JF87

Man, I love Brian Evans.

If we lose a coach, I hope the new coach is a "shot doctor" and can improve our shooting issues. However, my guess would be that Woodson wants another recruiter.

As we put together our new team in free agency, should we add a true center or do we want a more mobile 5 and play position less basketball?

I don't know if I would agree on "talented enough". For whatever reason they haven't developed. It could be talent, but it also could be coaching or scheme.

We said no prior to the invites. We probably wouldn't have received one based on our NET.

I would describe people on BTB or other message boards and groups as passionate IU basketball fans. Then there are the casual IU fans that watch some games and want them to do well, but whose days aren't ruined after a loss. What do you think the percentage of these two groups that want Woodson to be replaced. My guess would be passionate fans 65% replaced and 35% kept/don't care. I would also assume casual fans are probably the opposite 40% replaced and 60% kept/don't care. Am I overestimating the unhappiness with Woodson?

Crean is correct. It would have been a good way to develop players, much like a bowl game. It is embarrassing that IU bowed out because our program is in such disarray and because coach Woodson didn't want another loss on his record.

Mike Woodson thinks that Mike Woodson can win with any players.

I hope Dusty stays away from WVU. Huggins still wants to coach and there are people that want Huggins to be the coach. WVU is a toxic job imo.

Maybe this means that no one is leaving?

Is it best to fire your coach and then open it up to interested coaches to contact you? Or, is it best to keep your current coach in place while you seek out your preferred candidate behind the scenes? IU's history- Fired Knight and then hired the interim Davis. Davis resigned and did a good search with two great finalists (Sampson and Beilein). Sampson fired and national search gave us Crean. Crean fired, but not much of a search as Archie was targeted early. Archie fired with the belief Stevens was interested, which led to settling on Woodson without any real search. It sounds as if IU wants to have a replacement in place before moving on from Woodson. I doubt that we would see Woodson retiring or being fired without an agreement with our candidate.

Fo those of you who follow bracketology, who has a complaint about being excluded and who should feel fortunate that they are in? Virginia's bet win was against Florida and they were just 2-7 in quad 1 games.

Not that I'm aware. Ryan Phillips is part of the Assembly Call podcast and is known for his rants. He is absolutely on target in this article.

The Woodson supporters keep pushing it has to be a big name or a "proven" P5 coach because they know the odds of getting a P5 coach from a winning program are extremely rare. Coaches don't leave winning P5 programs for another unless they are returning to their alma mater. One of the few exceptions was Bill Self, but that was a no-brainer.

Good for us.

You're right. I should have written that IU would beat any offers to Reneau and MgBako.

When Holtmann was fired, word came out that coach Rosemond trained Thornton and had a great relationship with him. Since we need a point guard, the belief was we would get Thornton this off-season.

It will be interesting to see who leaves in the portal, if any. I assumed that Banks and Gunn might look for more playing time elsewhere. However, playing time might cost them money. I believe bench players at IU make more than starters at smaller schools. Cupps could transfer and not worry about NIL because he was doing well NIL wise prior to attending IU. If Cupps leaves it will be because he and his dad don't think Woodson's offense is a fit for Gabe. IU NIL would match any NIL offers to Reneau and MgBako, so if they leave it would most likely to be closer to home or scheme fit.

That does bring up the question on how low the bar is for Woodson next year. Does top 10 in the new Big Ten and squeaking into the NCAA tournament get him extended? My fear is that it does because they are desperate to prove Mike can coach.

Otzelberger was one of the names discussed on this board several weeks ago. Then we found out Bruce Pearl wanted to be our coach.

We've already purchased Thornton, right. He can't renege on our agreement, can he?

This belongs in the positivity thread!

I'm okay with Otzelberger

FAU moved to a new conference this year. They moved up from Conference USA to the American Conference. I believe almost the entire roster returned.