2023 SF/PF Mackenzie Mgbako to Texas A&M via Portal

[HoosierInParadise]

Welcome to Indiana basketball MM! Just think less than 2 years ago, we wouldn’t have had a chance with him. Kansas would have and they never stopped cheating since their 1988 championship. We didn’t since ours but this NIL puts us on the same playing field as the biggest cheaters in clouding Kansas, UK, and the rest of the SEC. We will continue to win more of these recruiting battles moving forward.

I think we've always played in the grey when it comes to recruiting. I just don't think we have been very good at it over the last 25+ years.

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[mamasa]

7 hours ago, hper50 said:

Can we get a confirmed pronunciation of Mgbako?

Eff-Kan-sus

[Artie86]

1 hour ago, AKHoosier said:

Well this guy is probably walking funny this morning. 

…that KU fan this morning…lol!!!

[DChoosier]

27 minutes ago, mbredenk101 said:

I think we've always played in the grey when it comes to recruiting. I just don't think we have been very good at it over the last 25+ years.

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Kansas/AZ/LSU etc went far beyond the grey zone and there were recordings that proved it.
NIL puts the money above the table, rather than under the table, negating one of their advantage$ over us.

[TTT]

2023-2024 Recruiting hype 

Fact:   0 wins   0 losses

Big Ten Regular Season Championship?

BigTen Tournament Championship?

A Sweet Sixteen? and Beyond?

(Many examples of teams with talent don’t live up to the hype)

 

[DChoosier]

59 minutes ago, Trish said:

Big time commitment. Congrats to the staff on landing him late in the game, which has now happened a couple times. 
 

it appears Woodson, NIL, and the staff have really stepped it up in recruiting compared to Archie, which is positive. 

I still think there’s question marks with this current team and relying on freshmen and transfers can be risky, but there might be some ingredients here for Indiana to be successful this season. 

Agree that there is some risk (will MM live up to his billing? We all seem to expect Ware to make a huge leap from being a 6 point a game guy etc) but these days teams with 4-5 returning starters are a rarity. As it stands now we will have Galloway, X and Malik starting which is a decent amount of returning experience.

[str8baller]

1 hour ago, Trish said:

I still think there’s question marks with this current team and relying on freshmen and transfers can be risky, but there might be some ingredients here for Indiana to be successful this season. 

I think both things are true.  there are some big question marks with regards to next year’s roster in terms of fit and style. There’s certainly a chance we don’t quite exceed the “sum of our parts” given where all the guady talent is placed position-wise.  
 

But this has undoubtedly been a nice offseason in terms of reputation. Woody putting us back into the tourney consistently and recruiting towards the upper levels of D1 are important steps in moving IU basketball back to where we want it. 

[Stuhoo]

4 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Landing this caliber of recruit has got to get the attention of some '24s and '25s we've offered but who kind of just shrugged us off initially.  

We’ve already crossed that threshold and had well before today. IMO Jalen Hood Schifino was a recruiting program changer.

He is incredibly respected by his peers, and without him and his success we wouldn’t have Ware, Mgbako, Malik, or be the leader for Newell or McNeeley. JHS made his love for IU known and it mattered a lot.

[HoosierFan1994]

I agree it is a huge question mark about playing high talent freshmen and transfers but I'm afraid it's here to stay. I hated it 10 years ago but I really do think you will see this almost every year from now on. IU will play around 8-9 guys in their rotation. X, Trey, and Malik are the only 3 that really contributed in the prior years. I would like to see IU land another guard that is an upperclassmen. While talented, our starting frontcourt is Fr-So-So. Granted we have a 6 year PG which is awesome and a 4 year guy in Trey. 

For me this is ideal: X, Trey or Transfer, Mack, Malik, Ware as the starting 5. Trey or transfer guard off the bench. Depending on the matchup Anthony or Sparks. I can see both playing heavy minutes one game and none the next. Give Cupps some minutes as well. See what Banks/Gunn can do. Both are going to have to take a huge step forward to see significant minutes. Newton feels like he won't see as much this year. 

