IU Basketball News and Notes

[Demo 25,571]

On 10/30/2025 at 2:52 PM, Stuhoo said:

Mark my words: We are going to see more than one game in which Tucker Dveries will be guarding the other team's five by the time the final whistle blows. And he'll handle it just fine. You know what'll help? Enright and Conerway harassing the **** out of that five with swipes.

Just because Malik Reneau couldn't guard a five in Woody's system doesn't mean it can't be done with undersized post players. Not that more proof is needed, but if you're wondering how? Here's an couple of instructional videos:

 

I imagine you’re right about DeVries defending some 5’s and holding up because they would limit it to some niche situations and he wouldn’t be playing 10 mins at a time on a real post scorer. Ant Wright wrote the other day, and I hope he’s wrong, that he thinks at some point in the year Sisley will be the starting 4 in place of Enright and DeVries would be playing on the wing. Don’t love that at all. Against any legit wing scorer that can put it on the floor that feels like foul trouble. Against a kid like Carr the other day  he would have had no shot. That’s why I am super hopeful that when he’s ready Dorn is good enough to give them real minutes. They really need a longer wing option. 

[Home Jersey 17,252]

DDV's first radio show of the season is tonight at 7pm 

[Stuhoo 92,407]

1 hour ago, Demo said:

I imagine you’re right about DeVries defending some 5’s and holding up because they would limit it to some niche situations and he wouldn’t be playing 10 mins at a time on a real post scorer. Ant Wright wrote the other day, and I hope he’s wrong, that he thinks at some point in the year Sisley will be the starting 4 in place of Enright and DeVries would be playing on the wing. Don’t love that at all. Against any legit wing scorer that can put it on the floor that feels like foul trouble. Against a kid like Carr the other day  he would have had no shot. That’s why I am super hopeful that when he’s ready Dorn is good enough to give them real minutes. They really need a longer wing option. 

Lots of wishcasting about Dorn on the board IMO.

Dorn's level of competition was almost identical to Jasai Miles last season, and Miles has not looked good so far.  Miles was statistically a far better rebounder and better in almost all other categories (fg%, rebounding, steals, blocks, assists), and by a pretty large margin. Dorn was better than Miles from distance but neither were good.

No two players are alike, so maybe Dorn has some swagger that enables his quick adjustment to high-D1, but I'll need to see it to even start to believe it.

For me? Sisley's got superior athleticism to Miles and very likely to Dorn, and Sisley's on-court communication and shooting stroke make him a far more likely choice to be our 6'7"-ish guy among the three of them.

[LamarCheeks 22,876]

We -- along with Iowa and O$U in the B1G -- were NCAA outliers last season that can be considered "dangerous" this season ... 

https://apnews.com/article/nc-state-ncaa-wolfpack-5c39cca9ab31fcd106dd1a04a08c29e9

[HoosierHoopster 9,151]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

Lots of wishcasting about Dorn on the board IMO.

Dorn's level of competition was almost identical to Jasai Miles last season, and Miles has not looked good so far.  Miles was statistically a far better rebounder and better in almost all other categories (fg%, rebounding, steals, blocks, assists), and by a pretty large margin. Dorn was better than Miles from distance but neither were good.

No two players are alike, so maybe Dorn has some swagger that enables his quick adjustment to high-D1, but I'll need to see it to even start to believe it.

For me? Sisley's got superior athleticism to Miles and very likely to Dorn, and Sisley's on-court communication and shooting stroke make him a far more likely choice to be our 6'7"-ish guy among the three of them.

Picking up on earlier thoughts on Sisley, jmo but his limited play against Baylor reflected his need to develop against better comp. I see a lot of upside in Sisley and his early play was really encouraging, don't get me wrong, but also think your points about level of competition re Miles/Dorn apply at least equally to Sisley, a frosh who we've only seen excel against far inferior comp. Let's see how he looks against better comp going forward. I hope he shines, but that's a TBD imo.

[Hoosierfanyuh 7,407]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

Lots of wishcasting about Dorn on the board IMO.

Dorn's level of competition was almost identical to Jasai Miles last season, and Miles has not looked good so far.  Miles was statistically a far better rebounder and better in almost all other categories (fg%, rebounding, steals, blocks, assists), and by a pretty large margin. Dorn was better than Miles from distance but neither were good.

