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Win the B10 title. Make at least the S16. That'd be a "good" year. Should be 100% doable with the projected rotation. What do I expect? To be underwhelmed... Happy to get talented players, but until we see the team blow out cupcakes in buy games I feel more hopeful than optimistic per se. I think the team will be better, but being better than last year is not enough (obviously).

Luke Goode is a transfer portal prospect from Indiana so the tweet is relevant. You're putting words in peoples' mouths with your "second" point and don't seem familiar with the concept of symbolism.

Your comment said nothing about winning the offseason, only suggested that we may be "locked out" of in-state recruiting (at a time when we are involved with multiple in-state prospects). People are tired of digs from fellow fans and that goes both ways, not sure why you're surprised your joke did not land. Nobody wants to get flak for rooting for their team, whatever that looks like to them. Virtually all of us feel the same way you do (show me first) yet do not feel the need to reduce every conversation to "bUt MiKe WoOdSoN" There is a thread for tempering optimism or even downright negativity, not this one though. Stuhoo has already unpacked how you're "misreading the room" with your "tempering optimism" ... but yeah, some of all the other posters are the insane ones (just like some of all the college professors ;)

If we average 22+ 3 point attempts per game next year I will get a tramp stamp tattoo of Mike Woodson's face

I don't know about 40% from three, definitely not on any high volume, but I'd take 33%+ on enough volume to keep defenses honest. I don't think we see a ton of typical 4 out 1 in next year but would be nice to be wrong I guess. He's great around the rim though, that's where I want most of his looks. Maybe if/when Malik slides over to play the 5 for a few segments we see more 4 out 1 in. Would love to be a fly on the wall during staff meetings these days

I agree, my post was more geared toward fans that are not excited by the idea of adding Essegian. I think the staff pretty clearly values him based on the timing of the visit/smoke of things going well. In my post I mentioned a few reasons why I think he'd be sold on IU whereas a comparable role/pitch that we made to Hickman was not enough for him. IMO, more minutes would not necessarily benefit Essegian. No matter what level he plays at professionally, it's going to be in a sharpshooting role and he's probably never going to get significantly better on defense because of his limited athleticism/measurables. He's better off playing the politics of basketball by playing for a coach like Woody who is super connected and able to play him in the same role he would play professionally. If Essegian can play it at a high level and contribute to winning, all the better and he'll eventually have an opportunity to play more minutes. Go somewhere else trying to be the man/play in a featured role then not performing well, just harms his stock with pro teams/overseas leagues. Yes he's a competitor and wants to bet on himself but IMO if he's smart enough to make the right bet and position himself for the NBA, coming here makes the most sense. Because I don't think he's ever going to play himself into being an NBA draft pick and regardless of how much he plays or how well he does, if he works hard for a coach like Woody, he will get an invite to a Summer League team just like Race Thompson did or Miller Kopp did and the rest is in his hands. He can't get that at most other P5 schools. And he can also get paid probably more to do it here than elsewhere.

