Ctf9

I like the rebounding more than anything else. He could help compensate for Bailey.

Hopefully he's the best of both worlds -- he specifically said he came to IU for the resources, so he's not averse to using the money.

Well I'm factoring in the injuries -- if those don't hammer WVU, I feel like they're more like a 22-10, 24-8 kind of team, with a good shot at winning one or two games in the tournament. I also feel like Woodson's teams were always less satisfying to watch than their records -- it was so obvious that with a better coach, there would be better results. If we squeak into the tournament while also seeing good coaching and development across the season, I would take that for sure.

Thanks for the reply—makes sense. I am hoping for a season like West Virginia one last year. But maybe a lot of fans are expecting more.

Honest question: Why do you think he needs that much time? Drake was really good in his first year, and I heard him talk in a podcast about having ten new players that year, and that was pre-portal. West Virginia was really good in his first year too. I was skeptical of him as the choice, so I’m wondering why you as someone who’s all in thinks he’ll need more time. Not trying to be snarky here—a genuine question.

Gotta agree with @Home Jersey here—Malone and Hurley are friendly. No way Hurley would walk into the Denver mess. https://www.si.com/nba/nuggets/news/denver-nuggets-coach-gets-honest-on-dan-hurley-becoming-lakers-coach

I’m just guessing online, but we didn’t hire anyone for a long time, and then Murphy is a no and another Texas Tech assistant leaves and 24 hours later we get Johnson. Maybe Johnson was in the works for weeks! But maybe once IU found out Murphy and Achoki were a no they moved to the next option. Seems unlikely Texas Tech would lose its top two recruiters in one offseason. Again I’m just guessing online.

Iowa and McCollum just poached Luke Barnwell from Texas Tech. Probably makes Achoki more of a long shot and may relate to the Johnson hire.

No one said anything about subliminal messages. But the underlying idea of Thamel and Osterman’s reporting was that IU was carefully laying the groundwork, for months, to move really fast. If you listened to his podcasts, it was clear that he was getting nudged by IU to look at these dates and deadlines. And I mean he wasn’t wrong—tons of good players off the board by April 7. We just didn’t get any of them.

I have zero sources, and I believe you that McCollum was not offered the job. Thanks for sharing that. But maybe that was because Dolson wanted to move quicker. That decision, plus the Thamel and Osterman comments, suggest Dolson really wanted to emphasize speed. What has DeVries done with that head start? I think it’s fair to judge him by Dolson’s hints about April 7, etc. Again, thanks for sharing your intel on McCollum. I hope you’re right and I’m overreacting, etc!

Goodman and others (Curry Hicks Sage) said McCollum was the first choice. So did @Chris007 and others here. You all are really, really invested in enforced optimism.

Osterman is hyper cautious but said in multiple podcasts he thought IU’s roster would be mostly done by April 7. Why would he say that? Someone (Dolson) told him that was how they expected it would work. It hasn’t worked that way. Maybe it will all be fine! But the way people here are mocking and policing legit concerns is crazy. This has been a dispiriting start. It’s ok to say that. We are not living up to Dolson’s own plan.

Here’s part of the quote—the longer interview, which I heard on Twitter and can’t find now, made it clear IU was the school.

Go look at the center rankings on 247. It’s bleak. We’re down to mid major backups. Also comparing last year and this year doesn’t make sense because of the house settlement, which Dolson was very focused on (until his new coach didn’t sign anyone for more than a week). Your point about portal rankings is fair, but it is somewhat predictive (and we’ve whiffed on several of the highly ranked players we pursued).

Several people on here have posted McCollum was the first choice, in addition to vague tweets like Goodman’s pointing the same direction. Also Drake’s AD made it pretty clear IU wanted McCollum but he said he wouldn’t talk until after the season—another example of Dolson’s actions suggesting speed really mattered. And now more than a week later McCollum has done more at Iowa than DeVries has at IU.

I realize the “is it time to be worried?” discourse has gotten pretty grumpy and circular here, but I want to add one thing. A lot of our unmet expectations came from Dolson. Who are his go to reporters? Thamel and Osterman. Thamel talked about how the new IU coach was going to hit the portal hard and fast, relying on overwhelming resources. Osterman kept talking about the house settlement and April 7 as a day when most of the roster might be set—someone told Osterman to explore that possibility. So I’m going to be like @Chris007 — loyal but not blindly trusting. And I don’t think it’s crazy at all to be concerned that most of the good portal players (especially the centers) are already gone, and I don’t think it’s weird to wonder, if we weren’t actually in a hurry, why we didn’t just wait for McCollum. If we think that IU should be doing more, better, faster, it’s only because Dolson taught us to think about the program in those terms

It also said the coaches who aren’t announced will steer working behind the scenes. It seems like a weird approach but I don’t think it will handicap anyone.

I hope I’m wrong but I think Iowa has more deep tournament runs over the next five years than we do. It will be interesting to watch!

“Vindicated” is such a weird word, like there are winners and losers here. This is not Mad Max. It’s a message board. All the podcast did was say it was DeVries before anyone else had that, suggesting Curry Hicks had a great source. But that source also suggested “someone really ******* big”—and Curry Hicks was careful to say it was the level of Stevens without saying it was or was not Stevens—was in play as late as Sunday. So people saying Chris and the others hallucinated the Brad to IU possibilities—I just don’t think they did. Some version of “Brad listened and considered but ultimately said no again” was true. And the podcast offers some national context that corroborates what they were hearing. People want to pick fights and accuse and blame and that’s just so childish. Even Curry Hicks doesn’t know what really happened. Dolson and Whitten are probably the only ones who know the full story. But the podcast is more smoke that supports Chris et al, so I figured I’d share it

Not necessarily but I have no reason to think Chris or the other insiders were lying. And the Hicks context is a national clue that aligns with what they said. Also the fact that Hicks knew DeVries before almost anyone else suggests the other part of his report is true—there really was a big candidate who was in until the last minute. It’s hard for me to imagine Stevens backing out again but that’s where the telephone stuff comes into play. Or maybe Dolson didn’t need anyone to give a final yes or no until the season ended. Who knows? We will never know everything.

That’s why I’m curious why he said no! But if he was just waffling about college vs the NBA or something I totally agree.

Sure I’d love to see it. I’ve never sent anyone a DM because I try to respect everyone’s time and sanity, lol. But I’m definitely curious what happened and if we have hints on why he said no. Thanks for replying. You and the others made the last few weeks very fun. And I agree—I’m more a McCollum guy than a DeVries guy, but I think this hire will make us very good next year. I see the vision.

Not sure if this has been posted but good analysis of DDV’s offense—note the modern small ball consistency: https://247sports.com/college/west-virginia/article/deep-dive-statistical-analysis-to-understand-the-darian-devries-offense-229278704/

Note the dates. Maybe DDV was Scott’s guy all along?

The buyout is another consequence of Woodson getting a fourth year. We could have hired DD from Drake. Instead we pay five million in NIL and a five million buyout now for a lost season. Incredible.