Transfer Portal w IU Interest

[RaceToTheTop 24,243]

9 minutes ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

They flew to Peoria by the way to visit him

Yes.  As was mentioned earlier, Hickman was supposed to visit IU over the weekend but he called it off because he was sick.  I think it's a positive move by the staff to go to Bradley to visit him since the visit didn't work out.  At least it's showing a recruit that the staff is very interested in him.

[IUFAN1976 2,394]

10 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

Yep. We skipped the tournaments to get a head start on the portal. Better connections this time around, they said. Huge payroll we can outspend others. "Our targets are still in the tournament" (there's now 4 schools in the NCAAT + the NIT). Sure some really good players may hit the portal late. We've got what, 5 or 6 spots to fill? Going off last year as a guide, 70% of the portal is likely already in it. We should have a head start on evaluating, making contact, getting visits, etc. Instead before the no contact period, we've got three cancelled visits (Leland Walker, BHH, and Hickman)... sure for various reasons, like Hickman being sick. But at the end of the day they've got to get it done. Other schools are managing to walk and chew gum at the same time. It's now April 1. Let's hope we get a guard soon.

Yes, we got off to an early start just to get 0 recruits from the portal to either visit or commit.  I would have been ok with a couple of visits or 1 commit from a role player.  The only thing I hear is crickets coming from the basketball program 

[Stuhoo 76,481]

10 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

Yep. We skipped the tournaments to get a head start on the portal. Better connections this time around, they said. Huge payroll we can outspend others. "Our targets are still in the tournament" (there's now 4 schools in the NCAAT + the NIT). Sure some really good players may hit the portal late. We've got what, 5 or 6 spots to fill? Going off last year as a guide, 70% of the portal is likely already in it. We should have a head start on evaluating, making contact, getting visits, etc. Instead before the no contact period, we've got three cancelled visits (Leland Walker, BHH, and Hickman)... sure for various reasons, like Hickman being sick. But at the end of the day they've got to get it done. Other schools are managing to walk and chew gum at the same time. It's now April 1. Let's hope we get a guard soon.

 

11 minutes ago, IUFAN1976 said:

Yes, we got off to an early start just to get 0 recruits from the portal to either visit or commit.  I would have been ok with a couple of visits or 1 commit from a role player.  The only thing I hear is crickets coming from the basketball program 

I believe this "we skipped to get a head start on the portal" is a largely false premise.

We likely skipped the tournaments because of, in order of priority/importance:

1. Ware (likely), Banks and Gunn (probably), and maybe X, Gallo, or Leal (all of whom were injured to some degree) would not have played; we couldn't have run out anywhere near a full roster. So our team would've been MR, GC, MM, Sparks, Walker, and maybe one or two more at most. That is unworkable.
2. We pre-empted the possibility that we wouldn't have been selected for the NIT, which would've been hella embarrassing.
3. We didn't want to play in front of a less than interested and full Assembly Hall and potentially lose, which woulda also been embarrassing. Like 2017, when we accepted a sad-faced NT bid, and got rolled by Georgia Tech in front of 5,000 fans.
4. Finally and maybe the lowest down the list, we wanted the staff to prepare for and engage in portal season as early as possible.

[hoopsta007 374]

1 minute ago, Stuhoo said:

 

I believe this "we skipped to get a head start on the portal" is a largely false premise.

We likely skipped the tournaments because of, in order of priority/importance:

1. Ware (likely), Banks and Gunn (probably), and maybe X, Gallo, or Leal (all of whom were injured to some degree) would not have played; we couldn't have run out anywhere near a full roster. So our team would've been MR, GC, Sparks, Walker, and maybe one or two more at most. That is unworkable.
2. We pre-empted the possibility that we wouldn't have been selected for the NIT, which would've been hella embarrassing.
3. We didn't want to play in front of a less than interested and full Assembly Hall and potentially lose, which woulda also been embarrassing.
4. Finally and maybe the lowest down the list, we wanted the staff to prepare for and engage in portal season as early as possible.

Number 3 is it.  Couldn’t give the untrue fans a chance to voice their displeasure when Indiana State (or anyone else) demolished us by 30 pts, as decent teams tend to do.

