IUBB @ Michigan - Tuesday, 01.20.26 @ 7:00 on Peacock

[yogisballin]

2 minutes ago, JF87 said:

This isn't the NBA.  Tanking doesn't get you a better draft pick.  This team needs to keep improving.  This was always going to be a loss.  The season isn't over and the result of this game doesn't mean we still can't finish middle of the pack Big Ten. Sure, we have a talent gap with the top teams in the Big Ten, but our current roster can play much better than we are playing.  I'm optimistic that we still have time to salvage the season.  

The university of freaking Minnesota has a better basketball coach than we do. We don’t sniff middle of the pack

[TheWatShot]

2 minutes ago, yogisballin said:

See I don’t believe part of this. Our NIL can’t be that good? If it were, we’d have a different roster and that’s that

It's probably not as good as we like to think it is. Like a lot of things pertaining to IU basketball. 

[piratehoosier]

How can Dolson get his football hire so right, yet completely screw up his basketball hire (again)?

[gfeltner28]

Yikes. I turned the game off after the first half. I have no interest in watching this team. There is nothing to look forward to except maybe some growth from Sisley. This is embarrassing. How could anybody want to play in this system next year. I've never been so disengaged from IU basketball. If I'm a wealthy donor I'm throwing all my money to Cig. Hopefully he can right the ship next year but that seems to become a more difficult task each game. 

[Old Friend]

Theory....   College basketball is bleeding.   Not dying, but in need of care.  There is more of a personal connection to players- by and large - with basketball than there is with football.  I understand there's the occasional Fernando Mendoza, but I'm not talking about him or the anomaly.    Basketball players are visible and people know who they are.  People knew Anthony Leal even though he never did anything.  They wouldn't know Amare Farrell if they were in line behind him at a Starbucks and that guy just won a national title.  People knew Luke Jiminez, for the love of God.

With 13 kids on each team, many very visible; yearly roster turnover doesn't allow that connection; nor does a roster full of kids who leave trying to get paid and have no loyalty and especially regional loyalty.  That was critical to fans' love of teams and now that it's missing..... the sport suffers.  Ratings don't, but the sport does.   With people having to search for games on various streaming services many don't have, which also means announcers are unfamiliar and don't know the teams or players very well....the sport suffers.   Broadcasting has become sterile.  More like reporting, less like a column and entertainment or local news.

The NCAA Tournament will always be huge because it's an incredible event, people gamble $billions on it; but we have already had a point shaving scandal; college basketball already has a ton of 1 and done players who are the best players IN college basketball....and the sport suffers.  Are people tuning in now to watch a Washington vs Rutgers game on Peacock?  That would be out-drawn by a shake weight commercial.   Blue bloods still draw on TV; mediocre draws only to gamblers.  And there are a TON of those.

My point?  We connect with people...not laundry.   We would all have been over the moon had IU won a title with Kevin Wilson or Bill Lynch.  But no one will ever convince me it wasn't 10000x better because we did it with Curt Cignetti.  Darian DeVries is not a draw.  His team is not a draw.  I don't think college basketball is much of an emotional draw anymore unless your team is top 10.  Purdue is good again, and here in Indianapolis, they're discussed far less than the Indiana Fever...whose season doesn't even start for 3 1/2 months.  Indiana is boring, vanilla, and a victim of "the times."  Football is a weekly event.  A huge production with big games highlighted every Saturday...but only once a week.  College basketball is diluted.  GameDay Saturday, Big Monday!  Power Thursday..etc.   You can find 200+ games on TV every week and people watch (and they are definitely watching) for different reasons than they used to.

Indiana can BE a huge brand again, but they have to win.    If they don't, there are plenty of other things to do and now we have the transfer portal, spring football, etc.  I fear the thing that finally DOES kill IU's basketball brand will be Indiana Football.   That reality needs to be rectified in a hurry.  We don't HAVE 4 years w Darian DeVries.

