Player decisions

[RaceToTheTop 24,954]

20 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

Which is why it makes zero sense that he hasn't committed yet.  He's getting bad advice from somewhere.  Both TJD and Lander's dads "committed" within 5 min. of speaking to Woodson.  

What makes it bad advice?  Because he hasn't recommitted to the school that we want him to?

It's not that simple.

[8bucks 6,351]

My position is that I would like to stop the victory parade for Woodson's recruiting abilities until he can maintain or upgrade our 12-15 team. I'm just saying this is a good test. 

This is a fair take. Part of the upgrade is filling his staff which has been better than expected so far. Still some critical pieces left though.

He also kept 1 of the 2 blue chip current roster guys. Both were likely gone. Further he kept 3 more guys who we thought could leave plus he was able to keep our 4* recruits.

There is one more big fish in AF and then it would be good to grab some portal guys who can fill some holes. Before landing these pieces he has delivered very well even if he misses here. But he has not upgraded the roster yet only, hopefully, the staff. This alone may need to be enough until we can prove it on the court.

Avoiding a disaster when most of the national media criticized your hiring is still a great start, but in order to move up to the top quartile of the BT there is still work to be done.

I like the guys we have on staff and on the roster to start getting that work done.


Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners mobile app

[Honkyman 1,670]

If Armaan Franklin and Race Thompson do not return, the team is losing the 2, 3 & 4 scorers from the past season (including Al Durham). Among the returning players, Jerome Hunter seems to have the most potential to step up as a reliable scorer. Joey Brunk will score making up some of the deficit. Parker Stewart can score but can he make up for the loss of Armaan? Probably not. Perhaps, Rob Phinisee and Kristian Lander will improve their scoring numbers. If those two guys leave, there will be a big hole in scoring to make up just to get back to where the IU team was in 2020-21. So I agree that it is much too early to project instant success for the Hoosiers next year. If Woodson is able to land some top transfers, that will obviously help. But when getting beyond the big names (most of whom will not consider IU), there are mostly roll players in the transfer portal. We shall see.

[IUCrazy2 2,345]

10 hours ago, Zachetology said:

My position is that I would like to stop the victory parade for Woodson's recruiting abilities until he can maintain or upgrade our 12-15 team. I'm just saying this is a good test. 

And Jackson-Davis was....?  He already passed the biggest test for the current team.

[Trish 11,505]

23 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

And Jackson-Davis was....?  He already passed the biggest test for the current team.

He needs to win at the end of the day. Ideally he needs to win more than CTC did here. TJD was a nice treat. Landing Frank and Race would be huge as well. 

Archie Miller landed the biggest recruit in Indiana Basketball history (or damn near close) and that didn't turn out so well sadly for some reasons.

 

[Hurryin' Hoosiers 1,952]

27 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

And Jackson-Davis was....?  He already passed the biggest test for the current team.

I would say it is probably a little easier to get someone to stay than it is to get someone to come.

[IUCrazy2 2,345]

5 minutes ago, Trish said:

He needs to win at the end of the day. Ideally he needs to win more than CTC did here. TJD was a nice treat. Landing Frank and Race would be huge as well. 

Archie Miller landed the biggest recruit in Indiana Basketball history (or damn near close) and that didn't turn out so well sadly for some reasons.

 

He absolutely needs to win games, but the OP was talking strictly about recruiting wins.  Currently Woodson is undefeated in that metric with some games still to go this year.

I have eventually gone negative on most of our recent hires, but it wasn't done 2 weeks after they were hired.  You sometimes get the impression that the thought process for some people is:  "I did not like the hire, let me seek out any and all information that I can put on the internet to show I was right.  If good news is received, how do I create the small storm cloud off in the distance?"

Ultimately Woodson will be judged on wins and losses but the guy has done just about everything people could have asked of him up to this point.  Retain our best player?  Check.  Retain solid recruiter from prior staff?  Check.  Retain the 2 higher rated freshmen with high ceilings?  Check.  Pull in the transfer who is expected to help with shooting? Check.  Bring in solid recruiter from in conference rival who many thought was a coaching candidate?  Check.

Like I understand not wanting to crown Woodson the King of IU yet, I am not ready to do that, but my Lord, it is ok to be optimistic about how things have gone.  People who are a constant, negative wet blanket get old.  Can something actually go bad first before we start bitching?

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 8,897]

11 hours ago, Zachetology said:

My position is that I would like to stop the victory parade for Woodson's recruiting abilities until he can maintain or upgrade our 12-15 team. I'm just saying this is a good test. 

So why wasn't TJD a good test? He's pretty well "maintained" our team, now.

[Jungle George 11]

I am regularly checking this site to find updates regarding Armaan and Race. I hope they both come back, but either way just ready to see a resolution. 

