Asha’man

Apparently lol

With Thad Matta retiring, let’s see if the rumors of IU and Finley Bizjack are true.

Thad Matta retiring

It’s what matters most to the success of an athletic department. I’m not an IU football fan and would rather all football nil go to basketball but that’s never happening. He has done a great job with the athletic department and things are looking up in basketball as far as structure goes. If they nail this portal window then we are looking good. But we won’t know until this November/December how the portal actually went.

Dusty has no issue tampering. Look how he got arguably the best but from Illinois last year. I have no issue with tampering and I hope IU is doing it behind the scenes through agents.

So what poster was actually Barrel Rick? lol.

They don’t actually. I was listening to a Michigan podcast after we hired Carr and they said the top 4 teams at that time had a GM and the rest of the top 25 did not or only a ceremonial one. Evidently Duke has had one for years. Michigan, Florida, and Arizona were the other 4. So IU is aligning with the elite of college basketball in terms of structure and modernizing that aspect of the program while also overhauling the play style.

I watch Houston and would love to have their athleticism and toughness. But they will never win it all bc they lack overall skill to compete with the teams that have both.

1-8 for me. I don’t care about 9-10. Use that money to get 1-8 to big ten caliber.

It was Bailey for me. Never a believer as him being our starting center. I remember having debates about it on here last year. To me it was clear as day he wasn’t the guy to be a starting 5 in the B1G

Haha. That was funny. He did clarify that he won’t give out names of players bc they haven’t declared for the portal. So he has heard names that we are in on. Which is good.

I think they don’t have the NIL for them to get that kind of player again. Or at least not a guy who is going to blow up in year 1. we shall see, but it’s not a recipe for success if you are relying on a single guy to get you over the hump yearly.

Rumors are that NBA teams are already looking at him as soon as this offseason. I hope they win it all and then he goes to the NBA. I like Dusty and am pulling for him to win it all, but I’m tired of seeing the Michigan/Dusty comparisons to IU/DeVries, they aren’t the same situations. But I do believe we may finally see a Big Ten National Champion finally.

You missed the part where I said all 8 have to be big ten contributors. That’s where IU failed miserably. DeVries can definitely win here, we will see if adding Carr fixes roster issues. If it doesn’t then DeVries will be in the hot seat going into year 3. But the answer isn’t fire the guy after 1 year where he messed up on roster construction on an abbreviated timeline. We are going to a GM model, which is the correct model to fix roster construction issues. Something Duke, Michigan, Florida, and Arizona all have. A month or so ago I was listening to a podcast that said that all had GM’s but the vast majority if not all the rest of the top 25 didn’t have a true GM role. Some had honorary GM’s like Steph Curry at Davidson types. I’m taking this year as a proof of concept play style and fixing things structurally behind the scenes. Agents evidently told Rabby the had blackballed IU bc they didn’t think k they were serious about basketball bc they hired Woodson. The only agents that were sending us players were for a payday bc we would overpay. That’s the NIL situation inherited. That seems fixed now. So let them get to work, they may surprise you. To your point Illinois and Purdue aren’t making a final four this year. When I said make a run I was talking final four run. Sorry I wasn’t clear there. Michigan is the only Fibal Four caliber team. We spent good money last year and had to overpay to get a roster. My understanding from reading different boards is we were likely 4th at best in NIL last year in conference. Michigan, Illinois, Washington (yes Washington) were the top 3.

To me if we only get 2 impact players we are toast. We need 3-4 impact starters. 1 of those guys need to be All Big Ten first team. 2 need to be 3rd team/honorable mention level. Everyone else in the 8 man rotation needs to be of Big Ten contributor level. Then and only then are we making the dance and have shot at a run. We can take lesser talent than that but it lowers the ceiling. it will be great if any of the freshmen are able to contribute off the bench.

