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To your point, with as bad as we've been for so long, the amount of social media engagement and TV viewership is definitely way lower than its potential ceiling. The amount of online engagement about a good IUBB team would crash this site and easily move us into the top 4 or 5 on this list lol

Should schools have to pay a transfer fee to the player's previous school like in soccer?

Yeah totally agree. Your post gets at the crux of why this is a bigger issue than just making roster management / continuity impossible for schools (which is a big issue itself) Euros have a different development system than we do in the US. They go pro when they are teenagers. Our players are supposed to go to high school then college to develop. Letting Euros in at the expense of American high school kids in the long term is damaging to the USA basketball product and the same way Luka, Giannis, Jokic took over the NBA, CBB will end up just another stage for their players while ours get passed over for opportunities.

Wasn't Golden's title team mostly lower major transfers? I could be mistaken. In any case... Aidan Mahaney was a scouting miss by Hurley that ruined their backcourt and limited the team's ceiling. Xaivian Lee from Princeton has turned around a rough start and is now playing pretty well for a championship contender. His former Princeton teammate Pierce is headed to Purdue next year. So Painter thinks that kid is a high major player. Your mileage may vary. You need a certain amount of athleticism and skill, but it's a lot more about a good scout, role, fit, buy-in than whether the player comes from the MAC or Horizon League or was riding the bench for a Big 12 or ACC team. IMO

Just updated my bracket. March Madness is the best

It feels like Conerway and Alexis could've been utilized more effectively this year and the staff just never got things figured out. That's more concerning to me than the roster construction itself. The path to MM was begging for this team to take it, and we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory down the stretch. Brutal. But it happens. Weird year for sure. Here's to hoping next year is less weird.

Not nearly as high on Sisley as the rest of the board but it would sure suck to have a freshmen from Indiana who grew up a fan of IU get poached by Dusty. Not doing everything we could to sign May will probably end up on the Mount Rushmore of IU athletics failures.

I honestly don't even think it was because QB wasn't convinced Dusty would be a good coach. I think QB helped install his buddy Woody and when the prospect of him being removed came up, he threw his weight around to defend his pal. IUBB was not even a real consideration. Archie got 4, so Mike got 4.

Pretty unreal. Literally just win one more game and we'd be in. -Losing @ Minnesota -Blowing a 7 point halftime lead @ UK -Blowing 13 point lead vs Nebraska at home (most egregious single game IMO) -Dominated at home by an Iowa team we absolutely had the talent to beat -Let USC get away from us when we were hot -Shat the bed losing 6 of 7 down the stretch, including Northwestern twice The 8 point win against Incarnate Word seriously triggered PTSD for me and I'm sure many others. But it was still early enough we mostly didn't want to give up hope yet on the team or coach. If we won that by 20+, I wonder if that would've made any meaningful difference metrics wise given how soft the bubble this year was... I'd doubt it because the only metric that really matters is winning and we flat out didn't do enough of it. Beating Purdue was the highlight. Gutted out a win at UCLA. Stole one against Wisconsin. Not all bad but the moments of "good" or "great" were too few and far between. Overall I am trying to remind myself the margins are really thin in college basketball. Sometimes things don't bounce your way and sometimes coaches need to learn, grow, and get better at their craft. Sometimes both. Hopefully next year is better. I will probably follow the portal closely but unless we crush it won't start watching much until after football season. Which will hopefully again be in mid / late January.

Nolan Smith was hired in July when the previous coach joined the Grizzlies staff. He didn't have to build a staff to hit the portal, the roster was already mostly in place. DDV should've had his staff in place on day 1 and been able to hit the portal hard. The fact he wasn't in March Madness last year was used as a reason for optimism that we'd be ahead of the game for the portal. We were not. And we didn't get the most out of the group we did land. He was hired a year ago on March 18. His first year definitely gets a D from me. Not much reason for optimism at this point other than drinking the crimson and cream kool aid, but I will still hope to be proven wrong. We'd best see some quick commits in the portal this year.

Back to back nattys? Yes please

I agree with what you're saying, especially the last blurb and bolded bit. I just think it's probably more worthwhile for the staff to get prepared for next season by doing a retrospective on this year, rather than continuing the failed season. The players fulfilled their obligations to get paid. Gotta do what's best for the program now. IMO that means the staff hitting the portal hard (hopefully they have been on that for a while) and reviewing a ton of tape to improve themselves and come back better next year. Sadly I do not care that IU's basketball season is over at all. Just want to see them do better.

