How Is Darian Devries Doing?

[jefftheref]

3 hours ago, JerryYeagley23 said:

Honestly, neither would matter. We’re likely looking at 14-15 new players on the team next year. This was a one year project. It didn’t work. We didn’t build momentum for next year or develop a couple guys for a sophomore jump. This season of Indiana basketball was just this season of Indiana basketball. And now it’s over. Really never felt a connection to this team in any way. It was mediocre basketball played by players who I barely got to know, and will not remember in six months That part hurts to admit. It hurt seeing balconies empty all year. Hurt that we didn’t have a brand of basketball that was interesting. Probably watched the fewest games in a season in my 35 years as an IU fan. I just hope they can get my attention back somehow next year. Because losing interest in one of the things that has been a part of your identity and a source of hope and sometimes joy, feels weird. I just want them to make me care. We’re at a point where that would be an achievement. 

I agree with this 100%. I didn't watch many games and I didn't expect us to win as many games as we did. To me the players really didn't care and had no connection to Indiana or Indiana basketball. All they cared about was that NIL check. The only player I cared about was Sisley, because he was an Indiana kid. 
You can say what you want about Purdue and Painter but he has Indiana kids playing tough hard nosed basketball and representing the university. I so miss tradition, culture, hard nosed players and players that are fundamentally sound. 
Indiana basketball sucks and we have become the modern day Northwestern and Wisconsin. Other teams can count on us to be guaranteed wins and our home court doesn't mean squat to other teams. 

[Hoosier DaDa]

Someone on Facebook posted this. Finally we got our guy.

 

 

[realTomCrean]

 

[Uspshoosier]

12 minutes ago, realTomCrean said:

 

 

[8bucks]

Why do we think Carr is a great hire for a college program? 

[AH1971]

19 minutes ago, 8bucks said:

Why do we think Carr is a great hire for a college program? 

Probably because he spent two decades scouting college players as an NBA executive.

[Golfman25]

1 hour ago, 8bucks said:

Why do we think Carr is a great hire for a college program? 

He should be able to develop a consistent and repeatable process to identify players who can help the program succeed.  That’s what Cig has — production over potential, certain athletic attributes, character traits, etc.  It’s not about finding the best players, but finding the right players.  

[EasyEJay]

10 hours ago, 8bucks said:

Why do we think Carr is a great hire for a college program? 

Because we are IU fans and we routinely grasp at straws for the last decade. I know Ryan Carr was great at his pervious job and maybe he will be good at this one, but no one needs to anoint him a savior. It was low risk high reward decision for Carr if DDV doesn't work out the Pacers or another NBA team will probably welcome him with open arms he gets paid by his alma mater and is probably at home a HECK of a lot more. 

Do I think he might be able to help increase the talent level of this program? I'm guessing marginally at best. Basically we should avoid any Reed Baileys in the future. 

Too many other issues to make me think we will be close to were most think IU basketball should be which again a much lowered bar because of the last decade. 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

36 minutes ago, EasyEJay said:

Because we are IU fans and we routinely grasp at straws for the last decade. I know Ryan Carr was great at his pervious job and maybe he will be good at this one, but no one needs to anoint him a savior. It was low risk high reward decision for Carr if DDV doesn't work out the Pacers or another NBA team will probably welcome him with open arms he gets paid by his alma mater and is probably at home a HECK of a lot more. 

Do I think he might be able to help increase the talent level of this program? I'm guessing marginally at best. Basically we should avoid any Reed Baileys in the future. 

Too many other issues to make me think we will be close to were most think IU basketball should be which again a much lowered bar because of the last decade. 

All we have is hope as fans of IUBB. No confidence.  No proof concept.  No recruiting momentum.  Solid NIL which will land guys, but not enough to overcome others schools inherent advantages. We are gonna lose a lot of ‘like’ recruting battles. 
 

The next hope is 2 things, and maybe some overlay.

1. Scout significantly improves. (However, lots of great staffs out there with proven records-we aren’t gonna turn over several overlooked stones)

2. Increase budget enough to target a team with the qualities it takes to win big ten basketball games.  Target, identify, and land that level of talent whatever the cost might be.  With momentum and proof of concept, and winning, players will be begging to play here. Self recruting. It’s what Michigan has going now. UConn to a degree. 

Part 2 should have been our strategy out of the gate. Wouldn’t be in the position we are in now if it was.  

Edited 6 hours ago by WayneFleekHoosier

[AH1971]

39 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

All we have is hope as fans of IUBB. No confidence.  No proof concept.  No recruiting momentum.  Solid NIL which will land guys, but not enough to overcome others schools inherent advantages. We are gonna lose a lot of ‘like’ recruting battles. 
 

The next hope is 2 things, and maybe some overlay.

1. Scout significantly improves. (However, lots of great staffs out there with proven records-we aren’t gonna turn over several overlooked stones)

2. Increase budget enough to target a team with the qualities it takes to win big ten basketball games.  Target, identify, and land that level of talent whatever the cost might be.  With momentum and proof of concept, and winning, players will be begging to play here. Self recruting. It’s what Michigan has going now. UConn to a degree. 

Part 2 should have been our strategy out of the gate. Wouldn’t be in the position we are in now if it was.  

