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I’m not sure we are top-10 spend. In a recent interview Rabby had us #10-15. That “feels” more right to me, but that’s just my sense to take or leave, I could be wrong. Now, the reason may be we haven’t found enough players we want to be aggressive for in the ‘25 portal and we are staying disciplined (that’s fine and good). Perhaps CDD wants to save some NIL for ‘26 players. Maybe donors are tapped out. I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see to find out. I am pretty confident CDD has a plan.

So far he’s been the successor to Reggie. From the clutch moments to annoying the opposition and not backing down… he’s been great.

I don't have much to say on the on-court side: make the tournament, show overall improvement as the season progresses (knowing there will be ups and downs), and play smart/tough/modern basketball. I think that's pretty simple and fair given the resources put towards this program. If we do those things, a lot of other important stuff will start naturally improving too -- the program will develop a culture/identity, recruits will be more interested, and our fans will get excited again. Excited fans do matter, I think a lot of people miss the fact that the fans directly and indirectly fund the whole athletic dept, including the bball program. The more excitement there is, the more money IUBB has. The other thing I want to see is some solid recruiting wins for the '26 high school class. We need the get the high school / portal balance right, and those high school kids need to be good players that fit (duh). It's a long wait until mid-October when we actually see this team play and get something new to analyze. Fortunately, we have IUFB now. Everyone had a different opinion, but for me, I'm looking forward to IUFB even more than IUBB.

Thanks, good intel. It was reported his 2023 contract amendment still had language regarding his buyout being mitigated by future employment. However, it sounds like IU struck a deal for a lower lump sum(s) paid earlier with no future comp mitigation vs. paying over a longer period of time with mitigation.

Hmm… a bit surprising. This would be great. If I remember correctly, per his contact compensation he gets from the Kings would offset his buyout, though the exact details of his separation agreement I do not know (who knows what got negotiated in those tense days this year).

Love it. 1. We beat out Tennessee and Miami for him. We continue to level up the recruiting battles we are winning. 2. Obviously it's nice he already has the connection/chemistry with Fernando. Yes. To be a trusted destination for QBs and other players with NFL aspirations would be amazing. And really it's already happening -- Miami and Georgia (and Mizzou among others) were recruiting Fernando hard. While our NIL/rev share has improved, those two schools can offer more than us. Yet, he chose the emerging superpower in Bloomington. The progress IUFB has made in 18 months is just incredible. It was only about 18 months ago we were rock bottom taking 4OT's to beat Akron at home.

I suppose he can tell everyone what Woody’s program did so this team knows what not to do. :-)

Thanks. IMO this is a key point -- it's hard to differentiate rosters like ours with much certainty right now. I'm hoping (praying) CDD and staff picked the right group of guys and can coach them up to be near the #20 ranking on that #20-40 scale. That is obviously the huge question right now. CDD has done it before, so he knock on wood should be able to do it here.

That’s a nice quick resolution! I can’t get enough of the transformation with IUFB. It’s tough to take our guys.

Annoying. Another battle to keep a coach. We’ll have to get used to it. I suppose bottom line is it’s a good thing to have coaches other schools want.

No. I also don't think he has amazing character from what I've heard from people who cover IU and do NIL/business stuff with him. I'm just not that thrilled if he returned, but as I've said a million times, if CDD is okay with him, fine, it's not a big deal.

Athletic dept staff, a few other coaches of other sports, and reporters. You really don't know what you're talking about.

Nope. Based on how he treated people and handled situations, and also how hard he worked. This all manifested when in his third year he was ranked around #100 in the country with top-15 resources, and in his 4th year he took top-5 NIL and missed the tournament. When the on-court results are that bad, behind the scenes is even worse.

Well it's not a good thing to be primarily coached and developed by Mike Woodson. Mike is a terrible coach who also exhibited poor character here too. I agree he is a Hoosier. IU has been very good to him too. I've got some insight into him (not senior night) and it leaves me not too excited about him returning. But again, CDD knows best and if he returns that's fine. I get you like him, probably from a distance, okay that's fine too. Ha. What a strawman. I didn't call him a henchman, nor did I villainize him. What I'm saying is based on many stories I've heard about him over the years I'm not too thrilled about him returning. Get a grip.

I didn't say he was not a Hoosier. He's been here a long time. I've heard plenty of stories about him good and bad. IU has been very good to him, I wouldn't call it "sticking it out." He's not a bad guy, but he is also not someone I'd be clamoring to get one of the remaining roster spots. To be clear, this is also not a freak out situation if he got another year. I'm fine with whatever CDD decides, not that my opinion matters.

I wouldn’t be thrilled. He’s a Woody guy, and I don’t really want him around all the new guys telling them about his view of our “fans” or what they did in previous seasons (it wasn’t good). He would be the only player on the roster that has been here a long time, and the new guys will listen to what he says and his experiences — I find that very concerning. If CDD wants him on the team, okay fine, but be careful coach. And yea I know he can defend. I’d also much rather develop a player with multiple years of eligibility. Goode is easier to accept because he learned the right way at Illinois… and he can shoot.

Well, I was hoping Tyme would slowly fade away after losing almost all of his sources with the near complete turnover of the IUBB staff. He probably did lose a lot of sources, but he hasn't gone away yet... and I guess he still has Leal. I scrolled his timeline -- honestly, with his boy Mike gone and fewer connections, he's not as bad (though he is still plenty bad). SDB is much more quiet since CDD was hired, which is great. His sources are probably gone, especially if he was a former Woody player or closely linked to one like we think. With CDD here and his quiet/tight-lipped approach (replacing Woody's narrative spreading regime), it seems the noise around the program is, not surprisingly, significantly reduced. And that's so great. Quiet and boring with the only news being about bball is very good stuff and the sign of a healthy program. Long may this last.

Checking in today.

Well said. On #1, if you're a very good coach at an amazing program you can probably get a small discount in some instances (selling development, winning, and exposure in place of money), but it won't be much. With IU and CDD starting from scratch, I think we could win some battles where the money was even, but winning as the #2 or #3 bid would be tough at this stage. Also, we really don't know who we "overpaid" or got a great deal for until these players play the friggin' games!

After a coaching search and all these recruiting processes, I'm "burned out" of all these X/Twitter accounts and their symbolic pictures, hints, and teases. I'm also pretty sure 90%+ of what they post is what they read here and on other IU boards. Maybe a few of them have real info, but not many.

Just my $0.02 — let the mods make the call. This is a thread for news, but that news will spark discussions and quashing that those discussions after a few posts doesn’t make sense. Just scroll past what you don’t want to read and from what I can tell if a discussion gets way off and overwhelms the thread a mod will step in and do something like start a separate thread.

Praise from lawyers should be taken with caution, but this is probably a good thing.

Same. It's hard for me as an outsider to really evaluate this roster, so I just look out for red flags (something seems really wrong) and I don't see any red flags. I can see what CDD is trying to do at this stage. That's good enough for me and I'm excited for the season. Onwards and upwards.

This is one we'll have to be recruiting right up until he signs given scummy O$U is in his back yard.

NCAA bball tournament ratings were good. CFB attendance and TV ratings are high. I’m not seeing anything being killed due to players getting paid what they’re worth.