[IUCrazy2 2,345]

12 minutes ago, iuswingman said:

I would say it is probably a little easier to get someone to stay than it is to get someone to come.

And I would say people keeping moving the goal posts.  After he was hired, people said his #1 job was getting players back.  So far, 1 guy is officially gone and that guy was gone when Miller was here.  He is currently undefeated in retaining players with a few still to be played.  Jury still out on the transfer market.

My initial point still stands though, the media is right about some of this fanbase.  Never happy.  Never content.  Rarely upbeat.  Mostly negative.

[Trish 11,505]

3 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

He absolutely needs to win games, but the OP was talking strictly about recruiting wins.  Currently Woodson is undefeated in that metric with some games still to go this year.

I have eventually gone negative on most of our recent hires, but it wasn't done 2 weeks after they were hired.  You sometimes get the impression that the thought process for some people is:  "I did not like the hire, let me seek out any and all information that I can put on the internet to show I was right.  If good news is received, how do I create the small storm cloud off in the distance?"

Ultimately Woodson will be judged on wins and losses but the guy has done just about everything people could have asked of him up to this point.  Retain our best player?  Check.  Retain solid recruiter from prior staff?  Check.  Retain the 2 higher rated freshmen with high ceilings?  Check.  Pull in the transfer who is expected to help with shooting? Check.  Bring in solid recruiter from in conference rival who many thought was a coaching candidate?  Check.

Like I understand not wanting to crown Woodson the King of IU yet, I am not ready to do that, but my Lord, it is ok to be optimistic about how things have gone.  People who are a constant, negative wet blanket get old.  Can something actually go bad first before we start bitching?

Yeah things are looking pretty sharp for being two weeks in on the job. Our coaching staff is looking pretty darn good and we retained an All-American. It looks well! 

Woodson is setting himself up for, dare I say, high expectations the first year? We'll see what the roster turns out to be. Evidentially he wants to win right a way, good for him but I hope it doesn't turn into high expectations - dud results. I like the approach however. He is older, I'm sure he doesn't want to rebuild for two years lol 

[Ghost of Rick Majerus 817]

9 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

He absolutely needs to win games, but the OP was talking strictly about recruiting wins.  Currently Woodson is undefeated in that metric with some games still to go this year.

I have eventually gone negative on most of our recent hires, but it wasn't done 2 weeks after they were hired.  You sometimes get the impression that the thought process for some people is:  "I did not like the hire, let me seek out any and all information that I can put on the internet to show I was right.  If good news is received, how do I create the small storm cloud off in the distance?"

Ultimately Woodson will be judged on wins and losses but the guy has done just about everything people could have asked of him up to this point.  Retain our best player?  Check.  Retain solid recruiter from prior staff?  Check.  Retain the 2 higher rated freshmen with high ceilings?  Check.  Pull in the transfer who is expected to help with shooting? Check.  Bring in solid recruiter from in conference rival who many thought was a coaching candidate?  Check.

Like I understand not wanting to crown Woodson the King of IU yet, I am not ready to do that, but my Lord, it is ok to be optimistic about how things have gone.  People who are a constant, negative wet blanket get old.  Can something actually go bad first before we start bitching?

Best post I have read in a while. Well said!

[reconmkd 4,331]

3 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

And I would say people keeping moving the goal posts.  After he was hired, people said his #1 job was getting players back.  So far, 1 guy is officially gone and that guy was gone when Miller was here.  He is currently undefeated in retaining players with a few still to be played.  Jury still out on the transfer market.

My initial point still stands though, the media is right about some of this fanbase.  Never happy.  Never content.  Rarely upbeat.  Mostly negative.

I would like to add un-informed to the fanbase list. Have you seen some of the comments on FB and Twitter? People don't know players names, don't know the players abilities, still think Matta is a coach for the team, and the list goes on.  I just smh in disbelief at times and remember how glad I am that I am here around so much knowledge and passion for the Hoosiers.

[Hurryin' Hoosiers 1,952]

19 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

And I would say people keeping moving the goal posts.  After he was hired, people said his #1 job was getting players back.  So far, 1 guy is officially gone and that guy was gone when Miller was here.  He is currently undefeated in retaining players with a few still to be played.  Jury still out on the transfer market.

My initial point still stands though, the media is right about some of this fanbase.  Never happy.  Never content.  Rarely upbeat.  Mostly negative.

I wasn't being negative and you can't say people are moving the goal posts if you're comparing posts from different people.   Using only posts from me, please show where i have moved the goal posts. 

I was meh when woodson was first hired but so far he has done well filling out 2 assistant positions and getting most players to stay with the team.  I was always on the boat to give him a chance and so far so good.

