AH1971

He’ll play 25-26 tops if his body allows it.

Did you forget the part of the pitch where IU would be offering him 7 figures? As opposed to the $50-60k (maybe) he’s getting at Tennessee State?

Yes, platooning.

It would seem rather redundant to spend nearly $8 million on two players just to platoon them when there's still glaring weaknesses on the roster. If the plan is to primarily play one big, then there was zero excuse not to sign a dynamic 4. Sisley cannot be the best 4 man on the roster if that's the case.

Yes, the same Aaron Bradshaw who fills the 16-18 mpg big man role off the bench that next years team currently lacks.

Again, what happens when one of those guys gets hurt? You seriously going to roll with a front court of Sherrell, Manhertz, and Sisley for an extended period of time? Good luck.

Talking about guys who provide better depth than what we currently have on the roster obviously. You comfortable with Sherrell and Samet playing 30+ mpg night after night? Or Sisley and Manhertz guarding 6'10 250 lbs bigs in the B10 when one of those guys inevitably gets hurt? Who is a better shooter than Dorn on next years team? Maybe Bryce Lindsay?

Del Jones ended up at Seton Hall. Seton Hall might have one of the worst NIL spends of any P4 team in the country, nearly their entire team left because they couldn't pay anybody. Bradshaw doesn't "suck", he just clearly never lived up to his lofty high school ranking. He averaged 8 and 4 for Memphis last year in 18 mpg and can actually guard opposing 5's. Who is taking Samet's front court minutes in the event of an injury? Manhertz? Sokolov? Yikes.

Based on what I believe we spent on our portal haul, I think for the price of Harris/Mustaf you could have retained Dorn as a ~20mpg 5th starter (~$750k), added Del Jones as an experienced combo guard off the bench for a ~20 mpg role (~$500k), and added Aaron Bradshaw or someone similar (~$1.5m) as a 16-18 mpg big off the bench. A core rotation of: Samet 23 mpg Sherrell 26 mpg Dorn 22 mpg Lindsay 30 mpg Burton 34 mpg Bench: Del Jones 20 mpg Aaron Bradshaw 17 mpg Sisley 15 mpg Moody 13 mpg A haul similar to this would have still allowed you to sign a highly talented core while maintaining some level competency and experience off the bench. I would feel much better about next year if this was our actual roster or something close to it. If freshman Karvala or Manhertz are good enough to eat into those minutes, great, if not...no sweat. Redshirt them and let them grow into their bodies.

An 8 man rotation only works if everyone stays healthy. Playing two 7 footers 30+ minutes a night is a pretty good way to ensure that doesn't happen. That doesn't even factor Burton who has a history of issues. And your 8 man rotation that includes Harris, Sisley, and Moody/Karvala/Manhertz doesn't include a 1 or a 5. I love the core of next years team (Burton, Lindsay, Sherrell, Samet). Think Mustaf could be good too. Harris and Sisley are complete wildcards for me. I think Moody could provide decent minutes in spurts but would need to see it to believe. I think Manhertz and Karvala are a year away physically from being counted on to do anything. If Sokolov, Monden, or insert whatever practice player they end up using for the last roster spot are playing other than a blowout....pray for peace.

I'm down on the idea of an 18 year old who lacks the size/strength to play against 22,23 and now 24, 25, and in some cases 26 year old grown men. Nothing against Manhertz as I think he'll be a good player in due time, but there's a chance he's going to be asked to do things he's not ready to do next year. I can say the same thing for Karvala and Moody. I would have liked some size and experience on the bench next year even if they don't possess the highest talent ceilings. It's not a good place to be when your ceiling/floor hinges on the health of 1 or 2 players, especially when one of them has an injured past.

If Sokolov, Monden, and/or Manhertz are playing any kind of significant minutes out of necessity next year, what do you believe the level of success of next years team to be? Again, we're an injury away from being worse than last year.

Those guys all earned their roles throughout the course of the season. Manhertz, Karvala, and Moody are going to be key rotation pieces regardless if they are ready or not. That's where my problem lies. Sisley was a top 75 recruit who couldn't get on the court to end the year for a bad team.

On the bench you have a bunch of wings and a few tweener 3/4's. It's terrible depth. There's literally not a playable big on the roster outside of Samet and Sherrell and only one true PG on the roster in Burton who has missed significant time the last two years because of injury.

The landscape of college basketball has drastically changed since NIL and the emergence of the portal. There were only 71 early entrants into the NBA draft this year (the lowest since 2003) with some still expected to withdraw by the June 13th deadline date. Add in the wave of former European pros, college basketball is now played by 22, 23, and 24 grown men. I'm not saying any of our guys aren't high major talents, but from a physicality standpoint, it's a tall ask to think you're going to get any kind of real production from a bunch of 18 year olds. Obviously there are exceptions every year...Dybansta, Boozer, Peterson, etc but none of our incoming guys possess the combination of talent/physicality to truly be relied upon. I'd much rather Moody, Manhertz, Kavala earn their spot in the rotation, that's a good thing. They are going to be in the rotation out of necessity though.

Two things can be true: 1. The overall talent level has been significantly upgraded 2. It’s still a horribly constructed roster. The core of this years roster is pretty darn good and if it stays healthy, we should win a fair amount of games. But the bench is a disaster. Zero playable big men and zero primary ball handlers. Our 6th and 7th man are massive question marks as neither have proven a thing and players 8-10 are all true freshman and complete unknowns. While the overall talent level is significantly better, we’re an injury away from potentially being worse than last year.

Yes. Both Harris and Mustaf had deep, prior connections to Kenny Johnson as he recruited both hard while at Georgetown. Staff wasn’t going to take a chance of getting the run around like last cycle and both players committed without taking other visits. Both were paid and paid well as we seemingly ran out of money after 6 players. We needed 7 or 8.

DRtg factors almost entirely into the lineup around you. It’s extremely tough to have a poor DRtg when the entire team has a strong DRtg.

Because he ended up at Miami where he’s their 4th or 5th guard.

Put Dorn in a competent lineup and those worries aren’t greatly exaggerated. Every team has a guy that shoots 3’s on offense and guards the opposing teams worst perimeter player.

Who cares? Again, we aren’t looking for an all-conference player for Dorn’s role. A 20-22 mpg 5th starter/6th man that shoots volume 3’s at a more than respectable clip is more than suffice, especially when it’s only a mid 6 figure pay day. There’s one player on next years team that averages 2+ made 3’s a game for their career. Dorn is at 2.5. More importantly, Dorn’s price tag allows you to get at least one more quality bench player, if not 2.

Miles ended up at Loyola Marymount and Dorn joined a preseason top 25 team. Dorn provides something next years team lacks (along with other things) and that’s perimeter shooting.

I’ve read he peaked very early in high school and was way ahead of everybody. Duke had a starting guard get hurt for a significant stretch this season and he didn’t see an uptick in minutes. Think he had a great relationship with Kenny Johnson more than anything else.

You can hide Dorn in a lineup that features Sherrell and Samet in the front court as they offer rebounding and rim protection that didn’t exist last year with DeVries and Bailey/Alexis.

Dorn is “bad” strictly if you look at him as scoring option #2 or #3. As a mid 6 figures player averaging 8 and shooting 38% from 3 on volume in the 5th starter/6th man role…he’s a bargain. What’s the consensus on Harris going to be when he averages 8 ppg in ~22 min shooting 35% from 3 on less volume than Dorn? A waste of money.