Transfer Portal w/IU Interest

[Pryght]

12 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

Year 2 is a complete rebuild.

The DDV era is going to be like year 1 B.C. (before Ryan Carr) and year 1 A.D. (after Ryan Carr) lol.

Hiring Ryan Carr is definitely a big move to turnaround IUBB after decades of mismanagement. 

It's interesting that DeVries downplayed Ryan Carr's contribution to this Portal Class in yesterday's interview.

 

[Home Jersey]

1 hour ago, Pryght said:

We’ll be competitive this year and likely in the fringe Top 25 conversation. Considering where the program has been, we’re clearly moving in the right direction.

With our entire roster having at least two years of eligibility remaining, the plan is to retain the core of this group, invest in keeping our top talent, and address weaknesses through next year’s transfer portal. That should position us to take another step forward and potentially become a Top 15 team in 2027-2028.

This is a progression, and the foundation is being built the right way.

In fairness, last year's team was also fringe top 25 at the start of the year. Peaked at #22 in week 5.

"Clearly moving in the right direction" is an optimistic take that I can appreciate, but don't find objectively true yet. We missed the tournament again and the staff decided they had to completely rebuild the roster for a second straight year. How many times has IUBB won the offseason with no results to show for it?

IMO a lot of positive assumptions (which could prove to be totally valid) are needed to say the foundation is being built "the right way." Don't know that we can say that until after the season when we see how the pieces fit together and how many holes we need to fill in the portal. At least the money should go further if you're only filling 4 or 5 spots instead of 12-13.

The talent is undeniably better than last year, and it had to be. It's not unquestionably a tournament team as things stand today, though IMO

[Pryght]

11 minutes ago, Shooter said:

Our new coach has never won a tournament game.

Drake beat Wichita State in 2021. He's 1-3 overall.

[Home Jersey]

5 minutes ago, Pryght said:

It's interesting that DeVries downplayed Ryan Carr's contribution to this Portal Class in yesterday's interview.

 

Meh. I don't think he was downplaying Carr's contribution as much as reframing the question to share the credit with the entire staff

[ronzo4IU]

11 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

In fairness, last year's team was also fringe top 25 at the start of the year. Peaked at #22 in week 5.

"Clearly moving in the right direction" is an optimistic take that I can appreciate, but don't find objectively true yet. We missed the tournament again and the staff decided they had to completely rebuild the roster for a second straight year. How many times has IUBB won the offseason with no results to show for it?

IMO a lot of positive assumptions (which could prove to be totally valid) are needed to say the foundation is being built "the right way." Don't know that we can say that until after the season when we see how the pieces fit together and how many holes we need to fill in the portal. At least the money should go further if you're only filling 4 or 5 spots instead of 12-12.

The talent is undeniably better than last year, and it had to be. It's not unquestionably a tournament team as things stand today, though IMO

I think retention is a great thing, but I don't understand how you save money?  If players on roster progress, they will want a raise and a big one if they did so good that other schools are willing to enter a biding war. 

You will always have your 2nd and 3rd tier players that you plan x amount $$ for regardless.  Maybe I'm not looking at it right though.

 

[Pryght]

6 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

In fairness, last year's team was also fringe top 25 at the start of the year. Peaked at #22 in week 5.

"Clearly moving in the right direction" is an optimistic take that I can appreciate, but don't find objectively true yet.

Yes, in week 5, before we played anyone, we were a fringe Top 25 team.  

Objectively looking at the talent on IU’s roster, the years of eligibility remaining, the size, the playmaking ability, and the overall roster construction, it’s hard not to conclude that the program is clearly moving in the right direction.

C'mon now...

 

[Home Jersey]

2 minutes ago, Pryght said:

Yes, in week 5, before we played anyone, we were a fringe Top 25 team.  

Objectively looking at the talent on IU’s roster, the years of eligibility remaining, the size, the playmaking ability, and the overall roster construction, it’s hard not to conclude that the program is clearly moving in the right direction.

C'mon now...

 

I think that's presumptuous. We improved the talent level, which we had to. This is not some obvious T25 team at the end of the year to me. We very well could achieve that, but it's not a given.

[Home Jersey]

2 minutes ago, ronzo4IU said:

I think retention is a great thing, but I don't understand how you save money?  If players on roster progress, they will want a raise and a big one if they did so good that other schools are willing to enter a biding war. 

You will always have your 2nd and 3rd tier players that you plan x amount $$ for regardless.  Maybe I'm not looking at it right though.

 

@Pagoda and @str8baller have made some really good posts explaining it more eloquently than I could. 