Exactly. Nobody will care. Most of our rotation won't be here next year anyway. It's not that we're declining because it would damage our brand to be in a lesser tournament, it's that they need to buy time to dig out of a self-created **** show.

Honestly I view this differently from ND football declining a bowl game. Staff needs as much time as possible to build a better team for next year. They blew this one. Nothing to be gained trotting them out there at this point IMO. If we had more returners I'd be inclined to agree with you.

I wish I did not learn this. Sigh.

A combined 28 national titles in the east region this year. Insane

Purdue is a lousy watch. They'll probably win today but I am resting assured they won't be a threat to win it all in the big dance.

Do we kick the tires on TJ Power once again? Or no thanks?

This comment was posted in response to Scott Van Pelt calling this season at Maryland unacceptable. Feels like the exact same type of lament we have. At least we're not the only ones... - We all have stuff going on. But we also all need a distraction. I would LOVE for this to be a distraction. But, it isn't. This isnt' fun. We've had degrees of fun on and off for the last 20 years or so (thank you Greivis) , but following this team has been work. I grew up in an ACC household (not a Maryland one, unfortunately). But, I went to Maryland and instantly cut all other ties to any others. Unfortunately, that was the first year they missed the tournament (04-05). I got redemption though, seeing Will Bowers dominate a young Seph Curry in the 2007 tourney. Whatever. I graduated and tried to stay connected. I volunteered for the Terrapin Club. I remember putting red celophane in the stairwell windows of Elliott Hall for College Gameday cameras to catch. Or organizing gamewatches in rural Maryland. And, I ended up parlaying it into a job working for UMD doing fundraising for several years. I'm in a different career now, but I owe a lot to UMD, and I've tried to stay connected as much as I can. In my 20s, the games would affect my mood. Make my week. I remember my first job post college, working a night shift in the basement of a hotel in DC, catching glimpses of the UMD/UNC game where Boom Osby and James Gist just gave it to them. And "go back to the ghetto" was audible from the UNC student section after the loss. Oh, man. In my 30s, MD Basketball was a hobby. I was more established in my career. My college friend group dispersed. I watched every game. Sometimes, it was taped beacause of kids. But, it was one of the things that was still a part of me. I just turned 40 this year. I watched like 14 minutes of a game, and that's just because it was on while I was in a bar with some friends. I could have prioritized games. I didn't. Because I have no connection to this team. I know it's football, but this tracks. I was texting someone during the Super Bowl, and I was able to say that I was ~15 feet away from Diggs when he committed to Maryland at the Turtle in CP. I followed these guys from recruitment through their career. Even if they ended up elsewhere - I knew their story (the litany of recruiting misses...). So, maybe this is as much about the current enviornment as it is about Buzz. But - I don't care. I don't know these kids. These coaches. Anything. And they don't know us. And - it's not like everyone has to be a die-hard. But: play the game. Let me pretend that you care about this as much as I do. Because, if nobody on the team cares about Maryland, then why should I?

I'm rooting for Arkansas to beat Vandy. I don't really like Cal at all, but something about Kentucky running him out of town only for him to have more success than Pope at an in-conference school feels like poetic justice.

I'm with you - not sure Haralson is worth a major payday. He does not move me that much, though I wouldn't say no for the right price. And agree, two freshmen as backups is tricky. Don't think we'd be able to rely on Drake, but maybe I am wrong about that. I'd like to add Overton but not sure if that door is closed now

This will obviously not be the portal haul IMO, but since we have a lot of time to kill until we start getting portal announcements, curious what people would think about this backcourt: Haralson, Overton starting PAM, Quentin Coleman (the 6'4 wake forest decommit ranked #34 by 247 in the 2026 class)

I was trying to find out where he is headed and couldn't find anything. Totally agree with you there.

Bella Vista was winning by 4 with like 5 seconds left. They call timeout to advance the ball to halfcourt. Karvala inbounds the ball... throws it toward the basket they're defending, gets stolen and scored to cut it to 2 points. Bella Vista inbounds to Karvala and he sinks two free throws to seal it. Hopefully a lesson learned and now an EYBL championship to go with it. Miles Sadler is a beast. So are the House twins from AZ compass.