[DChoosier]

I will take a caveman approach:

We like sports

We like basketball  

We not good at basketball 

We like football

 

 

 

[IndianaSconnie90]

I didn't have high expectations for basketball this year to begin with. Best thing to do is allow the success of the football team to carry us through the basketball season. My grading scale will begin next season after DD has an entire offseason with the program to set it up.

[HoosierHoopster]

I do not often agree with you @Old Friendbut largely agree with your post above. Bball is diluted and the portal — at least as it is now — is bad for the game (while being generally good economically for the players), and it specifically fosters disloyalty, pay me more or say goodbye. The portal needs an overhaul with rules limiting the mass transfers, capping pay, etc. imo.

the posts calling out DeVries and saying he can’t coach though are just flat out boneheadedly uninformed and lazy. He’s a very good x’s and o’s coach and program builder with a fairly long track record supporting that. What I think we’re seeing for the most part is most of our players are just not at the B1G level to excel — and at this point I think I was wrong about that. Wilkerson is excellent as I knew he would be having seen him play here in TX, Tucker has the talent bit seems slowed over the past several games and his shot is off. I think he’ll turn it back around soon. i like Dorn’s game and Sisley has potential though he’s not ready yet imo for a major role. Most of the other guys aren’t playing at a high caliber level. I thought more of them would be. 
DeVries came in and had to restock the entire roster on the fly. You can’t convince the best players to join up when a) you’ve been mediocre to bad for 8 years, and b) they have no idea who their teammates will be because you’re rebuilding the entire team, and c) again, you’re rebuilding the entire team and most elite players want nothing to do with that.

of course DeVries needs more time, that’s beyond obvious. Whether he’ll succeed remains a question and will be up to him, but minimum 3 years? Of course. And while I’m really disappointed in the team’s falloff over the past several games, I think he’ll get us back to winning 

[pumpfake]

I agree with the likeability, or lack thereof.  A big part of it boils down to one word: Loyalty.  Nobody on this board is a "bandwagon" fan, we're lifers with years of support, through thick and thin (LOTS of 'thin' in this century). Players largely have abandoned any loyalty to the school or fans.  They're professional athletes.  So, yes, in large part we ARE cheering for laundry.

The coach is the one constant in the program.  IMO, it's more important than ever to connect with the fans.  Heck, I've enjoyed some opposing coaches in the past more than our current and two previous ones.

[Golfman25]

8 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

I do not often agree with you @Old Friendbut largely agree with your post above. Bball is diluted and the portal — at least as it is now — is bad for the game (while being generally good economically for the players), and it specifically fosters disloyalty, pay me more or say goodbye. The portal needs an overhaul with rules limiting the mass transfers, capping pay, etc. imo.

the posts calling out DeVries and saying he can’t coach though are just flat out boneheadedly uninformed and lazy. He’s a very good x’s and o’s coach and program builder with a fairly long track record supporting that. What I think we’re seeing for the most part is most of our players are just not at the B1G level to excel — and at this point I think I was wrong about that. Wilkerson is excellent as I knew he would be having seen him play here in TX, Tucker has the talent bit seems slowed over the past several games and his shot is off. I think he’ll turn it back around soon. i like Dorn’s game and Sisley has potential though he’s not ready yet imo for a major role. Most of the other guys aren’t playing at a high caliber level. I thought more of them would be. 
DeVries came in and had to restock the entire roster on the fly. You can’t convince the best players to join up when a) you’ve been mediocre to bad for 8 years, and b) they have no idea who their teammates will be because you’re rebuilding the entire team, and c) again, you’re rebuilding the entire team and most elite players want nothing to do with that.

of course DeVries needs more time, that’s beyond obvious. Whether he’ll succeed remains a question and will be up to him, but minimum 3 years? Of course. And while I’m really disappointed in the team’s falloff over the past several games, I think he’ll get us back to winning 

So what will be the difference after this season?  Will need to rebuild the roster coming off another mediocre season.  Still meet your a, b, c criteria.  
 