Yep, this is where I'm at right now. First of all, let me assure you, I have no bias here (wink wink to a few of you) My initial reaction to an Essegian transfer was totally unmoved. If he couldn't crack the rotation at Wiscy, why should we want him. To a degree I still think there's a tiny bit of merit in that. At the same time, we're talking about someone who'd be playing 8 or 9th man. So what was he able to achieve playing in the same conference as us? Big 10 All Freshman team honors. 27 MIN, 11.7 PTS, 3.7 REB, 0.7 AST, 40% FG, 36% 3PT as a freshman Would have loved to land Hickman, who is a hometown kid, as 3rd/4th guard in the rotation but it was probably never gonna happen because he wants to play bigger of a role than we could give him. Essegian is realistically probably the best you could hope for in that part of your rotation IMO... if he's willing to accept having a relatively limited, but very clearly defined role, with modest potential to earn more minutes in exchange for the other benefits that come along with being at Indiana. I assume all these guys want to play and/or have a very clearly defined role, with the goal of playing professional basketball. I also assume that, to varying degrees, people and their circles are realistic with themselves about how likely that is / what they need to get there + do what's best for their immediate financial interest. The pitch was probably fairly different for Hickman, but not what he ultimately wanted. Essegian's situation has some pretty important differences, though. 1) Coming off a season he fell out of the rotation 2) He's not transferring "up" a conference if he comes here (or down) 3) Multiple years of eligibility left. For a kid like Essegian, who's best bet at the NBA (no matter where he goes IMO) is probably being an UDFA and catching on with a team that's willing to have a cup of coffee with you ... can't imagine there's a better coach than Woody. Even if that ultimately doesn't work out, he's got two years of being paid handsomely at his home state's flagship university while being developed by a former NBA coach who will make a referral to get you a shot with a team. All you can ask for as a player. And by staying in the B10, his overseas prospects would probably look better than transferring down, where he'd have more tape, but against worse competition and presumably lesser development in the eyes of foreign leagues. For a guy like Hickman, he's coming from a smaller school/conference and needs tape against high level competition to have an outside shot at playing professionally here/in the higher level leagues overseas. So for him, the math is a little different. At the end of the day, they're two different people so they'll prioritize things differently. TL;DR: If we can sell Essegian on a very clearly defined role because he places enough value on all the other factors IU has to offer, that would be ideal, because you're unlikely to find a better end of the rotation player willing to take on limited minutes, but capable of playing more and doing so at a level that earned freshman all-conference honors. Great shooter, fills a huge need skillset wise, and you're not asking too much of him... so he's unlikely to single handedly lose you games, but can very readily contribute to winning, and any big performances are just gravy. Sign me up. IMO close to a homerun pick up in that sort of role.

Interestingly, a lot of the accounts on Twitter defending Woodson now, were also complaining about Gallo (allegedly) hitting the bars frequently during the season

Really tough blow for SHU/Shaheen. The assumption was he'd go somewhere closer to home to be near his daughter (believe he is from Indy). Seems like he is cashing in on one of his best opportunities to do so by playing ball, good for him. But to not be able to retain a guy like that because they just don't have the means to pay him as a small Catholic school is sad. Shaheen has a tall order in front of him with that program especially because of the financial factors. I hope it works out for him there. He would be scary at a place with real resources.

Would he get less minutes here than at Illinois? Genuinely asking, not sure what they have coming in/returning next year. Maybe if he thinks he will play adequate minutes, he'd buy that the stage at IU could give him better visibility/interest from pro scouts than a mid-major where he plays a ton. Other than Illinois haven't heard of big programs linked with him but certainly could've missed it... I find him most interesting at the moment but that may be because he's the biggest "unknown" to me as a prospect/what we could realistically expect from him on next year's team. I like him better than Elijah Malone, but I assume everyone else does too. Humrichous and Essegian (+ Carlyle becoming official) would be great IMO. Fill the 13th spot with a lotto ticket and let's roll

Not sure how accurate so TIFWIW

After a season like we just had... probably a good category to be #1 in :)

Not making an argument one way or the other... Just unpacking why I think some people have grievances with "NIL" / collectives in their current form.

I mean we're getting pretty deep into semantics at this point... part of what makes a players NIL valuable is how good they are. But they're usually mostly compensated in the form of a collective's cash payment, not a company's marketing budget for example. Which IMO is why some people have grievances with "NIL" pay... it's mostly collective payments which are more similar to a company payroll. When people think of NIL, they think about players who have made CBB nationally relevant being able to reap the rewards for their success via their NIL deals with local and national organizations, which is a good deal for everybody. Instead, we see universities basically paying players for performance. Collectives can bring with them a world of political headaches (maybe that's part of the offseason drama we've seen play out at IU). Adding a 3rd party to your organization/program is always troublesome IMO. Therefore I hope we get to a point where the collectives go away, universities manage funds in house like a company payroll with a salary cap, and we go back to basketball being the primary focus with NIL as a nice bonus for doing well.

Yep, this is where the discrepancy is IMO for why people feel so differently about "NIL." Name, Image, and Likeness deals like the ones you described where you'd see a guest appearance, sponsorship/commercial, etc. There are also collectives, which provide direct cash payments as I understand it. That is where it's less about marketability/being paid for your own name and likeness, and more about being semi-pro sports with smaller budgets and no salary cap. As a concept, players getting paid is fine. They basically always have been. The devil is in the detail... and the collectives are problematic for sustainable success, not to mention the long-term feasibility of smaller schools being competitive/eventually, even fielding teams. Seems like the inevitable conclusion is revenue sharing/unionization, collective bargaining, etc.

