2025-2026 IUBB Season Expectations

[AH1971 3,146]

3 minutes ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

At what point should a coach be coaching for his job? Archie arguably should’ve been canned after going 19-16 and having a conference stretch where he lost 12 of 13 games. In hindsight, IU would’ve been better off. Woodson should’ve been canned after year 3. Sometimes “giving a coach time” pays off, other times it only prolongs the inevitable. I think we’ll have a decent idea on DD at this point next year, but he’ll get 3-4 years from IU regardless of what his first season looks like.

When it becomes patently clear that said coach has plateaued or reached his ceiling. It's impossible to tell that after a single season.

[rayl456 908]

46 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

The first one you got all wrong.  On the second you can think we have to make the tournament for him to ultimately be as successful as we want to be without saying you have to fire him if he doesn't.  I don't think there is anyone who doesn't believe he will get at least 4 years even if he misses every year.

I think he has to make it to flip the narrative on the program.  We cannot continue to be the squad that pays Ferrari prices for a Honda Civic.  We messed up keeping Woodson around too because we have done a stupendous job of surrounding ourselves with either really established programs who do recruit our state pretty well (Purdue, Michigan State) and some big time programs that made a hire a year before us who had breakout years (Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan).  Fending those schools off is already going to be a tall task and a failure to launch in year one could sink him before he starts.  He has to make a splash even if it is just a ripple.

That’s certainly an opinion alright.  :)

[go iu bb 9,555]

1 hour ago, iu eyedoc said:

 

Hurley started at UConn in 2018 the portal launched on October 15, 2018 so he still missed the tourney and had 3 seasons without a tourney win even with the portal. They also didn't have to replace all 15 players in their first season.

Oh and IU was 54 in Net. I don't imagine you won't be throwing a fit if IU is in the same boat as they were last season.

Drawing a pass fail line in the sand based on making the tournament is worthless. Everyone hopes for season 1 success, but building a culture, rebuilding in state recruiting ties, constantly trending upward is essential the first season or 2.

 

There was the  portal, sure, but it wasn't the same as what it is now. At that time it was just a more convenient way to do transfers. Basketball players, except grad transfers, did not get immediate eligibility until 2021. So not  really comparable to the transfer portal of today.

[Scotty R 3,672]

10 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

Until IU makes a deep run in March any coach at IU is going to be under pressure to win and win now and win big.  Dark side of coaching at IU.   People can say all IU has to do is make the tourney in year X however it’s  never going to be enough until a deep run.   The minute he makes the tourney in year 1 it will shift to well that don’t count because it’s  the first 4 (B1G still gets a unit for a first 4 win and it goes in the record book),   Doesn’t count they didn’t beat a power 5 team they got lucky Y team got upset and so on.  It is what it is at IU.  Coach at IU has to make the tourney in every year he coaches.  If not even when some say he won’t have to that’s exactly what will need to happen because of the budget.  Plenty of schools will have a budget comparable to IUs.  Maybe not as much but enough to compete for the same players.   He willingly signed up for the job knowing the expectations. That should relieve some of you to have a coach that isn’t going to hide from expectations 

Also what is a definition of a deep run because there really isn't an unanimous criteria for that. Is it making the sweet 16 or do you have to make the final 4 in a certain amount of time.

[Uspshoosier 54,384]

4 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

Also what is a definition of a deep run because there really isn't an unanimous criteria for that. Is it making the sweet 16 or do you have to make the final 4 in a certain amount of time.

For this fanbase?  At least an Elite 8.   Fans  haven’t seen one of them since 2002 

[Scotty R 3,672]

5 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

For this fanbase?  At least an Elite 8.   Fans  haven’t seen one of them since 2002 

So would a coach get fired after 5 years of this. Make the tournament every year but never gets past the sweet 16

[Uspshoosier 54,384]

3 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

So would a coach get fired after 5 years of this. Make the tournament every year but never gets past the sweet 16

Yeah.  Rodney Terry just got fired after 3 years with an Elite 8 appearance and making the the tourney every year.  Not saying it’s wrong or right to fire someone for those results but coaches have gotten fired even when they make the tourney every year 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 90,678]

Moving posts from the IU portal thread

[Jet812 552]

1 hour ago, iu eyedoc said:

 

Hurley started at UConn in 2018 the portal launched on October 15, 2018 so he still missed the tourney and had 3 seasons without a tourney win even with the portal. They also didn't have to replace all 15 players in their first season.

