IUBB @ PUke - Friday, 02.20.26 @ 8:00 on Fox-TV

[WayneFleekHoosier]

9 minutes ago, Jeff Flabjohns said:

2-9 in Quad 1. Back on the bubble. Top 20 roster spend and could easily miss the tournament again 

Terrible metrics loss.  But it was always gonna be a loss.  Same scenario applies. Gotta win 3 of the next 4.  That was always gonna be the case.  Now will we?  Idk, seems 50/50 to me.  
 Just piss poor planning to not build a better team from jump. 
 

Wilkerson has said internally they think they are a top 10 team. That probably comes from top down.  Did DeVries really believe that as he built this?  Or is confidence building coach speak?  Idk.  But this team was never gonna be top 10 good and that’s just crazy.  We were 2 A level Players away. Get the right 2.  Might cost ya 3 or 4 million. 

[Home Jersey]

Just now, str8baller said:

Agree. But I gotta tell ya…the lows with Devries are really low. Don’t love what that portends. Michigan and Illinois are whatever. But the worst loss against Purdue in 50 yrs and somehow the Iowa games might have been a worse showing yet. Archie/Woody/Davis territory on those losses.  
 

Make the tourney and kill it in the portal and we can all see a bright future. We need someone who can recruit Europeans. Purdue has a freshman Euro putting it on us and we have two who can’t find the floor.

Definitely some low lows this year. Some on court coaching things I think could be done differently, but no denying this roster is limited in a lot of ways. Feels like they'd really benefit from getting a GM on staff. Gotta see some learnings implemented next season. Huge offseason coming up. 

[Hoosierfan2017]

Oh well. WL is a dump, Purdue fans are ugly, and IUFB is the reigning national champion. 

[Home Jersey]

36 minutes ago, Jeff Flabjohns said:

Dorn a cool 4/30 over the last 5 games. Yeesh. Thats bad enough I have to think it’s a sign he’ll never be a valuable starter here

And he had a 3 game stretch where he was 16/34 (47%). He is a streaky shooter and pretty redundant to Wilkerson so he plays second fiddle. In the last 4 games he has attempted 4, 7, 5 and 2 three pointers. Hard to get into a flow for a player like Dorn on that kind of volume. 

There's a lot he could improve obviously (like his handle, driving and finishing). IMO if his defense improves a good amount, he could be a 4th or 5th option on a very good team. 

[hoopsta007]

What is better than getting a 30 pt win over your rival??  Not playing at Purdue 

[cbp4iu]

We had 1 offensive rebound…… 

we had 14 defensive rebounds….. Purdue had 6 offensive rebounds….

[TheWatShot]

1 hour ago, str8baller said:

Agree. But I gotta tell ya…the lows with Devries are really low. Don’t love what that portends. Michigan and Illinois are whatever. But the worst loss against Purdue in 50 yrs and somehow the Iowa games might have been a worse showing yet. Archie/Woody/Davis territory on those losses.  
 

Make the tourney and kill it in the portal and we can all see a bright future. We need someone who can recruit Europeans. Purdue has a freshman Euro putting it on us and we have two who can’t find the floor.

Probably no one cares, but Dusty May's first trip to Mackey Arena was a 91-64 loss. Purdue fans were snickering after that one, saying "this is who IU fans wanted?" 

 

I know we aren't going to match what he did last year, but felt it was worth mentioning. 

[str8baller]

3 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

Probably no one cares, but Dusty May's first trip to Mackey Arena was a 91-64 loss. Purdue fans were snickering after that one, saying "this is who IU fans wanted?" 

 

I know we aren't going to match what he did last year, but felt it was worth mentioning. 

That’s fair. Like I said it’s only one data point.  
 

But to be clear I’m not even counting the Illinois or Michigan games because those were games we just were never going to be competitive in with this roster (and we weren’t).  And I get that even good coaches will have teams that lay the occasional egg. It happens. But twice and you at least have to take notice.  
 

I sort of think Dusty’s style lends itself to big swings like that. It’s probably one of the few question marks I have left about him and their ability to win it all—which is funny to say about a guy who has a FF and S16 under his belt already. Maybe Devries is the same way. We have some large wins under our belts, as well, so maybe it’s just a stylistic thing. Michigan laid an egg down the stretch last year but then rebounded by winning the BTT and making the S16. Maybe IU makes another nice run here to finish things off or in the BTT. 

[HoosierDevils]

5 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

Probably no one cares, but Dusty May's first trip to Mackey Arena was a 91-64 loss. Purdue fans were snickering after that one, saying "this is who IU fans wanted?" 

 

I know we aren't going to match what he did last year, but felt it was worth mentioning. 

