SamIam

Jesus, I went away for one weekend and you all poured in 130 pages lmao. I have many thoughts. I was team fire Woody but the writing is on the wall. Most of my critiques have to do with his system and roster construction, but I also thought that he had lost the locker room and we would have a mass exodus this offseason. The speeches last night repudiated a lot of the negative rumors about the roster. In a time where we are losing so much ground to Purdue, Leal and Gallo are representatives of how things should be, and we should celebrate them. Right now it seems like we were given bad information. Now there is at least doubt that we would have to turn over the whole roster. Lets see what happens with MM, Cupps, and MR. Teams that turn over 4 or 5 starters and 7 rotation players in the portal don't win. But a team that brings in a few portal studs to supplement the existing roster has potential. A little media training for CMW would go a long way. At IU, the rabid fans are our biggest asset and any coach needs to know that. That being said, we have gotten a little carried away w/the "true fans" comments. Most of them were said with regards to X. This fanbase has been completely unfair to X and I loved watching Woody defend him. He's had bad moments, but I think the fanbase has gone too far in calling for his head. Good on Woody for standing up for him. As for next year, I fully expect to be better, but who knows if it will be enough. Woody wants to play 2 bigs. I don't see that changing. Not my preference, but many big ten teams do it. It can work as long as you have proper spacing. Woody hears the complaints about the team. He's made some small adjustments throughout the season that prove he at least knows when something is wrong. Switching how we cover screens, playing Trey at PG, allowing Leal to work his way into the rotation, etc etc. I disagree with his overall philosophy, but he isn't blind. He will absolutely find shooters this offseason because it is the most obvious problem in the world and it’s a simple fix. I have always said the mark of a good coach is that his team gets better over the course of the season. Woody certainly set himself a very low bar early on, but credit where its due they have improved of late. Now the test is whether he can overcome the biggest issue this year, deficient roster construction. If he continues to make the same mistakes, I think it will be a unanimous call by all the powers that be to fire him. Lastly, I appreciate Woody bringing HS recruits around. I think Woody wants to leverage our NIL advantage and the more efficient, shorter portal recruiting window to his advantage to build a team. That's fine as long as there is a balance, and I think he is beginning to see that you CANNOT lose the Indiana guys to Purdue. Someone told him what a shitstorm it is for him to miss Mullins etc games. I'm glad this season has at least made it abundantly clear that he has to get some Indiana HS guys or the seat gets real hot real quick. Having Mullins/Sisley there to see those senior speeches was big. I guess my main point is to try and slow the doomers here. Dolson is listening. Another year of the same will not get Woody a year 5. Simple as that. As for after Woody, everything I know says we will still have options for good coaches. There's no doubt this is risky. Dusty is going to OSU, but if he truly loves the IU job, he will take it when it is offered. The risk is the price of getting to test him at the P5 like so many of you wanted. Notre Dame peaked at the perfect time and have a top 30 defense. I know Shrews loves IU. I know Dusty loves IU. Who knows if either would leave their current spot, but one way or another Woody is 66, he is on the clock and there are still great options for after him. It's gonna suck to see Dusty at OSU. But if he succeeds, he will have to turn us down at some point. I'm not sure I can see him doing that. TLDR: Woody is in a better position to return some key pieces than most of us assumed, which gives him a good chance of being better next year and we hopefully wont have to watch a fully portal-built team, but the seat is officially hot and he will be gone with a mediocre year and we will know more about the viability of Dusty or Shrews to be our next coach.

This list is honestly stacked. The transfer portal is nuts. - Guys I like: Thornton needs to be priority 1. Proven B1G starter, connection on staff, and 2 yrs left. Mawot Mag would be a great 4, one of the best defenders in the B1G already. - Guys you gotta at least offer: Jordan Pope is a great player. Aden Holloway was the #3 PG in the last class. Wade Taylor was one of the best players in the country last season, 1st team all SEC. - Indiana guys: I think you have to reach out to Essegian, Blackmon, and Booker if they hit the portal. I think Ware may end up being a very compelling selling point for Booker this summer. Essegian has had a down year but he has 2 yrs left, and we really only need him to be a spot up shooter. Blackmon is a microwave scorer and the family story would be fun. This is good for IU, but goddamn they need to fix this 2 time transfer thing. Full on free agency will get very old very quick.

So unless Dusty can go to a P5 and turn it around in 1 year he still won't be considered "good enough" for IU....?

Any chance you could send one of those my way? ty:)

Well, he's certainly good enough to beat us, as QB will learn very soon

Also Rothstein, Field of 68, Rabby, etc etc. This is confirmed.

Bye bye Mullins and Sisley.

IU - 78 MN - 74

The Dartmouth decision will likely get overturned, but it doesn't matter. Legally, the writing is on the wall and all college athletes will be employees soon unless Congress is able to pass something.

Wow thank you for the info!! Obviously you have no obligation to share anything else unless you want, so the rest of us can discuss but I am a little confused. Can't really figure out what the above two mean. Is he just saying that Buckner likes former players? Or is the inference that he and Dolson aren't super close? Is Pearl the "Brad Stevens" of this cycle in that he is using us for a raise and we shouldn't get our hopes up, or that we are preparing a godfather offer for him? Also, any chance you can confirm what Chris said about the admin potentially focusing on May?

Yeah this is certainly true. But based on FAU's historical standards May was an extreme positive outlier already in years 1-4. I don't think the argument that it took him a long time to get going holds much water.

