2025-2026 IU Roster

[RaceToTheTop 31,585]

4 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Yeah, he's better than that I think, and it's more that he offers something we just plain don't have.  But he wanted big boy money and Indiana has decided against that for several prospects like this that are asking for "too much".  Also Federico Federico.  We brag about our Nil and its strong but it's not quite to the level of some of these other programs.  Maybe football is taking a bite out of it.  They definitely are.  I think we are putting some money at other sports as well.  

I like DeVries and his mannerisms.  His confidence.  I just hope he's getting the guys he wants to get and not being held back by our Nil, which I personally think he is.  

I'm willing to bet that he logs under 200 minutes for the season at Kansas.

[rayl456 1,005]

1 hour ago, RaceToTheTop said:

It was a joke.

LOL…sorry…my error.   :)

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,781]

I'm willing to bet that he logs under 200 minutes for the season at Kansas.

Who cares. NC state wanted him, then Oregon, Kansas, and Indiana wanted him. You get that kind of size and athleticism as your backup big it puts you in a position to have depth in the case of an injury.

In Kansas case, they’ve got Bidunga. Mbiya is a Bidunga-like guy.

In our case, we have nothing that remotely resembles a rim protector. We also don’t have general depth or size at the position. He’s going to Kansas to be a backup because they paid him more than we were willing. He has a much more reasonable route to playing time at Indiana.

I guess if our 13th scholarship ends up going to Goode that’s a nice piece. If we don’t use the 13th scholarship and this option became available late and we bypassed it, I’ll never understand besides the NIL limitations.


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[DChoosier 9,930]

17 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Who cares. NC state wanted him, then Oregon, Kansas, and Indiana wanted him. You get that kind of size and athleticism as your backup big it puts you in a position to have depth in the case of an injury.

In Kansas case, they’ve got Bidunga. Mbiya is a Bidunga-like guy.

In our case, we have nothing that remotely resembles a rim protector. We also don’t have general depth or size at the position. He’s going to Kansas to be a backup because they paid him more than we were willing. He has a much more reasonable route to playing time at Indiana.

I guess if our 13th scholarship ends up going to Goode that’s a nice piece. If we don’t use the 13th scholarship and this option became available late and we bypassed it, I’ll never understand besides the NIL limitations.


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Just curious if you are speculating, or know for sure, that we lost him because of being unwilling to meet his price.

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,781]

Just curious if you are speculating, or know for sure, that we lost him because of being unwilling to meet his price.

We inquired. We were interested. Didn’t pursue because the pricetag was above what we were willing to spend. Who knows if he would have picked us if we pursued. We didn’t because of price.


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[RaceToTheTop 31,585]

2 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Who cares. NC state wanted him, then Oregon, Kansas, and Indiana wanted him. You get that kind of size and athleticism as your backup big it puts you in a position to have depth in the case of an injury.

In Kansas case, they’ve got Bidunga. Mbiya is a Bidunga-like guy.

In our case, we have nothing that remotely resembles a rim protector. We also don’t have general depth or size at the position. He’s going to Kansas to be a backup because they paid him more than we were willing. He has a much more reasonable route to playing time at Indiana.

I guess if our 13th scholarship ends up going to Goode that’s a nice piece. If we don’t use the 13th scholarship and this option became available late and we bypassed it, I’ll never understand besides the NIL limitations.


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Mbiya is a Bidunga type in that they both are centers.  One was a burger boy and the other needs to lay off the burgers.

mbiya could eventually be a good player but he’s not going to add much this season.  You have stated what Indiana’s need was for him which is exactly what I said:  a depth piece.

 

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,781]

Mbiya is a Bidunga type in that they both are centers.  One was a burger boy and the other needs to lay off the burgers.
mbiya could eventually be a good player but he’s not going to add much this season.  You have stated what Indiana’s need was for him which is exactly what I said:  a depth piece.
 

Lol. Have you been watched any video of Mbiya? Lay off the burgers? You clearly haven’t watched the tape.