[Brass Cannon]

The way you save money through retention is signing guys to multi year deals and then they outperform the money 

[ronzo4IU]

15 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

The way you save money through retention is signing guys to multi year deals and then they outperform the money 

I guess I assumed that most deals are 1 yr.  That would make sense though.

[Pryght]

54 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

I think that's presumptuous. We improved the talent level, which we had to. This is not some obvious T25 team at the end of the year to me. We very well could achieve that, but it's not a given.

I’m glad you agree that the talent level is trending in the right direction.

And objectively, isn’t signing sophomores with 2–3 years of remaining eligibility a much better long-term approach than building an entire portal class around seniors?

Talent-wise, I agree, though to me this looks like a fringe Top 25 roster. If DeVries doesn’t outperform that level, then criticism of the coaching would be fair.

But if he overachieves the way he did at Drake, and arguably at West Virginia given the injuries they dealt with, then hopefully IU found the right guy.

Either way, we’re going to learn a lot about this staff and the direction of the program next season. There's no more mulligans.

[Home Jersey]

Just now, Pryght said:

I’m glad you agree that the talent level is trending in the right direction.

And objectively, isn’t signing sophomores with 2–3 years of remaining eligibility a much better long-term approach than building an entire portal class around seniors?

Talent-wise, I agree, though to me this looks like a fringe Top 25 roster. If DeVries doesn’t outperform that level, then criticism of the coaching would be fair.

But if he overachieves the way he did at Drake, and arguably at West Virginia given the injuries they dealt with, then hopefully IU found the right guy.

Either way, we’re going to learn a lot about this staff and the direction of the program next season. There's no more mulligans.

We largely agree on everything here... especially no more mulligans.

I'm just saying, until they produce results on the court, it's hard for me to say with any real conviction that the program is objectively moving in the right direction.

The portal approach was much better this time around but I don't think that necessarily means the program itself is trending up.

We should have a pretty good to very good starting 5. Beyond that, a ton of questions and need to see how the puzzle pieces fit together.

We could finish a fringe T25 team. Or we could get nothing out of our bench again, lose Sherrell to the NBA, have a few guys transfer out (Harris, Sisley, Manhertz, the last 3 guys we get this year) and wind up needing to fill a lot of gaps again for next year.

That's a worst case type of scenario, but it's just as much a possibility as the best case IMO. The reality will probably end up somewhere in between IMO

[RaceToTheTop]

3 hours ago, ronzo4IU said:

I think retention is a great thing, but I don't understand how you save money?  If players on roster progress, they will want a raise and a big one if they did so good that other schools are willing to enter a biding war. 

If I like my job and where I am living the only way I would move is if there was a significant different in the salary if I moved on to a new job.  And there are certainties in staying -- bonds with friends I've made, having more of a known role, etc.

It isn't as simple as just going to whoever offers the most money.  

[4iufourever]

Another big has committed. 

https://www.insidethehall.com/2026/05/08/iu-basketball-lands-commitment-from-german-big-man-clemens-sokolov/

 

Edited Friday at 06:55 PM by 4iufourever

[68Hoosier]

17 minutes ago, 4iufourever said:

Another big has committed. 

https://www.insidethehall.com/2026/05/08/iu-basketball-lands-commitment-from-german-big-man-clemens-sokolov/

 

Don't see anywhere, where they list his weight.  I think we will still need another serviceable big and back up PG

[sirhoosierlot]

Seems like a lateral move from Acimovic

[Home Jersey]

2 minutes ago, sirhoosierlot said:

Seems like a lateral move from Acimovic

Yeah definitely seems like a lateral move from Andrej for this coming year.

Granted, I've only seen a short highlight reel on IG but it looks like he moves a good bit better and in one clip he hits a 3. Skinny and just 18... maybe we can develop him for down the road. Maybe not. Minimally at least he is a 7' practice body. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

A thread has been opened for Sokolov.

[AH1971]

I think our starting 5 is top 25 good. However, basketball rotations go 8-10 men deep. Sherrell and Burton are all-conference caliber players. Lindsay is a very good starter and I believe Samet to be more than competent. Ceiling depends on Mustaf and Harris, one of those two need to breakout. I'm extremely worried about depth, especially if the plan is to play Sherrell at the 4. I'm not at all convinced Sisley is ready to be a 20-25 mpg contributor. Health is going to be a major concern with this team as well. With the way the roster is constructed...it appears we're banking on a bunch of guys going ~30mpg, I don't like it, especially with Samet and Sherrell.

[Shooter]

4 hours ago, Pryght said:

Drake beat Wichita State in 2021. He's 1-3 overall.

My bad. In that case it's championship this season or bust