(2026) - Anthony Thompson to O$U

[Hoosierfanyuh 7,410]

[Uspshoosier 55,029]

Sounds like the home team is going to win out according to the Trilly discord this morning 

[8bucks 7,670]

1 hour ago, Uspshoosier said:

Sounds like the home team is going to win out according to the Trilly discord this morning 

Coaches put in a lot of work on the HS route this summer, more so than many other teams based on feedback from some of the reports.  I am not sure that the amount of work put in matches the results (so far) but another way to look at it is that we had to overwork just to get the 2 we got.  We may not have them if we had put in the same amount of work as others.  Hopefully this is indicative of the staff's willingness to grind.  Going to have to have on court success and competitive NIL to keep up.  I am hopeful but also had hoped to land some big HS names in '26 based on the work we put in vs other schools.  

The interview someone had with Brian Snow also makes me wonder how this one went down.  He indicated that the $ is decided pretty early on and is not usually a factor to sway a kid late.  He referenced Jalen Haralson and that in the end he was more comfortable with ND than with our $.  Not sure that applies to Thompson but assuming Snow's info is still somewhat accurate.  I am also hoping that when Snow said IU was a beast to recruit against (even when we had woody) is also true and if we have on court success, we become dominant recruiting the Midwest.  But apparently, we are not there yet.

 

[Chris007 62,635]

Sounds like OSU wallet had a little more money in it than ours did. Or maybe a lot more money

[WayneFleekHoosier 52,133]

2 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

Sounds like the home team is going to win out according to the Trilly discord this morning 

Pretty much expected.  Top 10 guy and home team is paying more. Unless Adidas put its hat in the ring this was going to be the result. 
 
I dont think we will land Diane or Taylor at Center either.  
 

I have no idea on Karvala. I suppose I could see that one happening. Who knows.  
 

Hopefully IU gets creative so DeVries can go to work overseas or in the portal.  

[Scotty R 3,850]

I think these kids need to look for more than just who will pay you the most. What has Diebler shown as a coach that would make kids want to go there to develop their skills. If what is being said is true that Thompson likes the IU program better but OSU is offering more money I think that is a mistake for the kid

[WayneFleekHoosier 52,133]

1 minute ago, Scotty R said:

I think these kids need to look for more than just who will pay you the most. What has Diebler shown as a coach that would make kids want to go there to develop their skills. If what is being said is true that Thompson likes the IU program better but OSU is offering more money I think that is a mistake for the kid

Meh, from an IU fans perspective.  If he was looking for a straight to NBA factory he wouldn’t probably pick Indiana or Ohio State.  
 

Plenty of other coaches have a good track record of that.  
 

Money and hometown where family can be involved is tough to beat.  
 

DeVries will need to alter his approach after this offseason.  Either target realistic kids or up the budget.  

[Hovadipo 63,219]

11 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

Sounds like OSU wallet had a little more money in it than ours did. Or maybe a lot more money

Do we think some OSU donors got confused and maybe thought they were dropping a bag for a football player with All-American/Maxwell Award/Walter Camp Award/Heisman runner-up genes?

[Pagoda 6,350]

Should we at all be disappointed in Adidas here?  Ultimately it's on CDD/IUBB, but as we know the shoe companies play a big role with the top guys via contracts and NIL.  MT was an Adidas player right?

It just seems like they don't do much for us, but I don't really know what's happening behind the scenes.

[HoosierMatty 584]

I sounds like results on the court will be out biggest leverage going forward especially if we can't or aren't willing to pay as much. Kids may like our system but are probably taking a wait and see approach. It sucks Money was the deciding factor it sounds like. But he also maybe wanted to be close to home.

[Stuhoo 92,481]

Just now, Scotty R said:

I think these kids need to look for more than just who will pay you the most. What has Diebler shown as a coach that would make kids want to go there to develop their skills. If what is being said is true that Thompson likes the IU program better but OSU is offering more money I think that is a mistake for the kid

And I think that those that see Thompson as only looking for a payday have a little tunnel vision.

• Sure, money is going to be a part of it. When a player who is a good student pops for IU instead of Harvard, where coach Amaker is a proven, excellent coach? That's in some part a money play too. So if Thompson is getting a few hundred thousand extra for what he perceives to be his one year in college, that's significant. That could be all the money a player gets before a significant injury.
• Also significant? Diebler can take credit for developing Sensebaugh, EJ Liddell, and Jamison Battle into NBA forwards. Devries does not have that.
• And, along with more money and more NBA players to cite, Diebler also has the incontrovertible fact that OSU is the home school that friends and family can get to; his home town is a two hour drive from Columbus. It's five and a half hours from Bloomington.

In summary? It's not who you 'don't get', it's who you get that matters.

[Hoosierfanyuh 7,410]

Before people freak out I pose a hypothetical 

Would you rather have:

tucker devries & Wilkerson 

or 

JUST 1 5-star 1&done

sucks we missed but this is me trying to cope 

[HoosierMatty 584]

4 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

And I think that those that see Thompson as only looking for a payday have a little tunnel vision.

• Sure, money is going to be a part of it. When a player who is a good student pops for IU instead of Harvard, where coach Amaker is a proven, excellent coach? That's in some part a money play too. So if Thompson is getting a few hundred thousand extra for what he perceives to be his one year in college, that's significant. That could be all the money a player gets before a significant injury.
• Also significant? Diebler can take credit for developing Sensebaugh, EJ Liddell, and Jamison Battle into NBA forwards. Devries does not have that.
• And, along with more money and more NBA players to cite, Diebler also has the incontrovertible fact that OSU is the home school that friends and family can get to; his home town is a two hour drive from Columbus. It's five and a half hours from Bloomington.

In summary? It's not who you 'don't get', it's who you get that matters.

I agree with all this. We are coming at this with own biases on how an 18 year old kid should make a major life decision. Let's be honest there were some recruiting cycles we won under Woodson where other schools would have said we only got that player because of money. We just got to move forward. I am confident if DeVries shows a team this year we can get behind, runs a fun system and punches above its weight, we will start to win more of these battles. All the other handicaps like money will also likely work themselves out. 

[Stuhoo 92,481]

7 minutes ago, HoosierMatty said:

I agree with all this. We are coming at this with own biases on how an 18 year old kid should make a major life decision. Let's be honest 1) there were some recruiting cycles we won under Woodson where other schools would have said we only got that player because of money.

We just got to move forward. I am confident 2) if DeVries shows a team this year we can get behind, runs a fun system and punches above its weight, we will start to win more of these battles. All the other handicaps like money will also likely work themselves out. 

1) They were 100% correct. And because of that, we won recruiting battles for players that cared about money, but not so much games.

2) Exactly. See Cignetti, Curt.

[Home Jersey 17,300]

13 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Meh, from an IU fans perspective.  If he was looking for a straight to NBA factory he wouldn’t probably pick Indiana or Ohio State.  

Plenty of other coaches have a good track record of that.  

Money and hometown where family can be involved is tough to beat.  

DeVries will need to alter his approach after this offseason.  Either target realistic kids or up the budget.  

This is what it boils down to for me. I doubt the budget is going to get meaningfully upped. I assume the vast majority of discretionary funds will be going to football for the foreseeable future. I don't like losing out on basketball recruits to Ohio State even if they're the home school.

In the 2026 class, this staff had less time to put in groundwork with recruits when they were juniors or earlier. They landed PAM, worked hard for three high ranked guys and went 0/3. Win some, lose some... but let's figure out where in the formula things can be tweaked so we convert more targets to commits. 2027 seems off to a good start with Branham. 2026 was always going to be a sort of challenging HS cycle. 

Ultimately winning takes care of a lot IMO. And as Stuhoo said, it's about who you get not who you miss on. Our money probably goes further in the portal anyway... and in this era, all the groundwork laid with these guys... we'll see how the season shakes out and maybe someone wants to kick the tires on IU again. But it'll have to be on our staff's terms... and that's undoubtedly for the best

[Brass Cannon 26,360]

I don’t really care.  No reason to give a huge payday to a kid who has yet proven he can play at the college level.  
 

Rather spend our money on Transfers 

[AZ Hoosier 11,374]

13 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

This is what it boils down to for me. I doubt the budget is going to get meaningfully upped. I assume the vast majority of discretionary funds will be going to football for the foreseeable future. I don't like losing out on basketball recruits to Ohio State even if they're the home school.

