IU Basketball News and Notes

[Stuhoo]

22 hours ago, mamasa said:

I think a lot of student enthusiasm can be "earned?" if Hoosier Hysteria is done right. The first Woodson HH was exciting, kids bought in. I think the fans honestly need to see that DeVries is solid as a coach and person- he will be the constant at IU, not the kids who come through the program. 

Not because of Hoosier Hysteria, but I love the phrase “earned enthusiasm.”

[Uspshoosier]

16 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

For the millionth time this off-season I hope DeVries is a basketball savant and sees things the entire basketball landscape doesn’t.

He is just a college basketball coach that has been successful where ever he has been.   He will either win enough that everyone jumps on board or he doesn’t and people can say see I told you he sucked and IU fans can have another 4 years of clamoring for a coach that isn’t coming.   Who knows if he will work out or not however I’m excited as heck to find out.   Can’t wait to see how the season unfolds.   

[HoosierHoopster]

4 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

He is just a college basketball coach that has been successful where ever he has been.   He will either win enough that everyone jumps on board or he doesn’t and people can say see I told you he sucked and IU fans can have another 4 years of clamoring for a coach that isn’t coming.   Who knows if he will work out or not however I’m excited as heck to find out.   Can’t wait to see how the season unfolds.   

I’ll say this — we have every reason to expect actual modern bball, and FUN basketball— sets for outside shooting, proven high output outside shooters, outlet passing and transition D, high energy players— looking forward to the season!

[WayneFleekHoosier]

He is just a college basketball coach that has been successful where ever he has been.   He will either win enough that everyone jumps on board or he doesn’t and people can say see I told you he sucked and IU fans can have another 4 years of clamoring for a coach that isn’t coming.   Who knows if he will work out or not however I’m excited as heck to find out.   Can’t wait to see how the season unfolds.   

I’m not saying any of that. I think he’s a good coach. I think this team could be fun. I think the true basketball enthusiasts like myself and many others are gonna love the offense and it’s motion. The off ball stuff. Hustle.

My point is the hype and enthusiasm isn’t there for the average fan. Ultimately winning is the great decider. We’ve basically sucked for 10 years. It can’t be too much worse with what we spend.

The lack of hype might help these mid major guys slide in with less pressure.

I hope we follow the Kentucky, UL, Michigan trajectory and start building something that begins to look like a blue blood program. And ultimately that’s a me problem because I think/want us to be a top 10-15 program each year. It’s probably never gonna happen. BYU, Washington are outspending us. Lots for schools are trying to do what we are trying to do. UK, UConn, Kansas, DUKE have the advantage of Success, reputation, and money. I guess we don’t get to that level without some immense sustained success.

Football is gonna get 75%-80% of revenue sharing. Mens hoops is gonna get 15-20. I guess we will see how that works out. Not gonna lie, I’ve watched IU football my whole life and last season was special. I’m not mad about Football being contenders.


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[AH1971]

On 7/8/2025 at 10:27 PM, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Genuinely curious how the fanbase (not the BTB sunshine pumpers) responds to this years team. Feel like it could be slow out of the gate and if not winning could be a rough start to things. Hoping for the Cignetti, pack the stadium by winning approach is the way it goes. It kinda feels like a school transitioning away from basketball and pivoting towards football. The fanfare and online enthusiasm for this team is as low as I can remember since Crean’s start. Clearly this isn’t Crean level talent but in a todays version of college basketball arms race we are behind the 8 ball. I can’t fathom a school touting itself as a top 10 NIL program building such an unheralded roster. For the millionth time this off-season I hope DeVries is a basketball savant and sees things the entire basketball landscape doesn’t.


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This current landscape just produced a National Champion that was projected to finish 7th in their conference featuring a bunch of mid-major transfers at guard and 2-3* recruits in the front court. Talk about unheralded.

[AH1971]

2 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

I’m not saying any of that. I think he’s a good coach. I think this team could be fun. I think the true basketball enthusiasts like myself and many others are gonna love the offense and it’s motion. The off ball stuff. Hustle.

My point is the hype and enthusiasm isn’t there for the average fan. Ultimately winning is the great decider. We’ve basically sucked for 10 years. It can’t be too much worse with what we spend.

The lack of hype might help these mid major guys slide in with less pressure.

I hope we follow the Kentucky, UL, Michigan trajectory and start building something that begins to look like a blue blood program. And ultimately that’s a me problem because I think/want us to be a top 10-15 program each year. It’s probably never gonna happen. BYU, Washington are outspending us. Lots for schools are trying to do what we are trying to do. UK, UConn, Kansas, DUKE have the advantage of Success, reputation, and money. I guess we don’t get to that level without some immense sustained success.