But I'm also not going to be rainbows and unicorns.  Yes, it was an accomplishment to hold on to tjd and the others.  But I also don't think it's the same as convincing a 5 star player to come play for him when that player has no connection to IU previously.  What Woodson has done so far is a good start.

If you want to call that negative, then fine.  But don't blame me for moving goal posts when that has no basis in facts. 

 

[DWB 1,098]

While I understand the POV that "he has to win" in order to validate himself, I don't agree that he's guilty of not being able to coach college ball before he's even had time to eat a full meal, much less practice.

Obviously he's watched a lot of film on all the players, or he would not have tried to recruit them back into the fold. If he didn't think he could win with this group, he would have made major changes. Any coach would.

I dumb-founded on how any IU fan could possibly think that this team won't perform light-years better than last year's team with the right coaching, motivation, and player improvement teaching. 

I also think that Woody will name TJD the captain of this team. No more "popular vote" election of captain. And by early indications, TJD is more than ready to take on that role.

[IUCrazy2 2,345]

7 minutes ago, reconmkd said:

I would like to add un-informed to the fanbase list. Have you seen some of the comments on FB and Twitter? People don't know players names, don't know the players abilities, still think Matta is a coach for the team, and the list goes on.  I just smh in disbelief at times and remember how glad I am that I am here around so much knowledge and passion for the Hoosiers.

The people on Facebook and Twitter need to just tone it down.  "We're IU and we should get whatever coach we want, we're too good to have landed Mike Woodson."  This coming from the same people who have been arguing how bad we suck for the past 20 years.  North Carolina has definitively been better than us over the past 20 years.  No competition really and I think, on paper, we had a better hire than them.  I was perusing the Kentucky forums for Brooks news and those guys are saying some stuff that just is not reality anymore IMO.  "Ha ha at Indiana and UNC, they go in the family and ignore these other options.  We're UK though and can get whoever we want."  Can you though?  The next hire at UK and the next at Duke are going to be real interesting.  You can win a title at Baylor and get paid a crap ton of money to do it.  And you can do that without a psychotic fanbase who believes it is their birthright to be in the Final Four every year.

The landscape is changing and I think we got the best hire we had available.  A bunch of the other guys we were pining after had baggage, are currently flavors of the month, or came from the same background as Woody but just left earlier.

I am happy with the direction of things for the first time in awhile.  We still have to go and win games but it at least looks like we have a plan and everyone is on board so far.

[Hoosierinbham 160]

34 minutes ago, iuswingman said:

I would say it is probably a little easier to get someone to stay than it is to get someone to come.

It depends on the situation.  Keeping a content kid from the state that loves the school, yes.  Keeping a kid that loved the former coach, had negative experiences with fans booing and social media, or just wants a fresh start? Probably not as easy as a new recruit with a blank slate.

[cybergates 423]

Just now, IUCrazy2 said:

The people on Facebook and Twitter need to just tone it down.  "We're IU and we should get whatever coach we want, we're too good to have landed Mike Woodson."  This coming from the same people who have been arguing how bad we suck for the past 20 years.  North Carolina has definitively been better than us over the past 20 years.  No competition really and I think, on paper, we had a better hire than them.  I was perusing the Kentucky forums for Brooks news and those guys are saying some stuff that just is not reality anymore IMO.  "Ha ha at Indiana and UNC, they go in the family and ignore these other options.  We're UK though and can get whoever we want."  Can you though?  The next hire at UK and the next at Duke are going to be real interesting.  You can win a title at Baylor and get paid a crap ton of money to do it.  And you can do that without a psychotic fanbase who believes it is their birthright to be in the Final Four every year.

The landscape is changing and I think we got the best hire we had available.  A bunch of the other guys we were pining after had baggage, are currently flavors of the month, or came from the same background as Woody but just left earlier.

I am happy with the direction of things for the first time in awhile.  We still have to go and win games but it at least looks like we have a plan and everyone is on board so far.

Reading this made me think Scott Drew will be the next UK coach.

[Hurryin' Hoosiers 1,952]

Just now, Hoosierinbham said:

It depends on the situation.  Keeping a content kid from the state that loves the school, yes.  Keeping a kid that loved the former coach, had negative experiences with fans booing and social media, or just wants a fresh start? Probably not as easy as a new recruit with a blank slate.

I don't know anything more than their body language on the court and what has been stated by the players but I was getting the impression not many kids loved the former coach and that the exodus would have happened if we kept Archie.  

[triple 408]

2 minutes ago, DWB said:

I dumb-founded on how any IU fan could possibly think that this team won't perform light-years better than last year's team with the right coaching, motivation, and player improvement teaching. 

Indeed.  I wish Miller well but he was stuck in quicksand and pulled the team in with him.  To the point that the guys would have had more success without any coaching at all...if they had just played streetball.