I am a firm believer that teams should the best coaches from the D2/D3 ranks. Why? Because a good coach is a good coach at any level. Same logic applies here. It applied when BP was first hired from D2 up to D1 30 years ago. It applies to Dusty May now. As for the "stakes" of this hire, I don't get the argument. We said the same stuff when we hired Crean Archie and Woody. The fan support isn't going away, everything else has already hit rock bottom. We turn over our roster every year, losing recruiting battles, finishing middle of the pack in the Big Ten and struggling to make the tourney. Purdue runs in state recruiting and is having historic success. Personally, I think they are hanging a banner this year. It can't get much worse, from a macro level. IMO, we tried getting a 60-something year old to right the ship. It's time to look at where we are and get an energetic program builder. I don't how how many ways to put this, but Dusty is NOT Archie Miller. Comparison between the two is just lazy. If you want to compare him to a past coach, he more resembles Tom Crean except he's not a weirdo.

That's a justifiable position, although I disagree. But look at the comments above, plenty of people saying they would be disappointed

*sigh* time to go to bat for Dusty I guess. Again I get some of these points, but some just don't make sense. "Who has he recruited?" - Do we actually think that with a bigger recruiting apparatus, more NIL, a bigger assistant base, etc. he wouldn't be recruiting at a high level? None of our coaches have ever had issues with that. They've has issues with coaching and system. He's got a better team than us right now, with no talent "Has he used NIL?" - Sure, he's coaching in the NIL era. It's more impressive to see what he has done while being at a small fish in the NIL game. Here, he would never be outbid on NIL. "May's expectations will be too high" - Pearl's expectations for immediate results will be much much higher, and expectations will be high no matter what. Dusty is not the kind of person to cave under pressure, he has already coached under the biggest lights in CBB. "Collins should be higher than May." - Come on. He was on the hot seat until last year. His teams were trending down until he hired Lowery as an Asst. The people who throw out Collins clearly are capable of crediting people who have success at bad programs, but don't want to give May credit. "May's leash will be shorter with fans" - No shot. This board underestimates the amount of people who are uncomfortable with Pearl, for better or for worse. Pearl's expectation will be immediate wins, May will be given time as he is 47. Plus, May is a native son. May would be a disappointment? If literally the hottest name on the market is a disappointment then the naysayers are right, we will never be satisfied with anyone Again, I just don't get the animosity here. I get some people want someone else. But by no means would DM be a bad hire.

Is this just the pulse of the department, or did you hear something?

One thing we haven't considered is the effect of march madness. If you think the fanbase is a powder keg right now....wait until Purdue makes their run. I'm sure the decision makers will have made their call by then, but if its still Woody the fanbase will be....restless

I do think we all need to take a deep breath, it is quite unlikely that someone on the BoT is wasting their day posting here like us haha Credit to Kathywithac for making us cool it a little. We have a habit of making bogeymen out of some of the decision makers. Dolson, Whitten, Buckner etc are all very competent people and great stewards of the University. The fans are upset, true, but there are other stakeholders to consider. When the time comes, QB will listen to facts. I'm sure he believes in his friend/believes he can get it done, who wouldn't support their friend? But we have to understand that these people are running a University first. They will not make any decision rashly. Regarding May, I do think he is an easier sell. A lot of fans are not super comfortable with Pearl's past, and if IU is his dream job it still would be after one more year of Woody. If it's Pearl, the only thing that will be different a year from now is that both BP and MW's buyouts will be diminished by 1yr. Dusty, however, stands to have a much, much higher buyout next year. And if he succeeds, you may have to live with him at a conference rival for the next few decades. If you think he's the guy, the time is now. Happy to continue arguing about Dusty's record with anyone. I've watched a TON of FAU since he was hired and I am confident that he will succeed. But I understand those of you who want a P5 coach. At the end of the day it comes down to this: if we can get BP or DM we should move now to save the '25 class while the damage is minimal. I'm good with whoever the easier sell is to make this move happen.

Best Chris Bomb of all time LETS GOOOOO

They have a 7'2 guy RSing this yr, and a 7'3 guy committed for next year. But my guess is they start TKR and Furst next year.

@Chris007 I'm just coping at this point, but have you heard anything about IU reaching out to Dusty at all? Are we more or less Pearl or bust? Or is Dolson just focused on selling the firing right now?

Time for all of us former Kelley kids to start sending emails to our favorite prof Vivian Winston?

Exactly, this is what I have been saying. Dolson is smart, I'm sure he sees the same problems we do. But he needs some L's to make the narrative for him, and put pressure on Buckner. Otherwise I'm not sure he will put his career on the line to cross his bosses. If we get a few more losses, I think it's an easier sell. Otherwise, he's not gonna waste all his political capital right now when he could stay safe for another year and make the firing much easier for him after year 4.

This is all going basically as I said it would. Before NW, I said 3-4 to finish would keep him safe. He needs one more win, IMO. A lot of people were saying that one win shouldn't matter to this decision, and they were right, but that ignores the politics at play here. I will say this, if the buyout stuff is true and IU can space it into annual payments, it should not be underestimated how much leverage this gives IU financially. Woody's team would have to negotiate that into a much smaller guaranteed buyout. Worst case scenario is that we hold onto Woodson only 1 more year. We run out a team of mercenaries, we lose out on the '25 class, and Dusty takes a P5 job whose year 1 buyout will be too hefty for IU to pay.

I can't believe that the hottest coaching name in the country is literally an IU grad whose dream school is IU and we are going to let him go to another school, a conference rival no less. Definition of over-thinking it.