Tasmanian Devil

Wives - can’t live with em, can’t live without em.

One thing to note with the Carolina success: much like recruiting one and done five star freshmen, Carolina had some building blocks already in place with Armando Bacot, and RJ Davis - much like Kentucky had with Darius Miller when they win in 2012, or Duke with Quin Cook when they won in 2015. Whether you’re planning on building your roster with one and done’s or through the portal, you need established players already in place to make either process work to develop a championship level team.

Post enough to get rid of the Purdue Jockstrap!

Now that’s funny - I don’t care who you are!

That’s fair. Hindsight is always 20/20. Had Woodson not had the surgery until May/June would have we been able to get Knecht here for a visit BEFORE he took his trip to Knoxville? Maybe, maybe not. What we DO know is once he got to Rocky Top, no one else got a chance. Knecht would have been an impact player for us. Critical miss.

Agreed. Chris will readily admit that something he stated prior has been proven to have been false. Hell, nobody believed Woodward & Bernstein either until John Dean and Alexander Butterfield blew Watergate wide open.

Deflect all you want. The KID HIMSELF said the visit was postponed because of Woodson’s surgery. You say “it wasn’t” - but provide nothing of context to support that statement. Hmmm . . . believe you, or believe a direct quote from the kid? Pretty easy choice.

Regarding the starter argument: read in the article where Knecht himself said he just wanted to compete for a starting spot. So isn’t it fair to assume that if he was willing to compete at Tennessee - where there was more of a log jam at his position - he would have been just as willing to compete at Indiana? Only makes sense to me.

Media stories? Pat Forde - a much heralded, respected sports journalist - quoted the kid directly. So is Forde making the story up? Is the kid lying? I’m not “picking and choosing what to say”, I’m just showing what has actually been said by those involved.

This right here is a perfect example of deductive reasoning. Same as Tom Allen wasn’t good as a Head Coach but has demonstrated his ability as a defensive coordinator, Payne might do well in a “GM” role for IU. FTR: I’m not a fan of using the portal as a primary source for roster construction. IF we do go that route, you need a competent guy in the “manager” role. Based on his past success at UK, it’s not out of the question Payne could be that guy.

Let’s be clear: I’m not trying to hurt his credibility or “call him out”. John Adams once said “Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” I make judgments based on upon facts and deductive reasoning. And if I’m going to comment on something, I always try to support my statement with evidence therein.

Knecht had "no intentions of visiting"? Or @Chris007 knows what he's talking about? And don't take my word for it - let's hear it straight from the kid himself, shall we? From the article: "North Carolina and Kansas were in contact but playing it more deliberately, Knecht says. He took an official visit to Oregon and one to Tennessee, with a third trip to Indiana postponed by coach Mike Woodson because he had a scheduled knee surgery, according to Knecht. The Tennessee visit was arranged quickly. Clark believed that if he got Knecht on campus and met the rest of the team, he would commit . . . Shortly after the visit, Knecht shut down his recruitment and became a Vol." So, let's recap: Knecht had several schools contact him via phone calls and Zoom meetings. He made a trip to Oregon, but didn't commit. Mike Woodson had knee surgery April 11, 2023 Knecht made his trip the following weekend to Tennessee, heard their sales pitch, and shut down his recruitment. Now, care to tell us again how @Chris007 had it all wrong?

Woodson had his knee replacement April 11 - right when Dalton Knecht was making visits. By the time the annual Huber’s Winery event took place, Woodson felt good enough to joke to Don Fischer that he could out-run him: https://www.si.com/college/indiana/basketball/now-healthy-mike-woodson-has-rebuilt-indiana-basketball-roster-and-raised-national-perception If he could make those comments in June after having surgery in April, he easily could’ve had his surgery in mid May even or even after the Huber event, and been ready by the time practice started. And don’t forget - he’s not only a multimillionaire that has the ability to schedule his surgery different than you or I, he also has at his disposable the best rehab facilities available. So there’s no reason why he couldn’t have been ready by the time practice started had he delayed his surgery to focus on recruiting. That article also mentions how Woodson - in his own words - said he coached different with TJD on the roster and that this year was going to be more like his pro teams. Contrast that with his recent “inside-out” comments defending the offense we run.

