How is Darian DeVries Doing So Far?

[Hoosier987]

7 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

I see a team that’s vastly undersized and vastly undermanned. Reality is that this is one of the least talented teams in the conference. I don’t think effort and hustle is an issue like it has been in years past, we’re just not very good. Wilkerson is the only guy who would start on every B10 team and Tucker would maybe start on a handful of non-contending teams. Sam Alexis, who does give a ton of effort and energy, was the 10th/11th man for Florida last year. Him being our go to big says it all as to where this team stands.

Yeah. I don’t think it’s an effort issue. They were clearly trying today. They just don’t have the size, strength and skill to go against the likes of MSU. For this team to hang with teams like MSU, Illinois and Michigan they have to be hitting at a greater than 40% clip from 3.

[AH1971]

5 minutes ago, Hoosier987 said:

Yeah. I don’t think it’s an effort issue. They were clearly trying today. They just don’t have the size, strength and skill to go against the likes of MSU. For this team to hang with teams like MSU, Illinois and Michigan they have to be hitting at a greater than 40% clip from 3.

Enright, Alexis, etc bust their @$$ and play with emotion every time out. They’re very limited as players though.

[skhoosier2]

3 minutes ago, Hoosier987 said:

Yeah. I don’t think it’s an effort issue. They were clearly trying today. They just don’t have the size, strength and skill to go against the likes of MSU. For this team to hang with teams like MSU, Illinois and Michigan they have to be hitting at a greater than 40% clip from 3.

For me I didn’t see great effort by the whole until the second half. The first half Tucker, Alexis, and Miles really stood out. Tucker has not always been my favorite player but that kid played his a$$ off today. Wilkerson really turned it on in the second half but he was non existent in the first. We need him to be that second half Lamar in every game. I think we win a few more games if we give the second half effort every game both halves. 

[AH1971]

2 minutes ago, skhoosier2 said:

For me I didn’t see great effort by the whole until the second half. The first half Tucker, Alexis, and Miles really stood out. Tucker has not always been my favorite player but that kid played his a$$ off today. Wilkerson really turned it on in the second half but he was non existent in the first. We need him to be that second half Lamar in every game. I think we win a few more games if we give the second half effort every game both halves. 

I don’t believe Tucker has lived up to his hype, but you can just tell this is a guy at the end of the road. I think the wear and tear of multiple surgeries and playing through chronic pain the last several seasons has finally taken its toll. 

[skhoosier2]

20 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

I don’t believe Tucker has lived up to his hype, but you can just tell this is a guy at the end of the road. I think the wear and tear of multiple surgeries and playing through chronic pain the last several seasons has finally taken its toll. 

Believe me I’ve been very critical of him all season. I just felt today he gave good effort. As good as I’ve seen all year from him. 

[Josh]

I'm proud of so many of you!  At this point of the Archie tenure I think i was the only person screaming about how bad he was.  So many here told me how dumb I was and he needed more time.

Now there are a lot of us seeing things more quickly!  I couldn't be happier.  Unless we found a way to move on from this guy.  Oof this guy.  This is soooo bad.

[newcastle12]

God what a sophie's choice that you have to choose between having Dorn/Miles/Sisley on the court in one spot in major minutes.

Wish DD could pick which one would be better help each match up though. Seems to have picked wrong the last two months.

[newcastle12]

5 hours ago, Hoosier987 said:

The disappointing and alarming thing about this season was that it was obvious we needed length for rim protection and rebounding g but yet Devries decided to continue to get small players like Jason Drake who committed late and appears that he won’t see 1 min of game action this year. 

Which Rim Protector and length guy that could play at the Power 5 level was coming here in the first year of a complete over haul.  You can't say "should have a got a guy like this"   It was free agency.  Who was the guy?  And if he was that good why try here?

[AH1971]

7 hours ago, Josh said:

I'm proud of so many of you!  At this point of the Archie tenure I think i was the only person screaming about how bad he was.  So many here told me how dumb I was and he needed more time.

Now there are a lot of us seeing things more quickly!  I couldn't be happier.  Unless we found a way to move on from this guy.  Oof this guy.  This is soooo bad.

DeVries is light years better than Archie at this stage and doing it with a much less talented roster. DeVries needs dudes, not hard to see. We’ll see where he stands next year without having to build a brand new roster on the fly. 

