Transfer Portal w/IU Interest

[Shooter]

10 hours ago, J34 said:

I think we're selling Sisley short starting at the 4. He showed signs of being able to do multiple things with above average athleticism. Improved shooting and a full year under his belt, he might be a really nice piece. Great culture guy! 

Pay big on a PG, Wing, and BIG

I agree, but I'd like another competent option at that spot as well. Like a Sam Alexis level player (but a PF version). Would feel better about relying on Sisley for 20-25 mpg, than 30-35 until he proves it.

[Home Jersey]

Let's just start Andrej, Trent and the 3 freshmen next year so we can get the #1 overall pick in next year's recruiting class. That's how this works, right? 

[Shooter]

5 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

They best be in good position to announce some commitments semi imminently if they're asking a guy like Dorn to take a pay cut. Not just "feel good about" prospects. IMO

Wonder if it's truly a pay cut, or they weren't willing to meet a request for increased pay. Either way, staff probably thinks they can get better value for the money.

I am bummed to lose Dorn just because he was a known quantity and a decent player. But the role of "good shooter who does nothing else" probably won't be that hard to fill.

[Home Jersey]

A small thing to look for next year that will give us a little more insight on DDV and staff is whether the Woodson trend continues of transfers out going elsewhere and performing significantly better. 

[IUCrazy2]

Replacing 8 or 9 guys with $10-$14 million is going to be a tall hill to climb again this year.  We are going to be in a spot where landing 1 or 2 highly thought of guys severely hampers your ability to pick up much of anything else.

 

[Demo]

10 minutes ago, Jeff Flabjohns said:

Great news. I’d bet he’d be staying if the staff said he had a good shot at starting and kept his NIL competitive. Hopefully he heard the opposite

100% agree. 1 tool players who can’t always produce that tool are too hard to win with. I didn’t even want him for rotation purposes. Would much rather give those rotation minutes to Karvala because eventually he’ll be able to give you more. 

[Home Jersey]

1 minute ago, Shooter said:

Wonder if it's truly a pay cut, or they weren't willing to meet a request for increased pay. Either way, staff probably thinks they can get better value for the money.

I am bummed to lose Dorn just because he was a known quantity and a decent player. But the role of "good shooter who does nothing else" probably won't be that hard to fill.

Yeah I agree. It's just concerning to me that we are now filling 8 spots... the money only goes so far when it's spread thin. Overall it could be a good outcome for next year's roster. A lot of ambiguity to navigate. Ryan Carr will have his finger prints on this team. Hopefully we see a noticeable difference.

[Home Jersey]

2 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

Replacing 8 or 9 guys with $10-$14 million is going to be a tall hill to climb again this year.  We are going to be in a spot where landing 1 or 2 highly thought of guys severely hampers your ability to pick up much of anything else.

 

I didn't know Dorn was leaving yesterday, but that's why I've been thinking we're going for 2 of the spendy guys max this cycle. Ryan Carr is going to need to earn the love he has been getting. Eager to see what he comes up with.

[Stuhoo]

On 4/4/2026 at 9:24 PM, Hovadipo said:

It’s called an emotional hedge. 

 

8 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

Very likely that Dorn stays; if Dorn was gone we’d know by now.

For me, the intriguing thing about Dorn is that he had the foot fracture and couldn’t train going into last season. Hoping that a full offseason allows him to improve his athleticism.

 

34 minutes ago, EasyEJay said:

Dorn in the portal reported by ON3 

Nailed it! Lol

[Demo]

1 minute ago, Home Jersey said:

I didn't know Dorn was leaving yesterday, but that's why I've been thinking we're going for 2 of the spendy guys max this cycle. Ryan Carr is going to need to earn the love he has been getting. Eager to see what he comes up with.

This right here. Any moron can look at a Bidunga or Wright and say they can play. My daughter who couldn’t tell you which ball a basketball is can do that. Carr’s job is to find undervalued assets and I’m 100% confident he can. Dude drafted Taelon freakin’ Peter last year who didn’t even start at Liberty and that guy’s gonna hang around in the League for a long time. So I’m gonna give them the presumption of correctness on every kid they bring in, no exceptions. Adam Olsen, no problem, welcome to the family. Now if they go out and go 10-25 we’ll need to revisit it. 

