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

[Uspshoosier]

 

[Uspshoosier]

 

[AH1971]

1 hour ago, str8baller said:

How many guys you figure Iowa for? Or UCLA? Or Minny or NW?  
 

What about Wisconsin? They’ve got two dudes and a bunch of guys who are the type of athletes who IU fans would be saying you can’t win with in the B1G if they were on IU’s roster. Winter offers less rim protection than Alexis.  UW struggled non-conference but are playing well to end the season. 
 

I don’t think anyone would dispute we’re at a big talent disadvantage to teams #’s 1-4 in the league. And we didn’t win those games going 0-5. But teams #’s 5-7 we beat. We went 3-1 against them. Our problem was we dropped a bunch of games versus teams with similar or less talent than us. 

I’d say IU’s talent composite is much closer to Minny and NW than it is UCLA who has largely underachieved this year with several top 100 recruits. Iowa has a potential lottery pick running its show and has fared slightly better than IU this year with an easier schedule. 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

15 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

 

He could have asked me.  I would have been happy to tell him. Lol

[Golfman25]

24 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

He could have asked me.  I would have been happy to tell him. Lol

Right.  Is it really that hard to figure out when you’re a freaking college coach?   

[Uspshoosier]

7 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

Right.  Is it really that hard to figure out when you’re a freaking college coach?   

It must be cause as Ant pointing out most come away with that thought.  I think most coaches that come into the league think they can get away with just playing the way they played in the other leagues and the B1G is a different beast.  I hate the style of play the B1G forces their teams to play and would much rather watch other conferences. Always wanted new coaches to come in and change the way the B1G is viewed but I’m afraid until Izzo and Painter are out of the league it won’t change.   Beilien was the closest I saw someone be real successful by not playing the old B1G style.    Most coaches get humbled in the B1G first and then adjust as needed.  Words can’t describe how much I hate the B1G style of play.   

[Golfman25]

39 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

It must be cause as Ant pointing out most come away with that thought.  I think most coaches that come into the league think they can get away with just playing the way they played in the other leagues and the B1G is a different beast.  I hate the style of play the B1G forces their teams to play and would much rather watch other conferences. Always wanted new coaches to come in and change the way the B1G is viewed but I’m afraid until Izzo and Painter are out of the league it won’t change.   Beilien was the closest I saw someone be real successful by not playing the old B1G style.    Most coaches get humbled in the B1G first and then adjust as needed.  Words can’t describe how much I hate the B1G style of play.   

That’s why most coaches suck.   They are too cool for school.  True professionals, regardless of the profession, analyze the situation and figure out what they need to do.   They answer the fundamental question — what do I need to do to succeed.  Any coach that comes into the Big10, or any league, and doesn’t understand what they need to do, isn’t a very good coach.  Sure, some may adapt and adjust, but that is time lost.  Seems Dusty May figured it out day one.   

[Uspshoosier]

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2025/01/20/michigan-basketball-dusty-may-refs-game-vs-northwestern/77836430007/

if it’s behind paywall sorry.   It’s from last year where he said he is still adjusting to how B1G is officiated and the physicality 

[Uspshoosier]

13 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

Seems Dusty May figured it out day one.   

He definitely figured out what he needed after year 1 and stole the most physical player from an in conference rival.  Stone cold 

[str8baller]

1 hour ago, AH1971 said:

I’d say IU’s talent composite is much closer to Minny and NW than it is UCLA who has largely underachieved this year with several top 100 recruits. Iowa has a potential lottery pick running its show and has fared slightly better than IU this year with an easier schedule. 

It’s closer to Wisconsin and Nebraska than it is NW who doesn’t have the talent to beat a single tourney worthy team…except IU.  
 

It was just a couple weeks ago people were saying Lamar was the best IU player since Yogi or Zeller. That he was a sure fire pro. And now he’s set the IU single season B1G scoring record and will hold the record for 3s most likely. The other guys have flaws but other teams roll out flawed players too. Purdue starts stiffs like Kluff and Loyer. Loyer would probably be our worst defender. Iowa barely plays a guy over 6’8” and has one guy who averages a .5 block or better per game. Everyone has flawed rosters in that 5th place and beyond range, although I will agree with you that I like UCLAs the best on paper.  
 

I don’t think anyone would really be worried about the defense too much if the offense wasn’t grounded. We all said from the beginning we’d like to have and need a top 25 or better offense. That’s where Wisconsin, Purdue and OSU make up ground. Unfortunately our offense isn’t close to top 25 and that doesn’t have anything to do with defending 4s and 5s at the other end. 