Football is gonna get 75%-80% of revenue sharing. Mens hoops is gonna get 15-20. I guess we will see how that works out. Not gonna lie, I’ve watched IU football my whole life and last season was special. I’m not mad about Football being contenders.


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It’s July. The hype right now is for the start of football season…where it should be this time of year. 

[Stuhoo]

 

Listened to the Rabjohns podcast with, as a wise poster has nicknamed them ... "the Dorks." Some informative takeaways:

• Rabby has spoken with "12-15 coaches" that he says have no motivation to lie about Devries. To a man, each and every one says that he makes players better, is very good at establishing roles for players, and that his teams always overperform expectations.
• Practices have been, without exception, very organized, relatively short, and purposeful. Cignetti-like.
• Speaking of expectations, Rabby was fairly convinced that the Rothstein early "IU 15thin the B1G" projection was a product of:
  • It's summer when it's hard to get clicks.
  • Only about five fanbases stay engaged for July college bball content, and we're one of them.
  • Projecting IUBB 8-12th this year does not prompt discussion or clicks; only projecting them unnaturally high or low will do that. 
• Now the good stuff:
• Rabby currently sees three guaranteed starters: Tucker, Wilkerson, and Conerway.
  • Tucker apparently is our best player in practice, and is going full contact five on five.
  • Lots of good stuff about Conerway as a disruptive defensive guard.
• Enright is a top eight rotation player and the backup point guard. Not a starter.
• The other two starters are likely to come from the foursome of Bailey (the most likely), Alexis, Harris, and Miles.
• Dorn is still recovering from a last season foot injury, and has not been able to go at all. He is not looking like a rotation player any time soon.
• Drake will likely play some as the current ninth player.
• Sisley is confident and hyper-competitive; he could play some and would slot as the tenth most likely used player currently.
• Ritisic is not athletic. Not at all. He was described as good catch and shoot kid with a good attitude who will need a year or two before he adjusts to the speed of college hoops. Developmental only. Someday maybe Matt Roth, or maybe Grant Gelon.

 

[Home Jersey]

24 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

 

Listened to the Rabjohns podcast with, as a wise poster has nicknamed them ... "the Dorks." Some informative takeaways:

• Rabby has spoken with "12-15 coaches" that he says have no motivation to lie about Devries. To a man, each and every one says that he makes players better, is very good at establishing roles for players, and that his teams always overperform expectations.
• Practices have been, without exception, very organized, relatively short, and purposeful. Cignetti-like.
• Speaking of expectations, Rabby was fairly convinced that the Rothstein early "IU 15thin the B1G" projection was a product of:
  • It's summer when it's hard to get clicks.
  • Only about five fanbases stay engaged for July college bball content, and we're one of them.
  • Projecting IUBB 8-12th this year does not prompt discussion or clicks; only projecting them unnaturally high or low will do that. 
• Now the good stuff:
• Rabby currently sees three guaranteed starters: Tucker, Wilkerson, and Conerway.
  • Tucker apparently is our best player in practice, and is going full contact five on five.
  • Lots of good stuff about Conerway as a disruptive defensive guard.
• Enright is a top eight rotation player and the backup point guard. Not a starter.
• The other two starters are likely to come from the foursome of Bailey (the most likely), Alexis, Harris, and Miles.
• Dorn is still recovering from a last season foot injury, and has not been able to go at all. He is not looking like a rotation player any time soon.
• Drake will likely play some as the current ninth player.
• Sisley is confident and hyper-competitive; he could play some and would slot as the tenth most likely used player currently.
• Ritisic is not athletic. Not at all. He was described as good catch and shoot kid with a good attitude who will need a year or two before he adjusts to the speed of college hoops. Developmental only. Someday maybe Matt Roth, or maybe Grant Gelon.

 

Thanks for sharing, nice to have some more substance to discuss in the long offseason. I wonder if Dorn has a redshirt year, not that it would necessarily make sense to use this year. And interesting Bailey is not penciled in as a starter apparently yet. Think that bodes well for what we can expect from Harris / Alexis, which makes me feel better about front court depth if they’re really competing that closely. Little disappointed with the Ritisic description but that’s probably all you can expect for the 12th roster spot. Deuce Drake is a real wildcard to me this year, very curious to see his role and how well he does in it at this level. Not too much longer before we get a preview in PR thankfully. 

