Okram

People are focusing too heavily on where IU stacks up in NIL (top 5 top 10 top 15 etc), but the biggest change over the last year is that teams 10-40 all have serious financial commitments now too + rev sharing and everyone will prioritize their various targets differently on their respective pay scale.

A good post. I just think considering the context of Indiana not finishing in the top 25 of Kenpom since 2016 that finishing 25th or better would be great. Michigan finished 21st as an example from last year. It was a great season for them after a rough patch. 2023-30th (with TJD!) and 2020-34th are the best Indiana efforts in a decade.

Yep 20-40 is probably where the range of expectations should be. Better or the top end would obviously be great. Bottom end or worse could be painful. We will see.

They underestimated how sensitive people can be about their hobbies.

Outside of experience, he brings an elite defensive BPM in 2025 that would have ranked first in the country for the 2023-2024 season. He’s obviously limited offensively (although if he played with 4 versatile offensive players and multiple guys that can make plays that may not stand out as much) outside of keeping the ball moving. And I’m not saying he would or should get starter minutes, but he’s an ultimate team player that makes lineups better while he’s on the floor. If he somehow gets another year, they might as well keep him around.

Sprained ankle almost immediately after checking into game vs Miami OH at Gainbridge. Only remember because I was there.

The Leal hate is wild. It’s one thing to point out the roster limitations, but he’s a good player and representative of the program.

If you overpay a little bit to get the guys you want and have targeted to make sure you get them..good. For the most part, every power 5 team can afford all but the top handful of guys. Name of the game. Then you have to prove you targeted the right guys…good.

I wasn’t really advocating for or against just laying out the case that he should have likely taken a redshirt that season since he wasn’t part of the plan as anything but a practice player at that point. It likely cost him a lot of money given the season he had this year proving he could be a valuable connector and defender. His defensive box plus minus this season would have been the best in the country in 2023-2024.

He has a similar (yet weaker especially since he got a covid year anyway) case to Goode. He would have had a great case if, like I said above, they hadn’t played him a few times late in the season for a couple minutes. Leal played 11 games in 2022-2023 for a total of 24 minutes. He injured his ankle early in the season and could have just been shut down rather than log 17 minutes in the 8 games he appeared in after the injury. His 11th game was 1 minute vs Kent State in the round of 64.

Leal actually could have had one more year if they just sat him after his ankle injury in 2022-2023 instead of playing him a handful of times in mop up duty the last couple minutes of a few games.

Harris. The anti-Mgbako.

Justin Smith was often wedged into playing the 3 at Indiana, and then thrived as the 4 and often the 5 at Arkansas on an elite 8 team. I’d like to pick up another post player, but it appears even if they get another one this is going to be a big departure from the last 8 years. Maybe it won’t work going with more ball handlers/shooters and less size inside defensively, but I’m willing to give it a shot. This kind of roster construction and style change is long overdue.

I was somewhat surprised to hear Sidney Parrish say she didn’t live with teammates while at IU.

Not really. Good/disruptive defensively and limited offensively. Which is fine because they thankfully won’t be dumping the ball to him and waiting around for something to happen very often.