I'm happy we're landing talented players too. But that was exactly what we were led to believe before last season and we saw how that turned out... I think most sane people are taking the offseason with a grain of salt and waiting til we see it with our own eyes...

It's a fair point. Yes getting as much talent as possible is good but making sure they're playing the right roles and fit well together is arguably the bigger part of what makes a successful CBB team. The devil is in the detail... ultimately every year, every team usually has question marks re: players that they're asking to play a bigger role or develop a different part of their game than they've shown before. I think it's rarer than not, to have a roster where you think you've got everything a team could possibly need accounted for already. IMO you're almost always heading into a season with a few ?s that you're basically betting on player(s) to step up. Minimizing that uncertainty (where possible) with proven college players is the best case scenario... That said, I am fairly comfortable betting on Malik to step up and do what the team needs (+ what he needs to be a pro player some day). Since this is the right thread for such a comment... last year we were betting big on Gunn and Banks to be solid rotation players. That bit us in a pretty major way... We can't make that mistake again (relying on players to do more than they're able to, not having a competent backcourt at all, lacking depth, etc.). Upgrading the talent of our starting 5 is a good start - maybe even great - but we still need to land a few pieces for a quality bench. Then we need to actually put it together on the court. We won't have time for another slow start to the season this upcoming year. I look forward to a delicious serving of crow.

It's interesting. On one hand, I see the vision for what you're describing and really like it. I don't know the Evansville guy well enough to say how good he is on D or rebounding, but IMO that is what we need to prioritize when pairing a big with Malik. I think (hope?) Malik grows into a true stretch 4 role on offense this year, in which case, I like the approach of having Ballo as the dominant big cleaning up things inside. On the defensive side... when Ballo sits this year, do we slide MR over to the 5? How long can that last? Can the Evansville kid/Elijah Malone play the 5 on D and rebound well for a couple of segments each game? Who we get as a 3rd guard/shooter and the back up big to round things out IMO makes a pretty huge difference for next year... what does the bench look like - Gallo is a good start to it. With Conwell likely looking for a bigger role than we can give, not sure who the next best option becomes... I'm not particularly moved by Essegian but realistically doubt you can get someone much better than a former B10 freshman all conference, even though he did end up out of the rotation at Wisconsin..... Watching curiously!

Sort of feels like he was always meant for that role and just hasn't had the opportunity to play it til now. We will benefit from the fact that Gallo was asked to play bigger roles (too big of roles?) the past couple seasons. His energy off the bench (I recall an announcer saying the team calls him "wild man" and he has his own rules for pressuring the ball on defense... not sure if that's true but it is funny lol) could be Hassan Diarra like if he/Woody makes it a point of focus in his role. Rice, Carlyle, Gallo, Mgbako, and Ballo could be an interesting lineup... Ballo in the middle IMO is a game changer for our offensive scheme. Especially since he is not a post-up scorer, it seems to me like we will see more 4 out 1 in next year (trying not to get my hopes up). While I think we should always have good rebounding guards, I'd like to hope/think that to Woody/staff's mind, what looks like a "good shot" becomes different, knowing you've got a guy who attacks the glass like that. If Mgbako improves his rebounding (I think he will) that line up could be very interesting. I think Reneau continues expanding the outside shooting ability he has and can see a world where the offense looks a lot better... hopefully we give the green light to shoot good 3s when they are there. Did someone pump sunshine into my dinner?

Rice is better shooting off the dribble. Carlyle is better at catch and shoot. I like that combination + Mgbako.

Pretty outrageous that Mike Woodson has this gigantic NIL war chest yet our 27-28 roster is that empty. . . (Sarcastic for those readers it may not be obvious to :)

I believe there is a technicality wherein international players are able to receive NIL payment while they are physically in their home country, but I could be mistaken.

Yup. UConn fans don't seem to have any issue about ponying up a nice NIL payday for McNeeley. The kids getting paid doesn't bother me at all... just want a more sustainable model personally. We should all be happy as Indiana fans that the status quo is favorable for our program landing top talent.

IU fans are seriously underestimating Carlyle IMO. I think we're going to be very happy to have him aboard.