Mike Wiemuth (iuinphilly)

Thanks. Appreciate the kind words. Will drop by as much as I can. I’ve always checked in on BTB and enjoy the conversation.

Yup. That would be my concern too. I’m not sold on him being the best answer. Remember, most of the best options aren’t in the portal yet. The best players won’t start deciding on schools until mid-April. It’s all about who is slotted where. If you do bring in Perkins, you have to bring in a high-capacity shooter at the 2 and move Gallo to the bench. Perkins and Gallo starting together will invite a defense with one guy marking Mgbako and 4 guys all in the lane at all times. Also, it could add some more pressure to have a 5 that can step out. I can make a case for Perkins, but it then leads to other options being closed off.

I do like Perkins physicality. IU has been muscled around by B10 guards for a too long , so TP definitely helps fill that gap. He’s also shown his capacity to score 20+ vs many Big10 squads, including many IU guards usually struggle against….Wis, ILlL, PU, MSU. He got to the line for 170 FT attempts this year and hit 79%. IU’s total guard core got to the line for 182 combined attempts and hit just 61%. There is plenty to like there.

Thanks. You’ll find I tend to delve into stats a good deal. I co-host a pod on the Back Home Network called X’s and Joes where we share our research on college basketball trends. I do think IU could really put together a pretty decent roster for next year, but it will take hitting on some upper tier dudes during a time where the staff is facing some headwinds. Guess we’ll see if they can pull it off.

If you look at Box Plus Minus scores from the team last year, one thing stands out…Ware will be hard to replace. He’s a 8.5 BPM while the rest of the starters total BPM is 8.4 combined (Reneau: 4.4, Mgbako: 2.2, Gallo: 2.1, XJ: -0.3). To get “safely” back into the tournament you’ll need a start BPM total around 30-35. So without Kel’el, where is that hole getting filled? Let’s say you bump MM and MR to 15 combined (which is possible), you have to find another 15+ from the other 3 slots. Perkins is a 5 BPM. So he’s on target, but just barely. You might need one or two guys more in the 7 range like Nelson/Estrada from Bama. Either way, you’ll need to hit some home runs very soon.

Btw…..my first time writing in this forum. Found your discussions intriguing. Hope to stick around.