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 8,652]

There are other things to complain about.  We should never accept a NIT invite. 

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich 8,325]

8 minutes ago, btownqb said:

There are other things to complain about.  We should never accept a NIT invite. 

We should if invited. Ridiculous not to.

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 8,652]

2 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

We should if invited. Ridiculous not to.

Nahhh. There's nothing to gain, a gigantic waste of time.  

[bigrod 2,818]

17 minutes ago, btownqb said:

There are other things to complain about.  We should never accept a NIT invite. 

What? How can you say that? We are so far removed from the program that is too proud to accept an NIT bid. This program is the definition of mediocrity over the last 25 years. This was totally done to save the embarrassment of the coach and administration.

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 8,652]

9 minutes ago, bigrod said:

What? How can you say that? We are so far removed from the program that is too proud to accept an NIT bid. This program is the definition of mediocrity over the last 25 years. This was totally done to save the embarrassment of the coach and administration.

Which was smart. 

How can I say that we should never play in the NIT?-- very simply. I cringed the last two times we took invites. 

But again, there are other things to complain about, I can't understand having energy towards that decision, it was the right one. 

[Hoosierfan2017 20,063]

20 minutes ago, bigrod said:

What? How can you say that? We are so far removed from the program that is too proud to accept an NIT bid. This program is the definition of mediocrity over the last 25 years. This was totally done to save the embarrassment of the coach and administration.

We’ve been an NIT-level program this decade. 6 ncaa tournament appearances in the past 16 years. 

[bigrod 2,818]

13 minutes ago, btownqb said:

Which was smart. 

How can I say that we should never play in the NIT?-- very simply. I cringed the last two times we took invites. 

But again, there are other things to complain about, I can't understand having energy towards that decision, it was the right one. 

In a way, you're right. I think its death by 1000 cuts. Just one more reminder of who we've become. 

[bigrod 2,818]

46 minutes ago, hoopsta007 said:

Number 3 is it.  Couldn’t give the untrue fans a chance to voice their displeasure when Indiana State (or anyone else) demolished us by 30 pts, as decent teams tend to do.

I'm not so sure we would have gotten to play at home.

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich 8,325]

Kentucky won a national title and accepted an NIT bid the next season... BUT... Indiana is too good to ever accept an invite lol.

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich 8,325]

44 minutes ago, btownqb said:

Nahhh. There's nothing to gain, a gigantic waste of time.  

There is plenty to gain if you have a real coach that instills a real culture.

[Certified Sunshine Pumper 8,652]

2 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

Kentucky won a national title and accepted an NIT bid the next season... BUT... Indiana is too good to ever accept an invite lol.

And got embarrassed by Robert Morris, horrible example, tbh. 

 

2 minutes ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

There is plenty to gain if you have a real coach that instills a real culture.

This changes nothing, not playing in the NIT was the only way to go. 

[dwtaylor1055 1,281]

so who knows why two visits were cancelled?

[Chris007 42,447]

8 minutes ago, dwtaylor1055 said:

so who knows why two visits were cancelled?

The staff knows. My guess is with Walker we are hoping for a bigger fish so we're stringing him along till we see what we have. Hickman was sick, and BHH cut his list down to 4 and we didn't make it. 

[Rico 2,926]

1 hour ago, btownqb said:

...  We should never accept a NIT invite. 

I don't know if I agree with this but tbh we weren't a NIT caliber team.  

[Golfman25 4,831]

6 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

The staff knows. My guess is with Walker we are hoping for a bigger fish so we're stringing him along till we see what we have. Hickman was sick, and BHH cut his list down to 4 and we didn't make it. 

What bigger fish.  They don’t appear to be knocking down our door.  Didn’t that one guy say we had better “connections” and a few deals where basically done.  

[68Hoosier 498]

11 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

The staff knows. My guess is with Walker we are hoping for a bigger fish so we're stringing him along till we see what we have. Hickman was sick, and BHH cut his list down to 4 and we didn't make it. 

I thought Walker was one we really wanted.