2026-27 Roster/Portal/how to fix the roster?

[sirhoosierlot]

Need a minimum of four guys that want to put the other team into the dirt 

[Golfman25]

2 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

Maybe next years roster will produce IU a winning conference record for only the 5th time in 19 years.  We all can hope 

I just threw up in my mouth, again.  

[AH1971]

3 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

But the 11-13 excuse doesn’t really work.  These contracts are annual. And they should be cheap.  Whoever we choose to retain will need paid again.  You pay who you roster year in and year out.  I’m not sure what we’ve done to earn a home team discount.  Most that played are gone.  Market value is market value.  It’ll be the same again this year.  

The 3 freshman coming in + the possibility of Sisley, Dorn, Miles and maybe a few more aren’t going to command anywhere near the pool of money that it would if you were building a roster from scratch. That’s 6-8 guys who are depth/development pieces on next years roster. We’re likely paying our 6th and 7th players (Conerway/Bailey) this year close to 7 figures each. IU is going to have more money to spend on less players this coming portal season because they aren’t starting from scratch.

[realTomCrean]

Floral Bidunga will be a Hoosier 

[Home Jersey]

I think Jasai Miles is going to surprise a lot of people next year. I really like him as a player. 

[Hoosierfan1901]

34 minutes ago, realTomCrean said:

Floral Bidunga will be a Hoosier 

IF he enters the portal, I hope Carr/Devries will be all over him

[Muskie plays the four]

40 minutes ago, realTomCrean said:

Floral Bidunga will be a Hoosier 

Kokomo Monster 

[newcastle12]

8 hours ago, AH1971 said:

We don't need nor are going to get $20 million for a basketball roster. Retaining 3-4 guys + the incoming freshman, should give us ~$8-9mil to get 3 high impact guys and a couple depth pieces. 

They had 7 million dollars last year, they got 10 or 11 this year.  This year 5 of it came from Revenue share, which means there are sizeable donors who withheld NIL this year, they actually had LESS money if you adjust to the revenue share inflation.

This is the home of the Kelly School, with the largest living alumni base.  The money is there.  So Steve Ferguson can suck it.  His buddy sucked.   He made us hire him.  You don't get to pout and withhold money.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

1 hour ago, realTomCrean said:

Floral Bidunga will be a Hoosier 

Wish he was on this years roster. 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

1 hour ago, AH1971 said:

The 3 freshman coming in + the possibility of Sisley, Dorn, Miles and maybe a few more aren’t going to command anywhere near the pool of money that it would if you were building a roster from scratch. That’s 6-8 guys who are depth/development pieces on next years roster. We’re likely paying our 6th and 7th players (Conerway/Bailey) this year close to 7 figures each. IU is going to have more money to spend on less players this coming portal season because they aren’t starting from scratch.

The 3 freshman are getting paid.  Likely more or as much as Ristic/Ancinovic. Sisley, Dorn, Miles will get paid what they were getting paid or more. It’s no different.  It’s not like these guys are playing for free.   Annual contracts.  Money will be the same unless we raise our NIL.  Building from scratch is just excuses dollar for dollar.  Luckily or unluckily we have to replace all our top end money getters.  So many is available again. We don’t have to find an extra 5 in the portal but the money is all the same.  

[str8baller]

3 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

The 3 freshman are getting paid.  Likely more or as much as Ristic/Ancinovic. Sisley, Dorn, Miles will get paid what they were getting paid or more. It’s no different.  It’s not like these guys are playing for free.   Annual contracts.  Money will be the same unless we raise our NIL.  Building from scratch is just excuses dollar for dollar.  Luckily or unluckily we have to replace all our top end money getters.  So many is available again. We don’t have to find an extra 5 in the portal but the money is all the same.  

I think you’re closer to the truth. You save money by retaining big name guys. By most accounts Edey and Braden smith could’ve got a little more by going on the open market but Purdue ponied up enough that they were happy to stay put with the coaches, teammates and situation they knew.  
 