I would have rather suffered  thru a roster of young Big10 level players that we could build off of, than this.  

[Home Jersey]

4 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

So what will be the difference after this season?  Will need to rebuild the roster coming off another mediocre season.  Still meet your a, b, c criteria.  
 

I would have rather suffered  thru a roster of young Big10 level players that we could build off of, than this.  

So just fire him now?

[Artie86]

....is it wrong that I decided to not watch a single second of this game? lol

NOPE!

I will tell you this...., I avoided stress, frustration AND my Apple watch blowin' up, warning me of high heart rate! lol

 

[Stuhoo]

9 hours ago, Old Friend said:

Theory....   College basketball is bleeding.   Not dying, but in need of care.  There is more of a personal connection to players- by and large - with basketball than there is with football.  I understand there's the occasional Fernando Mendoza, but I'm not talking about him or the anomaly.    Basketball players are visible and people know who they are.  People knew Anthony Leal even though he never did anything.  They wouldn't know Amare Farrell if they were in line behind him at a Starbucks and that guy just won a national title.  People knew Luke Jiminez, for the love of God.

With 13 kids on each team, many very visible; yearly roster turnover doesn't allow that connection; nor does a roster full of kids who leave trying to get paid and have no loyalty and especially regional loyalty.  That was critical to fans' love of teams and now that it's missing..... the sport suffers.  Ratings don't, but the sport does.   With people having to search for games on various streaming services many don't have, which also means announcers are unfamiliar and don't know the teams or players very well....the sport suffers.   Broadcasting has become sterile.  More like reporting, less like a column and entertainment or local news.

The NCAA Tournament will always be huge because it's an incredible event, people gamble $billions on it; but we have already had a point shaving scandal; college basketball already has a ton of 1 and done players who are the best players IN college basketball....and the sport suffers.  Are people tuning in now to watch a Washington vs Rutgers game on Peacock?  That would be out-drawn by a shake weight commercial.   Blue bloods still draw on TV; mediocre draws only to gamblers.  And there are a TON of those.

My point?  We connect with people...not laundry.   We would all have been over the moon had IU won a title with Kevin Wilson or Bill Lynch.  But no one will ever convince me it wasn't 10000x better because we did it with Curt Cignetti.  Darian DeVries is not a draw.  His team is not a draw.  I don't think college basketball is much of an emotional draw anymore unless your team is top 10.  Purdue is good again, and here in Indianapolis, they're discussed far less than the Indiana Fever...whose season doesn't even start for 3 1/2 months.  Indiana is boring, vanilla, and a victim of "the times."  Football is a weekly event.  A huge production with big games highlighted every Saturday...but only once a week.  College basketball is diluted.  GameDay Saturday, Big Monday!  Power Thursday..etc.   You can find 200+ games on TV every week and people watch (and they are definitely watching) for different reasons than they used to.

Indiana can BE a huge brand again, but they have to win.    If they don't, there are plenty of other things to do and now we have the transfer portal, spring football, etc.  I fear the thing that finally DOES kill IU's basketball brand will be Indiana Football.   That reality needs to be rectified in a hurry.  We don't HAVE 4 years w Darian DeVries.

What an incredibly fantastic post. Not merely true, but also a summary perspective that doesn't get detalied with this clarity often or well.

Kudos.

[Golfman25]

58 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

So just fire him now?

I don’t know.  It would depend on what the plan was and is.  If the plan was to come in and suck the first year while he learned the Big10, then he met his goals.  If not, we would need to have a long discussion on whether this is the job for him and what is going to be done going forward.  
 

He didn’t attract much talent in last years portal.  What has changed to have a better haul.  HS recruiting kinda seems mediocre right now.  Game play has been uninspiring.   