The same way I was WAY early talking about Yannick Neiderhauser this year at Penn State before anyone else was. I’m not saying Mbiya is Yannick. I’m saying he’s far closer to Bidunga than the ratings might suggest. Some guys get hype early. Some get recognized later. Mbiya has gifts.


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[HoosierHoopster 8,849]

11 hours ago, DChoosier said:

Just curious if you are speculating, or know for sure, that we lost him because of being unwilling to meet his price.

It's speculation.

[RaceToTheTop 31,585]

9 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Lol. Have you been watched any video of Mbiya? Lay off the burgers? You clearly haven’t watched the tape.

The same way I was WAY early talking about Yannick Neiderhauser this year at Penn State before anyone else was. I’m not saying Mbiya is Yannick. I’m saying he’s far closer to Bidunga than the ratings might suggest. Some guys get hype early. Some get recognized later. Mbiya has gifts.


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Bet on my 200 minute prop?

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,781]

3 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

It's speculation.

Locked on Hoosiers said the day before he committed to Kansas that we reached out and it was too rich for what we were willing to do.  The next day he commits to Kansas.  That guy might not know a lot but he said contact was made and don't expect us to pursue based on money.  

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,781]

2 hours ago, RaceToTheTop said:

Bet on my 200 minute prop?

What's this have to do with anything?  Bidunga is 1A.  If Bidunga gets injured he will.  Kansas liked him enough to make him their primary backup big.  Watch the film if you want.  Not sure what your point is.  He's not good enough to play 200 minutes, then why do we want him?  That's wild.  

[RaceToTheTop 31,585]

20 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

What's this have to do with anything?  Bidunga is 1A.  If Bidunga gets injured he will.  Kansas liked him enough to make him their primary backup big.  Watch the film if you want.  Not sure what your point is.  He's not good enough to play 200 minutes, then why do we want him?  That's wild.  

I didn’t say we didn’t want him.  But you are way overselling him.

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,781]

Just now, RaceToTheTop said:

I didn’t say we didn’t want him.  But you are way overselling him.

What?  I wanted him as a backup athletic Big.  A potential rim protector.  And a general depth piece. I like him for how late in the game he became available.  IMO, the perfect fit for the roster.  I said he was Bidunga-like in his abilities.  If anything im desperate to fill the gap in the roster and he fits the criteria.  Lots of other guys would have too, earlier.  

[HoosierHoopster 8,849]

1 hour ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Locked on Hoosiers said the day before he committed to Kansas that we reached out and it was too rich for what we were willing to do.  The next day he commits to Kansas.  That guy might not know a lot but he said contact was made and don't expect us to pursue based on money.  

It’s just speculation. He doesn’t know what was offered that’s just BS, and who cares. 

[Hoosierfanyuh 7,179]

Not really speculation when Rabby also says it. Also the locked on accounts don’t know much. 

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,781]

15 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

It’s just speculation. He doesn’t know what was offered that’s just BS, and who cares. 

ok.  Might not know specific amounts but the general premise was passed along by several.

[HoosierHoopster 8,849]

1 hour ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

Not really speculation when Rabby also says it. Also the locked on accounts don’t know much. 

Fair enough. Where I am -- it's just my opinion -- is who cares. We're not going to pay for everyone at the amount they want in this portal world, we're going to pay at amounts that make sense for the structure of the team as a whole on the values the staff believes make sense. 

[str8baller 7,795]

20 hours ago, Pagoda said:

Yea, I get what you’re saying, I’m not sure which setup is better for MBB.

I guess at the end of the day if you have a P2 FB program that takes 75% of the rev share and quite a bit of NIL as well, you need that FB program to be good and to make a lot of money.

Probably. But NIL bleed off to other sports shouldn’t be a problem for IU basketball.  
 

My guess is that we’re pretty easily top 10. I think buying new players is more expensive than retaining your own, which tracks with about every professional league in existence. It also tracks with what we have seen in cbb. Guys like Edey and Smith definitely have taken at least small discounts to stay home.  
 

So basically, we’ll never get less bang for our buck than this year when buying an entirely new roster. Teams that did that last year like Michigan and Lville definitely seemed to have a ceiling despite how good they were. On the flip side, teams like UF and Auburn were able to retain a ton of talent without outrageous NILs. 
 