[Hoosier987]

8 hours ago, newcastle12 said:

Which Rim Protector and length guy that could play at the Power 5 level was coming here in the first year of a complete over haul.  You can't say "should have a got a guy like this"   It was free agency.  Who was the guy?  And if he was that good why try here?

I mean…I don’t think it would be difficult to find a high major caliber big. Bailey is not. A big problem is, whoever evaluated and recruited Bailey thought he was and it’s absolutely hurt us this year.
 

I know this, I guarantee you we learned from this year and will get a high major caliber BIG conference low post player or multiple for next season…just please don’t have the coach who evaluated/scouted Bailey evaluate and scout our BIGs for next season. Please don’t…

[AH1971]

40 minutes ago, Hoosier987 said:

I mean…I don’t think it would be difficult to find a high major caliber big. Bailey is not. A big problem is, whoever evaluated and recruited Bailey thought he was and it’s absolutely hurt us this year.
 

I know this, I guarantee you we learned from this year and will get a high major caliber BIG conference low post player or multiple for next season…just please don’t have the coach who evaluated/scouted Bailey evaluate and scout our BIGs for next season. Please don’t…

Yeah, the staffs grave misevaluation of Bailey cost them this season. Bailey is essentially a 6'10 guard who was terrible defensively in the A10. Not sure what the staff saw in him? This is a 22-23 win team had the staff been able to retain a guy like Reneau who was ran out of town here. 

[Stuhoo]

 

Great discussion!

I was on the road yesterday and only heard Fish - haven't watched the recorded game yet, but some initial thoughts:

1. This IU team has some guys that are really easy to root for; Enright, Alexis, Tucker, Lamar. But guys like Enright and Alexis are the kind of players that are truly beloved as eight or ninth options in a rotation, and we're needing to play them 30 minutes per game. 
2. As many have said, there are some serious roster deficiencies and that is on the staff. With this roster? "Expectations" are about where we are; a 17-20 win team when it's all said and done. 
3. Bailey and Conerway were epic high-cost misses.
   1. I think that Conerway is probably a bigger miss; he's played better than Bailey, but there is very likely an issue between him and the staff. He's significantly more talented than Enright, but the staff trusts Enright to play hard and with a great attitude, and Conerway has responded by severely pissing off the staff. When there are multiple extended losing streaks, things can mentally slide into the abyss in a hurry with 18-23 year olds. I'm guessing that has happened with Conerway.
      • BTW, if you think it's an unusual problem at IU; just look at Purdump basketball. Their body language and attitude is super-sucky right now, and that is with a still-highly ranked team. Would not be the least bit surprised if an excellent attitude Northwestern team picks them off in Evanston this week. And that would be with 3* freshman guard Jake West matched up with Amish Boy.

In summary? Things need to get better, but after 28 games I haven't made up my mind about whether they will. Anyone that is doing a self-congratulatory dance on Devries' grave is being premature, and anyone (not sure there is right now) thinking this is a likely success waiting to happen is also premature.

 

[AH1971]

2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

 

Great discussion!

I was on the road yesterday and only heard Fish - haven't watched the recorded game yet, but some initial thoughts:

1. This IU team has some guys that are really easy to root for; Enright, Alexis, Tucker, Lamar. But guys like Enright and Alexis are the kind of players that are truly beloved as eight or ninth options in a rotation, and we're needing to play them 30 minutes per game. 
2. As many have said, there are some serious roster deficiencies and that is on the staff. With this roster? "Expectations" are about where we are; an 18-20 win team when it's all said and done. 
3. Bailey and Conerway were epic high-cost misses.
   1. I think that Conerway is probably a bigger miss; he's played better than Bailey, but there is very likely an issue between him and the staff. He's significantly more talented than Enright, but the staff trusts Enright to play hard and with a great attitude, and Conerway has responded by severely pissing off the staff. When there are multiple extended losing streaks, things can mentally slide into the abyss in a hurry with 18-23 year olds. I'm guessing that has happened with Conerway.
      • BTW, if you think it's an unusual problem at IU; just look at Purdump basketball. Their body language and attitude is super-sucky right now, and that is with a still-highly ranked team. Would not be the least bit surprised if an excellent attitude Northwestern team picks them off in Evanston this week. And that would be with 3* freshman guard Jake West matched up with Amish Boy.

