Pagoda

Ah, sorry I missed your original thread on this guy. Articles keeping mentioning wide out. Though I don’t see any reason he wouldn’t work in the slot.

3* out of Georgia. Picked us over UNC and Wake among others. 21st commit in the class.

Purdue has quite the difficult hole to dig out from, which is great. - Coming off a garbage 1-11* last year, only win vs. an FCS team *They played five teams that made the playoff last year and there were outscored 261-17. lmao! - Their portal was really bad -- what talent they had mostly left, and not much came in. Congrats to all the players that escaped to other programs! - They have the capped rev share all schools do, which helps them quite a bit, but their FB NIL is around the bottom of the conference. This is a major ongoing problem for them. Their fans are praying this NIL clearinghouse has teeth... it won't. - It also doesn't help West Lafayette is an unappealing destination for players - They have to be praying Odom is very good, he's probably okay at best Good luck Boilees. Their '25 schedule is tough. They could win at Northwestern (who won't be very good), though that temporary stadium is weird place to play right now. They could beat a mediocre Buttgers team at home. Aside from those games, any win would be a pretty big upset to huge upset (USC, IL, at MN, at Mich, OSU, at UW, IU). I'm going to guess they eek out a win vs. NW or Rutgers and win one (1) total B1G game. They could play us close for a few quarters since it's a rivalry game at their place. What matters though is their their program should hopefully remain deep in the mud with slim chances to materially improve any time soon given their program problems will be tough to fix.

Yea. KR was really good. Fernando probably won't match him in some aspects. My hope is Fernando can give us another dimension with his mobility, which can hopefully help us fare better vs. the top-10 defenses/teams we struggled against last year. He's got some big game experience and he was the most (or close to it) sacked QB last year. Our OL, running game, and coaching staff should be a whole new world for him. I can't wait to see to what extent all of that elevates his game this season...

I trust this staff but I don’t really get this one… at all.

I’m not sure we really surprised teams or we benefitted much from unfamiliarity. Every game is so important — opposing staffs in the B1G are huge and look at all sorts of game film, including from JMU. They would know we were a threat definitely by the UCLA win. And 56-7 vs Nebraska (on Big Noon) had everyone’s attention. We have a lot of new guys this year, but they’re good. Range of wins is probably 7 to 10. I’ll shamefully say 9-3 as one game outside of Oregon and PSU trips us up.

You know he is watching this thread for any self-imposed limitations! Jk.

For sure. That will push him over $185M in career earnings. And last season was the first time he didn't average double figures in his career. EJ's shooting has obviously been the key to his success, but since high school he's really been a unit of a guard at 6'3" 220lbs and athletic -- to me he sort of a looks like a bowling ball out there (that's a good thing). He is very hard to push around and in general he's been a good defender. Just a great fit for the NBA. Good for him. Some memory lane stuff from high school:

When you see these bad boys with the coffee beans in the air above the coffee (why???), you know you’re about to get some great coffee. ;-)

CDD comments on the schedule (per Alec Lasley): I think we have a good mix of tough games and cupcakes.

Ah, that explains it. I was looking at Stu's screenshot and was wondering why that kid had on those big red boots that appeared as a trend a few years ago. Well, that's his thing per this Tik Tok... https://www.tiktok.com/@athletics.ote/video/7516540571712818464 Gen Z (the tail end of it before Gen Alpha) is really losing me with this "bit" to get clicks... Now get off my lawn!

Interesting recruiting data from Taylor. Commits are happening faster. That’s good. https://bitesizedbison.substack.com/p/curt-cignetti-has-shifted-indianas

My goodness, that video might have the worst competition I’ve ever seen. Zero defense and some of these opponents…

Here is 4 min of Kenny Johnson mic’d up. https://x.com/indianambb/status/1939716319055651179?s=46&t=zoBJGD5TXRBDk1ODyOZqlg You can see why players like him and why is a lead recruiter. I’d guess he’s an off the court mentor as well for these guys.