100% spot on A very successful high school coach (who was a college assistant for years) once told me “My job is to put my players in position to succeed.” Always think about that when I hear comments like “not my job to find him shots.” Ummm, yes it is, Woody. That’s what a coach does to get the most out of his players.

Even with him, it could be a challenge and they could possibly win that. But the deeper that you go it is going to get harder and harder and, as I said before, I don’t see anything in our play from these last four games that gives any kind of assurance we can win this tournament which is what we need to do to get in the big dance

Yep my comments were more directed at those who don’t get it.

As Chris noted earlier, it was an elective surgery. Why not wait to have that done after you got your roster put together?

Can I roll with her?

And why did we get nuked by those teams? Because not only are we not as talented as those teams, we don’t have the same level of fundamentals of play that they do. That’s why Purdue can have Smith at point guard, and he be more successful than putting Cupps in the same position at IU..

Exactly. I’ll admit I thought Cupps would do a lot better than he has this year. Then again, I didn’t expect him to have to play a majority of minutes as a starter, as opposed to being a 10 to 15 minute backup guy. He was every bit as good as Brandon Smith in high school, but when Smith walked into Purdue, he had better players around him and a big ogre in the center to where he could play out on defense and not get burned as easy. Cupps doesn’t have that.

Quite honestly, I don’t think it’s a fourth of that if more than 10.

So, you won’t. Fine. While I will say comments should not turn personal, one can look at what Woodson promised when he got the job, his age, how he runs the program and constructs a roster and ABSOLUTELY say to a high level of certainty that he isn’t the answer as coach. Let’s forget about Woody’s claims of competing for national championships. - just to compete for a big 10 title he would have to pull off an absolute miracle in the transfer portal. There’s a better than 95% chance that isn’t happening. And even if he did bring in talent, the system that he has isn’t conducive to using that talent to its maximum. Sure, they will beat a lot of mid range teams. But as I demonstrated earlier against top competition, it doesn’t wash..

Calling out and supporting a statement are two different things. You asked @Chris007, so you should as well.

So - as you asked @Chris007 - you’re going to provide the posts that support your claim? If it was 90% it ought to be easy to get those for display.

It goes a bit deeper than “simply win”. Right now, we’ve won 4 games in a row. Getting X back has contributed to that, sure. But it is also attributed to WHO they have played and the recent success of those teams. Consider: *Wisconsin: 3-7 in their last 10 games *Maryland: 2-8 in their last 10 games *Minnesota: 4-6 in their last 10 games *Michigan St: 5-5 in their last 10 games Don’t forget it took a fire alarm to slow the Wisconsin momentum of coming back from 15 down to tying the score. We had a 17 point lead over Michigan St that was completely erased before pulling it out. We were down 15 in the second half at Maryland before rallying to win. There is no consistency in play. Let me say that again, THERE IS NO CONSISTENCY IN PLAY. Which is why so many on here feel the way they do. Sure, we won 4 straight, but we did it over teams playing mediocre at best. In five games against Top 10 team from Kenpom (UCONN, Auburn, Purdue, Illinois) we have lost by an AVERAGE of 19.4 points. Those teams shot an average of 43.9% from the field, 37.1% from outside the 3-pt arc and 75.5% from the FT line. IU averaged 42.1, 23.3, and 61.2 for those 5 games. THIS is why people are pi$$ed. Mike Woodson promised competing for Big 10 and National Championships. He hasn’t come close to either, in large part because of style of play and recruiting. So be happy with winning. But don’t be condescending to those of us who aren’t. As I’ve shown you above, IU has done nothing during this win streak to indicate wins are sustainable against good competition.