Juwan Moye

You can get the DVD to learn the pack line from DeVries, sounds like a fun weekend: https://www.championshipproductions.com/cgi-bin/champ/p/Basketball/Open-Practice-Building-the-Pack-Line-Defense-from-the-Ground-Up_BD-05617A.html

Fast-paced, guard-centric offense with an emphasis on shooting the ball. Defensively still unsure. He plays a version of the pack line but I’ve not dug into that too much.

My hope is that Conerway proves effective as an on-ball defender which immediately elevates our defense if he is. While I agree that having a rim protector would be ideal I’d be fine with Bailey as the 5 because then we’d be set up to just outscore teams. Basically what Alabama did the prior year before they decided to try Omoruyi this season. Just sub out Grant Nelson for Bailey.

Needs to be 7’2” 320, otherwise how can we expect to compete in the B1G?

Sure, ideally we’d land an elite defender/rebounder/rim runner but it’s not the necessity that people are acting like it is. “We need it for the B1G”, for… TKR? Cluff? Those guys still have to guard our guys. As a simple example: Houston was in the championship game and their tallest player who got minutes was 6’8”. It’s completely reasonable to go into the season with less size and to still be a very good team. If we have the ability to land an elite guy cool, otherwise I’d rather run with Bailey at the 5 than getting some guy who fits a mold but is less skilled overall.

We had big advantages in the post last year with Ballo/Reneau, how’d that work out? Gonna take some getting used to but the gross post-centric basketball we’ve seen for the last 8 years is going to be a thing of the past. Teams with less size managed to slow us down somehow and beat us from outside.

@Hoosierfanyuh You’re slipping! https://x.com/BobbyKnightmare/status/1916538986853528045

This is where coaching comes in though. Regardless of personnel, DeVries was still able to put together a team that ranked 15th in KenPom DRtg last season. It looks like he’s prioritizing recruiting offense, which is more Fran-like, but he can actually coach defense which we’ve not seen Fran succeed at.

Curious if the thought is that Dorn is a wing starter or coming off the bench. It seems the 4 people most likely to start are: DeVries, Bailey, Conerway, Wilkerson. Dorn would seem to fit in well with that group. He’s a shooter with positional size even if he’s a sub-par defender. I don’t know who else we have on the current roster who would start in front of Dorn at least. So this would assume a lineup of: PG- Conerway SG- Wilkerson SF- Dorn PF- DeVries C- Bailey True 5-out basketball with a PG who can defend and get downhill on offense. Exciting.

I think (hope?) everyone understands this but, generally speaking, early in the year coaches play broader rotations and, once they learn what works, settle into a tighter rotation. So early in the season, expecting 10+ guys to get minutes is reasonable but later in the year it’s likely to tighten up to 8 or so. The luxury we seem to have is that there will be real competition for those minutes instead compared to what we rolled out last year. I personally love the “mid major all conference performer” approach.

The more pieces that we’ve signed the more I’m leaning towards this as well. We may look a bit like Frans Iowa teams next year, but if we have a coach who can actually coach guys up on the defensive end that could be really fun to watch and, depending on how the defense comes together, potentially better than any of us are thinking today.

Here’s a NBA draft scout on Alexis prior to the end of the 2024 season , this is a really good pickup: https://www.si.com/nba/draft/prospect-profiles/nba-draft-scouting-report-chattanoogas-sam-alexis

I think most fans are expecting a tournament team, not necessarily an overhyped preseason team. And given our recent record, most shouldn’t really care about preseason prognostications. I don’t recall everyone getting hype about what Kelsey was building at UofL last season, they only got hype once the games were played.

Funny to read two weeks ago: “Will we be able to fill out a roster” to now reading “we’re running out of roster spots for bigs”. The sky is always falling for some people. Overall liking what coach is doing so far. Love that we head into a season excited about our shooting prowess. Still confident that coach is going to round out the roster nicely over the next few weeks.

The probability of Reed Bailey starting is VERY high. The question is just if he starts at the 4 or 5. If I were guessing today, I’d guess he’s the starting 4 given his offensive versatility and lack of rim protection. Most likely starting lineup seems to be: PG- Conerway SG- Wilkerson SF- DeVries PF- Bailey C- unsigned

Iceland, Finland, BoogieFland https://x.com/TiptonEdits/status/1914767296028983408

I’m excited that, at a bare minimum, we get new problems to complain about. Not having shooters, watching buddy ball, and leaving opposing shooters wide open for 4 years got old.

The rumor was that the kid from Drexel that just visited was going to sign. No clue if it has any validity. edit: apparently today is the visit

Outside of extenuating circumstances like a massive number of injuries, making the tournament this year should absolutely be the bare minimum expectation. Nothing is an absolute here, we could start poorly but then it starts to come together and we barely miss in which case I may be ok, but in this day and age with the resources IU has there’s no reason to not make the tourney. Purely guessing I think we still add a couple very important pieces and are squarely projected in the tourney all year, sometimes flirting with the top-25. But as long as Devries achieves that, as well as having systems that make sense, and we see actual player development, fans should be excited.

In his last year at Drake he had Brodie at the 5 who looks like a more traditional big: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/darnell-brodie-1.html

Initially I’d have agreed with you but when you look at how West Virginia played when Tucker was healthy they played 3 guards, Tucker, and Hansberry in the middle. Given that it wouldn’t surprise me if Bailey is our starting 5. Hansberry as a reference is listed at 6’8” 240lbs.

Osterman posted this morning: “Not yet. Probably at least another couple weeks per my understanding.”

Poor mans Nostradamus

The difference here though is you can at least see a thought process beyond “let me get the highest ranked people I can”. Doesn’t guarantee success but it sure as hell is more likely to work than “buddy ball”.

Haven’t watched him play but reading about him it looks like he’s more of a traditional back to the basket big? If that’s true then no. We’d need a mobile anchor on defense given our perimeter defense may be suspect, and a threat in the PnR given the middle should be wide open with our shooters on the floor.