IU Prof

I'm all for Will Wade getting his comeuppance, but how is that possible? What on earth is going on there?

So where does the roster currently stand? Are we done with the portal?

My brother, you really don't change, do you? You were saying we appeared to be aiming low a couple weeks ago, and then we landed 6 P5 transfers a few days later. You can't go by reported interest on Twitter, my man. Have some faith!

Defense worries me...

Isn't Kansas down to just two players, presently? If so, that must be one hell of a combo to rank in the Top 25.

Or maybe Milton found a room with WiFi and slowly set to work on becoming an IU insider...

Actually, add one break glass in case of emergency big to that, and call it an off-season.

Gimme Rancik, Hall, and Budd Clark and call it a portal season.

Doh, my bad!

If you could only get one, would it be Eric Reibe or Bryson Tiller? Obviously depends on what they're selling Sherrell, but I think I'd take Tiller if it were me.

Wasn't Tiller an Adidas kid coming out of HS?

Yeah, get him and bring one of him, Harris, and Mustaf off the bench, and now we're talking.

Sherrell isn't a must get per se, but locking him down before he leaves campus would quiet a lot of doubts about DDV.

Of all the takes, that tweet might be the worst.

Agreed, but we need to bring in three bigs, IMO, between the 4 and 5.

Mustaf and Harris strike me as smart, high upside pickups that won't break the bank, but raise the talent level of the roster. Mustaf in particular really picked up his scoring the second half of the year.

If the NIL donations aren't there, it doesn't matter whether the AD wants to save money or not. You can't spend what you don't have. In hindsight, any NIL advantage we once had appears to have dried up once Woody was forced out. We really needed to ramp NIL up during DDV's first couple years to lay a foundation, but I'm guessing the $$ for a UK level $18-22 million budget just wasn't there.

But do you trust him with your wife?

Given our recent track record with freshman transfer guards from Wazzou, what could go wrong?!?

Just to clarify, I think there is a big difference between these posts listing IU as one of 25 teams that have contacted a player, and reports from Jamie Shaw or Travis Branham saying IU is among the 3 or 4 teams to watch for a player. The latter may prove incorrect, but suggest a higher level of meaningful interest and engagement than the former.

For the record, I'm fine with dumping on DDV if next year's roster shows he hasn't learned his lesson and/or been able to successfully adjust his approach. I just refuse to preemptively engage in teeth gnashing and woe-is-us-ism when credible reports from national writers list IU as one of a small handful of teams to watch for, basically, half of the top 10 transfers currently on the market. Especially when all of them would represent a big leap forward from last year's strategy. If we swing and miss at all of them, then have at it. But patience is a virtue, especially in a case like this when we'll all know a heck of a lot more in 7-10 days.

I'm not sure that last sentence is accurate...

I don't have to project. You have already done it repeatedly, criticizing DDV for failing to land any of the Big fish recruits we went after. But when Louisville does the same, they are showing they're serious...

100%. But I trust their info more than Wayne's "X sources"...

The smart money is always on the field when it comes to landing a particular player. But that doesn't mean IU wasn't involved, or that you have any actual insight.