Player decisions

[Golfman25]

55 minutes ago, brumdog45 said:

I think the whole 'wild west' transfer portal this year is keeping a lot of guys from being able to totally informed decisions....both coaches and players.  A player could commit today and then five days later, they get recruited over or someone who they thought was leaving a school ends up staying.  There are just so many moving parts.

Let's say that Armaan has decided that he'd like go to say, Louisville BUT that is contingent on them not bringing in another wing that he could be sharing minutes with.  Some schools are targeting kids, trying to get them commit as quick as possible and when they do, they are done -- others are going to keep trying to improve their team regardless of who has committed.

Now let's reverse this and use Xavier Johnson.  Maybe he is set on coming to IU under the assumption that Franklin is leaving, thus insuring himself a good chunk of minutes.  From his vantage, committing before Franklin commits elsewhere would be a mistake.

To me, that's the wrong way for a player to look at it.  You need to go and compete for the job.  Beat the other dude out and play.  Trying to project where you'll get time vs. where you won't just ends up in dissapointment.  There will always be new guys coming in, ready willing and able to take your job.  

[Hoosierfan1901]

KG usually has a good insight. Wonder what he means by this?

 

[RaceToTheTop]

2 minutes ago, Hooserfan1901 said:

KG usually has a good insight. Wonder what he means by this?

 

I don't know if you feel the good insights are coming from his twitter account, but all I see are pretty much betting advice.  He's the same guy who said he could come up with '30 more realistic' choices for IU's head coach than Woodson.

[Hoosierfan1901]

1 minute ago, brumdog45 said:

I don't know if you feel the good insights are coming from his twitter account, but all I see are pretty much betting advice.  He's the same guy who said he could come up with '30 more realistic' choices for IU's head coach than Woodson.

Maybe, I’ve seen him say stuff that was pretty spot on, but they could have been easy guesses too

[VO5]

12 minutes ago, Hooserfan1901 said:

KG usually has a good insight. Wonder what he means by this?

 

Was just about to come and post this. Guessing it’s about AF but that’s a total guess. 

[HoosierAloha]

Part of upgrading talent is keeping the most talented players you had before.  Armaan was one of our more talented players and it would suck to lose him to any of those others schools.  If we're truly going to compete in the Big 1.0 next season we'll need to keep our most talented players AND add to that talent.  Keeping Armaan and adding another talented guard would do wonders for this team moving forward.  The elite teams don't just have a guy at one position but multiple guys at multiple positions. 

We were just talking about how TJD was really the only player at his position that other Big 1.0 teams would want.  Armaan would probably be second on that list.  We need to keep him and add to it.  P. Stewart was a good start but a Xavier Johnson or similar player could move IU up the ladder in the Big 1.0.

[IUHoosierJoe]

48 minutes ago, HoosierAloha said:

Part of upgrading talent is keeping the most talented players you had before.  Armaan was one of our more talented players and it would suck to lose him to any of those others schools.  If we're truly going to compete in the Big 1.0 next season we'll need to keep our most talented players AND add to that talent.  Keeping Armaan and adding another talented guard would do wonders for this team moving forward.  The elite teams don't just have a guy at one position but multiple guys at multiple positions. 

We were just talking about how TJD was really the only player at his position that other Big 1.0 teams would want.  Armaan would probably be second on that list.  We need to keep him and add to it.  P. Stewart was a good start but a Xavier Johnson or similar player could move IU up the ladder in the Big 1.0.

Not disagreeing with you, but I also think we're returning to an era when it is going to take something in addition to talent to be an Indiana player.  For years, we have wanted players who play with passion and understand what it means to wear the Indiana jersey.  Before the players can understand that, the coaches have to understand it.  Now we have coaches who understand it.  And I think the coaches will decide that not every talented player is necessarily a good fit as an Indiana player if they're not going to buy in.

Edited April 7, 2021 by IUHoosierJoe

[Zachetology]

1 hour ago, hoosierbgh said:

If Franklin leaves that would make 1 in 4 that Woody failed to recruit back, so your contention is what, that a 75% success rate in recruiting is failure or that the one lost outweighs the three won? Either way it kind of sounds like you've taken the position that Woody can't recruit and are grasping at straws for evidence to support it. 

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. 

[go iu bb]

56 minutes ago, IUHoosierJoe said:

Not disagreeing with you, but I also think we're returning to an era when it is going to take something in addition to talent to be an Indiana player.  For years, we have wanted players who play with passion and understand what it means to wear the Indiana jersey.  Before the players can understand that, the coaches have to understand it.  Now we have coaches who understand it.  And I think the coaches will decide that not every talented player is necessarily a good fit as an Indiana player if they're not going to buy in.

I get what you're saying but Franklin was one of the players that really seemed to play hard all the time. His improvement over the summer speaks of his passion for the game. That drive to win and hustle during games is what's been missing overall from the team and Franklin was one of the few who showed it.

[Golfman25]

54 minutes ago, go iu bb said:

I get what you're saying but Franklin was one of the players that really seemed to play hard all the time. His improvement over the summer speaks of his passion for the game. That drive to win and hustle during games is what's been missing overall from the team and Franklin was one of the few who showed it.

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.  

[Golfman25]

1 hour 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. 

Got to give Archie credit.  He sucked.  Last year's team was better than 12-15.  This year's team is going to be a lot better, even with the same players.  

[RaceToTheTop]

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]

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.


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[Honkyman]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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?

[CSP]

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]

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.