[Stuhoo]

7 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Thanks for sharing, nice to have some more substance to discuss in the long offseason. I wonder if Dorn has a redshirt year, not that it would necessarily make sense to use this year. And interesting Bailey is not penciled in as a starter apparently yet. Think that bodes well for what we can expect from Harris / Alexis, which makes me feel better about front court depth if they’re really competing that closely. Little disappointed with the Ritisic description but that’s probably all you can expect for the 12th roster spot. Deuce Drake is a real wildcard to me this year, very curious to see his role and how well he does in it at this level. Not too much longer before we get a preview in PR thankfully. 

Drake was not an especially 'cut above' player at Drexel and there's no reason to think he'll ever be a key piece if we're a tournament team. More like one of those garden variety guards that Minnesota has filled their roster with. And that's okay - he'll be an experienced, playable back bench guy.

[Home Jersey]

11 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Drake was not an especially 'cut above' player at Drexel and there's no reason to think he'll ever be a key piece if we're a tournament team. More like one of those garden variety guards that Minnesota has filled their roster with. And that's okay - he'll be an experienced, playable back bench guy.

Yup not expecting a big contribution but hoping he can be solid in the minutes he does get. Jumping to the B10 should be challenging for him I’d think. Like you said, an experienced playable back of the bench guy - nice to have two years of eligibility too

[Uspshoosier]

In my opinion is still mostly an optics issue regarding IU and NIL.   Back in the 80s and 90s IU was one of only a handful of teams that was strictly a basketball school.   Nowadays conferences have actually put money into their basketball programs and everyone else at the Power 5 level have caught up.   Football schools are actually using money for their basketball programs.   With NIL it was reported last year IU was one of their first programs to embrace it.  They were reported as one of the few who spent millions on a roster.  This year other programs stepped up and started pumping money into their NIL.  The gap between the top spenders and everyone else shrank significantly.   IU could still be a top 5-10 spender but the gap from 10 to everyone is isn’t enough to make a difference.    If it was reported Kansas, Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina was the schools spending more then IU then no a lot of people would be mad however since it’s BYU, Texas Tech and other non blue blood schools some don’t like the optics 

[Pagoda]

Imo IUBB’s NIL is not an issue.  We just spent #10 or so money.  If our fans get excited more money will flow in.  That’s enough to win big.

USPS makes a good point that the difference in spending among the top-15 or so schools isn’t that much.  Probably within 20-25% of each other aside from a few outlier schools that may change from year to year (like Duke or BYU).

Buying a title in CBB looks pretty hard to do, and IU is never gonna spend $20M on a roster to try.

If IUBB is going to be as good as we want it to be, we don’t need more money.  We need CDD and his staff to be really good.  That sounds obvious, but it’s that simple.  You either recruit the right kids and get the most from them as a collective unit or you don’t.  And that’s a good thing for CBB — of course a program needs table stakes money, but it takes a lot more than that to win big.

I think this staff could be really good.  We’ll see.

[Stuhoo]

At the risk of oversimplifying things, it's a matter of

1. Having a generally competitive budget,
2. Creating budgetary value as a product of relationships and the staff's ability to develop, and then
3. Spending the budget wisely.

[Demo]

https://x.com/IndianaMBB/status/1943339439608205799/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1943339439608205799&currentTweetUser=IndianaMBB
 

Coach Clark mic’d up.

[Pagoda]

16 minutes ago, Demo said:

https://x.com/IndianaMBB/status/1943339439608205799/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1943339439608205799&currentTweetUser=IndianaMBB
 

Coach Clark mic’d up.

Seems like a great guy.

And of course our guy Prince is all over it.

 

[HoosierHoopster]

1 hour ago, Pagoda said:

 

If IUBB is going to be as good as we want it to be, we don’t need more money.  We need CDD and his staff to be really good.  That sounds obvious, but it’s that simple.  You either recruit the right kids and get the most from them as a collective unit or you don’t.  And that’s a good thing for CBB — of course a program needs table stakes money, but it takes a lot more than that to win big.

Couldn't agree more with the above. It's not a money issue, enough money is there, how we do will depend on coaching, the right mix of recruited and portaled players, and player health.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

5 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Couldn't agree more with the above. It's not a money issue, enough money is there, how we do will depend on coaching, the right mix of recruited and portaled players, and player health.

Teams that spend, mostly win.  Been that way for years.  Now,more  teams spend, so it’s tougher.  But the usual suspects have re-upped their game.  Indiana has never spent enough until last season and they made terrible guard decisions and put the money in the wrong hands of a lost, lazy Head Coach.  
 