No two players are alike, so maybe Dorn has some swagger that enables his quick adjustment to high-D1, but I'll need to see it to even start to believe it.

For me? Sisley's got superior athleticism to Miles and very likely to Dorn, and Sisley's on-court communication and shooting stroke make him a far more likely choice to be our 6'7"-ish guy among the three of them.

I watched Dorn beat ND by himself so I’m sticking with that haha

[Stuhoo 92,407]

7 minutes ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

I watched Dorn beat ND by himself so I’m sticking with that haha

This is real!

I'm not saying that Dorn can't be that guy, but it's far from a given. And I like what I've seen from Sisley so far, and that includes against Baylor; he did a nice job defensively and didn't over-extend while learning - no points but also no turnovers, fouls, or missed shots in 17 minutes.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 94,783]

20 minutes ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

I watched Dorn beat ND by himself so I’m sticking with that haha

John Ritter did it years before him.

https://www.ibj.com/articles/sports-an-outlandish-performance

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/19/archives/indiana-crushes-irish-five-9429-notre-dame-shut-out-for-13-minutes.html

[str8baller 8,026]

4 hours ago, Demo said:

Ant Wright wrote the other day, and I hope he’s wrong, that he thinks at some point in the year Sisley will be the starting 4 in place of Enright and DeVries would be playing on the wing

I saw that post the other day. 
 

While initially skeptical that we’d start both our PG’s together, I see why Enrights in there. In fact, I think it’ll be tough to get him out of there so long as Bailey starts.  Him and Conorway and an increasingly defensive Lamar make the kind keep-your-man-in-front-you perimeter defensive unit you’d want if you’re trying to protect guys like Bailey, and to a lesser extent, Tucker and Sisley underneath.  
 

 

[Demo 25,571]

30 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I saw that post the other day. 
 

While initially skeptical that we’d start both our PG’s together, I see why Enrights in there. In fact, I think it’ll be tough to get him out of there so long as Bailey starts.  Him and Conorway and an increasingly defensive Lamar make the kind keep-your-man-in-front-you perimeter defensive unit you’d want if you’re trying to protect guys like Bailey, and to a lesser extent, Tucker and Sisley underneath.  
 

 

I see the value of Conerway/Enright as far as trying to control dibble penetration for sure. But, man, I wish they had 1 more primary ball handler in the rotation. Subbing out Conerway before the U16 TO in both exhibition games to bring him back for Enright before the U12 just felt awkward, though I guess it worked ok. 

[Stuhoo 92,407]

Wanna feel better about IUBB?

 Nico Medved is a very good coach and his low rated roster is destroying a cupcake tonight. 

Meanwhile, Diebler’s highly rated and Hoiberg’s okay roster have struggled a bunch against cupcakes.

If Darian Devries is a legit ball coach EVERYTHING will work out. And I suspect that Darian Devries is a legit ball coach.

[Brass Cannon 26,272]

3 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Wanna feel better about IUBB?

 Nico Medved is a very good coach and his low rated roster is destroying a cupcake tonight. 

Meanwhile, Diebler’s highly rated and Hoiberg’s okay roster have struggled a bunch against cupcakes.

If Darian Devries is a legit ball coach EVERYTHING will work out. And I suspect that Darian Devries is a legit ball coach.

I have consistently been accused of being negative. I hated Crean, Archie and Woodson.  And wasn’t afraid of going on record with stating the reasons. 
 

I love the DD hire and am very confident. I fully expect our Kenpom rating to up after 10 games not down.  DD is the kind of guy that gets more out of his team than the sum of the individual parts.  That doesn’t show up in advanced analytics till the games start getting played.  
 

Recruiting well then not knowing how to use it is how you get the ole start mid and fade in the advance analytics under our last 3 regimes. 

[Demo 25,571]

https://www.si.com/college/indiana/basketball/sam-alexis-suffer-terrible-indiana-basketball-hoosiers-devries-williams-miley-florida-gators
 

Really nice article on Sam Alexis. Really nice.  There are just a bunch of high character kids on this team. No entitlement at all. We’ll see how good they turn out to be but it’s been a minute since there’s been a roster around here this easy to root for.