It’s smart that CDD got multi-year players because they’ll be cheaper to retain next year, most likely. I think a lot of pieces look like they don’t exactly fit this year but hopefully we definitely have an eye on the future.  
 

All in my pretty uninformed opinion, anyways. 

[Pagoda 5,367]

1 hour ago, str8baller said:

Probably. But NIL bleed off to other sports shouldn’t be a problem for IU basketball.  
 

My guess is that we’re pretty easily top 10. I think buying new players is more expensive than retaining your own, which tracks with about every professional league in existence. It also tracks with what we have seen in cbb. Guys like Edey and Smith definitely have taken at least small discounts to stay home.  
 

So basically, we’ll never get less bang for our buck than this year when buying an entirely new roster. Teams that did that last year like Michigan and Lville definitely seemed to have a ceiling despite how good they were. On the flip side, teams like UF and Auburn were able to retain a ton of talent without outrageous NILs. 
 

It’s smart that CDD got multi-year players because they’ll be cheaper to retain next year, most likely. I think a lot of pieces look like they don’t exactly fit this year but hopefully we definitely have an eye on the future.  
 

All in my pretty uninformed opinion, anyways. 

I think you're spot on with the point that rebuilding the whole roster is expensive, so our NIL/rev share didn't go as far this year.  Retaining talent is definitely cheaper (assuming the program is good) -- our football program just did an excellent job retaining guys as I'm quite sure all the big programs were poking around our key players with big offers.

I also like the eye on the future approach.  It's a balancing act -- we can't not focus on this year, we need to make the tourney and establish a winning culture/foundation to build from asap.  But, we need to keep years 2 and 3 in mind, those are years we can really push to be a top-15 program.  And if we can stay disciplined on player value and avoid chasing expensive guys that aren't the best fit, we'll have more money available for future recruits we really like that will help us in those pivotal years 2 and 3 of CDD's tenure. 

I don't have much insight into this staff, but I get the sense they're longer-term thinkers, which I love.  Or maybe I'm just drinking the kool-aid and projecting my hopes and dreams on to them.  We'll find out soon enough if we've got the right coach, fingers crossed...

 

[RaceToTheTop 31,585]

5 hours ago, Pagoda said:

I think you're spot on with the point that rebuilding the whole roster is expensive, so our NIL/rev share didn't go as far this year.  Retaining talent is definitely cheaper (assuming the program is good) -- our football program just did an excellent job retaining guys as I'm quite sure all the big programs were poking around our key players with big offers.

I also like the eye on the future approach.  It's a balancing act -- we can't not focus on this year, we need to make the tourney and establish a winning culture/foundation to build from asap.  But, we need to keep years 2 and 3 in mind, those are years we can really push to be a top-15 program.  And if we can stay disciplined on player value and avoid chasing expensive guys that aren't the best fit, we'll have more money available for future recruits we really like that will help us in those pivotal years 2 and 3 of CDD's tenure. 

I don't have much insight into this staff, but I get the sense they're longer-term thinkers, which I love.  Or maybe I'm just drinking the kool-aid and projecting my hopes and dreams on to them.  We'll find out soon enough if we've got the right coach, fingers crossed...

 

I was glad that we were able to get some multiple year players.  I believe our roster currently sits at:

Trent Sisley, Aleksa Ristic Fr

Josh Harris, So

Jasai Miles, Nick Dorn, Jason Drake Jr

Lamar Wilkerson, Reed Bailey, Tucker DeVries, Sam Alexis, Conor Enright, Tayton Conerway  Sr

-------------------------

I agree with Wayne in that I would have liked to add Mbiya, but I'm higher on Sam Alexis than he is and am fine with him filling the backup center role.  Obviously there would be an issue if Bailey were to go down.  But assuming that there isn't an injury issue, IMO Mbiya would not have played a big role this year at IU and then it becomes more about his long term.  I don't even know what to say about players being in a system long term anymore because of the movement that goes on.