IU Basketball News and Notes

[Dave from Dayton]

10 hours ago, go iu bb said:

Let's get this offseason started. The most enjoyable part of IU basketball for the last decade.

Now you're talking!  After the upcoming NCAAT is over, we can start to hype the upcoming basketball recruiting rumors and then on to the actual, almost, probable verbals.  

Meanwhile, while watching and enjoying a real coach and his team actually perform using that oddly-shaped ball in all sorts of weather...we can reflect on the previous basketball natty banners in SSAH.

Seriously, Btown Banners helps immensely.  A tip of the ole coonskin cap to those who help manage, run, moderate, do research, post and add value, levity and perspective...informing and entertaining those of us who are fans whether just lurking or contributing opinions.  

 

 

 

[DChoosier]

I’m looking forward to us getting excited when we beat the 321’st ranked team by 25.

[HoosierDevils]

This is something we all kinda know, but always still disheartening to see (I think there's an error and the 2025 win total should be 0 instead of 1). Also just crazy that IU has been in  the top quarter of the league (to account for conference size changes) like 6 times in 28 years

 

 

[jermhoosierfan]

1 hour ago, HoosierDevils said:

This is something we all kinda know, but always still disheartening to see (I think there's an error and the 2025 win total should be 0 instead of 1). Also just crazy that IU has been in  the top quarter of the league (to account for conference size changes) like 6 times in 28 years

 

 

For some reason, even when ranked high going in, we have never done that good in the BTT.  I have no idea why outside it corresponded with a down time in IUBB.

[IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy]

Man, I ******* hate this "we're too good for the other tournaments" mindset we still have.  None of the seniors on our team are NBA material; if they wanted to keep playing, let's at least give them a chance.

[Home Jersey]

Just now, IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy said:

Man, I ******* hate this "we're too good for the other tournaments" mindset we still have.  None of the seniors on our team are NBA material; if they wanted to keep playing, let's at least give them a chance.

Honestly I view this differently from ND football declining a bowl game. Staff needs as much time as possible to build a better team for next year. They blew this one. Nothing to be gained trotting them out there at this point IMO. If we had more returners I'd be inclined to agree with you. 

[str8baller]

5 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Honestly I view this differently from ND football declining a bowl game.

It’s literally the exact same thing…lol.

 

I’d say we’d catch some **** for this but the truth is IU basketball isn’t anywhere near as relevant as ND football. Nobody will care. 

[IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy]

6 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Honestly I view this differently from ND football declining a bowl game. Staff needs as much time as possible to build a better team for next year. They blew this one. Nothing to be gained trotting them out there at this point IMO. If we had more returners I'd be inclined to agree with you. 

Eh.  I want them to suffer more.

[Demo]

9 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Honestly I view this differently from ND football declining a bowl game. Staff needs as much time as possible to build a better team for next year. They blew this one. Nothing to be gained trotting them out there at this point IMO. If we had more returners I'd be inclined to agree with you. 

Yup

If this was a young team that might be different. But 6 of your 1st 7 are seniors. There is no point rolling them out in front of a couple of thousand at AH to play East Bumphrey Nowhere State. Immerse yourself 100% in roster building. 

[Home Jersey]

Just now, str8baller said:

It’s literally the exact same thing…lol.

 

I’d say we’d catch some **** for this but the truth is IU basketball isn’t anywhere near as relevant as ND football. Nobody will care. 

Exactly. Nobody will care. Most of our rotation won't be here next year anyway. It's not that we're declining because it would damage our brand to be in a lesser tournament, it's that they need to buy time to dig out of a self-created **** show. 

[IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy]

On 3/13/2026 at 1:17 PM, HoosierDevils said:

This is something we all kinda know, but always still disheartening to see (I think there's an error and the 2025 win total should be 0 instead of 1). Also just crazy that IU has been in  the top quarter of the league (to account for conference size changes) like 6 times in 28 years

 

 

The one thing I agree with Bob Knight about is how much I hate the tournament.