[jermhoosierfan 496]

13 hours ago, Demo said:

https://www.si.com/college/indiana/basketball/sam-alexis-suffer-terrible-indiana-basketball-hoosiers-devries-williams-miley-florida-gators
 

Really nice article on Sam Alexis. Really nice.  There are just a bunch of high character kids on this team. No entitlement at all. We’ll see how good they turn out to be but it’s been a minute since there’s been a roster around here this easy to root for.

Wow, he has put in the work to put himself in the position that he is in.  I applaud him on that, and I will support and cheer him on in everything he does. 

[jermhoosierfan 496]

https://www.insidethehall.com/2025/11/03/news-and-notes-from-inside-iu-basketball-with-darian-devries/

Here is a recap of the show last night along with a player to listen to it.  Enright was the team member who came with CDD, and I am going to like him.

[Hardwood83 5,213]

20 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

Wanna feel better about IUBB?

 Nico Medved is a very good coach and his low rated roster is destroying a cupcake tonight. 

Meanwhile, Diebler’s highly rated and Hoiberg’s okay roster have struggled a bunch against cupcakes.

If Darian Devries is a legit ball coach EVERYTHING will work out. And I suspect that Darian Devries is a legit ball coach.

That is an excellent reminder. It's hard to be patient, but it's not CDD's fault that IU has made so many stupid hires over the last 20+yrs.

I am trying to temper my expectations for results (W-L) BUT I am very eager to see a team play smart & hard consistently game in & game out for a change. In other words a little "fast, physical, relentless, smart, disciplined, poised" will go a long way.  How long has it been since an IU MBB team OVER-achieved, instead of grossly underachieving? Maybe the 2016 B1G champs? 

[Stuhoo 92,407]

1 minute ago, Hardwood83 said:

That is an excellent reminder. It's hard to be patient, but it's not CDD's fault that IU has made so many stupid hires over the last 20+yrs.

I am trying to temper my expectations for results (W-L) BUT I am very eager to see a team play smart & hard consistently game in & game out for a change. In other words a little "fast, physical, relentless, smart, disciplined, poised" will go a long way.  How long has it been since an IU MBB team OVER-achieved, instead of grossly underachieving? Maybe the 2016 B1G champs? 

I would say (geez, why is everyone about to get so angry at me?) that Woodson's second year, when we were a 4 seed, was maaaaybe kinda an overachivement. 

[Hardwood83 5,213]

16 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

I would say (geez, why is everyone about to get so angry at me?) that Woodson's second year, when we were a 4 seed, was maaaaybe kinda an overachivement. 

Hmmm, Interesting thought....I think of them as talented with JHS & TJD....but they certainly were not a deep or well-rounded team either.  

[Home Jersey 17,252]

29 minutes ago, Hardwood83 said:

Hmmm, Interesting thought....I think of them as talented with JHS & TJD....but they certainly were not a deep or well-rounded team either.  

At first glance, true. But...

That team also had a sophomore Tamar Bates, who went on to be very good at Missouri. It also had freshmen Kaleb Banks and CJ Gunn, who did very well at Tulane and DePaul respectively. They've reunited at DePaul and will be interesting to see how Banks does. It also had upperclassmen who were solid enough like Race and Kopp. Freshman Reneau was okay in small doses. Galloway was a junior. Leal was there but seldom played. Seems more like there was plenty of talent that was poorly utilized IMO.

Many people expected a S16 that year. 23-12, #4 seed and a blow out second round exit... I think was a fair expectation for that roster. And I think they achieved what little they did despite of – not because of – their coaching staff. JMO

[go iu bb 10,187]

46 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

I would say (geez, why is everyone about to get so angry at me?) that Woodson's second year, when we were a 4 seed, was maaaaybe kinda an overachivement. 

I would disagree. That was a team with some veterans, including TJD who is an NBA player and statistically one of the best players in IU history. They added some talented freshmen, including lottery pick JHS. In other words, overall a veteran team with 2 NBA players. 8 of their 12 losses came by 11+ points. Instead of looking at it as an overachievement, it looks pretty much like the opposite to me.

They also started the year at 48 in KenPom and finished at 50. Not as big of a drop as other Woodson teams, but a drop nonetheless. Preseason 13th in the AP poll and 14th in the AP poll, peaking at 10 and 8, respectively. 

So, at best, it could be viewed as meeting expectations, in my opinion, although I think they underachieved.