Shooter

Exactly. And for additional context, Reneau's assist rate ranked 16th out of all Big Ten players, and #1 among post players.

He's absolutely not a problem offensively. He's a post player, and a really good one. He draws consistent double teams. He does force it sometimes, but he also had the second highest assist rate on the team. Put spacing and shooting around him and he'll be a monster. Defensively he's a tweener, yes. I don't think that's an unsolvable issue.

Huntley-Hatfield can play. Would be interesting to know what kind of role Woodson has in mind.

Is there some report out there about IU and Conwell? He would absolutely be a priority target for me, but ISU is still playing and I haven't seen anything about him being in the portal.

While I have not been a fan of Woodson lately, it's March 28 and the roster still has 6 open spots. Probably need to wait a bit before making any big proclamations.

Always great to add talent. I haven't seen him play, but his scouting report sounds like a nice fit as the other forward alongside Mgbako. Let's get a few guards next.

Perkins yes. Tucker, I have no idea. Hard to know with freshmen. Mgbako was rated even higher, and was borderline unplayable early in the season.

If we add three guards/wings better than Galloway, I'll be absolutely thrilled. I would not consider it likely though. Prove me wrong Mike.

I do think the fit for Perkins is better if we go Mgabko 4 and Reneau 5. You protect a non shot blocking center with guards and wings who can keep their man out of the lane. And having a plus shooter at the 4 helps offset Perkins' relative lack of shooting. If you start Perkins and Galloway together, the 3 and 4 absolutely have to be plus shooters. And even then, spacing will still probably be an issue.

Top 10 in the country in threes attempted. Top 20 in percentage of baskets coming from assists. #1 in the nation in effective FG%. His style of play is certainly enjoyable to watch.

Perkins is a good player, just not a very good fit alongside Galloway. And especially not if we still play with two posts next year. I would not be mad if we added him but if you are choosing players in de facto "free agency", I'd rather choose a better fit. If we just add Perkins, replace Ware with a worse center, and run back the same lineup as last year I'll be pretty disappointed. Hickman is absolutely a fit, 100% agree, either as a complimentary starter or a 6th man type role.

Reneau can and has played the 5. He was the backup 5 his freshman year at IU. That was his only role most of the season. Later in the year he started to get limited minutes next to TJD at the 4. Reneau is a post player, and projects as one of the better post players in the conference. He should be our starting 5 next year. I'm all for bringing in a bigger center to be in the rotation, and I'm not opposed to occasional looks where that guy and Reneau play together. It just shouldn't be our primary option. Does Woodson agree with me... I kind of doubt it.

What? Porter Moser had ten consecutive losing conference seasons over his tenures at Illinois St and Loyola Chicago. Got fired from Illinois St. He's been to the NCAA tourney twice in about 20 years as a head coach. May has had one job, and he's killed it there. No he's not a sure thing. But his resume is way clear of Moser. He's going to get a big job, whether it's IU or elsewhere.

Definitely. This is the extension of the basketball analytics movement. In addition to coaching your own players to make more efficient choices, you can now go get players who already play the way you want. Unfortunately Woodson hasn't even caught on yet that long twos are bad shots, so I doubt IU is going to be at the forefront of this.

Agree, but this is what Northwestern does. Aggressively double the post, play physical, muddy the game up and dare the refs to call everything. They have made some pretty good Big Ten offenses look ugly the last couple of years.

He does have one more year. Stayed with FAU and Dusty this season when I'm sure he had plenty of options last offseason. I suspect he's a strong candidate to follow Dusty to his new job.

Reneau is a pretty good player, and has the potential to be really good. Seems like a great kid too. His return to IU is great news. Lots of opportunities for negativity recently, I don't see why it needs to be in this thread.

I tend to agree. We have three years of data on how Woodson teams play. I have heard nothing from him to suggest he's changed his philosophy. (Not what I want to happen, but what I expect)

I don't know. We have spent much of the last two seasons with no backup PG. I don't really want to repeat that. I also think it's wise to bring someone in to compete with Cupps for minutes. Woody did not do that last year with Gunn and Banks, and got burned when they didn't develop like he hoped.

Thanks for clarifying. I think we need at least 8-9 quality Big Ten level players. We currently have 3. Hopefully Cupps develops into #4, but that remains to be seen. I think Leal's ceiling on a good team is 9-10th guy. So I agree we need 4-5 guys to come in and be immediate contributors. I've been looking for examples of teams that had 4-5 first-year transfers in their top 8-9 guys, to see how they did. I'm not aware of any teams like that who were really good. A couple had decent seasons and made the tourney, Florida and Texas Tech. A bunch more missed the tourney.

Let's say we add four as you suggest. That puts us at 10 players, one of whom may or may not be physically able to contribute. Are we going into the season with 9-10 players? What happens when the inevitable injuries hit, or somebody get suspended, etc? We won't even be able to go 5 on 5 in practice without including the walkons. I'll agree that all 7 portal guys don't have to be studs, but we do need to fill out a roster. For what it's worth, Anthony Leal was pretty clearly the 11th man at the start of the season, and he ended up playing 20+ minutes a night by the end.

Yea I think it matters. Good teams and programs have continuity from one season to the next. Maybe an exception for Kentucky, but we have not shown the ability to recruit on that level. Plus, while I agree everything is basically a one year deal, you have an advantage "recruiting" your players to stay when they have already been productive and successful at your school.

He would be an excellent addition. Here's to hoping.

Agree. We absolutely have to get some portal guys with multiple years left, and/or a couple of spring signee freshmen. Otherwise we'll be in an even worse spot after next season.

I think Florida is probably a realistic best case scenario for us if we do well in the portal. A 7 seed, good not great squad. Their rotation is nine guys: - 2 returning contributors - 1 returning player who didn't play much the prior year, but developed - 4 first year transfers - 2 freshmen