My expectations are around the same as last preseason: Top 4-5 in the Big Ten and be a second weekend team. IF they can land a high level guard and move Trey as 6th man, I really think this is a Final Four roster. 

[HoosierFan1994]

2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

We’ve already crossed that threshold and had well before today. IMO Jalen Hood Schifino was a recruiting program changer.

He is incredibly respected by his peers, and without him and his success we wouldn’t have Ware, Mgbako, or be the leader for Newell or McNeeley. JHS made his love for IU known and it mattered a lot.

Bingo. I'm not a huge NBA fan, but I may have to invest in a JHS jersey. Wearing my red and white colored glasses here but he has All-Star potential. 

[RaceToTheTop]

Trilly Donovan trolling the Kansas fanbase.

 

[lillurk]

34 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

We’ve already crossed that threshold and had well before today. IMO Jalen Hood Schifino was a recruiting program changer.

He is incredibly respected by his peers, and without him and his success we wouldn’t have Ware, Mgbako, or be the leader for Newell or McNeeley. JHS made his love for IU known and it mattered a lot.

This is true, I guess a better way to frame Ware and especially Mgbako is that they’re the proof of JHS’s impact.

[Alford Bailey]

44 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

We’ve already crossed that threshold and had well before today. IMO Jalen Hood Schifino was a recruiting program changer.

He is incredibly respected by his peers, and without him and his success we wouldn’t have Ware, Mgbako, or be the leader for Newell or McNeeley. JHS made his love for IU known and it mattered a lot.

Agree. I think the game at Purdue had an impact. Everyone was talking about JHS and Woody after that.

[woodenshoemanHoosierfan]

This would be a heckuva defensive lineup

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[Brass Cannon]

13 minutes ago, Alford Bailey said:

Agree. I think the game at Purdue had an impact. Everyone was talking about JHS and Woody after that.

Well there’s two sides of the coin with last season. Woodson helped a kid unlock potential that everybody knew he had. Albeit maybe not one and done level. But he also help TJD bring his game to a new level. 
 

Our recruits this year.  A kid whose precious coach wasn’t helping him reach his goals.  And a kid wanting to be one and done. 
 

You gotta be able to offer different kids different things and woody is doing that. 
 

That said we need to all accept that the best thing for us long term is that 2 of our 3 stud recruits go pro this year 

[CSP]

2 minutes ago, woodenshoemanHoosierfan said:

 

 

This would be a heckuva defensive lineup

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It's also a completely unrealistic one, imo. 

[IUFAN1976]

3 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

It'd be nice to find a sniper from 3 to play that 2 spot... But a dude that actually moves around unlike Kopp or Parker. Any lefty 3pt shooters left? That'd look nice out there.

We had one with potential but he is now somewhere else

[RaceToTheTop]

funny how one recruit changed a lot of people’s tunes from woody can’t recruit to woody is a closer.

reality is always in between pessimism and optimism.

[CSP]

3 minutes ago, RaceToTheTop said:

funny how one recruit changed a lot of people’s tunes from woody can’t recruit to woody is a closer.

reality is always in between pessimism and optimism.

100% 

My issue all along though was some that (who I assume only watch CBB) think CBB and NBA coaching are remotely close... they aren't. Nor are they viewed that way in the basketball world. 

The amount of posters on these boards that are/were dismissive of Woodson was just very confusing to read... and imo, basically stems from the fact that they don't watch the NBA.. 

Things like- "He'll need to learn the college game" and "can he recruit" ... those types of comments were just... dumb. 

I would go as far to say--- someone like Bill Self is a more "accomplished" coach than CMW, but I wouldn't say he is "better"... especially once the ball is tipped. 

[CSP]

11 minutes ago, IUFAN1976 said:

We had one with potential but he is now somewhere else

Very true. He had every opportunity to take matters into his own hands.. he failed. I do hope he succeeds at Missouri though.