Solsberryberries

Imagine… You just won the National Championship, the transfer portal is in full swing, but you carve out time to interview with… let’s see… that can’t be right… the Odon Journal?!?!? That’s right! If you want to weep, mourn and vomit, listen to Dusty May talk about southern Indiana life and basketball here. I know the interviewee. https://thejuicebytheodonjournal.podbean.com/

Dusty completely dodging the Indiana/hometown kid stuff. Michigan sucks. The most corrupt athletic program in college athletics in 15 years. Now I have to face ALL my Michigan friends- who are by far the most obnoxious. They aren’t worthy of Dusty’s southern Indiana accent. I digress…

May, Mullins… the hits keep coming to IU fans. When is IU basketball going to be revived from this lackluster ponzi scheme?

And his 24 wins this year came with 8 new guys, very little returning production.

You wouldn’t take his record since NIL/portal changes?

Had a conversation today with someone who knows Brownell. Brownell turned down the opportunity for the IU job last year. This is where we are. I can’t think of any candidate besides Beard that was mentioned last year that didn’t win a game or two so far in the tourney this year. We missed it all together.

We have cheered for a mentally soft (minus a year or two) IUBB program for the last couple decades. Last night was nothing new. You can’t blame the refs (who were bad) for a Big 10 loss to a bad opponent when you don’t score for 9 minutes. That, within itself, is soft. Excuses are soft. Giving up leads- often mental let down. Getting pushed off spots and not being physical on cuts- mental softness. Guys, our offensive stuff is pretty good. But if guys aren’t maintaining spacing, cutting hard, etc it’s all a sign of mental letdowns. Until the team shows some mental fortitude, many IU fans will stay home. This is the same stinking song we’ve been listening to since the mid 90’s.

Wait a second… is this the guy who thought it would be better to draft Leaf from UCLA over OG? If so, I change my mind. Bad hire! (I kid… kinda.)

It sounds like Ryan is a good hire and I hope he and coach DeVries can get on the same page to address roster construction issues from the beginning. Frankly, I’m shocked he didn’t hire this role or a “recruiting coordinator” role last year. Hulls had the impossible job in this role with Woody. Imagine a coach that didn’t want to travel to recruit Mullins? Inconceivable! I want this to be a good thing for the program, but I’m not sure what this means yet. We missed on quite a few guys that we brought in this year, but I still feel like we have enough talent to win. For whatever reason, this team lacks mental toughness- like so many other IU teams the last 25 years. Talent is A issue, but I’m not sure it’s THE issue. Time will tell.

As far as Tucker goes… It seems to me like something else is going on- maybe back issues? He appears to be significantly out of shape- like 25 pounds worth. If he takes himself and his role half of what I would hope he does, then I’m guessing there’s some sort of nagging injury. I mean, that would be the only legitimate excuse for being gassed in January, right?

I know it would seem reactionary, etc., but if we fail to make the tournament I would be in favor of firing him. I’ve been to SSAH during some of the biggest games this year and it is in full atrophy mode. This is a skeleton of the crowds even in Archie’s first year- things were mostly full in the balcony. To hear Fish say, “We finally have a few fans in the balcony” during the Nebraska game on our way home from the Peach Bowl made me want to puke. The fan support is there, but until there’s proof of competency it will likely continue to be a ghost town. I don’t think our program can “wait out” to see if coach can get the job done year after year, when there’s red flags this isn’t going to work. Here’s the fact- we’ve hired okay to bad coaches since Knight was fired (other than Sampson who was crooked). None of those coaches have excelled or had sustained success after Indiana fired them. But we waited around with all of them and missed out on some dang good coaches because of it. This isn’t a 6.5 million experiment for a year where we hope a grown man gets his bearings. He was paid big to coach (and pay) big time players to win big time basketball games for ONE year (because most of the guys only have ONE), and at this point it has been a failure.

Good gravy… After watching 3 months of uninspired, undisciplined and soft Indiana basketball I thought to myself, “I’m guessing there’s a ‘Fire DeVries’ thread on Btownbanners”… and here it is. To me, Darian DeVries is a lesser proven basketball version of Kalen DeBoer- he has some good ideas but seems to lack the toughness required to hold a team accountable to clear expectations. Just a few random thoughts on CDD and this team. 1.) This is a new era of college basketball. If a coach fails at roster construction on the fly, they fail. Interestingly enough, many IU fans scoffed at the idea of Brad Brownell coaching their Hoosiers. They are 16-4 and 6-1 in the ACC. Since the portal and NIL era as we know it he has averaged almost 25 games and looks like he’ll come close to that this year while having 10 new guys on this roster. DeVries first roster is atrocious. Giving Tucker the lion’s share of NIL is a sham at this point. How can our number 1 guy be 25 lbs overweight in January. 2.) As evidenced by the laughter on our bench at the end of the game, these guys don’t SEEM to be bothered by losing. I could be wrong, but… 3.) You can’t fool Indiana fans and unfortunately CDD will not have a 2nd chance to make a first impression. 4.) Coaching leashes are going to be much shorter in college sports in the NIL era. Either you have it, or you don’t. I’m not saying he’s gone after this year, but he needs to turn this around fast in the portal. 5.) You only get one chance to make one first impression with recruits. Guys will still come to get a bag of money, but this caliber of basketball isn’t going to bring in team oriented guys that make winning and winning fast happen. It takes way more than NBA talent- just ask Rutgers from last year.

Have they set out the chairs for the press conference? Does anyone know if the pep band will be there?

Same

This. An immediate family of mine who is high up in a Power 5 athletic department told me last year May didn’t want the job. They share a close common friend. May’s immediate family was telling people last fall that he isn’t coming to IU. All signs point to May carving his own path that likely won’t include IU.