 

Oh and IU was 54 in Net. I don't imagine you won't be throwing a fit if IU is in the same boat as they were last season.

Drawing a pass fail line in the sand based on making the tournament is worthless. Everyone hopes for season 1 success, but building a culture, rebuilding in state recruiting ties, constantly trending upward is essential the first season or 2.

 

 

 

As others have pointed out, more relevant(recency, resources) examples than UConn & Florida exist with UofL, UK, UM.  Why should we not expect comparable first seasons?  Bad luck, maybe, but the disappointment of missing the tourney would, for me, be due to an indication that our guy isn’t as good as the other 3.  Maybe over time he equals or surpasses their success, but there is plenty of evidence we should see it out of the box if we’ve got the dude, given the resources we have.  You list a few things that need to happen in the first season or two, & I agree, but none of them are either or propositions with year one success as measured by making the tourney.  It’s not worthless, it’s benchmarking, why shouldn’t we do that?

[JSHoosier 22,211]

Make the tournament, and not a stupid play in game. We've seen time and again the right coach can make a big difference pretty quickly, we should expect the same with our resources.

[AH1971 3,146]

18 minutes ago, Jet812 said:

As others have pointed out, more relevant(recency, resources) examples than UConn & Florida exist with UofL, UK, UM.  Why should we not expect comparable first seasons?  Bad luck, maybe, but the disappointment of missing the tourney would, for me, be due to an indication that our guy isn’t as good as the other 3.  Maybe over time he equals or surpasses their success, but there is plenty of evidence we should see it out of the box if we’ve got the dude, given the resources we have.  You list a few things that need to happen in the first season or two, & I agree, but none of them are either or propositions with year one success as measured by making the tourney.  It’s not worthless, it’s benchmarking, why shouldn’t we do that?

More than fine to expect that...but what's the recourse if it doesn't happen? Fire him immediately? Scorching hot seat year 2? I'll use Louisville and Michigan because they're much closer peers to us today than a program like Kentucky...but was Louisville going to fire Pat Kelsey after 1 year? Would Michigan fans have been ready to blow it up....again...if May didn't make the tournament? Neither of those schools had preseason hype or much expectation.

[str8baller 7,466]

54 minutes ago, go iu bb said:

There was the  portal, sure, but it wasn't the same as what it is now. At that time it was just a more convenient way to do transfers. Basketball players, except grad transfers, did not get immediate eligibility until 2021. So not  really comparable to the transfer portal of today.

Yea, I think talking about “the portal” now means the last couple years of mass portal entrants combined with huge NIL deals that are actually just a salary.  Bringing up someone like Hurley in that context is largely meaningless, to me.  
 

With that said, we have very few data points because it’s all so new. Otoh, we have some good direct comparisons last year like Kelsey, May and Pope. All similar programs with similar resources who hired coaches with similar resumes to CDD. 3 data points isn’t enough for me to call it a baseline, but it’s as good as we have this early into this new world. 
 

If you want to point to Pitino or Golden to try and excuse away a bad first season, I can live with that. The problem there is Pitino won the Big East in year 2 and Golden was good in year 2 and won the title in year 3. So either way, expectations come fast and get big quick. 

[bigrod 3,182]

1 hour ago, AH1971 said:

Unless I interpreted these wrong, these sure seem like "Make the tournament or else" posts

 

 

Sorry, I meant I don't disagree that we should make the tournament. I was disagreeing that we should look for a new coach if we didn't.