I think you're spot on with the point that rebuilding the whole roster is expensive, so our NIL/rev share didn't go as far this year. Retaining talent is definitely cheaper (assuming the program is good) -- our football program just did an excellent job retaining guys as I'm quite sure all the big programs were poking around our key players with big offers. I also like the eye on the future approach. It's a balancing act -- we can't not focus on this year, we need to make the tourney and establish a winning culture/foundation to build from asap. But, we need to keep years 2 and 3 in mind, those are years we can really push to be a top-15 program. And if we can stay disciplined on player value and avoid chasing expensive guys that aren't the best fit, we'll have more money available for future recruits we really like that will help us in those pivotal years 2 and 3 of CDD's tenure. I don't have much insight into this staff, but I get the sense they're longer-term thinkers, which I love. Or maybe I'm just drinking the kool-aid and projecting my hopes and dreams on to them. We'll find out soon enough if we've got the right coach, fingers crossed...

Yea, I get what you’re saying, I’m not sure which setup is better for MBB. I guess at the end of the day if you have a P2 FB program that takes 75% of the rev share and quite a bit of NIL as well, you need that FB program to be good and to make a lot of money.

I can't quite tell exactly what's up with MBB rev share/NIL. I believe the $10M figure, though that feels like #10-15 in the country vs. top-10 due to other schools increasing their commitments, notably with the Big East being able to push a lot of rev share to MBB given they don't have top tier FB. We're very good on the MBB side, but not at the tippy top. I don't know to what extent CDD is being held back -- some of these players we missed on could be insufficient funds (not good) and some could just be terrible values we legit passed on (smart!). We have a decent stable of big donors for NIL and our athletic dept (Cook, Simon, Ned, Andy, etc.) -- thankfully btw, for example Purdue wishes they had people like this. But, our athletic dept revenue is still on the lower end of the P2 schools because our FB program is small. I'd guess FB NIL/rev share is around #25 in the country (huge progress actually) and as noted MBB is probably #10-15. Two things would help us: 1) We need FB to keep taking off. It's the only thing that can really change the financial profile of our athletic dept. The more money FB can bring in, the more we free up our donors to focus on NIL (the kicker on top of rev share), which includes NIL to basketball. 2) CDD has a good first season and energizes the donor base with belief in his program. NIL does still to some extent depend on how excited donors are. It's a brutal arms race out there. MBB could use a few million more and FB could use $10M+! I'm glad Scott has a fundraising background...

Not sure. My guess is they like securing a spot and with the optionality to go somewhere else, plus it's a bit of a signal to other schools if players want it to be. It's a pretty good deal for the player. I would guess our staff knew this was a risk. We'll win some flips and lose some flips, so personally this doesn't bother me too much. Recruits definitely break their commits too often, but I suppose programs also make some promises they don't keep too. It's all a mess and I'm glad I don't work in this world of recruiting. I was hoping with rev share things would move from commitment announcements to signing announcements (as in signing a binding contract). These guys are paid now, so just sign the contract like any other professional would. That doesn't seem to be the case though, we still have commitment periods up until a signing day. And therefore, we can't get too excited until signing day.

Well that f'in sucked. Phenomenal season by the Pacers. When you get to game seven of the finals, just stay the course. It may take a little longer with Hali's recovery, but this team was one game away from winning the championship -- only small changes are needed.

50% increase in season ticket sales! Fantastic news — support is really increasing as is program revenue. https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/sports/college/iu/2025/06/19/indiana-football-season-ticket-sales-reach-historic-levels-after-college-football-playoff-appearance/84255197007/

Yea, personally I view these rankings as directional. The ratings services aren't always right, but in general they're okay and over a ~15-30 player class they'll provide a decent read on the overall quality and potential of the class. I think of the buckets as: bottom of the conference, midpack, and the top 3-4. We're midpack, which is really some nice improvement. If we can consistently be midpack in the class rankings that will be new territory for IUFB, we've never done that before. Of course, the coaching staff matters a lot, and I think this staff can take midpack recruiting rankings and deliver top 1/3 of conference results. In my opinion that's all we can ask for. Thanks for keeping track of all this.

Sheesh Rabby is killing my buzz!

So intense, engaged, and detailed… I know it’s a hype clip but I’m impressed with Coach Norty. This staff really seems like night and day from the last one and that really should make a difference…

3* from Columbus North https://x.com/ParkerElmore1/status/1934271627556008315 Sounds like he could play TE. Per the below link he played bball and was quite athletic with that too, so the old bball players can be good TEs is in effect here. https://x.com/GPPbasketball/status/1925349454552367211

Todd McShay did a detailed scouting report on Fernando. Interesting read. Like others have said, if he has a good year he could be a first rounder… https://mcshay-report.beehiiv.com/p/scouting-fernando-mendoza-why-indiana-s-new-qb-is-a-wide-receiver-s-dream