[Chris007]

15 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

I didn't know Dorn was leaving yesterday, but that's why I've been thinking we're going for 2 of the spendy guys max this cycle. Ryan Carr is going to need to earn the love he has been getting. Eager to see what he comes up with.

From what I understand, Ryan Carr is doing most of the evaluations but not the negotiating. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

From the time I learned how to read baseball box scores I was a Dodger fan.  Free agency hit and my interest in the Dodgers and baseball in general slowly started to fade away.  Really like a player and poof he was gone.  College basketball has become the same way.  Simply can't let yourself become emotionally tied to any one player let alone an entire roster.   A player decides to leave, so be it.  

[Hoosier987]

5 hours ago, Chris007 said:

From what I understand, Ryan Carr is doing most of the evaluations but not the negotiating. 

Carr is good. Lets continue to have him do the evaluations

[Home Jersey]

1 minute ago, Chris007 said:

From what I understand, Ryan Carr is doing most of the evaluations but not the negotiating. 

Good to see you posting more again.

Interesting. I wonder if part of the evaluation includes putting an acceptable range of spend for each target. In a market moving like this, not only do we need to get the scouting evaluation right... we need to be sharp about prioritization too. Timing is everything. Hopefully some good news soon. 

[str8baller]

16 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

I didn't know Dorn was leaving yesterday, but that's why I've been thinking we're going for 2 of the spendy guys max this cycle. Ryan Carr is going to need to earn the love he has been getting. Eager to see what he comes up with.

Get the right two and the rest of the scout becomes a wee bit easier. 
 

Seeing Shelstad and Bidunga visiting together made me think that the school that (if?) lands those two and 3 spot up shooters who were at least willing defenders you’d probably make the tourney easy with a chance to make the 2nd weekend.  

[EasyEJay]

Can already hear "Dorn leaving caught the staff off guard" / " Staff didn't anticipate having 8-9 roster sports to fill" / "Ryan Carr didn't have a full season to get going." as next March's version of "Staff wasn't in place in time" as an excuse for another underachieving year. 

I know there is still a lot to play out but I'd be lying if I didn't say a month ago I'd thought I'd feel a lot more optimistic today. We shall see if that changes in the next 10 days or so.  

[Hoosier987]

Just now, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

From the time I learned how to read baseball box scores I was a Dodger fan.  Free agency hit and my interest in the Dodgers and baseball in general slowly started to fade away.  Really like a player and poof he was gone.  College basketball has become the same way.  Simply can't let yourself become emotionally tied to any one player let alone an entire roster.   A player decides to leave, so be it.  

I understand. I’ve always appreciated multi-year players. But last year, was there anyone truly worth investing in long-term? We needed a reset. Wilkerson stands out, but he was out of eligibility.

[Pagoda]

7 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

From what I understand, Ryan Carr is doing most of the evaluations but not the negotiating. 

Thanks.  Just guessing, but I tend to think Ryan's evals would have to include a valuation of the player?  Otherwise the eval would be not so helpful.  And of course CDD and assistants still have some involvement on evals.

Then CDD and assistants have to sell the player on IU and get them for something close to the valuation.  I kinda worry about how good of a salesman CDD is (I'm not sold! -- haha j/k... kinda), but we'll see.

[Juwan Moye]

45 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Maybe that means we've got his roster spot signed, sealed and nearly delivered.

Considering the 6’8” kid coming in who can only shoot and seemingly do little else I think this is a “yes”.

[Home Jersey]

Just now, str8baller said:

Get the right two and the rest of the scout becomes a wee bit easier. 
 

Seeing Shelstad and Bidunga visiting together made me think that the school that (if?) lands those two and 3 spot up shooters who were at least willing defenders you’d probably make the tourney easy with a chance to make the 2nd weekend.  

I would be happy enough at this rate if we sign Burton at PG and Estrella at C.

If the two of them cost $6-7M and the freshmen + Trent cost ~$2M... will really need to nail the scout on our other players. And have to strike at the right time. Gonna be interesting to see where we land.