[Jet812 552]

14 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

More than fine to expect that...but what's the recourse if it doesn't happen? Fire him immediately? Scorching hot seat year 2? I'll use Louisville and Michigan because they're much closer peers to us today than a program like Kentucky...but was Louisville going to fire Pat Kelsey after 1 year? Would Michigan fans have been ready to blow it up....again...if May didn't make the tournament? Neither of those schools had preseason hype or much expectation.

We don’t know what they’d have done because it didn’t happen - that’s the point.  What’s the recourse?  Disappointment.  Can you cite anyone on this board, in any thread suggesting he be fired after year one?

[Home Jersey 15,961]

1 minute ago, Jet812 said:

We don’t know what they’d have done because it didn’t happen - that’s the point.  What’s the recourse?  Disappointment.  Can you cite anyone on this board, in any thread suggesting he be fired after year one?

Theres been so much of that over the past decade for IUBB. It won’t be anything new. And a few disappointed hardcore fans won’t have any bearing on his ability to succeed. The donors who get access will have a longer leash IMO and “normies” are always going to mindlessly do the job of fans… which is to show up and cheer. That’s the bulk of the fanbase. So I guess us hardcore fans will just have to cope and keep on being a fan through the highs and lows or do what they need to do to protect their feelings and tune out until IUBB eventually starts winning again, with DDV or someone else

[DChoosier 9,811]

Someone posted that a reasonable progression is crawl, walk, run.

I’m more in the walk then run camp as we really need to make the tourney our first year. NIL, coach, resources, narrative all point to the need to make the tourney.

That being said, to come to the conclusion that we (people that expect to be in the tourney the first year) think DD should be fired, if he doesn’t make the tourney the first year, is hyperbole/mis-characterization/wrong.

[str8baller 7,466]

56 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

So would a coach get fired after 5 years of this. Make the tournament every year but never gets past the sweet 16

Probably depends on other circumstances at that point. I honestly think if Crean never missed the tourney in his off years he wouldn’t have been fired.  
 

But eventually your standards get readjusted kind of like how IUs have been adjusted downward.  Knight hadn’t made the S16 in his last five years and a not insignificant part of the fanbase was ready for him to move on claiming the game has passed him by. And at that point he was a stone cold legend of the game probably no worse than 3rd on anybody’s list of greatest coaches of all time. But the “losing” had grown tiresome.  
 

In some ways it’s easier to do what IU’s done the last 25 years which is just lose and make excuses like typical losers do. That way the fanbase never has to grapple with actual expectations, having great teams but coming up short anyways because your best player has an off game or a bad whistle or something.  
 

We’ve never had a Keady/Painter/Pearl/Barnes type coach who is good enough to put out consistent winners but seemingly not good enough to win a title. We’ve had Knight (for the older fans) or sucktitude with the irrationally firm belief the 6th banner is just around the corner. If faced with such a situation we might lose our collective minds in an existential crisis of trying to manage real top 10ish expectations.  

[AH1971 3,146]

28 minutes ago, Jet812 said:

We don’t know what they’d have done because it didn’t happen - that’s the point.  What’s the recourse?  Disappointment.  Can you cite anyone on this board, in any thread suggesting he be fired after year one?

Did Florida or UConn fire their coaches after their first year or two? Put them on any kind of hot seat? 

You're kind of making my point. 

[Stuhoo 89,440]

Just now, AH1971 said:

Did Florida or UConn fire their coaches after their first year or two? Put them on any kind of hot seat? 

You're kind of making my point. 

You are arguing against... no one.

I see plenty of people stating that making the tourney the first year is their minimum expectation, but I don't see anyone stating that the consequence for not doing so should be to fire Devries after one year.

[Home Jersey 15,961]

Just now, AH1971 said:

Did Florida or UConn fire their coaches after their first year or two? Put them on any kind of hot seat? 

You're kind of making my point. 

UConn has won like 20% of the men’s titles since the turn of the century. Even after a bumpy start they stuck with him because he was their guy and it paid off for them big time. If they can afford a few years of missing the tournament without firing their coach/having fans screaming for his head, I don’t see why IU fans would have higher expectations right now. Our programs aren’t remotely comparable in the modern era.