If say Wilkerson were coming back, Duke or somebody might offer him 3.5mil but he’d stay with us for a small bump to 3 mil. But we have role players, at best, coming back. I can’t see them taking any less money. But realistically who is going to offer a Sisley or Miles a big contract?  
 

We just have to make much better use of the Wilkerson-Tucker-Bailey-Conerway pool of money. 

[realTomCrean]

14 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Wish he was on this years roster. 

+Lamar could you imagine. Alexis would be the reserve. Top 5 seed with potential to go on a serious run 

[realTomCrean]

2 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I think you’re closer to the truth. You save money by retaining big name guys. By most accounts Edey and Braden smith could’ve got a little more by going on the open market but Purdue ponied up enough that they were happy to stay put with the coaches, teammates and situation they knew.  
 

If say Wilkerson were coming back, Duke or somebody might offer him 3.5mil but he’d stay with us for a small bump to 3 mil. But we have role players, at best, coming back. I can’t see them taking any less money. But realistically who is going to offer a Sisley or Miles a big contract?  
 

We just have to make much better use of the Wilkerson-Tucker-Bailey-Conerway pool of money. 

Bailey Conerway money for one high producing center would’ve made this team eons better 

[HoosierHoopster]

1 hour ago, str8baller said:

I think you’re closer to the truth. You save money by retaining big name guys. By most accounts Edey and Braden smith could’ve got a little more by going on the open market but Purdue ponied up enough that they were happy to stay put with the coaches, teammates and situation they knew.  
 

If say Wilkerson were coming back, Duke or somebody might offer him 3.5mil but he’d stay with us for a small bump to 3 mil. But we have role players, at best, coming back. I can’t see them taking any less money. But realistically who is going to offer a Sisley or Miles a big contract?  
 

We just have to make much better use of the Wilkerson-Tucker-Bailey-Conerway pool of money. 

Agree except if you’re questioning the money paid to Wilkerson — don’t think you really are that would be nuts. 
The entire preceding discussion grounded in the ridiculously repeated nonsense that DeVries could’ve done oh so much better in the portal coming in late to the party with 0 staff and 0 players after Woodson’s (and CAM’s) train wreck is so mind numbing it’s killing me. Exactly what top players would have come running to IU - let alone 9???? —just bc they’re offered money (while being offered money by actual winning programs with other players actually on the team and a coaching staff in place?? 

sure would be nice if people could just wake up and stop the nonsense of saying Devries should have brought in top players last year and instead look forward to seeing (and critiquing) what a DeVries can do and does this offseason now that he at least has a program, some players, and staff. Not banking on it, why expect rational thought. I’ll keep hoping the team gets into the tourney— that would also help with the portal.

[Home Jersey]

37 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Agree except if you’re questioning the money paid to Wilkerson — don’t think you really are that would be nuts. 
The entire preceding discussion grounded in the ridiculously repeated nonsense that DeVries could’ve done oh so much better in the portal coming in late to the party with 0 staff and 0 players after Woodson’s (and CAM’s) train wreck is so mind numbing it’s killing me. Exactly what top players would have come running to IU - let alone 9???? —just bc they’re offered money (while being offered money by actual winning programs with other players actually on the team and a coaching staff in place?? 

sure would be nice if people could just wake up and stop the nonsense of saying Devries should have brought in top players last year and instead look forward to seeing (and critiquing) what a DeVries can do and does this offseason now that he at least has a program, some players, and staff. Not banking on it, why expect rational thought. I’ll keep hoping the team gets into the tourney— that would also help with the portal.

He's definitely not questioning the money paid to Wilkerson. 

See a bit of hyperbole in this post but I agree with your general sentiment... 

I don't think anyone believes he should've been able to get 9 "top players" in the portal this past go round, but that he could've assembled a much better top 9 players with the budget we have. Obviously easier said than done, but CAM's train wreck certainly had nothing to do with it. 

