HoosierDevils

Yes, definitely need some depth bigs. But I’m totally fine with money balling those pieces and going hard after Jake Hall, as several others have also suggested.

My guess is a similar dynamic will be at play with him. Hard to see him upset at being a bench spot minutes player at a national title contender to play the same role at an albeit much improved IU but not natty level team. A lot of schools can promise a big bag and starting role if they really want Reibe as a starter. Not surprisingly Big East teams like St John’s and Providence are up there for him.

Looks like Rancik cancelled his IU visit according to On3. My feeling is that the Sherrell commit is imminent and the starting front court is set. Rancik was probably looking for a starting role and that’s unlikely to happen here.

fwiw it increasingly feels like Duke might be returning more guys than expected (another crazy thing about the K to Scheyer transition). They may not be looking to replace Ngongba but instead just Maliq Brown who’s graduating and was more of a role player. I think that’ll hold true for them elsewhere as well with Foster, Cayden, and even Sarr likely returning. They’ll be in the market for a big body role player and a couple off the bench shooters.

Duke boards increasingly feeling like only Cam Boozer and Isaiah Evans are declaring with Khamenia and Harris the only transfers out. Good chance they’re a complete non factor in Sherrell and it is just down to IU closing the deal before he leaves for E Lansing tomorrow.

If I’m not mistaken this is what the Ivy League does. Amounts greater than 5k are reviewed and have to be shown to have a direct commercial purpose. (It’s what’s gutted Princeton’s program.)

Yes, I think so too. I believe it’s a reference to closing the deal on the 3 visits this weekend. Sherrell is still a bit early and is visiting Duke today. Also, Tyme could also be setting this up to doom and crash out on the staff if any of the three don’t pan out.

Whatever DDV and staff are doing, they’ve somehow made a believer out of Tyme

Love that he’s visiting but wish IU focused accounts didn’t do this. He would be visiting regardless of whether this account posts it ahead of time or not — doing this is cringe and obnoxious. At best you can argue it doesn’t hurt that much but at worst it’s just a bad look and off putting to a recruit.

The general take on Field of 68 is they’re outlets for favored agents. They legit have good sources but sources with a business angle. They like to run pass blocking for connected agents (ie, agencies that rep high end recruits and coaches). So sometimes they’re willing to put things out to drive pay raises and more NIL dollars.

I didn’t think Reibe looked very good. Saw him at the Duke-UConn E8 game and basically Duke built that 19 point lead entirely in the minutes Reibe played. Their comeback began when he sat and stalled when he was back in. Really looked lost out there. Maybe as a depth piece, but don’t know if he’s hitting the portal to just sit on the bench somewhere else.

Does he really fit the Hurley profile? Ball: 4 star top 50 recruit; all 3 years at UConn Demary: 4 star out of HS; high major transfer from UGa Karaban: 4 star out of HS (offers from Ohio State and ND); all years at UConn Mullins: we’re all too familiar… Reed: 4 star top 50 out of HS; high major transfer from Michigan Stewart: 4 star recruit with offers from Bama and USC Reibe: 4 star top 40 recruit Smith: Lowest rated rotation player - 3 star out of HS and played 4 years at Dayton before transferring to UConn. Hurley is definitely doing it differently from Dusty May or Underwood or Scheyer or even Tommy Lloyd, but he also is generally not going this far down. I think that would apply for people like Orme and Brumbaugh as well.

Only games they played against a tournament team this year were Troy. He played awful in one and okay in the other. Need bench pieces, of course, but the early few names being tossed around as leading targets feel like a repeat of loading up on UNF and low major rosters all over again. Hope it’s just the flow of the cycle and we actually have 7 guys who belong on a competitive high major roster. EDIT: so many typos!

Big 10 teams always look so scared to shoot the ball. The gap in shotmaking ability feels astronomical versus other conferences, especially at the top.

This is something we all kinda know, but always still disheartening to see (I think there's an error and the 2025 win total should be 0 instead of 1). Also just crazy that IU has been in the top quarter of the league (to account for conference size changes) like 6 times in 28 years

Absolutely! I also think it's good to have legit NBA guys in the building for a program that's historically prided itself on getting a few guys that make it to the NBA. It says you're a serious basketball program and an institution that values players and their career trajectories and have a staff that's familiar and successful at it. It reminds me a bit on the Split Zone Duo podcast for CFB where they had this line, "Nobody plays at USC to play for Lincoln Riley. They're going because it's an NFL structure." I feel like Duke and Kansas were early movers on this in the basketball space, but it's trickled down and diffused more broadly where it can only help with recruits! * (Obviously, I'd like to have players that want to play for DDV and IU, full stop, but broader point is that it's a plus)

Maybe Yaxel as well? If only because he was talented enough to go to the NBA already before he got to Michigan

The others (Jai Lucas, Ryan Odom, Kevin Willard, Eric Olen, Ben McCollum, and Bucky McMillan) still valid!

Some of that was his choice and it is fair to critique it. It’s not just circumstance. Not doing everything to keep Malik—now first team ACC—in favor of dropping a bag for Reed Bailey was less than ideal. Also, the new WVU coach had even less time by circumstance and put together a team that would likely beat this IU team. Other first year coaches like Jai Lucas, Ryan Odom, Kevin Willard, Eric Olen, Josh Schertz, Ben McCollum, Bucky McMillan, heck even Niko Medved at Minnesota exceeding preseason expectations after having a roster decimated my season ending injuries. Some subset of the guys above had even less time as they coached their former teams in the tournament.

That first Golden team even though they were worse than this first DDV team had a couple pros that he kept and gave them continuity and some semblance of building something from the get go — Will Richard who stayed 3 years, was big in the natty, then went in the 2nd round and Castleton who averaged like 20 points a game before going pro after Golden’s 2nd season

Would this year’s WVU beat this year’s IU team on a neutral floor? I feel like they would and by some margin.

Woody didn’t care at all about metrics, but that team also didn’t have any losses outside Quad 1. Just been a miserable 10 years and counting steeped in mediocrity for a passionate fan base/alums/community in a basketball crazy state

We are entering the season of decommits. First up is Quentin Coleman, a top 35 SG who requested release from Wake Forest. He is rumored to have interest from IU, KU, and TTU.

I think it was over the summer but X’s and Joe’s had an episode about the talent deficit in the Big 10 and the shift of HS talent to the sun belt over time

Sad but true