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Blue 2 Green

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  1. Blue 2 Green

    General Coach Candidate News

    Please try to show Scott Drew a little grace. It must have been a little chilly there in the shadow of such a paragon of Christian virtue as Dave Bliss. For all we know he may have been led to believe that as long as he didn't hand out extra benefits or sign any murderers he would be given a free hand in recruiting. Of course murder, even more so than extra benefits, is kind of a big deal in Texas. I think you also need to remember that in Texas getting someone deported isn't considered as "unsporting" as it might be in the Hoosier state. Now that NIL compensation and the NCAA's new revenue-sharing plan have provided so much financial latitude in recruiting, the Baylor job has probably become a lot less inhibiting for Drew. IU fans are naturally biased, but with all of its rules and restrictions and considerable distance from the border I don't see how the Indiana job would be all that attractive to him. Unless Dolson is willing to allow some wiggle room when it comes to signing murderers I just don't think he would see it as a step up.
  2. Blue 2 Green

    General Coach Candidate News

    The IU search committee nearly pulled it off in 2001.
  3. Blue 2 Green

    General Coach Candidate News

    There are three people under 50 who have coached men's Final Four teams. There are quite a few people who have coached Final Four teams (when they were) under the age of 50. Translation: It is difficult to coach a team to a Final Four and often takes years to accomplish (and at higher profile schools than Butler, VCU, or FAU).
  4. Blue 2 Green

    General Coach Candidate News

    Correct. Brad Stevens, Shaka Smart, and Dusty May. It's an arbitrary piece of trivia but perhaps not insignificant.
  5. Blue 2 Green

    General Coach Candidate News

    Chris Beard and Tom Crean do not fit the criteria.
  6. Blue 2 Green

    General Coach Candidate News

    Here's a question: How many people are there below the age of 50 who served as head coach of an NCAA men's basketball team that appeared in a Final Four? Never mind, the answer is three. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Can you name them? Bonus question: And this is just a question. Not directed at anyone, but an honest question. How much of a role do you suppose financial or material inducements (NIL, cars, houses, a tractor) played in building those final four rosters?
  7. Blue 2 Green

    General Coach Candidate News

    “Every Saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” ~ Senator John Kennedy
  8. Blue 2 Green

    They “Retired” Coach Woodson Thread

    That is quite a definitive statement. So if Brad Stevens takes the IU coaching job might we expect to learn from Skip Bayless that it was only because Adam Silver secretly asked him to take a little time off from managing the Celtics? I could live with that.
  9. Blue 2 Green

    They “Retired” Coach Woodson Thread

    Feinstein may have touched on it now that I think about it. I first learned about it second hand from a friend of Knight who got a call informing him that he was responsible for raising $100,000 for the Landon Turner Trust Fund. That was a tidy sum in 1981 – about half the amount Coach Knight was paid by Indiana University in salary that year. Talk about inflation! Forty-five years ago $200,000 could get you an NCAA championship. These days just an invitation to the NIT will run you more than 20 times that much (if you can get boosters to kick in for the NIL). I suppose coaching in the NIT would cost you extra.
  10. Blue 2 Green

    They “Retired” Coach Woodson Thread

    Can you imagine why Jordan would ever consider playing baseball for the Birmingham Barons? One might argue that he was "in the best of all possible basketball worlds" in 1993. What is your opinion of minor league baseball? Michael Jordan's first love was baseball and he sacrificed millions of dollars and probably two NBA championships to ride buses in the minor leagues for a summer at the age of 31. That's a pretty expensive fantasy camp! Actually, had it not been for the MLB work stoppage in 1995 he might never have returned to basketball. Bobby Knight called Jordan "the best basketball player I've ever seen play". As a basketball player, many have argued (Knight included) that he was the best athlete in any sport. Where would Jordan rank as a baseball player? Speaking of Bobby Knight, one might think that he was "in the best of all possible basketball worlds" in early July of 1981. He had just won his second NCAA championship by the age of 40 and had a talented group of players returning. Isiah Thomas and Ray Tolbert were off to the pros but rising senior Landon Turner had blossomed into one of the best players in college basketball and Wittman, Kitchel, and Jimmy Thomas would be back as well. Can you imagine why Knight would ever consider approaching CBS about joining the television network for the 1981-82 season as a college basketball commentator? CBS would be a huge step down in my opinion. Knight reached out to CBS and the network made a concrete offer for a substantial amount to Knight that summer. When he returned to IU in the fall of 1981, Knight ultimately admitted to the media that he was “very close” to accepting the offer. After Landon's accident Knight had decided to remain the coach at Indiana so as to be best positioned to organize the establishment of the Landon Turner Trust Fund. Knight had worked as a color commentator for CBS during the 1979 NCAA Tournament and apparently thought enough of his performance to consider leaving the sidelines for the broadcast booth. Never lacking for confidence, he would later explain his flirtation with a mid-life career change by asserting that "very few people have ever achieved greatness in two separate endeavors" (or words to that effect). Brad Stevens may ultimately decide to not coach basketball at Indiana University, but is it really so far-fetched that a man who can choose his own path might choose to accept $70 million (plus) to do a thing he has always loved to do at a place he has dreamed of doing it?
  11. Blue 2 Green

    They “Retired” Coach Woodson Thread

    Actually, Steve Alford was the choice once. What is kind of crazy is that he wasn't allowed to take the job.
  12. Blue 2 Green

    NCAA MBB Transfer Portal

    I concur. My fondness for NIL rivals Dane Fife's but now that the ship has sailed IU should go all in. Michael Durr only averaged 7 minutes a game but IU probably wouldn't have split with Purdue in 2021/22 without him. Has anyone brought up Javonte Brown-Ferguson? Is he still available? He's never lived up to his potential but Hurley was once pretty excited to get him. I don't know the story with his redshirts but he originally reclassified like Ballo and has two years of eligibility remaining. He and Kenya were pretty tight. A kid getting fifteen minutes a game coming off the bench at Western Michigan shouldn't throw the locker room into turmoil. Another option would be to "hire" a kid like Favour Aire to come and fill Payton Sparks's role? That is - without all of the playing time. Why not buy a kid's redshirt year? I don't think he's committed anywhere. Why not recruit him to be a practice body for Ballo and let him come in and work on his body and his free throw shooting? The caveat would be if IU were hit with a major injury in the front court his redshirt would get burned. Aire's a major project but he's long and athletic and was expected to be a good rebounder and rim protector. There's not much film to look at but Larranaga and Rhoades both saw something they liked, as did Kenya. Anthony Walker might be helpful in selling a bench role. Neither of these guys are used to getting a lot of minutes and neither would scare off Malachi Moreno or any of the bigs in the 2025 class. Why let that 13th scholarship go fallow or give it to a walk-on who won't ever see the floor? It makes a lot more sense to bring in someone like one of these two and let them audition for a future roster spot, knowing Johnny Dawkins will take him off your hands if it doesn't work out.
  13. Blue 2 Green

    Transfer Portal w IU Interest

    I brought up Coleman-Jones (Coleman-Lands to his friends) because I thought he might be versatile enough to play with Ballo as well as back him up. A stretch 4 with the length and strength to defend the rim could get more than 15 minutes a game backing up two positions and allow IU to bring in a more talented player. Those who are wary of playing two "bigs" at the same time should be wary of Ballo breaking his foot in the second game of the season and having to start a guy who was just hoping to find a school to offer him 10 or 15 minutes a game. Losing Ware for just two games in the middle of the season probably cost IU the Illinois game and MSU's invite to the NCAA tournament. The alternative would be starting Reneau with only five fouls to go up against Steven Crowl, Danny Wolf, Aaron Bradshaw, Nathan Bittle, Matthew Nicholson and three or four other seven-footers in the Big Ten ranks. Not all of them will be world beaters but using up his fouls trying to push these guys away from the lane will put him on the bench. What happens if Reneau gets injured? Don't get me wrong, I do like the idea of putting Mgbako at the 4 situationally to exploit match ups. However, until he shows he can guard a big forward in the B1G consistently I don't like the thought of the Hoosiers being one injury away from him getting all of his minutes there. All of that being said, I like your wish casting concerning Baye Fall, Demo. I don't know anything about the kid's situation or character but there's a lot to like there.
  14. Blue 2 Green

    Transfer Portal w IU Interest

    I'm not shouting, just not very proficient. My humble apologies.
  15. Blue 2 Green

    Transfer Portal w IU Interest

    Thank you gentlemen. Long time lurker - first time poster. It is probably more wishful thinking than reading tea leaves but based on his CV and a few highlight videos Coleman-Jones looks really intriguing to me. There are a lot of big bodies that might help IU but if there is no personal connection to them it probably gets more difficult to sell a kid on back up minutes at a school or in an area of the country he's unfamiliar with. Thanks for connecting those dots, Demo. Perhaps he and Myles Rice are acquainted. I was thinking he moved around a bit; was he in Georgia for his freshman or sophomore years?
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