Pagoda

On the topic of UK fans, someone was kind enough to reupload this old gem to YouTube.

We are gonna be a fairly old team and back in the portal pretty heavy next year. That's fine, is what it is until high school recruiting picks up and that takes a little bit of time. A few portal guys with multiple years of eligibility will help balance things out, and I'm sure we'll get some of those here in the next few weeks...

Yea, I really liked this interview -- clearly a sharp dude with a good attitude. I think he will be a great fit and I am looking forward to cheering for him.

I like that Lamar has been in the Arkansas/TX region his whole life and CDD managed to pull him to Bloomington. I know we paid him, but there was no prior connection to IU here, CDD had to create that.

I'm stating the obvious, but this commit really helps Conerway or whatever PG get some clarity on the team they would be running. Fingers crossed for some dominoes falling...

It really should be the Red River Rivalry of CBB. Lucas Oil every year, split Crimson and Blue at midcourt, 30K+ fans. I know we have some home/homes and just one game at Lucas Oil right now (and I think IU controls the tickets, so may not be the 50/50 like it used to be at RCA Dome and Freedom Hall), and that's great. After what is scheduled I hope it continues at LOS every year with the midcourt fan split, it's a special thing in CBB if the schools can make it work.

We are assembling a team that CAN SHOOT for the first time in a decade!!!

As many times as Cooper Flagg was the reason Duke was brought up on ESPN and other national programs -- he was probably worth a few million in media exposure alone. Part of what makes investing in Cig and football so logical is the exposure. GameDay and Big Noon were big ads for IU, it was incredible. I've seen estimates that IUFB's run was worth $10-25M in media exposure alone (obviously a wide range of estimates). Of course we also get a pop in game day revenue, donations, etc. There is a lot of value in having the most talked about player in CBB.

Yea, and it seems the new staff keeps things close to the vest, so new sources may be hard to get. And of course this becomes an issue when you charge $10/month and promise "insider news & analysis you can’t get anywhere else" and "exclusive recruiting coverage." This is probably overpromising and therefore he has to deal with ornery customers -- that's the business he is in and the approach he takes, so he's got to deal with it. He'll be okay. Rabby does get some good info and I do like hearing what he thinks. I've heard IU has a slight edge here, but I interpret that as it's a total toss up. We've got our high offer vs. a school we usually don't beat in recruiting battles (though this is Pope not Cal, but still). Fingers crossed CDD can pull this recruitment off.

Yea. But if it happens, I’m honestly pretty used to it at this point. IUBB: And hey, maybe we land him…

I get your point. But I’m not sure how to factor in how Cig had NIL in the #30-35 range with a modest budget to run his program vs CDD having top-10 payroll and a huge budget to run his program. Also a bball roster is obviously much much smaller than football. I guess I’m just saying CDD has some advantages Cig didn’t have.

I think what happens is we have about $11M to spend -- but there are something like five schools on our level and a few that are higher, plus several more with $6-10M. And a typical good player is going for $1.5-2M. Well it's great we have more money than most schools, that's a one or more good players at the end of the day. But when it comes to any one player, schools that like that player still have enough money to get aggressive for him -- all those $6-10M payroll schools can pay $1.5-2M for a guy they like, plus we have to deal with schools on our level or higher. So we are always going to have quite bit of competition, we aren't so rich we can just blow everyone out of the water with mega offers for guys. NIL can be a great advantage, but it's just a tool. Picking the right guys and closing on recruitments when three to four schools are all at similar offers is so important. Hopefully CDD can do that.

He’s not gonna stop paying players to go to Western.

He’s talking about Rory at the Masters. I wish it was IUBB related.

NIL is more of a donation in nature than an investment. Donors will want some results on the court or field, but in general people just give to their alma mater because of the connection and it’s probably part of their identity. Cook and Simon just give to IU it’s what they do, and it’s not much money for them. For example, Woody stunk and they gave him even more money. Overall, NIL is a good thing. These athletes are getting paid the money they deserve, which helps them and in some cases changes their lives and their families lives. I wish there were better contracts and less player movement (would need collective bargaining), but the NCAA and schools messed that up. College sports are as popular as ever, and NIL has been a net benefit to IU. It’s not perfect but it all seems fine to me. Pre-NIL we got outbid for players all the time! Way more than we do now.

This isn’t NBA free agency. Plenty of very good bball players go to Lawrence, East Lansing, Storrs, etc. Football players (and bball players) go Tuscaloosa, Athens, Auburn, Gainesville, Penn State, this list is endless. Players are fine with college towns, and Bloomington is a nice one. As a bonus IUBB players are treated like royalty here. Again, my main point is accessibility.

Bad post. Indiana is just fine and Bloomington is very nice. And my point is Bloomington is reasonably accessible, just an easy 50 min drive from a great midsize airport that is close to most of the US population. Nothing like getting to Lincoln, NE.

Ha. Human nature I guess. Also, be careful over there on Rupp Rafters. Too much exposure to UK fans is not good for any sane human being.

Yes really. Their issue isn’t their fans, but their location, lost competitive advantage with their strength program, and bad coach hires.

Nebraska has different issues that are more serious and hard to fix than IUBB's problems. First, Nebraska's location is a big problem in the modern era, especially as CFB recruiting became much more national. They're in the middle of nowhere with limited local talent and it's hard to recruit players (and their families who want to watch them) to a hard to get to location. Second, they pioneered the strength program and it was a big advantage for some time until it was eventually replicated at other programs. They used to have a bunch of bulked up country boys and that isn't the advantage it used to be. IUBB doesn't have a location problem, nor did we have some special weight or training program that was replicated. Both programs have struggled to hire coaches and both programs have fanbases that are big assets. Basically all the money for a program comes from fans in one way or another.

I am a little worried with the assistants getting the vision/pitch and passing. It’s still too early to tell on the players. For me these are yellow flags (that’s a caution flag for those that don’t watch racing). Not really the level of red flags yet. CDD’s pressers/interviews, hires, and slowish start on the roster have not gave me the warm and fuzzies… but what do I know? It is still early. This is just a random opinion if people aren’t worried that’s cool too.

Yea I’m fine…

Not great. But it’s so easy to drive three hours and spend a day at UK… even if he is an IU lean he doesn’t have anything to lose taking the visit.

A lot of Tom Crean connections! ;-)

Yea. I've heard IU (Dolson) doesn't give him hardly any info, and in general when any school doesn't give Goodman much info he gets petty towards them. We've seen that even with his daughter going to IU.