2025-2026 IUBB Season Expectations

[Stuhoo 89,532]

6 minutes ago, Demo said:

I'm not even sure "modern" fully covers it. I've been trying to figure out, aside from just money, how hes's been able to pretty easily get literally 2 deep 1-3 when all 6 of those kids probably entered the portal with starting expectations. Dorn was the capper. I just thought there was no way there because he'd be able to find 25 mins somewhere, but not here. The only thing that makes sense is he's selling these kids on playing hyper-fast. Not even Illinois-level fast, Bama-level fast. I know he talked about 12 sec possessions but, hell, Tony Bennett talked about early clock offense. Yet it sure as $hit looks like he's building a roster to actually do that, which is pretty wild given that he's never done it before. If that's the case and this team's pushing 80 possession games next year, IUBB will be unrecognizable and no team in the B1G would be doing anything like that. Crean at his wild and craziest was nowhere close to that pace of play.

Dorn kinda stunned me too. Him and Miles seem like carbon copies of each other and Dorn had other big boy schools (= $$) wanting him.

The track record for Devries and ‘offensive coordinator’ Coach Bergen is most definitely not a Nate Oats compare for pace of play.

[str8baller 7,501]

8 minutes ago, Demo said:

The only thing that makes sense is he's selling these kids on playing hyper-fast. Not even Illinois-level fast, Bama-level fast. I know he talked about 12 sec possessions but, hell, Tony Bennett talked about early clock offense. Yet it sure as $hit looks like he's building a roster to actually do that, which is pretty wild given that he's never done it before.

I’m intrigued by what’s going on. Honest to God, I don’t know what I would do with myself if we had a coach that could coach multiple styles and switched up depending on his personnel.  
 

Its been so long since we’ve had anything like that in the sidelines, I would probably just sit back in amazement the first full year or two.   
 

(ok, that’s as much as I can let myself dream…back to reality)

[Demo 23,573]

14 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

The track record for Devries and ‘offensive coordinator’ Coach Bergen is most definitely not a Nate Oats compare for pace of play.

Not at all, and yet it kind of feels like that’s where this might be going. Make it tough for team’s to get their defense set and  just trying to grind them down with your depth and pace. 

[lillurk 5,126]

41 minutes ago, Demo said:

Not at all, and yet it kind of feels like that’s where this might be going. Make it tough for team’s to get their defense set and  just trying to grind them down with your depth and pace. 

There’s a sort of logic to playing faster when you’ve got more budget (and thus in theory talent) versus being on par in those areas with your peers at Drake or below average for your conference at WVU. 

Pace or not, going all in on Randy Foye-era Nova four guard/Oats-style 3>2 is going to be a fun experiment.

[Ghost of Rick Majerus 1,962]

2 hours ago, Demo said:

I'm not even sure "modern" fully covers it. I've been trying to figure out, aside from just money, how hes's been able to pretty easily get literally 2 deep 1-3 when all 6 of those kids probably entered the portal with starting expectations. Dorn was the capper. I just thought there was no way there because he'd be able to find 25 mins somewhere, but not here. The only thing that makes sense is he's selling these kids on playing hyper-fast. Not even Illinois-level fast, Bama-level fast. I know he talked about 12 sec possessions but, hell, Tony Bennett talked about early clock offense. Yet it sure as $hit looks like he's building a roster to actually do that, which is pretty wild given that he's never done it before. If that's the case and this team's pushing 80 possession games next year, IUBB will be unrecognizable and no team in the B1G would be doing anything like that. Crean at his wild and craziest was nowhere close to that pace of play.

I agree with you 100%! I cannot wait to see the actual product on the floor 

[HoosierHoopster 8,316]

2 hours ago, Demo said:

Not at all, and yet it kind of feels like that’s where this might be going. Make it tough for team’s to get their defense set and  just trying to grind them down with your depth and pace. 

I think that’s the objective— he’s recruiting to avoid the B1G style half court slug fest. I love it. I’ve been saying we don’t necessarily need a traditional rim protector— this is why. Definitely interested to see how his recruiting shakes out

[Stuhoo 89,532]

6 hours ago, Demo said:

Not at all, and yet it kind of feels like that’s where this might be going. Make it tough for team’s to get their defense set and  just trying to grind them down with your depth and pace. 

So what your saying is that we’re gonna truly pay homage to school history by pre-dating the Knight era all the way back to: