IUCrazy2

Fair but I would love to be selling, "I went to the Sweet 16 in my first year" when I go to the portal as opposed to "Well, if you ignore what happened last year, this is my vision..." That doesn't mean the race is over by any means but it does get awfully tiring that we always need "X" years to get things done when all of these other programs in our orbit, many of whom we used to regularly dog walk, can get things going right away. It has gotten to the point where I f---ing hate the month of March. Just a long and sustained kick to the nuts every year.

Gotcha, I totally missed him on the roster this year. So sounds like we need 7 guys. We are going to have to moneyball part of the roster then. I would hope we try and grab a few underclassmen who look like they could develop and we don't go all in with a bunch of juniors and seniors again.

Lol, we had an international big on the team?

Any idea who the 2 or 3 that are likely to stay?

Fair but that also goes back to my point, the expectations for the basketball program are high because from a resources standpoint, they had always been treated like a Top 10 program and there was a history there. To whom much is given, much will be required. Honestly, a new coach that can string together just 4 straight tournament appearances is going to get a bunch of leeway here. Woodson was awful but bought himself a modicum of goodwill by just limping into the tournament. 6-6 is 4 straight post season appearances in football for a team that could count on barely more than one hand the total it had before then. 4 straight tourney appearances in basketball right now will have people feeling like a foundation is being built. Win a few of those games and the roof will come off. The fans can be a blessing and a curse, but right now they are the ONLY thing this program can hang it's hat on. You saw what that looked like for football in the post season. And I think that is starting to wane quite a bit. The fanbase is really apathetic right now and the response to this meh season has been meh. Now is the chance to do something because a bunch of the fans have already moved IU basketball down a few tiers on their to do list.

6-6 would have gotten him into the post season. I mean that is really the low bar we have at this point that we have missed or barely met for like a decade now. I don't think there is as much angst about the program if Devries really just handles Northwestern. I think there were other head scratches in there but the difference between that 6-6 Cignetti type of season was that the team appeared to throw in the towel a bit at the end and the end involved 2 games against a pretty bad Northwestern team. We were among the first 4 out, the bubble was extremely soft this year and we just tanked down the stretch. That said, I am fine with giving Devries time and lowering the expectations around the program, but if we are going to do that, the amount of money that is funneled into this now low expectation team has to be adjusted to match. Football is winning now, if we are saying we need 4 years to build a team the old way, fine, but this being in the Top 10 spend for 70+ place results has got to go.

Exactly.

Right, I am thinking of this in comparison to what Cignetti has done. He has a pretty good evaluation process in place (so far) that helps him have better odds of picking a winner in the portal. That is what we need. Hopefully the NBA guy will help with that. I don't think you put all your eggs in any basket.

That goes all ways though. The last 4 Woodson years were full of P4 guys that didn't work out. That is where my criticism of this staff lies in Year 1, we had people on this board saying, "Nah, that dude isn't it." The problem was the talent evaluation, not where they played. You can have Reed Bailey on your team if he is Option 10 and a Sophomore, you can't expect to have him be your starting center. I just want good players here, guys who are capable and hungry for more than a check.

Let's look at this year. 6th Man of the Year: Braden Frager (Homegrown Freshman) Freshman of the year: Keaton Wagler (homegrown Freshman) Defensive Player of Year Aday Mara (UCLA) Player of the year Yaxel Lendeborg - (UAB) First Team: Lendeborg (UAB) Smith (homegrown) Fears (homegrown) Wagler (homegrown) Stirtz (Drake) Second Team: Thornton (homegrown) Sandfort (Iowa) Boyd (FAU/SDSU) Martinelli (homegrown) Wilkerson (Sam Houston) There is P4 sprinkled in there but the majority is either kids recruited directly to the school or really good evaluation on mid major guys who came and made an impact. Yes, go get good P4 guys but we don't need all P4 guys. The problem wasn't that we got mid major dudes, the problem was we got the wrong mid major guys. And from the list, in his infinite wisdom, Mike Woodson f---ed us because he was too lazy and too out of touch to recruit high school freshman.

We need to find players no matter where they are and at varying points in their college career. 2 years of Lamar Wilkerson would have been better than what Myles Rice or Kanaan Carlyle could do. The problem wasn't that we got non P4 guys last year, the problem was that we got the wrong non P4 guys. We need to have a better hit rate on the guys we bring in whether P4 or not.

Yeah we will totally have to add some upperclassmen but I am hoping that we sprinkle in a few guys who have more time. I think you try and go like 75% home grown and 25% portal for your team if you can (eventually, I don't think that will be possible in a year or two). We need to start building some kind of identity though. Some culture. Cignetti came and did that on Day One I feel. I don't think Devries did. What even is Indiana Basketball anymore? I don't think you can build that long term with a bunch of one year rentals.

I have adjusted my belief on what I think this program can do in the short term. We are basically hoping we can build a 22-11 team next year and doing it with some guys that will be here longer than one year. We don't want to be in a spot where we have to keep bringing in 6 or 7 upper-classmen again in year 3. At some point you have to start developing younger guys. The rent a mercenary approach has been the final nail in the coffin of what IU was, I don't think you can build an identity of what we are going to become on the backs of guys that aren't here long enough for fans to even remember two years later.

There is tampering happening all over the place right now. The portal may not open until early April but a bunch of the work is happening right now. Also, I think the team threw in the towel at the end. Why spend the money to fly them to another location to take another L? I think everyone is basically over this season, players included.

You guys are going to be miserable this off season if a guy like Wilkerson isn't enough to meet your criteria.