Silat Player

Agreed. I mean, Woody is what? 66? 67? How long has it been since he actually signed a high school recruit? I get that recruiting has changed due to the portal, but to have long-term success, you're going to have to recruit high-school kids too. Spinning the portal roulette wheel every year isn't going to be the answer for sustained, consistent success. You're going to have to develop some high school kids as well. The fear that many of us had about Woodson has come to fruition. He has the ego of a long-term NBA coach and former Hoosier legend, and wasn't familiar with the college game. I mean, he's JUST NOW admitting that guards are the key to winning in college? In year 4? And, in addition to Rabjohn's tweet about Woody quoting the guard's comment, this was another stellar tweet from Rabjohns about Woody: "Mike Woodson on high school prospects in the portal era: “You still got to stay serious about high school players. … if Mike Woodson offers me a scholarship to play at Indiana, I’m saying, “**** I’m coming.’” Ok, so other than the weird, narcissistic, talking in third-person thing, what exactly has he done to show that he's serious about convincing high school players to come? Even with a certain amount of success this year, I think it's extremely fair for people to look at the program and question whether there is the foundation for sustained success under Woody. Zero high school recruits this year and half the roster turned over in the portal. That can't be a regular thing...

Going out on a limb here in the "Fire Mike Woodson" thread. LOL

Yep. This is also why I'm confused by people who claim that he could be one of the "outs" in a 4 out 1 in system. Malik isn't going to excel as a player facing the basket. He's not a great athlete. Can't slash and shoots basically a set shot. He's a classic back to the basket player. And he's a tweener. He's a good, crafty player, but he definitely has some limitations and I think he's pretty close to his ceiling at this point.

That's some 1970s parenting right there. Keep that up...LOL

I've lost track at this point. I know that IU is notoriously secretative about injuries. And yes, I understand HIPPA, but other schools often do provide more info about injuries than IU does. Did they ever actually announce what Newton's actual injury was?

I'm tired of winning April... I want it to translate to B1G and tourney success.

I understand Essigian. He can obviously shoot lights out when he's healthy. I worry about anyone with possible back issues, though. But, what is the allure of Malone? Can someone explain it to me like I'm stupid? And I just may be. I saw his highlight video and he seems really s-l-o-w...

Yep. It's clear we've got 4 of our starters set now. Ballo, MM, MR, and Rice. I guess the only question now is who will end up starting at that last spot.

I think he makes even less sense in Woody's offense. Granted, IU needs shooters in the worst way, and I'd be happy to see Essegian come after IU struck out on Hickman. But it's not like Woody's O has generated a bunch of open 3s even when we allegedly did have some shooters. And remember, Woody even did publicly claim it wasn't his job to get the players shots. I think he needs guards who can get their own shots. I think that's clear.

I would assume at this point that Woodson would have some idea regarding what Newton could provide. Didn't he return to practice late last season? He didn't actually have great guards to compete against, but if he showed something, Woody should know at this point. Of course, Woody was wrong about Gunn, Banks and X, so there's that.

Yep, this. I think people who get excited about the Masshole are thinking about Stevens from 2010. He left college coaching and then coaching altogether. Didn't want to do it anymore. The last thing IU needs is another coach who hasn't been a head coach for a long time who might not really be interested in doing all facets of the job. It could be Woody all over again. No thanks...

I'm more concerned whether this staff believes in analytics. If they did, then they would probably believe in the three point shot...

Mixed feelings on that kind of haul. Your guys' celebration is our trauma...

Only a matter of time until he sends a message to Elon and requests that his account be deleted...LOL

The play is definitely more rugged in the B1G. No question about that.

I guess a fair question to ask would be, "Will his numbers improve the 'typical' amount for a Sophomore when changing from one team to another?" Sure. You typically see the most growth in most players from Frosh to Soph years due to them getting used to the speed of the college game, strength of the players, hitting the weight room themselves, etc... But, also part of that is also getting acclimated to the off/def system of the college team that they're on. Changing teams/coaches might affect that. I'm not sure that a Soph Rice should be expected to see such a large jump in his shooting percentage, especially early in the season. Need to hold back some of that sweet sweet money for more shooters...

That's not new. I remember Pat Summit's teams from LONG AGO doing that...

I like the Evansville kid. He's good. Woody is going to make him a star. I'm sure we'll have all 6 spots filled right away.

Yikes. You know the coach and program are in trouble when the mods are making the discussion topics very very specific. LOL. So talking about the current roster when talking about portal targets and how things fit together is off-limits now (obviously in an effort to deflect criticism of CMW)? Double yikes!

Come on. We all knew that players like Priller and Gelon weren't division 1 players. LOL

Agree with this to a degree, however, it doesn't really take into account the injury bug, which seems to hit IUBB particularly hard. The ever-present boot is always seen on the IU bench. At what point next year will people say exactly what they did this year, "I wish Woody would've used that final scholarship?" In the past, I didn't think there was really ever an excuse for a coach at a major program to keep schollys open, especially with the portal. Why not fill out your roster, especially with an ambundance of 1 and 2 year players available. You don't really "lose" a scholarship and you never know when you might hit on a real hidden gem of a player. Plus, you've got plenty of practice bodies and you cover yourself from an injury perspective. That might be somewhat less true now as we're now in the days of teams essentially having an internal salary cap. Woody only has so much money to spend. Once the cash is gone, it's gone. Also, players aren't often transferring to get LESS playing time. This is why it's foolhardy for a team to rely on the portal to fill 6 spots in one year, but I digress...

If the coaching staff didn't prioritize any shooters in the portal last year, then they suffered from incompetence of monumental proportions. LOL The BEST CASE post-mortem scenario of last year was that the coaches left a scholly open unintentionally because they missed out on shooters in the portal. It would be massive malpractice to think that Woody didn't believe that he needed any more shooters going into last year...

Uh...last year they couldn't find a shooter in the portal, so...

Pretty efficient. Not many long twos in that shot chart...

Maybe at page 1000, we change this topic to "Fire Dolson."