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Class of '66 Old Fart

(2026) - Anthony Thompson to O$U

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Diebler also seems to be thinking that locking down a national top 10 player from Ohio will help him avoid the hot seat. He’s willing to burn through funds for that. imo landing AT and having an impact on another B1G 10 coach’s job security would be the cherry on top. It really seems like AT and whoever he talks to about his bball decisions know IU is the better situation, but it’s unknown how much that’s worth (is the delta between IU’s offer and OSU offset by the difference between playing for DDV and Diebler) 

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Feels like if we lose out on Thompson it will be similar to how Micah Shrewsberry landed Jalen Haralson. Tough for a 17 year old kid to say no when he's given 70% of a team's NIL and promised starter minutes from the get go.

To someone born in 2008 IU is just another program that occasionally makes the tournament. Not enough to overcome all that cash and promised minutes.

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1 hour ago, AKHoosier said:

Feels like if we lose out on Thompson it will be similar to how Micah Shrewsberry landed Jalen Haralson. Tough for a 17 year old kid to say no when he's given 70% of a team's NIL and promised starter minutes from the get go.

To someone born in 2008 IU is just another program that occasionally makes the tournament. Not enough to overcome all that cash and promised minutes.

Except ND didn’t pay more for Haralson than we were offering.  We’ve definitely been used in the past to get bids moved up.   But this wasn’t a more than situation.  It was an equal to but “better fit” estimation.  

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Now you got UK paying 22M and a few other schools noted to be closer to 20 than 10.  I think Indiana is trying to operate at 10.  That was great 2 years ago, not great anymore.  Indiana has some big decisions to make re:basketball power.  
 

This is all along the lines of things people mock me for.  Evidence of these things will become more evident unless we up our investment or prove the win with less strategy which is certainly possible. 

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7 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Except ND didn’t pay more for Haralson than we were offering.  We’ve definitely been used in the past to get bids moved up.   But this wasn’t a more than situation.  It was an equal to but “better fit” estimation.  

Exactly. Haralson was a "Woody sux but Micah does not suck" situation.

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5 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Now you got UK paying 22M and a few other schools noted to be closer to 20 than 10.  I think Indiana is trying to operate at 10.  That was great 2 years ago, not great anymore.  Indiana has some big decisions to make re:basketball power.  
 

This is all along the lines of things people mock me for.  Evidence of these things will become more evident unless we up our investment or prove the win with less strategy which is certainly possible. 

Why do you think that IU is at $10 million? Safe to say that we aren't at UK's $22 million level, but then again no one else is.

  • Do you think we compete financially with the basketball programs at:
  1. Florida,
  2. Houston,
  3. Auburn, and
  4. Tennessee?

That's last year's Final Four.

  • Do you think we can compete financially with the basketball programs at:  
  1. Florida,
  2. Purdue,
  3. Houston, or
  4. UConn?

Those are the top four in the pre-season rankings.

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27 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Now you got UK paying 22M and a few other schools noted to be closer to 20 than 10.  I think Indiana is trying to operate at 10.  That was great 2 years ago, not great anymore.  Indiana has some big decisions to make re:basketball power.  

This is all along the lines of things people mock me for.  Evidence of these things will become more evident unless we up our investment or prove the win with less strategy which is certainly possible. 

IMO, you absolutely may be correct that DDV is not getting "top 10 in CBB" resources right now. I have no idea what the payroll is and how that stacks up relative to others.

RE: the bold, I think in the world of big investment decisions, we can safely say IU has already decided to prioritize football over basketball. We can probably all agree that's the prudent long-term decision because football increasing revenue will be the rising tide that lifts all boats in the AD (including and especially men's basketball). Don't know how long it will take for that to translate.

The Thompson recruitment will be pretty informative about how the basketball staff will navigate the short/medium term until the football investment pays off. We may not always be the highest offer and that means we will lose some recruitments. But the ones we win, will be about having the right fit.

I expect another portal heavy class, which is A-OK with me. But you have to think the staff wants to convert one of the three currently uncommitted guys they've been prioritizing most in this class since getting here. And with Allmond/Taylor likely elsewhere, does that mean we up the ante for Thompson? Will it be enough that, even if not equal to OSU, it's good enough that a top ~10 guy will take it because he buys into the staff's vision?

