IUrocker

I wonder if his visit is still going on at this point or if he’s already gone? I didn’t know if they just stayed the night of the day they are visiting or left same day? I guess either way could be the case, but I’d assume he still may be there.

Ok, NOW I might be getting impatient haha

I know a lot of hometown Central Noble people who are big fans of Connor are also big Purdue fans..so that’s funny to me and I love it. All the IU fans around, heck just the entire community in general are going to be so happy and excited for him.

At this point I’m hoping there’s no reason for him to feel the need to take visits to other schools. Awesome that his AAU coach is with him and wants him to go to IU.

Another thing about Connor, his freshman year when he played a good amount of minutes at Wisconsin before his back flared up, he was at about 89% on free throws. Good guy to have in there late in the game when other teams trying to foul. If he can be a guy who’s willing to accept a role as someone who can knock down some 3’s and be money at the charity stripe then he’d definitely be a good get.

Right, I agree. Connor was for sure option 1 at Central Noble and didn’t have as much competition. I’m just bias and trying to talk him up since I went to CN too (even though I graduated the year after he was born haha)

Oh for sure, CN was only 2A, I get that and agree, but heck you still gotta put the ball through the hoop…I’m just trying to talk him up haha

Agree…and obviously there are some factors that go into this that people can nitpick, but just to put into perspective: Indiana high school career points: Leal - 1,620 Essegian - 2,526

I wonder if Michigan is in a spot to offer him more minutes or even a starting role. Not too sure what their situation is with what they’d be able to give him. If both Michigan and IU are saying he’ll be a role player off the bench then hopefully our higher money will be the tipping point. I also think, like Chris said, he’s probably going to like Michigan’s system better and think he may get more shots there, so that worries me a bit. Not much tape on IU the last few years that shows snipers getting a bunch of shots…I guess we’ll find out.

Yeah doesn’t surprise me that he’s down to IU and Michigan. I knew he and his family grew up big Michigan fans. I’m sure they’d think it’d be really cool for him to play there. Obviously playing at a place like IU is no slouch either obviously, so in this case hopefully money does talk. I’m bias on him though since we went to the same high school. My sister in law was his teacher in a couple classes too, so we all think it’d be cool for him to be at IU.

Definitely interested in how the Connor Essegian visit goes today. If he’s 100% healthy from his back issues like I’ve seen he is, I think he could be a more reliable shot maker than Miller Kopp was for us. I feel like Kopp wasn’t as deadly as I thought he’d be, although I wish he had gotten more attempts. Thing is, Kopp probably ended up being a better defender than Connor could be. No reason why he can’t improve there though. Kopp improved his defense while here, so Connor could do the same if he puts in the work.

Oh yeah, forgot about that, which I did see he is 100% ok from that as of now.

I saw that Connor broke the record for 3’s made as a freshman at Wisconsin and was only the 5th frosh in school history to average double figures. Just odd to go from having that type of impact (27 mpg) to being pretty much non existent this last season (7 mpg). I know it was said because Gard didn’t like his defense but still..kid wasn’t afraid to be a sniper. Dusty May was one of the first to contact him at Michigan once he hit the portal and after that has visited South Carolina and Maryland..now IU.

Right, that’s true, I agree with that. Probably wishful thinking that we’ll actually have an offense that would get more open looks for guys like him. I was just talking to a friend of mine who is also a big IU fan and CN graduate and he thinks he’d be surprised if Conner ends up at IU. Thinks he’d probably rather go to a smaller school where he could be a starter and get more minutes. I guess we’ll see.

As a fellow Central Noble graduate, I’d like this a lot. Really good kid. Made no sense to me for him to play in the Wisconsin style offense. He probably picked them out of his other list of suitors because it was the big name school. Obviously don’t expect him to get big minutes with us but to come in and bang in a couple/few Zeisloft/Roth 3’s would be great.

If Quinn and big boosters wanted Stevens and couldn’t get it done when they tried, maybe Quinn went with his buddy knowing that there will indeed come a time when Brad does want to take the job. Quinn gave the job to Woodson to have him coach in the meantime and is just waiting for Stevens to come back around. Obviously wishful thinking, but just trying to tie everything together if this Stevens resurface holds any weight. Boy wouldn’t that be something. Hard to type out knowing it could be wasteful thoughts haha.

I love this post and exactly what I was thinking myself. Woodson probably thought as long as he had money to throw and bigger name guys that he’d be able to get whoever he wants and it’s just not the case. Players don’t want to experience what we’ve seen the last 3 years and obviously Woodson doesn’t think that matters. Gonna end up overpaying people just field a roster. The longer it goes on, the more we’re gonna have to overpay for lower skilled players. Unfortunately I don’t think we’re at a point where if the portal ends up being a strikeout (based off we should be able to get a good haul) that they’ll get rid of him. He’ll get his 4th year regardless and then he and Quinn will ride off together. i guess I don’t fully doubt that there could still be some things in the works where we end up adding a couple high quality guys, but it’s probably gonna be a matter of we are begging and overpaying to get them here. Woodson thought he was gonna have it made with this NBA free agency style of doing things.

Are we at a point where we can assume if he actually doesn't get an extension before this season then it’d mean that this upcoming season will be his last, or is it still early enough in his contract for him to still ne able to get an extension even after this next season is over? I just figure with recruiting then something like that would be better to know sooner than later, but at the same time if he just plans on using the dang portal year by year then all those kids need to know is that he’d be there for that season.

Seeing PU make the FF makes me want this guy gone even more. Makes me sick and I’m choosing to blame Woodson for them making it that far haha. I like Matt Painter, good coach and I appreciate his class, so I’m happy for them, but their alumni and fans are a joke. Instead of being happy about their own accomplishments, the PU fans I know take their time to mention “IU sucks” instead. Its pathetic. It shouldn’t have had to come to this for Woodson to realize we need better guard play and more shooters. Now at this point the good ones are smart enough to not want to play for him unless his buddies throw enough cash at them. Some say maybe PU winning the title will wake up the administration enough to make big changes. Shouldn’t have needed that much to wake them up, and it’s frustrating as heck.

Yep that’s what I’m afraid of. Just getting into the tournament and losing the first game, Woodson would be like “I got us to the tournament”, and people in his corner would think he did well if he thought he did well himself.

So is it safe to say we get Tucker, Mack or Perkins, and then the rest may still be playing in tournaments?

Well Mike Woodson should stop tweeting

I feel like the last time we saw a Mike Woodson cooking meme we ended up with Michael Durr lol

I’m torn because I’d surely love it if Woodson was able to bring in a stellar group for next year…I just really don’t want him to be the one here to coach them. I’ve had it with his shenanigans of acting like he’s superior to everything/everyone. I’d feel so much better if we 100% knew for sure that no matter how we did next year, he was just gonna be done and will be trying to go out on a high note with this upcoming season. Would make it so much more enjoyable to root for success (not that I would root for us to lose) rather than be worried that he meets whatever subpar standards there are that make him stick around to continue to underperform.