IUCrazy2

They took care of the roster.

ESPN just upgrade their way too early rankings and have us at 16. Anybody saying the bar should be any lower than 23 wins is really underselling what should happen with this roster. In those discussions my question is going to be, "Why only 23? Is it because Mike Woodson is expected to hold us back?" There are no injuries or anything yet, anybody coming in under 23 and competing for a BIG title is doing so because they subconsciously believe this staff is an anchor.

They had their run and the pecking order is being reset. I think NIL has turned into garbage that will have to be dealt with in some manner or it is going to kill college athletics. We are just lucky that we are fans of a program that has Yankee and Dodger money as opposed to Pirates cash....

In Ballo's case, the one area where I do give Woodson credit, what he did with TJD and Ware probably factors in a bit.

No, that would mean they lost a ton of games against Q3 and Q4 teams which would be a bad year. There is no world where a 20 win season next year is a "good" year. None. 23 wins should be the floor.

I will answer that for me. On paper, we once again are going to have one of the most talented teams in the league. In the portal we have "fixed" our guard and shooting issue. We have 2 returning Freshmen of the year on our roster. We will be starting multiple 5* players. We have an abundance of riches. If this team was at Purdue they would be thinking winning the BIG and making a bunch of noise in tournament. The only reason to temper expectations is because we think Mike Woodson is an anchor. The floor for this roster should be around 23 wins. All the things that people have said were holding Woodson back (besides himself) have been addressed in the portal. People are short selling expectations exactly because they believe that Woodson is an anchor on expectations.

I will eat my hat if they are Top 10 next year. Painter is a good coach and they will have a decent year but I bet they are more in the 25 to 30 range than the 5 to 10. Their entire team gets guarded completely different with the loss of Edey.

Correct. Being honest, Woodson's approach hasn't been great the past 3 years IMO. He pissed me off last year. I think the burner on Twitter isn't helping the case by spiking the ball on the 50 yard line either. So I am still very much wait and see. All that being said, just looking at the roster in a vacuum, I am pleased with what we got. If they figure out how to start really incorporating the HS recruits into this, then ok, we are good on roster construction (even though I don't think this was some master plan, but sometimes it is better to be lucky and just stumble into things...) Hopefully the play on the court finally matches the personnel.

10 stars. We are about to go on a historical run.

They lock those 3 down in quick order then I will go and track down the crow. Still not warming an oven until we start playing (and winning) games.

I am in the show me zone too but I think you have to have some baseline to measure against. To me you draw a line in the standings at the end of conference and we should have won 60%+ of our games against everyone above the line and 80%+ against those below the line. With the addition of the PAC teams, the regular season "champion" is going to be diluted to the point of almost worthless. You are going to get to play almost every team only 1 time and that is going to lead to wildly inconsistent standings given the way this league is officiated and where you play which teams.

Because he would be an experienced bench guy with a skill we have lacked for years. I have been down on Woodson but will extend some meager credit for finally figuring out how to build a roster after collecting a check for 3 years.

Woodson has put together a nice roster on paper. I fully expect to enjoy the 25+ win, Big Ten title contender, and NCAA run ahead of us in 2024/25. That is what should happen with this roster so I don't want to hear any excuse making BS if we don't.

https://twitter.com/TheMopLady/status/1782424651387347292 You wonder how we didn't get him to begin with...sheesh.

Because hs is a big IU legacy kid. With all his family connections there is no way he didn't grow up an IU fan. It could be one of those deals where you figure you aren't going pro, why not go to the childhood dream school if they are calling.

Yeah, Thursday night was when the festivities really started to crank up when I was a student.

No, I was there when Coach Knight was there, dudes were going out. I don't have a problem with that per se. Just think you ride a thin line with some of that. It is fine to a degree as long as the priorities are straight. That kind of thing can lead to trouble and frankly I don't know if we have the coaching staff in place that knows how to handle that. These dudes are getting a ton of money for their age and I don't know, just seems like a recipe for potential disaster if it isn't moderated.

Ok, so old guy yelling at clouds now and also someone that handed a former player in the late 90's a vodka bottle at my apartment the night after they beat Kentucky (IIRC), our recruiting visits are a little more "bar centric" than I would want if I was the staff. I know the guys go out and do stuff and have some fun and they can't be basketball and school 100% all the time, but....I don't know, just seems like not the type of message I want to send out to attract real winners. That's just me and I know I am going to get raked over the coals because college kids should have fun and all that. And I don't necessarily disagree with that, but I would worry that the bait I am using isn't catching the exact fish I want.

Ok Mr. Credibility, put your line in the sand. Mike Woodson is an awesome coach who is landing awesome players. What can us non-true fans expect as a baseline performance point next season?

Yeah that is a nope from me. I have been told that the Woodson system is going to be a winner at Indiana and we just had a player problem (sidebar: funny how guys like Tyme think it is a crime to talk bad about the staff or to question guys like Leal and his statements at senior night while they basically **** on the players for not being good enough to execute Woodson's brilliant strategy...I digress though). So anyways, he got the money and they are claiming they now have the players and they have landed them in the way future rosters should be built (i.e. minimal HS recruits) then the expectation should be to win now. He has 2 former Freshman of the year players on his team. A super senior from Arizona. A Junior Reneau who at least offensively was a bucket. He has dynamic guards. He has another 5* HS wing. He has a really good 6th man in Galloway. If he drops another 22-12 TJD last season-esque performance then he is never going to be the dude. It isn't worth wasting another year on a then 67 year old guy whose ceiling is mediocre even with a huge payroll. 12-8 is really pretty garbage based on how much bragging they are doing right now. This isn't a 45 year old who has time to figure it out.

Whomever it is I basically just view it as the mouthpiece of the coaching staff.

That isn't the argument. Address the real complaint.

I am saying fire him if he isn't at least that. With the victory lap that they are doing on Twitter (that Tyme account is basically the coaching staff's voice) it should be 14. However, if you set that as the floor there is no way he will get fired if he wins 12 or 13. If he goes 11-9 or worse though....

Anything less than 12-8 is a failure. Frankly I think it should be higher than that with the amount of money he was gifted to save his @$$ this Spring, but anything less than that or a seed in the tournament higher than 6 should be viewed as a failure.

The only tough offseason has been the fact Woodson is coaching these players putting a damper on the enthusiasm about landing them. We all want to win, most of those in this thread don't think Woodson gives us the best chance to do that. However, since some of his backers enjoy crowing about how awesome we are doing (once again) in the offseason, be prepared for some pretty harsh blowback if the wins don't match the expectations the roster should be setting.