Juwan Moye

I’d change that to “we’ll start our most talented 5” as I think our “best 5” wouldn’t include Malik playing next to Ballo. Id expect our “best 5” to be Rice, Carlyle, Galloway, Mgbako, Ballo. That’s at least the most balanced lineup this amateurs eyes can see. Could change if Malik becomes a better shooter/perimeter defender or if Tucker comes on strong.

I’m still not confident that our coach will put these young men in the right position to maximize success this year. My “way too early” guess is a top-6 B1G finish with a round of 32 exit. Just enough for some people to think he should still be around, but bad enough with the talent where most still want him gone.

If Dusty May goes with 2 7-footers in his lineup Hoosier fans may lose their minds.

Wolf vs Ballo will be interesting. Complete contrast of styles.

With that much cheese he could buy a Hemi.

Not sure what he’s after but it could just be meaningful minutes as well. Hard to see him getting those if we land Carlyle. Rice, Carlyle, and Trey will eat up a lot of guard minutes.

With a good coach it would be. But agreed with ours it’s not. To stay on topic though: given the influx of guard talent it would make sense to reexamine our “ideal” lineups as I agree, more shooting and quickness on the defensive end are needed. Reneau spending time as a small ball 5 for some of the game would help a lot with this. Having him be first off the bench for Ballo instead of having some random backup big come in is likely the best utilization of our talent.

Agreed. Ballo will likely only play 25-28 minutes a game as well, which leaves 12-15 minutes open at the 5 and I’d REALLY prefer Reneau be the one taking those minutes versus any random backup big we could get from the portal. Reneau spending 12-15 minutes at the 5, and another 10-15 minutes at the 4 to spell Mgbako, would be ideal IMO.

Personally I’d rather see an Essegian type get 15 minutes a game instead of some random backup big. But we know that won’t happen.

Was exactly my thought. The bridge is being built but it still can’t get us over the damn hump!

They focused on the offensive end but yeah, its the same issue on both sides of the ball. We don’t have to “prioritize” the three on both sides but we have to at least be competent at it on both sides. If we went 3 guards with Mgbako at the 4 and Ballo at the 5 that still PLENTY of size while also obviously addressing our biggest weakness on both sides of the ball. Give me a Rice, Carlyle, (shooter), Mgbako, Ballo lineup and we’ve got a top-25 team. I’m less sure about that if we’re playing Ballo and Reneau together big minutes barring another major leap from Reneau, especially on the perimeter on both sides of the ball.

I’d be shocked if Woodson abandons his nail-slot-rim defense. And yeah, it’s a sieve for giving up three point shots. It’s exacerbated by playing “big” with Mgbako at the 3 and Malik at the 4. So we control the paint but no one cares, they just launch wide open threes to beat us.

I’d settle for us being in the top half of the COUNTRY in regards to taking and defending the three point line. We’re so far behind in those areas in all 3 of his seasons that it makes no sense, and talent was never the issue when we had guys like Kopp and Parker Stewart on the floor at the same time. If Woodson still thinks it’s not his job to get guys shots then he needs to go. I’ll still cheer for the team this season but at some point we’ve gotta do the things that the other winning programs do, not what Mike Woodson thinks works because he saw it work in the NBA. College is a different game and should be treated as such.

Carlyle was apparently 40% in catch and shoot situations last season, that bodes well alongside Rice.

I’m not a big Woodson fan but who cares how we’re getting these guys, this is the modern age of NIL. Other schools used to do this under the table, finally the rules are in our favor!

Was a close one!

“Arkansas visit” maybe a way to squeeze out an extra $100k?

Correct, basically a chat app where channels are set up based on topics of mutual interest.

We made it! :)

Really looking forward to that “Ballo has cancelled his Louisville visit” report. If he makes it there then it’s time to get nervous. Not because of UofL, but because he’s at a minimum trying to utilize his leverage to improve the offer. I still think we find the money regardless.

Coaches will have to adapt to more 3 guard looks for another guard addition to make sense after Carlyle. If we stick to the two back to the basket bigs lineups then yeah, minutes are an issue.

Hickman is a Bearcat. I see this is already old news! So… Conwell next?

I had just heard he had access to “at least” $6m. Basically we refuse to be outbid if we really want someone.

I’ve heard that we can get more money if that’s the issue FWIW. Take it for what it’s worth on an internet message board. :)

Everything I’ve seen points to it being official outside of the actual commitment video. To the point above let’s hope we see that video today or tomorrow. :)