I think an easy critique of DDV would be, why didn't we press harder to keep Reneau? Maybe that's not fair but he was a JR already on campus, we probably could've enticed him to stay. But that wasn't part of the vision. So we should've gotten someone better than Reneau for the system, but we didn't. We overpaid for Bailey. 

Referring back to the graphic I shared earlier, look at all the teams with a lower talent rating than ours who are overachieving. And all our peers in the "meeting expectations" area... we probably could've constructed a better roster with some of those players, and they were not "top players" in the portal or commanding more money than we could spend. 

Of course, you're right DDV was not fully staffed for the portal, which was a huge impediment. He made a choice to build the roster from scratch. He hasn't really done himself many favors with this first year, but I don't think he's been atrocious and want to see what he does differently heading into year 2.

[AH1971]

2 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

The 3 freshman are getting paid.  Likely more or as much as Ristic/Ancinovic. Sisley, Dorn, Miles will get paid what they were getting paid or more. It’s no different.  It’s not like these guys are playing for free.   Annual contracts.  Money will be the same unless we raise our NIL.  Building from scratch is just excuses dollar for dollar.  Luckily or unluckily we have to replace all our top end money getters.  So many is available again. We don’t have to find an extra 5 in the portal but the money is all the same.  

Everybody is getting paid, but the freshmen aren’t making “bank”. Non-5* freshman aren’t sniffing 7 figures. Everybody you listed above with the exception of maybe Dorn will be making less than $500k next year. I will assure you IU’s 6th and 7th man next year won’t be making 7 figures like they are this year. Our top 7-8 paid players from this year are all gone. IU won’t be adding 8 new players from the portal. It’s just math.

[HoosierHoopster]

46 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

He's definitely not questioning the money paid to Wilkerson. 

See a bit of hyperbole in this post but I agree with your general sentiment... 

I don't think anyone believes he should've been able to get 9 "top players" in the portal this past go round, but that he could've assembled a much better top 9 players with the budget we have. Obviously easier said than done, but CAM's train wreck certainly had nothing to do with it. 

I think an easy critique of DDV would be, why didn't we press harder to keep Reneau? Maybe that's not fair but he was a JR already on campus, we probably could've enticed him to stay. But that wasn't part of the vision. So we should've gotten someone better than Reneau for the system, but we didn't. We overpaid for Bailey. 

Referring back to the graphic I shared earlier, look at all the teams with a lower talent rating than ours who are overachieving. And all our peers in the "meeting expectations" area... we probably could've constructed a better roster with some of those players, and they were not "top players" in the portal or commanding more money than we could spend. 

Of course, you're right DDV was not fully staffed for the portal, which was a huge impediment. He made a choice to build the roster from scratch. He hasn't really done himself many favors with this first year, but I don't think he's been atrocious and want to see what he does differently heading into year 2.

My thinking — yes CAM’s train wreck absolutely had something to do with it and it’s not “hyperbole.” 8 Years of mediocrity leading to both coaches’ firings and most recently to Woodson’s late firing after another missed tournament left IU a limping program with little recognition in teenage to early 20 portal players. CAM clearly helped bury the program. Woodson dug it deeper.9 players is specifically mentioned above. Disagree that DeVries  could have assembled a much better top 9 group of players. How, who? he had 0 staff, leaving aside 0 returning players, inherited a mediocre program with no outside / guard game. What 9 better  players wanted to come to IU in that context and over all the other - better - programs with existing players, staff and money? There’s zero evidence for that. A graphic of other schools doesn’t at all account for IU’s circumstances last year. Agree we may have over-paid for Bailey (don’t know what he was paid).

On whether he actually made a choice to build from scratch that’s at best conjecture and I don’t  think it’s right. On the one hand none of the still eligible players fit his system, Malik didn’t, but on the other who of them wanted to stay? Can you name them? New coach, different system, unknown staff, after a terrible year, with the anger of the fan base - do you remember the post- season interviews with players talking about how bad it was dealing with that? 
DrVries is a good coach, I want to see what he can do now that he has a year to learn from the mistakes I do think he made (outside of Sam, not getting more strength and size up front), and what he can do to build from a program in place with a core. 