In the 2026 class, this staff had less time to put in groundwork with recruits when they were juniors or earlier. They landed PAM, worked hard for three high ranked guys and went 0/3. Win some, lose some... but let's figure out where in the formula things can be tweaked so we convert more targets to commits. 2027 seems off to a good start with Branham. 2026 was always going to be a sort of challenging HS cycle. 

Ultimately winning takes care of a lot IMO. And as Stuhoo said, it's about who you get not who you miss on. Our money probably goes further in the portal anyway... and in this era, all the groundwork laid with these guys... we'll see how the season shakes out and maybe someone wants to kick the tires on IU again. But it'll have to be on our staff's terms... and that's undoubtedly for the best

As you said, the key is winning. That fixes a lot of issues. Cignetti has proved that on the football side. Now he's getting serious interest from quality kids. 

Our basketball side is mired in the dregs of NOT winning. Crean won some but he was manic. Archie was a doorknob, both personality- and coaching-wise. Woodson was a total s#!t show - he had top-10 talent and was lucky to be middle of the pack in conference. The kids today don't remember Indiana basketball as a winning or even quality program. Hopefully DeVries fixes that. The signs that I've seen so far show that it's a distinct possibility. His "money ball" approach seems workable at this point, but we have to see how it plays out. Winning will fix it, and the first step is not being a joke of a program. 

If you build it, the money (and kids) will come. Cignetti has shown us the way.

 

[HoosierMatty 584]

I don't necessarily want to be the team that is always throwing out the most money and that be the deciding factor. Woodson era proved that isn't going to get desirable results. If we miss on this 2026 class which is considered a weak one, I would rather have money for the transfer portal. And if we have a good year that will only help things with the portal and 2027 recruits

 

[Home Jersey 17,300]

2 minutes ago, HoosierMatty said:

I don't necessarily want to be the team that is always throwing out the most money and that be the deciding factor. Woodson era proved that isn't going to get desirable results. If we miss on this 2026 class which is considered a weak one, I would rather have money for the transfer portal. And if we have a good year that will only help things with the portal and 2027 recruits

Absolutely. I'm very pleased, if nothing else, this is evidence that roster construction is going to be super intentional with this staff whereas Woodson's was always a matter of convenience and being the highest bidder. I mean, a top 10 recruit's mother had to text him asking to recruit her son! Lol. I'll never get over that...

This staff clearly evaluates kids, puts a price point on them, and sticks to it. For better or worse remains to be seen, but I respect it.

We have at least 6 spots to fill for next year. On the high end, maybe 9 depending how much "Crean-ing" DDV and staff believe in.

We have 1 HS player committed currently. Maybe add Karvala. So most likely IMO looking to add 4-6 guys in the portal. We should have enough dry powder to land the targets we prioritize during that cycle.

Bottom line... win games and it'll work itself out

[WayneFleekHoosier 52,133]

12 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Absolutely. I'm very pleased, if nothing else, this is evidence that roster construction is going to be super intentional with this staff whereas Woodson's was always a matter of convenience and being the highest bidder. I mean, a top 10 recruit's mother had to text him asking to recruit her son! Lol. I'll never get over that...

This staff clearly evaluates kids, puts a price point on them, and sticks to it. For better or worse remains to be seen, but I respect it.

We have at least 6 spots to fill for next year. On the high end, maybe 9 depending how much "Crean-ing" DDV and staff believe in.

We have 1 HS player committed currently. Maybe add Karvala. So most likely IMO looking to add 4-6 guys in the portal. We should have enough dry powder to land the targets we prioritize during that cycle.

Bottom line... win games and it'll work itself out

Yeah, but only IU fans see IU winning games.  Theoretically it could be a tough year on the court.  If so, portal recruiting will only be that much more difficult than its already going to be. As I’ve said before, year 1 is vastly important and that’s why I’ve been anxious with our start and projections.  
 

I’ve been encourage with what my eyeballs see but athletically and size wise we are way behind the 8 ball. Very curious to see where that stacks up.  
 

Hopefull DeVries outperforms and we can get something rolling because from an outsiders perspective Indiana basketball isn’t anything to fear going forward.