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Annuities Dusty?

You never count your NIL, When you're biddin' in the portal, There'll be time enough for countin', When the roster’s done.

[Rod Roddy Price is Right voice] A new car!

Wow. These numbers are even lower than I would have guessed. I wish we could get players at the same school for longer again.

Yea, if there are instances where it makes sense, we should figure out how to let player(s) speak. Obviously it's still possible to have four year guys who will have earned the right. As for the transfers in, it's possible they have a great run here and quickly form a bond with the fans and want to speak -- I for one am good with that. It's definitely a case by case basis.

Boom! Boles: "We have an Indiana University-branded show car ... that they use when they’re recruiting. We did a lot of things around the national championship run [and] we will definitely include some Hoosier moments in the Indianapolis 500 pre-race activities." https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/03/02/ims-to-honor-national-champion-indiana-football-team-at-2026-indy-500/ I'm out of free SBJ articles so I don't have the details, but this is cool.

For as bad as we've been (excluding 2020, probably two tourney appearances in the last nine seasons), our crowds have been pretty decent. Assembly Hall is still a large arena in a pretty small college town -- that makes decent crowds look visually not so good imo.

On the topic of how CDD is doing, honestly, I find CDD's pressers and public statements to be frustrating. I get CDD is a quiet guy, and I don't expect him to be like Cig or someone outspoken, but we need a little more from him. He's all hunched over and rambling and uncertain. He needs to sit up, clearly explain what's good and bad, and outline the actions being taken to fix it. Part of his job is getting the fanbase believing and engaged, and while most of that comes from winning, it also comes from what the fans hear from the leader of the program. Fanbase sentiment is not good right now. Related to this, I worry about how well he connects with recruits and even the team. If I'm not inspired, are they? Perhaps they are, we've landed Wilkerson and some nice HS players, but it still worries me. Lastly, he mentioned "the hump" in his MSU post-game presser. That gave me a visceral reaction. The SID should tell him to not to use that word for the good of IUBB public relations. I could be wrong of course. This is just how I feel. I don't really know how effective CDD is day to day with recruits and the team. It just seems off so far. Good news is this can improve, and I guess it may just take some winning and it will all feel better. I don't know...

A wise approach. Regardless of how the season went, I don’t think transfers who have been here one year should take the mic postgame.

Definitely a red flag if your athletic dept writes a whitepaper.

Nick Marsh will be the first #11 since ARE.

We likely have a good one here.

Me looking at Drew Adams: And yea it's ultimately on the head coach, but just sayin'...

Hope so. I can’t say I see it in his pressers — he comes off uncomfortable and uncertain. Man, this was the exact type of first season you don’t want to have. Red flags everywhere. Ugh.

Not sure. I assume so. It’s probably a small plus, but not much more than that this day in age.

Not sure who really pushed for him but Drew Adams was the lead recruiter for him. I had my concerns with Drew joining this staff and those are amplified like 10x now.

Ha, it's risky to put IUBB in charge of your birthday.

It would be kinda funny if a player sued the NCAA so they can wear their jerseys however they want. Just to annoy the NCAA. Maybe some lawyer will do it pro bono for the love of the game (game being taking the NCAA to court).

I think you make a good observation on how IU fans can be sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. I'm a little more hopeful this time around with football. I agree fans have been a bit finicky after decent stretches like Mallory or Allen. But, I do think it's fair to say when you're more or less the worst D1 program, it requires something pretty convincing both in results and duration to recondition the fanbase. After decade long cold-streaks, blips of decent play over a few years aren't always enough. We've had the convincing moments in '24 and '25. I'm guessing Cig will have some non-CFP seasons here (duh). But I don't think fans are going to give up hope when that happens. They believe in Cig (not hard to do lol), and football is the primary sport in this country, which helps. I'm not going to worry about this now, but I think the big moment will be when Cig retires. All "football schools" had stretches of success that created their fanbase and culture of attending games. No fanbase grows when the program stinks. For most football schools that happened many decades ago. I think that can happen for us now, it would be the Cig Era from the mid-2020's to hopefully the mid-2030's. 8-10 years of exciting football should have our FB fanbase built up with momentum. Whoever follows Cig won't be as good, but they need to be decent, or else everyone will think Cig was a one-off aberration and we could backslide. I think the key will be building up IUFB over the next 5-10 years so our brand, stadium, facilities, and sustainable resources are all quite good for the next coach. We're off to a good start. IU has certainly figured out how to invest in football, and if Scott and the leaders of IU keep prioritizing football, we can maintain momentum post-Cig. One way to really improve our chances of continued to success is when Cig retires, get him into some sort of part-time advisory role with football where he helps with hires and strategic decisions. Heck -- he can advise on the whole athletic dept if he wants! I am pretty convinced this would be one of the best things imaginable for IU athletics. Keeping Cig's skills and influence around even off the field will lead to more good results, he's one of a kind.

Agree. I think most of why no one followed CDD is pretty explainable, as you just laid out. I should have been more clear, but in that post I'm saying by selecting CDD as the coach IU would have known not many people were coming with him. Other candidates could have brought more players and staff. I'm sure there is a reason. Scott must have thought CDD building a new staff was better than the candidates who would bring a staff. And perhaps selecting a coach who would bring players isn't worth it since players are only around a short while. I can only guess. It is just different from the Cig approach.

100%. Give another basketball school our last 25 years of results and see how many tickets they sell. Almost all of them would be less than us, most would be a lot less. We've been substantially worse than any other basketball school I can think of*. * Arkansas could be an example of a similar fall off, if you want to count them.

Yea, with IUFB's success I think Scott is getting close to that level of power and trust, but not quite. I was very happy when he managed to fire Woody midseason (which was not easy), that signaled he wrestled MBB control from Quinn and certain donors. Then it was clear the last bball hire was basically his call because only a few people knew who it was gonna be -- Scott, Pam, and IIRC Decker, who was the "analyst" involved. That seemed to be it, there were like no leaks. But, as you note MBB is not figured out. It's not over, but as we all know too well it's been a slow start for CDD and there are some legitimate concerns with him. I'm still surprised how un-Cig-like the whole thing was. CDD has a much different demeanor and we didn't go with someone who would bring staff/players off the bat. I'm sure there were reasons, it just surprised me given the template from across the parking lot. But, as I constantly say, we'll see, it's still possible CDD figures it out. The good news our athletic dept's financial condition has improved immensely the past two years, which is going to make working on the MBB issues much easier. Perhaps someday we figure it out.

I'm no scout, but I don't think any bball player on planet earth is a better one foot jumper than he is -- at only 6'6" he can do a double clutch two hand dunk from the free throw line, or a between the legs from the free throw line (I actually thought this was fake the first time I saw it). He's also a great two foot jumper with good body control. He's got it all athletically. Very exciting player. I wish he was on my team...

Pretty cool. Can’t wait to see his 40 time, but he won’t run until IU’s pro day (needs time to train since the season went so long).

The more I look back on this game, it's amazing how devastating this actually was for Miami. The Mighty U was playing great. All their Hall of Fame former players and celeb fans were on the sideline. Playing Indiana -- who cares how good they're supposed to be, it's Indiana. The game is in their home stadium in their city. It was all coming together. Then IU fans take over with 2/3 the crowd -- that's emasculating. After zero points in the first half, Miami threw some decent counterpunches, but they got handled and lost. It was not in fact "About the U." It was All About the Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers. Incredible. That really was a tough situation for us, and we played just "okay" and won.