated in 1975. Players from Northwest Indiana for the most part just don't play for IU. We'll see. As I say, I hope I'm wrong. I like the way Galloway plays. But I see him ending up somewhere else.

We're not getting both Galloway and Leal.

I love IU basketball. But I hate it when IU basketball loses on the court or in recruiting. This one (Lester Quinones) doesn't bother me except for the fact that it is a reminder that we won't be competitive for most targets who are top 100 players until we start winning again on the court.

Lester Quinones is ranked 49th in the final 247 rankings. Brooks is 14; Watford is 19; Trayce Jackson Davis is 27.

I'm not sure Damezi Anderson is being written off. But it is hard to see him being the answer to IU's 3-point shooting woes for the upcoming 2019-20 season. If he makes huge strides over the summer, who knows? But that's certainly not something that can be counted on. Right now he would seem to be around the 10th or 11th player on a team with 11 scholarship players.

mdn82--You're a bit hostile I see. Thanks anyway.

mdn82--Thanks for making my point. Any person with a rudimentary understanding of English knows that the qualifier "even if..." constitutes a hypothetical predicator. "Even if Archie believed that Romeo were a shooter..." Not to belabor the point, but I never called Romeo a shooter. I called him a scorer. Thanks again for acknowledging you were wrong.

Mdn82--I didn't call Romeo a shooter. I called him a scorer--he was the top scorer on the IU team at 16.5 points a game. I will say that there were many on this board who believed going into the season that IU's 3-point shooting would improve as a result of Romeo's shooting. I wasn't one of them.

It is correct to say it isn't who we miss on its who we get. We got two bigs-TJD & Joey Brunk. Both are expected to contribute and maybe together will cushion the loss of Juwan Morgan. And, we got a guard who likely won't be ready to contribute much for a year or two (Franklin certainly is not in the same league as Romeo in terms of scoring next year). What we didn't get without mentioning missing on specific targets is a shooter when the overriding weakness this past season was shooting. Even if Archie believed Romeo would be a better shooter than he turned out to be, he should have known that Romeo was likely to leave and we would need to target a shooter in 2019. So that is a coaching failure no matter how you look at it.