My hope with Carr/this years portal haul is two land a couple big fish (hypothetically Bidunga/Haralson/etc) by throwing large bags at them and then having Carr's experience of player evaluation at the highest level bring us a few hidden gems. IU isn't going to completely by their way to the top, but finding the right guys within a budget is what Carr has been paid to do at the highest level for two decades. Hopefully it translates. 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

15 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

My hope with Carr/this years portal haul is two land a couple big fish (hypothetically Bidunga/Haralson/etc) by throwing large bags at them and then having Carr's experience of player evaluation at the highest level bring us a few hidden gems. IU isn't going to completely by their way to the top, but finding the right guys within a budget is what Carr has been paid to do at the highest level for two decades. Hopefully it translates. 

Agreed with this.  I’m hoping for 3 horses. Then gems/shooters/niche players. I don’t think 2 will be close to enough even if a Haralson, Bidunga. 
 

Look at a Kansas this year.  Loaded on paper. Including Bidunga. Still just good. Not great.  We’ve got a long way too go.  Look at Illinois roster, Michigan, etc.  Dudes at every spot with 1-3 bench spots with dudes.  2 stars won’t be enough. 

[Silat Player]

3 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Agreed with this.  I’m hoping for 3 horses. Then gems/shooters/niche players. I don’t think 2 will be close to enough even if a Haralson, Bidunga. 
 

Look at a Kansas this year.  Loaded on paper. Including Bidunga. Still just good. Not great.  We’ve got a long way too go.  Look at Illinois roster, Michigan, etc.  Dudes at every spot with 1-3 bench spots with dudes.  2 stars won’t be enough. 

Agreed. Way too many swing and misses in last year's portal class. You can't miss on several players when you're paying them so much money. And you need 7-8 great players. And by great, I mean either a great all-around player or someone who is just massively good at a specialized skill. 

[str8baller]

8 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Look at a Kansas this year.  Loaded on paper.

Kansas has plenty of money. And Self can coach. But he’s really struggling (relatively speaking) to adjust to the NIL era. Lots of poor fits he hasn’t been able to coach up.  Annoying center from UM, Storr, and the malcontent superstar frosh, etc…
 

What Dusty and Underwood are doing goes way beyond money. Guys like Mara, Cadeau, and Johnson weren’t exactly portal darlings. They’re nice players who Michigan is getting more out of than their last coaches did. Perfect example of “fit.” Self has been the opposite—every year he has a malcontent or high priced guy producing less than at his last stop.  
 

That’s what Carr has to help with. And quite frankly Devries needs to be able to do when they get here. The roster this year wasn’t as bad as our record but most of the pieces didn’t fit together and I don’t particularly think the coaching really took for some of them either. 

[HoosierDevils]

37 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

My hope with Carr/this years portal haul is two land a couple big fish (hypothetically Bidunga/Haralson/etc) by throwing large bags at them and then having Carr's experience of player evaluation at the highest level bring us a few hidden gems. IU isn't going to completely by their way to the top, but finding the right guys within a budget is what Carr has been paid to do at the highest level for two decades. Hopefully it translates. 

Absolutely! I also think it's good to have legit NBA guys in the building for a program that's historically prided itself on getting a few guys that make it to the NBA. It says you're a serious basketball program and an institution that values players and their career trajectories and have a staff that's familiar and successful at it. It reminds me a bit on the Split Zone Duo podcast for CFB where they had this line, "Nobody plays at USC to play for Lincoln Riley. They're going because it's an NFL structure." I feel like Duke and Kansas were early movers on this in the basketball space, but it's trickled down and diffused more broadly where it can only help with recruits! 

* (Obviously, I'd like to have players that want to play for DDV and IU, full stop, but broader point is that it's a plus)

[Hoosierfan1901]

1 hour ago, AH1971 said:

couple big fish (hypothetically Bidunga/Haralson/etc)

Might be some truth about Bidunga, saw some KU fans after a loss a couple of weeks ago saying that his agent was doing some shopping for the offseason. But we will see if that comes into fruition. He is probably draft bound anyways.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

2 minutes ago, Hoosierfan1901 said:

Might be some truth about Bidunga, saw some KU fans after a loss a couple of weeks ago saying that his agent was doing some shopping for the offseason. But we will see if that comes into fruition. He is probably draft bound anyways.

Honestly would be a terrible year to leave.  Freshman class is stacked.  Could get 2/3 million and then hope to improve his stock.  Not sure Indiana would have the pull but playing another year of college hoops would make sense. 

[BtownStrength]

30 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Honestly would be a terrible year to leave.  Freshman class is stacked.  Could get 2/3 million and then hope to improve his stock.  Not sure Indiana would have the pull but playing another year of college hoops would make sense. 

Early in the year, Flory was higher up the draft boards so I figured he would leave. Kind of slipped as the season went along despite having a pretty good year, like you said indicative of a very deep draft. I agree that if he can secure the bag, he probably plays in college next season. 

[Golfman25]

There will be 100 players in the portal or “potentially” in the portal for IU to target based on what he and Cdd come up with scheme wise.  Carr’s job will be to evaluate and rank them — these are the 5s we want, the 4s and so forth.   CDd and the coaches will still have to recruit and entice them to come.   Where Carr will really earn is keep is finding the “moneyball” players - undervalued guys that can make a difference.