[spe317]

1 hour ago, Home Jersey said:

He's definitely not questioning the money paid to Wilkerson. 

See a bit of hyperbole in this post but I agree with your general sentiment... 

I don't think anyone believes he should've been able to get 9 "top players" in the portal this past go round, but that he could've assembled a much better top 9 players with the budget we have. Obviously easier said than done, but CAM's train wreck certainly had nothing to do with it. 

I think an easy critique of DDV would be, why didn't we press harder to keep Reneau? Maybe that's not fair but he was a JR already on campus, we probably could've enticed him to stay. But that wasn't part of the vision. So we should've gotten someone better than Reneau for the system, but we didn't. We overpaid for Bailey. 

Referring back to the graphic I shared earlier, look at all the teams with a lower talent rating than ours who are overachieving. And all our peers in the "meeting expectations" area... we probably could've constructed a better roster with some of those players, and they were not "top players" in the portal or commanding more money than we could spend. 

Of course, you're right DDV was not fully staffed for the portal, which was a huge impediment. He made a choice to build the roster from scratch. He hasn't really done himself many favors with this first year, but I don't think he's been atrocious and want to see what he does differently heading into year 2.

It looks like we are firmly in the “achieve” section. We are firmly “whelmed”. A perfectly whelming season. 
 

The fact our new GM, who is widely viewed as very good at his job and ability to assemble player, recognized the team did well considering the island of misfit toys roster is promising. 

[Asha’man]

13 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

For sure.

To get 5 spots, we need two transfers. The likeliest candidates (Ristic, Andrej, Harris, Drake) probably aren't making much, so sending them packing won't free up much more money.

If the seniors are making ~7M, that should be plenty to add 5 quality players IMO. Very eager to see how we move in the portal. 

To add to that, if the rumors are true, the NIL budget is increased for next year to 12.5 from 10. So we will have roughly 9.5 million for 5 portals and the 3 freshmen. The 3 freshmen using ChatGPT to get some averages for freshmen nil expectations based on rankings will collectively be around 1.2. Leaving Carr and DeVries an estimated 8.3 million for the portal. 

[Home Jersey]

6 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

My thinking — yes CAM’s train wreck absolutely had something to do with it and it’s not “hyperbole.” 8 Years of mediocrity leading to both coaches’ firings and most recently to Woodson’s late firing after another missed tournament left IU a limping program with little recognition in teenage to early 20 portal players. CAM clearly helped bury the program. Woodson dug it deeper.9 players is specifically mentioned above. Disagree that DeVries  could have assembled a much better top 9 group of players. How, who? he had 0 staff, leaving aside 0 returning players, inherited a mediocre program with no outside / guard game. What 9 better  players wanted to come to IU in that context and over all the other - better - programs with existing players, staff and money? There’s zero evidence for that. A graphic of other schools doesn’t at all account for IU’s circumstances last year. Agree we may have over-paid for Bailey (don’t know what he was paid).

On whether he actually made a choice to build from scratch that’s at best conjecture and I don’t  think it’s right. On the one hand none of the still eligible players fit his system, Malik didn’t, but on the other who of them wanted to stay? Can you name them? New coach, different system, unknown staff, after a terrible year, with the anger of the fan base - do you remember the post- season interviews with players talking about how bad it was dealing with that? 
DrVries is a good coach, I want to see what he can do now that he has a year to learn from the mistakes I do think he made (outside of Sam, not getting more strength and size up front), and what he can do to build from a program in place with a core. 

CAM's firing is so far removed it makes no sense to mention him IMO. The only thing relevant is having nothing to inherit from Woodson.

The point isn't even that we needed 9 better players. You think out of all those schools, there's not a single big man who could contribute better than Bailey or a guard who fit better than Conerway?

I'm personally not so fussed, but the roster could have been better with the money we had. DDV was just doing it at way less than 100% staffed which is a big deal. He's much better positioned for this portal, so time to see what they can cook up for us in year 2.