Let's hope so, but recruiting is so case-by-case you're bound to win some, lose some. Not sure of the budget or how the staff puts a $ valuation on players. Makes sense to me that they hold the line on what they think is fair value for HS kids so they know they'll fit the culture and can develop. Then use what's earmarked to go portal shopping. 

Luckily Thompson decides Tuesday and the first exhibition tips off in about 7 hours. Soon we will be able to grade the DDV era based on what we see with our own eyes instead of reporting, speculation, etc. I do think DDV is a great leader to step into this situation and that's what matters most to me right now.

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If all you can guarantee a player is from revenue sharing I don't know how a team can guarantee 2-3 mil. All the NIL compensation has to go through a clearing house and it is no guarantee all of it will be approved. Let's say the basketball team gets around 6 mil in revenue do you want to spend around half of that for one player 

Also if all it takes to win is to spend the most money then the Yankees and Mets would still be playing 

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10 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

If all you can guarantee a player is from revenue sharing I don't know how a team can guarantee 2-3 mil. All the NIL compensation has to go through a clearing house and it is no guarantee all of it will be approved. Let's say the basketball team gets around 6 mil in revenue do you want to spend around half of that for one player 

Also if all it takes to win is to spend the most money then the Yankees and Mets would still be playing 

Agreed the highest spenders aren’t always the best winners. It’s a bit of a “shoot for the moon, land in the stars” scenario to me if you have the right leader.  Indiana football is proving that now.  Indiana basketball can maybe do that too. The more first option guys you get the easier the job, theoretically.  
 

As far as the revenue share that’s just pure naivety. All the programs that don’t figure it out will get left behind just like college hoops over the last 30-40 years.  Plenty of teams laughing at the rules. That’ll set the market again.  So long as we have forward thinking individuals trying to win the race we will do ok.  I fear we won’t.  
 

The best thing that can happen is a great season by DeVries to exceed expectations.  Get the momentum going.  Get more backers into the program.  The Michigan with Dusty May formula is the dream scenario.  

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1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

Why do you think that IU is at $10 million? Safe to say that we aren't at UK's $22 million level, but then again no one else is.

  • Do you think we compete financially with the basketball programs at:
  1. Florida,
  2. Houston,
  3. Auburn, and
  4. Tennessee?

That's last year's Final Four.

  • Do you think we can compete financially with the basketball programs at:  
  1. Florida,
  2. Purdue,
  3. Houston, or
  4. UConn?

Those are the top four in the pre-season rankings.

I think we were close to 10 this year as projected by several.  I think that keeps us top 25. Not top 10.  Probably bottom end. Bigger concern is Rev Share upcoming will be less and I think that’ll be ignored by the SEC, Big East(football) and the big spenders.  We’d lose even more ground than we lost this year. 

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Yeah that's not good. so no talk of the Diane/Karvala visits? Feels like just going through the motions with Diane but Karvala could be a fit for this offense. So odd to have two top 50 kids visiting and crickets. Guess we are a football school.

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1 minute ago, mike vannice said:

Yeah that's not good. so no talk of the Diane/Karvala visits? Feels like just going through the motions with Diane but Karvala could be a fit for this offense. So odd to have two top 50 kids visiting and crickets. Guess we are a football school.

For all I know the Diane visit was a Schwarber level titanic home run, but the visual of watching that kid during the Marian game sitting alone behind the bench dressed in all black did not fill one with a ton of hope.

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17 minutes ago, mike vannice said:

Yeah that's not good. so no talk of the Diane/Karvala visits? Feels like just going through the motions with Diane but Karvala could be a fit for this offense. So odd to have two top 50 kids visiting and crickets. Guess we are a football school.

No like the website isn’t working so if there is chatter we don’t know it lol

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16 minutes ago, Demo said:

For all I know the Diane visit was a Schwarber level titanic home run, but the visual of watching that kid during the Marian game sitting alone behind the bench dressed in all black did not fill one with a ton of hope.

Did he go to the football game though. Lol. We’ve flipped, the football games are the recruiting pitch.  
 

Seriously though, I’m with you.  I don’t see it happening.  

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22 minutes ago, mike vannice said:

Yeah that's not good. so no talk of the Diane/Karvala visits? Feels like just going through the motions with Diane but Karvala could be a fit for this offense. So odd to have two top 50 kids visiting and crickets. Guess we are a football school.

I think the portal also lessens the importance and enthusiasm of high school recruiting.  Misses sucks but in the long run the portal might provide better options. Or overseas. Which seems to be the new hotspot to get great players.  

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