AH1971

Appreciate it, but if you don’t understand the importance of guard play I’m not sure it’s even worthwhile to have this discussion. The one year in Woodson’s tenure where IU had a high functioning offense came in a year where IU had an elite guard. He’s had an elite front court every year. But to insinuate that adding Rice and Carlyle isn’t anything but vastly upgrading the back court from any of the 3 previous seasons, well yeah it’s not worthwhile to continue any discourse. Back to the mob mentality you go.

Right, they had good guards lol. You can play Ballo and Reneau together and still make it work. That was literally the point I was making.

Would say the exact same thing about JHS. We had essentially the same team the year prior and needed a Herculean run to Saturday of the BTT finals to limp in as a play-in team. Works both ways.

Bet substantially on Xavier Johnson and it blew up in his face. Rice and Carlyle are no joke and only going to get better if their freshman years were any indication.

Which is why significantly upgrading the back court is imperative lol. What do you think he’s doing right now?

The one year IU had a single good guard they were a top 30 offense. But yeah, Mike Woodson.

Assembly Call had a great take on this the other day. Ballo played with Tubelis 2 years ago (6’10 240 lbs) who had almost identical shooting numbers to Reneau. They essentially played two traditional bigs with 3 dynamic guards only one of which shot above 40% from 3. They had a top 5 KenPom offense. Ballo is not a high usage player. He’s not somebody who takes 15 shots a game that you force feed every possession. He’s great in PnR lob action and a garbage man on the offensive boards. Get the ball up to the rim and he’s going to get it.

Rice, Carlyle, and Mgbako would by far and away be the most dynamic and versatile backcourt Woodson has had in his tenure. He’s essentially had one good guard in 3 years and he was a freshman. Good guard play elevates any system, regardless the style of play.

He does this on multiple boards. Doubles down on dumb. “No way IU is getting any good players” ”IU only got good players because of NIL”

If Woodson does succeed why would the means in which it happened matter? Wouldn't it feel @$$ backwards if the administration and money people didn't try and help the head basketball coach succeed? What am I missing?

Texas A&M was the only other team I saw mentioned with Rice. They just lost Wade Taylor yesterday. That could be the only hold up I see, but everything is pointing to an imminent commitment at this point.

I'll be right there with you if that's how things play out.

I would agree. Ask yourself, would you rather have 4 years of Gabe Cupps getting progressively better or the option of getting a transfer PG out of the MAC who has 50 games worth of starting experience who can play right away? Kind of what it has boiled down too. I don't necessarily agree with Woodson not trying to actively land guys like Mullins or Sisley, but not landing a 4-6 man recruiting class can be easily mitigated in this day and age.

IU is still looking at proven 3 point shooters in Humrichous and Hickman. But even as respectable shooters, neither of them have the overall games as Rice.... and Carlyle looked pretty good despite having to sit out the first month and a half of the season. The upside of Rice and Carlyle are extrememly high, and Rice was a pretty damn good proven player as a first year guy.

It's virtually non-existent. A huge reason why their football program has fallen off a cliff these last 3-4 years.

Carlyle struggled with grades early on and actually missed the first part of the season because of it, so could be a reason why he is trying to get out, and Myles Rice was severely overlooked coming out of high school who has positioned himself to play at a bigger and better program where he can make some money.

You're operating under the impression that Carlyle and Rice are "bad" shooters instead of operating under the idea that both were freshman last year. Not many freshman come in and shoot 40% from 3. Hell not many come in shooting 35% from 3. If you watch any film on either of them, even for a little bit, the mechanics, the release, point, and the overall form looks solid, especially from Rice who was shooting at a more than respectable clip until a late season slump. Assuming Ballo and Reneau are our two primary interior players next year, I would guess Rice and Carlyle will both average somewhere between 1.5-2 makes per game on 5-6 attempts. To put that into perspective, that's somewhere between 55-70 made 3's per player. I think anyone would welcome that. I think Mgabko is going to be our volume guy however, 2.5-3 makes on 7-8 attempts doesn't seem farfetched. That's going to be a lot of open looks for teams trying stop two guys who are automatic under the rim.

That it's awful early to play Chicken Little this early in the process.

I would wager that both Rice and Carlyle will shoot closer to 35% this year on decent volume than what each shot last year. Couple that with Mgbako who shot extremely well in-conference on volume and I think the shooting concerns are well over blown given that Rice and Carlyle are both extremely dynamic guards who can get their own shot anywhere on the court. In other words, I'm not worried about teams packing the lane like last year daring Cupps/Galloway/Leal/Johnson or whoever else was out on the perimeter to shoot.

He had an elite 7-8 game stretch his first year and then was terribly inconsistent/unavailable outside that. Can't have that out of your PG.

So a vast upgrade at PG considering Rice was a first year player and Johnson was playing his 6th year of collegiate ball. Thank you.

I think about 95% of us were happy with Ware but knew not landing a guard on top of leaving a scholarship open was extremely disheartening.

Now do Galloway, Xavier Johnson, and Gabe Cupps.

Yes you did start the whole charade equating Woodson golfing to not doing his job, it's not like we don't have 4 prospects visiting this weekend literally the day after the dead period ends, but I'm pretty sure @Golfman25 is the one who said multiple times that landing 3 top 50 transfers is next to an impossible feat as it has only been done once....or something along those lines. As far as your expectations go, they are yours. I won't tell you otherwise. My expectation is to always make the tournament and compete for a B10 title.

The portal is here and isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. It is absolutely an added element to recruiting. I'm not sure overhauling your roster year after year relying on 7-8 players can be sustained in the long haul, but I believe being able to secure 2-3 college ready players an offseason is a better strategy than relying on freshman. Essentially, I don't think 4-6 man recruiting classes are the way to go anymore. I'd like IU to recruit at least 1-2 four year players a cycle and shoot for a top 25 prospect or 2, but you can absolutely be successful recruiting 2-3 portal guys who can immediately plug and play.