I’ve got faith in DeVries being a basketball coach.  A motivator.  Our Money hasn’t been good enough for a long time.  Last year was a commitment to be better. This year was a commitment to more, but the market fouled us.  I think our guys hope it rebounds back but I don’t think it’s ever coming back.  Hopefully we can adjust and stay near the top.  Ultimately you don’t need players #1-5 in the recruiting class, but you need the right mixture of talent, and you’ve got to have a special talent or 2.  You need to mostly be able to land who you want and who fits what you want to do.  Then ultimately outcoaching/strategizing some teams now and again might come back into play. 
 

Hurley took adequate money and just made every fricking right decision imaginable now has the reputation to win recruitments with less or equal.  A few coaches have separated themselves, but money has to be there.  Purdue gets teased about its NIL but it’s significantly more than advertised.  Edey and Smith were offered VERY lucrative deals to leave and Purdue was able to do enough to keep their guys.  They have something special going on there with Painter over this last 8-10 years.  

[HoosierHoopster]

1 hour ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Teams that spend, mostly win.  Been that way for years.  Now,more  teams spend, so it’s tougher.  But the usual suspects have re-upped their game.  Indiana has never spent enough until last season and they made terrible guard decisions and put the money in the wrong hands of a lost, lazy Head Coach.  
 

I’ve got faith in DeVries being a basketball coach.  A motivator.  Our Money hasn’t been good enough for a long time.  Last year was a commitment to be better. This year was a commitment to more, but the market fouled us.  I think our guys hope it rebounds back but I don’t think it’s ever coming back.  Hopefully we can adjust and stay near the top.  Ultimately you don’t need players #1-5 in the recruiting class, but you need the right mixture of talent, and you’ve got to have a special talent or 2.  You need to mostly be able to land who you want and who fits what you want to do.  Then ultimately outcoaching/strategizing some teams now and again might come back into play. 
 

Hurley took adequate money and just made every fricking right decision imaginable now has the reputation to win recruitments with less or equal.  A few coaches have separated themselves, but money has to be there.  Purdue gets teased about its NIL but it’s significantly more than advertised.  Edey and Smith were offered VERY lucrative deals to leave and Purdue was able to do enough to keep their guys.  They have something special going on there with Painter over this last 8-10 years.  

Yes money matters but seriously we’re spending enough, it will come down to coaching, health the right mix of talent, which includes recruiting going forward. To me, DeVries has started well, and he’s done well in turning programs around consistently. Not going to sit around stewing about whether we could’ve spent even more.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

3 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Yes money matters but seriously we’re spending enough, it will come down to coaching, health the right mix of talent, which includes recruiting going forward. To me, DeVries has started well, and he’s done well in turning programs around consistently. Not going to sit around stewing about whether we could’ve spent even more.

“To me, DeVries started well and he’s done well in turning programs around”. 
 

I’ve got no problem with that.  
 

To me, DeVries was a strong mid major coach at Drake and had a solid year, yet not spectacular year at West Virginia. I’m optimistic about him but don’t have any sort of extreme confidence.  I think our roster this season has extreme question marks and some notable holes.  We didn’t get some guys because we were outbid or didn’t go after other guys because they were asking to much.  That comes down to balancing the budget.  That also comes down to NIL being a factor still. Did we build the team we wanted or did we build the best team we could for 10 million.  There is a difference. And that is ultimately my point in it.  

[HoosierHoopster]

2 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

“To me, DeVries started well and he’s done well in turning programs around”. 
 

I’ve got no problem with that.  
 

To me, DeVries was a strong mid major coach at Drake and had a solid year, yet not spectacular year at West Virginia. I’m optimistic about him but don’t have any sort of extreme confidence.  I think our roster this season has extreme question marks and some notable holes.  We didn’t get some guys because we were outbid or didn’t go after other guys because they were asking to much.  That comes down to balancing the budget.  That also comes down to NIL being a factor still. Did we build the team we wanted or did we build the best team we could for 10 million.  There is a difference. And that is ultimately my point in it.  

My pure money thinking is you have to take into account that DeVries hsd to put an entire team together. You can’t go crazy in bidding on a couple guys when you’re trying to construct an entire team. On the roster, it looks solid to me but time will tell. The hole is lacking a true rim protector, but DeVries isn’t hiding from that he’s looking to play to the team’s strengths as built - get out and run, spread the floor, wing actions, scrappy D and wear the other team down, hit the glass. Looking forward to seeing how it shakes out, it will minimally be a thousand times better coached than the that God awful mess that Woodson ran — with rim protectors