AH1971

Would be really hard to buy a top 10 roster on paper starting completely from scratch. Louisville, Michigan, and Kentucky certainly didn't have top 10 rosters on paper last year after their portal hauls.

No they weren't. He played in games 1,3,4,5,7,9,18,19,26 https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/malik-thomas-2/gamelog/2022

Say what you want about Leal's individual offensive abilities, the ball moved better and the offense was more efficient when he was on the court.

I think you're underselling what a bunch of guys with massive chips on their shoulder can do when they totally buy-in. That might be the worst collection of players to play a zone that I've ever seen.

Is that even Division 1? I thought this guy was supposed to be the second coming of Christ the way people acted when he was fired?

Eh not really. You could survive off the current roster alone if you had too. With keeping these two, you're essentially bringing back two B10 players with a wealth of experience. Goode is a very good volume shooter and Leal is a much better defender than people want to give credit for. Both are fairly low ceiling players but each have a pretty established floor, can't say the same for the majority of the roster which is pretty devoid of P5 experience. If Goode and Leal are your 8th and 9th guys, you're probably alright.

Pretty sure Kauffman was injured his freshman year and that's why he redshirted. Pretty thin in the frontcourt as is with next years bunch. Unless Josh Harris is just leaps and bounds better than Sisley, which would be disappointing, I think he should definitely be able to compete for minutes.

I hope he comes back just for this post alone.

That’s the basis yes.

Any word on Stephon Payne III? With Federiko off to TAMU he's likely your next best rim running bet who can rebound on both ends. Good OR rate that finished 33rd nationally just behind Fedriko at 28th.

For DeVries sake, he needs to win as much as possible next year, regardless of how crazy that sounds. If he feels Leal as a situational defender helps the team over a potential 3-4 year flyer, I'd accept. He needs a waiver anyway so I'm not going to worry about it.

He was widely considered to be one of the better defenders in the B10 last year and likely makes the All-B10 defensive team if he had been in the rotation the entire season. Struggle to see where there's no use or value for a guy like that in the rotation?

Who's calling him a martyr? Not villainizing a former player who did nothing but represent the university the right way should go without being said, but here we are.

Who did he mistreat? Oh your feelings? Like I said, Charmin soft.

Poor character? Because he hurt your feelings lol. Charmin soft

Bash the fanbase lol. Exhibit A of butthurt and insecure IU fan who gives this fanbase the reputation it has ^^^ You didn't even watch the games lol.

Yes. And? Did he develop the offense? Did he recruit the portal? You really going to blame Leal for last year lol? Leal turned down a world class education at Stanford to stay home. Could have transferred at any point the last 4 years to seek a better opportunity at playing. Yet, he put his head down, busted his @$$ for 5 years, and became a quality defender in this league all while he and his teammates were mercilessly dragged all year. He deserved better.

I referenced him being a Bloomington native in response to a poster who essentially called him a Woody henchman. He's much more than that. He's been around IU and IU basketball since before he could walk. Trying to villainize players during the Woodson era because they didn't like the coach is a terrible look and frankly why this fan base sucks at times. And that is exactly what @Pagodawas doing with his post.

You called him a "Woody guy", as if that's some kind of slight or insult. No, he's very simply a Hoosier who cares deeply about this university.

The handwringing over Leal's comments over a year ago just further proves how insecure a sect of this fanbase really is. He wasn't lying either.

Huh? He's a Bloomington native who committed to Archie and stuck it out for 5 seasons while essentially riding the bench for 4.5 years before proving to be a pretty solid player. He's as Hoosier as it gets. Laughable take.

*Believe he's trying to emulate that again. If our wing/perimeter defenders are as good as WVU's last year it's probably not that big of a deal. Color me skeptical while still keeping the faith.

So what is the purpose of this place then lol? Share and exchange ideas, thoughts, etc but discredit all of them at the end of the day because none of us have coached college basketball for 20 years? I give up

I think that's the new way of small ball, modern basketball. With the exception of Auburn, the remaining F4 teams all had relatively low usage 5's whose skillsets are comparable to that of Federiko, Alexis (who was on a F4 team), etc As far as Alexis goes, I do think he's better than his numbers suggest last year and he was simply the odd man out in what was an extremely good frontcourt rotation. IF he can stay healthy and out of foul trouble, 20+ mpg next year would be a blessing. I'm skeptical but do believe he will provide good minutes when he in fact is in the game.

Fantastic news! So any basketball related opinion you may hold we can completely dismiss? Good to know.