[Uspshoosier]

34 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

What has changed to have a better haul.  HS recruiting kinda seems mediocre right now.

You hope that a full staff is the difference  during this cycle.  At the time it didn’t seem likes big deal he was taking his time with the staff however it turned out to be a bigger deal then I expected.  Looking back that put them way behind.  Chase Branham has been far from mediocre.  That commitment is looking better and better by the day and his ranking is going up.  Same with Moody Prince.   National scout Finklestien last time he watched said he should move way up and definitely be in 247 top 70 with a chance move up more.   Manhertz is looking to announce in February and IU is in a good spot.   Louisville wants him and Duke poked around.   On court results are crap which for IU fans have became par the course but there are some positives somewhere in there if got want to see them 

[68Hoosier]

2 hours ago, Artie86 said:

....is it wrong that I decided to not watch a single second of this game? lol

NOPE!

I will tell you this...., I avoided stress, frustration AND my Apple watch blowin' up, warning me of high heart rate! lol

 

Same, didn't even turn it on.  Checked the score twice right before bed and said oh well.  

[jermhoosierfan]

10 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

I do not often agree with you @Old Friendbut largely agree with your post above. Bball is diluted and the portal — at least as it is now — is bad for the game (while being generally good economically for the players), and it specifically fosters disloyalty, pay me more or say goodbye. The portal needs an overhaul with rules limiting the mass transfers, capping pay, etc. imo.

the posts calling out DeVries and saying he can’t coach though are just flat out boneheadedly uninformed and lazy. He’s a very good x’s and o’s coach and program builder with a fairly long track record supporting that. What I think we’re seeing for the most part is most of our players are just not at the B1G level to excel — and at this point I think I was wrong about that. Wilkerson is excellent as I knew he would be having seen him play here in TX, Tucker has the talent bit seems slowed over the past several games and his shot is off. I think he’ll turn it back around soon. i like Dorn’s game and Sisley has potential though he’s not ready yet imo for a major role. Most of the other guys aren’t playing at a high caliber level. I thought more of them would be. 
DeVries came in and had to restock the entire roster on the fly. You can’t convince the best players to join up when a) you’ve been mediocre to bad for 8 years, and b) they have no idea who their teammates will be because you’re rebuilding the entire team, and c) again, you’re rebuilding the entire team and most elite players want nothing to do with that.

of course DeVries needs more time, that’s beyond obvious. Whether he’ll succeed remains a question and will be up to him, but minimum 3 years? Of course. And while I’m really disappointed in the team’s falloff over the past several games, I think he’ll get us back to winning 

This is the camp I am in.  HS recruiting for the last 4 years was basically dead, and it takes time for those fruits to be realized.  It was just CDD for about a month trying to get a staff and do some recruiting, and he just couldn't get a big to commit.  It wasn't for a lack of trying, and we all knew it was going to be a struggle this season hoping the outside shot was be enough.  The real measuring stick will be next year and that third year.  By then, he should have a better high major team, and if he doesn't, show him the door.

[HoosierCoop]

I will continue to watch but at this point, a win is just an added plus to a burned season.

Pray that there is a rebuild coming now that he understands needs, conference strengths, and future growth.

Watching this current team against Michigan, this is their ceiling.  They will play hard but do not have the skill and athleticism to do any damage.  It's not their fault.  I really don't think it's a coaching fault either.  We had a litany of offerings out there and this is what landed.  I just hope this season doesn't hinder potential NIL or transfers.

This is a hard road for IU lifers.

[Kentuckysucks]

I can't imagine why college hoops is dying off.  

https://x.com/i/status/2013999896718676035

[Eagle’s Rug]

13 hours ago, piratehoosier said:

How can Dolson get his football hire so right, yet completely screw up his basketball hire (again)?

I think the football hire was dumb luck.  They said they employed the same hiring process with DeVries.  Year one night and day difference with Cig.  Leads me to believe that they just got lucky.