My takeaway from this info is that Purdue fans don’t know ball 

[68Hoosier]

Just getting up and checking the board.  That was ugly....  

[OliviaPope40]

10 hours ago, FloridaHoosierGirl said:

This game is going to force me to watch endless videos tonight of Mendoza diving into the the end zone before I can fall asleep.

I do not need more grey hairs I'd be pacing and having a hard time sleeping.

[IUCrazy2]

10 hours ago, Unexpectedflash said:

Only watched a half but against teams that pressure us we pass it around the perimeter for 20 seconds without even a look at the basket and then heave up a contested shot. Wish we played faster. Not much drive and kick against good teams 

That is a talent issue.  Wr have some young guys who could develop into something but Wilkerson and to a lesser extent Devries are the only two guys on our team who would get major minutes at a Top 5 Big Ten program.  Everyone else is either a developing bench player or one of those players who has been in the program for 3 or 4 years that comes in and can give you a solid few minutes while the starter is getting a blow.

So far, we are treading water of the Woodson era.  He had better players but couldn't coach them and in year one I think Devries can coach but he doesn't have a competitive roster. You have to have both of those things in your favor to win at an acceptable level.

[Shooter]

11 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Terrible metrics loss.  But it was always gonna be a loss.  Same scenario applies. Gotta win 3 of the next 4.  That was always gonna be the case.  Now will we?  Idk, seems 50/50 to me.  
 Just piss poor planning to not build a better team from jump. 
 

Wilkerson has said internally they think they are a top 10 team. That probably comes from top down.  Did DeVries really believe that as he built this?  Or is confidence building coach speak?  Idk.  But this team was never gonna be top 10 good and that’s just crazy.  We were 2 A level Players away. Get the right 2.  Might cost ya 3 or 4 million. 

I assume Tucker and Lamar are occupying the two "big money" NIL slots on this roster. While Tucker is a good player, his athletic limitations make him more of a glue guy type than a star at this level. Hopefully we can find a star with that money next season.

[str8baller]

1 hour ago, IUCrazy2 said:

That is a talent issue. 

Seeing how we had the talent to beat that same team once already, I’m going to say it was actually an execution issue last night. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

[IUCrazy2]

1 hour ago, str8baller said:

Seeing how we had the talent to beat that same team once already, I’m going to say it was actually an execution issue last night. 

Talent covers up for when you don't perfectly execute.  This team doesn't have the talent so when they don't execute extremely well or a more talented team does execute well, we get beat.

Listen, this is Devries first year so a split with Purdue is "acceptable" but this has been a Woodson-esque performance from a results standpoint.  Decently competitive at home, lose some we shouldn't, get obliterated by Top 25 teams on the road.  That has been this program's MO going back several coaches now.  Devries is going to get a Mulligan this year but these road blowouts absolutely have to stop.  I am not saying win the game at Purdue every year, but multiple double digit blow outs every year has to stop.

We were never in that game last night.  

[WayneFleekHoosier]

15 rebounds total. 1 offensive rebound.  Zero steals. 
 

One of the worst efforts.  For the history books. 
 

Nothing we can do about it but try to win 3 of 4.  
 

Making the tournament will be cool.  But we all know this team has no real chance to do anything.  
 

But the excitement of seeing your team in the dance is worth it.  
 

Hope our admin finds an extra 5 million or so to put towards the build.  Or our talent eval magically  improves.  Will need at least five meaningful players. 

[Stuhoo]

2 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

15 rebounds total. 1 offensive rebound.  Zero steals. 
 

One of the worst efforts.  For the history books. 
 

Nothing we can do about it but try to win 3 of 4.  
 

Making the tournament will be cool.  But we all know this team has no real chance to do anything.  
 

But the excitement of seeing your team in the dance is worth it.  
 

Hope our admin finds an extra 5 million or so to put towards the build.  Or our talent eval magically  improves.  Will need at least five meaningful players. 

The budget doesn’t need to increase. Player evaluation is destined to improve; the staff sees our potential returnees every day and now knows which ones are worth retaining. And the staff has now had time to build relationships with portal players and their reps.

The roster should be better with the same budget; if the budget increases all the easier I suppose.

[Hoosier DaDa]

4 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

It’s crazy to think Alford record from 86-87 on made 3 pointers was the first year 3 pointers we allowed in college. Very long record to keep.

[HoosierHoopster]

So glad Hummel wasn’t on that game. Bright side to anything lol.

On to the next one. MSU on the horizon. Make the tourney. 
Build the roster for next season this time with an intact staff and returning players and coming off the tourney and with the time to do it. Horrible loss, but it’s one game and we beat them already.