In summary? Things need to get better, but after 28 games I haven't made up my mind about whether they will. Anyone that is doing a self-congratulatory dance on Devries' grave is being premature, and anyone (not sure there is right now) thinking this is a likely success waiting to happen is also premature.

 

Yep. DeVries has back to back years worth of tape of Javon Small and Lamar Wilkerson to show portal guards that should once again make his system an attractive destination. But it's imperative that he gets the necessary front court bodies that this years team lacked. His job likely depends on it.

[Stuhoo]

8 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

Yep. DeVries has back to back years worth of tape of Javon Small and Lamar Wilkerson to show portal guards that should once again make his system an attractive destination. But it's imperative that he gets the necessary front court bodies that this years team lacked. His job likely depends on it.

• This is what it has looked like when Dan Hurley and Todd Golden succeeded greatly at P5 schools.

 

• This is what it has looked like when Archie Miller and others failed miserably at P5 schools.

 

If anyone claims to know how this will turn out after 28 games with an under-equipped roster, they are very mistaken.

 

[Pagoda]

1 hour ago, Hoosier987 said:

I mean…I don’t think it would be difficult to find a high major caliber big. Bailey is not.  A big problem is, whoever evaluated and recruited Bailey thought he was and it’s absolutely hurt us this year.

Me looking at Drew Adams:

And yea it's ultimately on the head coach, but just sayin'...

[AH1971]

25 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

 

 

1. Bailey and Conerway were epic high-cost misses.
   1. I think that Conerway is probably a bigger miss; he's played better than Bailey, but there is very likely an issue between him and the staff. He's significantly more talented than Enright, but the staff trusts Enright to play hard and with a great attitude, and Conerway has responded by severely pissing off the staff. When there are multiple extended losing streaks, things can mentally slide into the abyss in a hurry with

 

Both Conerway and Enright would have looked much better with a legit post scorer. We don't draw any post double teams and conference opponents are very willing to blow up screens. Very tough to initiate offense when you can't play inside out. 

[kottke]

12 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

Because he assembled a portal haul the year before at his only year at West Virginia that was able to beat Arizona and Zags in the non conference and conference wins at Kansas and a home win against Iowa St.   just got to hope th fact his staff not being all assembled played a part in the misses this year.  Won’t know for sure until we see how his second portal cycle shakes  out 

Does anybody know why none of the WV kids (other than Tucker of course) transferred to IU to come with DD? I've always wondered that and thought that might have helped some here in this first season. Were they mostly seniors?

[AH1971]

11 minutes ago, kottke said:

Does anybody know why none of the WV kids (other than Tucker of course) transferred to IU to come with DD? I've always wondered that and thought that might have helped some here in this first season. Were they mostly seniors?

Most of the players with eligibility left were tied to Chester Frazier. Frazier brought Sencire Harris and Amani Hansberry with him from Illinois. Hansberry followed Frazier to Virginia Tech and Harris ultimately ended up at Cincinnati where he's largely been a non-factor in a 7th-8th man role. Jonathan Powell is the one guy I fear we missed out on. He ended up at UNC. Wondering if Powell is regretting his decision as he has taken a major role reduction after being primed for a big sophomore jump. 

[Uspshoosier]

20 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

Most of the players with eligibility left were tied to Chester Frazier. Frazier brought Sencire Harris and Amani Hansberry with him from Illinois. Hansberry followed Frazier to Virginia Tech and Harris ultimately ended up at Cincinnati where he's largely been a non-factor in a 7th-8th man role. Jonathan Powell is the one guy I fear we missed out on. He ended up at UNC. Wondering if Powell is regretting his decision as he has taken a major role reduction after being primed for a big sophomore jump. 

The others went down a level.   The freshman one went to Kentucky and I’m not sure he is getting much playing time and one the others I think went to St. John’s 

[AH1971]

9 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

The others went down a level.   The freshman one went to Kentucky and I’m not sure he is getting much playing time and one the others I think went to St. John’s 

Yes Hawthorne is at Kentucky redshirting this year and Odih is at St. John's where he elected not to redshirt and is playing sparingly.