I was listening to a Michigan podcast and they brought up IU basketball in light of Dusty May’s success. The comments they were making after watching IU is just the lack of talent but they like DeVries. They actually said the program that should be worried is Iowa even though they did better than IU in year 1. They seemed to think DeVries ran better stuff but didn’t have Stirtz and Iowa was a one man show. Then listening to Assembly Call the other day, Tonsoni said that he had some Iowa guys he talked to bc if bracketology and they are not happy with McCollum. And Purdue fans have not been happy with Painter this month. Be interesting to see how PU fans feel. Is they are playing for a big ten title.

Relax. I’m glad the season is over. The portal that’s about to start is way more important than the big ten tournament for this program right now. This is about the future not this limited roster. Let’s see what they do with a season under there belt and time to recruit through back channels for the portal.

Agreed. People are quick to pull their support and then wonder why media and other fanbases say our fanbase is delusional. I still 100% support DeVries. I think for a variety of reasons he didn’t put together a good enough roster. That’s on him. With the roster he had he did well but not where anyone wants us to be. I also am giving him a free ride for year 1. He literally started over like Crean but with NIL and his over rated kid. Now he has full lineup of assistants, a GM, and a NIL war chest to spend. The next 6 weeks will tell the story for next year. Even if we don’t know the names of the guys they get, we will find out how they did this fall/winter. I do like the freshmen coming in as well.

Evidently so. Boy wonder, Dusty May, said he underestimated the physicality in conference at the end of last year.

I wasn’t implying IU bought a title. But they were willing to pay enough to be competitive with those at the top. I’m not sure they are doing that with basketball. Even if IU bought a title who gives a crap. You guys got a title. I’m not an IU football fan but to hell with OSU. Every BCS title through now could be argued was bought, it was just under the table. Get into the history of college football and it goes back to the decades prior to many of us being alive and players getting paid. I think Dolson and probably Carr now that he is here may need to pull some financial levers. The money is there. People say 21.5 and 12.5 is a lot of money. It is but not to the mega donors. The cooks are worth 7+ billion last I looked and are engaged in supporting the sports programs. A $5 mil ask is a rounding error to them. For those who think I crazy that’s like someone with $700,000 donating $500. So if they have $20 mil already, $2000 then get the other $500. Essentially if I had to wager that 800,000 alumni probably donated a bunch of small amounts bc of football. Great do it again with basketball. Over pay a little now and then the masses will pay for it later. And if Saban and the rest figure out a way to curb the spending, IU basketball needs to already be in that top group before any sort of legislation comes down and creates a situation where IU is stuck as a have not. The south will go back to paying under the table.

According to Athlon/Sporting News IU spent an estimated $21 million on football roster last year. Placing them in the top 10 nationally in football NIL, closer to 5-8. 3rd in conference behind OSU (over $30) and Oregon ($22-23). That’s more than Michigan at $18 million. So what Cig did wasn’t on a shoestring budget. Boosters ponied up big time. It paid off but the idea that Cig achieved in spite of resources isn’t true. The same should be done for basketball. Cutting funds to basketball isn’t going to help them win like football. And don’t make DeVries pay for the sins of previous coaching staffs. Support him at the level you want to succeed. Top 20-25 money isn’t going to be a quick fix. It needs to be top 5-10 in the short term until high school recruiting catches up and the portal can be used to fill holes and not starting rosters. Once high school recruiting gets to the point we are counting on that pipeline to replenish those transferring or graduating, then the dollar amount can be lowered. Probably 2 more years for that to happen.

I think the 12.5 being rumored is fine if we were already established as a top 25 team with stacked high school recruiting classes. We aren’t there. I’d like to see them get somewhere around 16-18 million to be able to get the caliber of players we are wanting. Even ideal’s a couple of guys are here for 1 year. The freshmen this year could be ready to go as sophs. But need to get the money to support the program. We should be top 5 in NIL not top 20/25.

I think there will be a revenge factor vs NW. Then Purdue wins by double digits. Then the most important part of the year happens, portal season. Honestly, I’m ready to get there and won’t care if we lose the opening game.

If they can get him then get him. Multiyear piece that can be very good. Not sure he is starter ready as a freshman to start the year. But I’m comfortable rolling with the backups being young next year if needed.

Yeah. It would be a waste of time to try when they can go get someone that’s an upgrade and attainable. Next year win 22+ games then go again.