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I could buy into “baby steps” if our roster spend wasn’t one giant leap for IUBB. We went from around $10M spend to close to $20M, nearly doubling it. We are probably close to #5 roster spend in the country. And we brought in a GM and another assistant. I’m almost certain the internal expectations are second week of the tourney and much more than just beating NW and making the dance. That said, I don’t see how this program is ready to do more than that. Maybe in season three if we develop and retain well — then we really have a nice situation to sell in the portal.

Given the huge amount of money spent on the roster, which will be near $20M, we should be thinking Sweet 16. That's not unreasonable. Everybody in this program is getting paid a lot, from coaches to players. Time to earn it and win.

Too much fog caused a pile up.

Some clarification from the Broyles Award winner! Haha.

Matt is very good and will keep them competitive. I thought they would fall further after Edey due to their meh NIL and they didn’t. Now I think they’ll slide again after losing all these seniors, but it will probably be less than I hope. As long as they’re not competing to win the B1G or making serious tourney runs, that’s fine for me — they can be ranked #15-25 all year as long as they’re not threatening to win big prizes. That combined with their crap football team is a Purdue athletic dept that works pretty well for me.

Yep. They had a pretty decent 25 year run, especially in football. At our expense along the way too. They're still pretty good in hoops. Obviously college sports changed. They're a big state school with a 76K football stadium and their athletic dept generates quite a bit of revenue. I'm kinda surprised they've struggled so much with NIL. I guess at the end of the day, they don't have (i) very rich booster(s) engaged with athletic donations, and (ii) "alignment" throughout the university. Too bad, so sad.

Hysterics with Rabby said the budget for the roster this year was about $20M. I don’t know how much of that was spent, but I would assume once all is said and done, it will be most of it, like high-teens. That’s insane. IU is funding FB and MBB at levels I didn’t think were possible.

GMs are getting common in CBB. To name a few schools with one: Michigan, UConn, and Illinois. And there are many others. This trend will likely continue. Everything is of course contingent on results, but bringing in a GM is a smart move. I don't see the issue here.

Ha. True. Though I never understood why Happy was spending money to buy good players to win big, but he also had them shave points. Big conflict! I’d guess the writers wanted to show him having total control, but as we know boosters don’t manipulate players to shave points (to my knowledge). That’s a mob thing. Anyways, I still love that movie. So over the top.

Yep. Our roster was $21-22M, something like that. Makes ‘25 even more amazing.

“One of the best cultures in CFB” ”No one here talks about last season” Also, I think Joe will be a fan favorite.

Good read: https://www.si.com/nfl/fernando-mendoza-prospect-draft-raiders-digital-cover

I'll of course take a preseason ranking if we get it. It certainly doesn't hurt! But, to get the lasting narrative change we want, we need to string together several good seasons with appearances in the second week of the tourney. Remind the CBB world we exist. For me, this strong portal means the aforementioned good season is possible for '26-27. That's what I care about most. Good stuff, onwards and upwards!

It's hard to know how many of our '26-27 players stick around, but it's so great to have players with multiple years of eligibility. For those we want to keep, we're in the advantageous position of retaining them. Importantly, it's cheaper to retain players than to get replacements in the portal. It's going to be hard for other programs to materially outbid IU and pry loose players we want to keep. I found all the one-year eligibility guys last season to be a depressing situation, probably more than even the lack of bigs. We had little chance to make progress building a roster and it felt like a waste of a season. We just can't be turnover almost the whole roster each year. It is possible even this day in age in CBB to have a core of guys that know the system and help build a culture. Hopefully that starts now at IU, it looks like it could be, assuming we scouted well.

Another weakness fixed: We've got so much eligibility left in this roster. If we scouted these guys right and they work out, we'll be much less busy in the portal next year. And of course it's cheaper to retain talent.

Haha! This is a blast!

Yep. Now the remaining targets can see the team they would be stepping into, and it looks like a roster where they can succeed...

There it is!

One step closer...

The usual from Dan as he tries to get clicks. I’m sure he would hate this cringe. But they still somehow won the title.

The IUBB offseason hype is in full swing. Hopefully it's justified this time around. I know this hype and attention IUBB is getting makes Purdue fans big mad. That's nice to know.

Yep. I don't think Samet was a move to pressure Sherrell. My guess, and it's only a guess, is Samet was specifically part of the pitch to Sherrell. I wouldn't be surprised if Sherrell spoke with Samet. If you're assembling a team you want them all on board and part of the process from the start. We'll see here...

Mood:

Lmao this is nuts.