JustWinBaby

NC is certainly a different part of the southeast than I was thinking of, haha. Definitely basketball country. I lived in Virginia for a while. There's Alabama fans everywhere it seems. Back when I lived there it was still firmly a football school with a dysfunctional basketball program. Virginia basketball was very good at the time but people where I lived (45 minutes from Charlottesville) seemed totally disinterested.

Out of curiosity, which part of the southeast? I only ask because I am curious about the Auburn and Alabama basketball fanbases. I have family from here in Indy who attended Auburn and they're big fans of the football program (obviously) but only recently started following and caring about basketball. Now they're rabid basketball fans, not too dissimilar to Indiana basketball fans. But their entire lives up until now they never cared about Auburn basketball; in fact, my cousin who graduated from Auburn in 2005 is still an avid IU basketball fan to this day. Do you see this sort of excitement for college basketball happening down there? Even if you're not in/near Alabama, I bet you encounter a decent amount of SEC basketball fans. I'm just curious what the excitement level is for the sport and if it's anything like what it is in Indiana -- and by extension the Midwest as a whole. Given this past season in particular, I feel like there would be a huge wave of basketball excitement gripping the region.

You’re completely ignoring the point I’m making but go off king

Goodness this thread got rowdy last night lol It's not about winning the press conference. Making big splashy portal signings is exciting, but look what happened this past year. The college basketball season isn't even OVER yet, and there's still almost 3 weeks left for guys to ENTER the portal. Would I have liked to land Conwell and/or Dix? Absolutely. But they went where they went for personal reasons not directly related to Indiana basketball. Missing on those guys seems like it was an inevitability, regardless of who's the coach or how toxic the fanbase (allegedly) is. Myles Rice committed to IU on April 13th of last year. Ballo on April 16th, and Carlyle on the 20th. And that was with a coach who had been here 4 years and had a staff going back many years with several connections to those players. They came to play for "terrible" fans and a terrible coach for less NIL money than we have now. We have a long way to go before we can make any judgments on how DeVries is attacking the portal this season. I'm not going to say "chill," because I'm anxious about all this too. But we definitely need to let it breathe. Things are going to start happening pretty quickly, especially once the full staff is announced.

2002 was this century FYI

Papa John was able to hook him up with a large 1-topping stuffed crust for just $13.99

He actually does. Most of his contacts nowadays are in the agent world. He also still has one or two guys in the athletic department, but they generally only feed him tidbits of whatever Dolson wants him to hear. He's gonna have to rebuild his relationships within the program.

I think the big reason why so many folks are disappointed is because a lot of "insiders" on twitter and elsewhere have been edging Indiana fans with "Conwell to IU" type posts. And then he gets to his next stop and immediately commits lmao It's not necessarily a knock on Indiana, the fans, DeVries, etc., because we don't know what all went into that decision. I think that as a fanbase we are just so overly tired by our top targets choosing to play elsewhere, especially when elsewhere is right down the road. Always the bridesmaid type sh!t. I get the frustration. I'm frustrated. But portal season is far from over. Lots more to come.

Not every year is the same as the last in terms of who is available in the portal. Nor is every player's decision-making paradigm the same as the next. Let's not act like a single recruiting miss will define this portal season. We have 10 more roster spots to fill. There are a lot of other irons in the fire. Just chill.

I thought we were done talking about Brad Stevens, good lord people give it a rest

I'm not saying that if DeVries never wins a BTT during his tenure in Bloomington that it would be considered a failure. There's plenty of different metrics that can add up to a successful tenure. Bob Knight was 1-3 in the BTT (granted he only coached in 3 of them so it's not a fair sample size) but the point nonetheless is that that's the worst BTT win% of any IU head coach. However, hardware matters. Winning tournaments matters. Being the best at something matters. It will always matter. And nowhere will care more deeply or celebrate more passionately a team that can win any sort of major championship, whether it's the Big Ten regular season/tourney title or national title. Any coach that can do that will immediately become a hero to Hoosier Nation.

with a glass of Chianti hopefully no cork taint

never doubt the turge

Seen it many times, many places (including on this thread), from reputable sources that Drew Adams is joining DeVries' staff.

If I remember correct, DeVries had 2 SoCal kids committed to play for him at WVU. Seems like SoCal is an area he likes to recruit for whatever reason. Must have good connections there or something.