[str8baller]

Just now, Home Jersey said:

Exactly. Nobody will care. Most of our rotation won't be here next year anyway. It's not that we're declining because it would damage our brand to be in a lesser tournament, it's that they need to buy time to dig out of a self-created **** show. 

I mean nobody will be talking about it on ESPN or sports talk radio like they did with ND.  
 

First off, the guys are being paid now. If there’s basketball to play, they should play it. It’s what they’re paid for. If you want to let the seniors off the hook then play the returning 5 and walk-ons. The notion that Ristic, Sisley, Dorn, and Miles couldn’t benefit from more basketball is simply false. I’d think a couple seniors might like to play to continue to audition for Europe.  Finally we have coaching staff that quite literally admitted to not being prepared for the season. I know they can use the extra practice.   
 

IU can’t even make the NCAA tournament every other year. They’re not above anything. Embrace the grind. 

[Uspshoosier]

1 minute ago, str8baller said:

Embrace the grind. 

For sure.  Fans of a program with 4 winning conference records in 18 years needs to embrace the grind 

[str8baller]

 Also, if we can win a couple more we can make this number a little more respectable.

[Home Jersey]

2 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I mean nobody will be talking about it on ESPN or sports talk radio like they did with ND.  
 

First off, the guys are being paid now. If there’s basketball to play, they should play it. It’s what they’re paid for. If you want to let the seniors off the hook then play the returning 5 and walk-ons. The notion that Ristic, Sisley, Dorn, and Miles couldn’t benefit from more basketball is simply false. I’d think a couple seniors might like to play to continue to audition for Europe.  Finally we have coaching staff that quite literally admitted to not being prepared for the season. I know they can use the extra practice.   
 

IU can’t even make the NCAA tournament every other year. They’re not above anything. Embrace the grind. 

I agree with what you're saying, especially the last blurb and bolded bit. I just think it's probably more worthwhile for the staff to get prepared for next season by doing a retrospective on this year, rather than continuing the failed season.

The players fulfilled their obligations to get paid. Gotta do what's best for the program now. IMO that means the staff hitting the portal hard (hopefully they have been on that for a while) and reviewing a ton of tape to improve themselves and come back better next year.

Sadly I do not care that IU's basketball season is over at all. Just want to see them do better. 

[Ryno6284]

32 minutes ago, IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy said:

Man, I ******* hate this "we're too good for the other tournaments" mindset we still have.  None of the seniors on our team are NBA material; if they wanted to keep playing, let's at least give them a chance.

The mailman has been saying this for awhile now, but nobody seems to think this way!  Especially with the pre-con matchups!  If we would take the path of a "Nebraska", that might help big time with the program, for the future!

[cbp4iu]

35 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Honestly I view this differently from ND football declining a bowl game. Staff needs as much time as possible to build a better team for next year. They blew this one. Nothing to be gained trotting them out there at this point IMO. If we had more returners I'd be inclined to agree with you. 

This is my thinking as well. Unless you were 100% certain everyone else was coming back next year that wasn’t a Senior… Then no thanks. Honestly this is more telling that we will have some transfers happening.

[Banksyrules]

Never forget that because of Woodson and Buckner being selfish we could have had a great football and basketball program.

[jermhoosierfan]

13 hours ago, Banksyrules said:

Never forget that because of Woodson and Buckner being selfish we could have had a great football and basketball program.

Will never forgive QB for thinking that Dusty May isn't that good of a coach.

[Home Jersey]

4 minutes ago, jermhoosierfan said:

Will never forgive QB for thinking that Dusty May isn't that good of a coach.

I honestly don't even think it was because QB wasn't convinced Dusty would be a good coach.

I think QB helped install his buddy Woody and when the prospect of him being removed came up, he threw his weight around to defend his pal. IUBB was not even a real consideration. 

Archie got 4, so Mike got 4.