Magisterium

If anyone 1) thinks McCollum is a great defensive coach (I do) and 2) watches Bradley’s win over Drake this past season then 3) Bargen’s pretty clearly an excellent offensive mind. And evidently won’t count against the “5 coach” limit on bench coaches who can recruit off-campus, so DDV still has 2spots to fill alongside Norton, Adams and Johnson. Unless he’s in line to replace Huss at High Point, I’ve got to think Corey Edwards could be a good addition to the new IU staff.

I think it depends on Bargen’s role—if he’s a “GM” type alongside Sturtz then I guess that would leave 2 more spots to fill?

To replace the 7-footer that left Mizzou for the portal I guess (Gray) speaking of 7-footers, Dynes (Youngstown State) to USC is mildly surprising; I didn’t know Dynes was considered athletic enough to play for Musselman

Maybe in retrospect DDV would’ve been better served to just initially go after other more obtainable coaches and have a full complement of 5 assistants on campus and recruiting now instead of spending as much time as he did waiting on Murphy and Moikobu. I guess he hoped that friendships would matter more than they ultimately did.

from your keyboard to Braylon Mullins’ eyes

I wouldn’t necessarily say “fun” but I would say “determinative”

If I were recruiting anyone from Evansville it would be Pozzato, not Comer

I think Leland Walker or Jestin Porter (both bigger than Comer) would be at least as promising for DDV to recruit.

Listed as a “PG” in portal iirc and bigger/taller than T. Comer. Ideally IU would have a bigger backcourt next season but they may not have that luxury, especially given how time-consuming the assembly of a full coaching staff is turning out to be. I’d love to see DDV go after some bigger guards like Xaivian Lee (or maybe Askew if he’s still on the market) but unless DeVries is able to out recruit some “heavyweight” programs for guys like that (possibly including Wilkerson) he may have to go with a somewhat undersized backcourt, at least in season one.

In Portal now: Middle Tennessee State PG Jestin Porter. 15 ppg with 36% 3-point shooting this season. Offered a Drake scholarship by DeVries three and a half years ago fwiw.

Tilly to Ohio State…surprising but there it is

Those are kinda the vibes I’ve been seeing, which is okay imo. The portal appears to already have several potential rim-protectors in it, and some of them may be somewhat less expensive than Flory might be. Such as the guys from Wake Forest, Clemson, Xavier, as well as others.

sounds like Louisville then….$15 million in NIL ( or whatever it’s up to now)

HR rules the world now (God help us)

Yup, and I don’t mean to imply that I would’ve preferred McCollum over DeVries or that Ben would have been a better choice either. Full disclosure: my #1A and #1B choices would have been McCasland and Golden respectively, but the notion that McCollum should have been avoided due to his lack of P4 experience was always superficial and naive imo.

Gotta say that, for a guy who was supposedly a “big risk” for some folks due to the jump from Drake to the P4, McCollum seems to be hanging in there, at least on the recruiting front with an allegedly modest budget

It would be wild if DDV pulled in Murphy right after Murphy apparently pulled in Noah Williamson for Alabama. I’m a bit skeptical on this one

If they’re bringing in both Conwell and Dix it makes me wonder if DDV is less than optimistic about Goode’s chances of getting the waiver

My assumption is that Barnett might have been DeVries’ lead recruiter for the SoCal kids, given his time at UCLA and Nevada.

Hope DDV has more than one “shooting guard” in mind in the portal. Conwell’s already familiar with Miller’s system and how he’d be used in it, and UT can easily match any $$$ offer IU makes. If Conwell would prefer staying closer to home, great. If not, I hope DeVries has some additional portal shooters on his list.

I don’t think I saw much of Creighton at all this season; did he play much?

Yup; also Larry Johnson ( shooting guard from Creighton who’s originally from Huntington WV and was offered by IU just over 2 years ago) I think Johnson played at SoCal Academy in California so I assume K Barnett is familiar with him

thought I saw he was a Louisville lean?

think Ostrom would like to catch on with the Minnesota program if possible

Thx