[Uspshoosier]

2 minutes ago, str8baller said:

It’s closer to Wisconsin and Nebraska than it is NW who doesn’t have the talent to beat a single tourney worthy team…except IU.  

I hear ya but out of high school recruiting rankings believe it or not northwestern has more top 100 kids on the their roster then IU and IU has more unranked kids then they do.   Pretty nasty sledding when Bailey at around 188 is the teams 3rd best ranked recruit going by high school rankings.  I get that once they have been in college those rankings mean jack but I thought it was interesting that northwestern had more ranked kids on their roster then IU.  Has to be the first time in history of that happening 

[AH1971]

6 minutes ago, str8baller said:

It’s closer to Wisconsin and Nebraska than it is NW who doesn’t have the talent to beat a single tourney worthy team…except IU.  
 

It was just a couple weeks ago people were saying Lamar was the best IU player since Yogi or Zeller. That he was a sure fire pro. And now he’s set the IU single season B1G scoring record and will hold the record for 3s most likely. The other guys have flaws but other teams roll out flawed players too. Purdue starts stiffs like Kluff and Loyer. Loyer would probably be our worst defender. Iowa barely plays a guy over 6’8” and has one guy who averages a .5 block or better per game. Everyone has flawed rosters in that 5th place and beyond range, although I will agree with you that I like UCLAs the best on paper.  
 

I don’t think anyone would really be worried about the defense too much if the offense wasn’t grounded. We all said from the beginning we’d like to have and need a top 25 or better offense. That’s where Wisconsin, Purdue and OSU make up ground. Unfortunately our offense isn’t close to top 25 and that doesn’t have anything to do with defending 4s and 5s at the other end. 

Wisconsin and Nebraska don’t have first year coaches who threw together rosters in a 2-3 week span. Thats a pretty glaring omission you’re conveniently leaving out. This years version of IU has one consensus top 100 recruit, a true freshman at that. It’s at best a mid-major all-star team physically outmatched in an elite conference. If next years roster looks like this years roster, I’ll start to worry. I don’t think it will however.

[IUCrazy2]

10 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

 

I will take things I want to see, not hear, for $1000 Alex.

[Stuhoo]

9 hours ago, Golfman25 said:

Right.  Is it really that hard to figure out when you’re a freaking college coach?   

^^YES!^^

People treat new leaders as if they are some kind of ready-made savants. That is very rarely how it works. As I said yesterday:

Bad leaders:

1. Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and
2. It's merely lip service to keep the barking dogs at bay.

Good leaders:

1. Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and
2. Make appropriate changes to improve based on what they've learned.

At IU we have the ultimate ready-made-savant new program leader, Curt Cignetti, as a vivid extreme outlier example. But Cignetti (and Dusty May) are not the norm. The norm when coaches succeed greatly are guys like Underwood, Golden, Hurley, or Gard; whom their fanbases pretty much hated early in their tenure.

Of course, for every Golden or Underwood, there is an Archie Miller or Ben Johnson; guys that were meh early and never figured it out. 

So the primary takeaway? After one season a new program leader can learn and be fantastic, but it's far from a given that it will turn out that way. One would think that isn't a revelation, but human nature fosters impatience and early summary conclusions. I completely understand that, especially at IU where the all-time outlier thrives with an undefeated football national champion in year two, and a series of meh basketball coaches never did get it right.

 

 

[Demo]

10 hours ago, Golfman25 said:

Right.  Is it really that hard to figure out when you’re a freaking college coach?   

Coaches believe in what they believe in. Sometimes they don’t align perfectly with a situation. Smart ones then figure it out. K said at 1 point, mid2000’s some time, he was never gonna recruit 1 and done’s. Wasn’t gonna do it. Didn’t align with his values. Had a couple of comparatively crappy years in a row and suddenly he got next to 1 and done’s. Dude evolved. 

[Kentuckysucks]

10 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

It must be cause as Ant pointing out most come away with that thought.  I think most coaches that come into the league think they can get away with just playing the way they played in the other leagues and the B1G is a different beast.  I hate the style of play the B1G forces their teams to play and would much rather watch other conferences. Always wanted new coaches to come in and change the way the B1G is viewed but I’m afraid until Izzo and Painter are out of the league it won’t change.   Beilien was the closest I saw someone be real successful by not playing the old B1G style.    Most coaches get humbled in the B1G first and then adjust as needed.  Words can’t describe how much I hate the B1G style of play.   

I think DeVries built this team more for the NCAA tournament where games typically turn into track meets and lack of size is less of an issue.  But he forgot that you have to go through the Big Ten gauntlet to make the tournament first.

[fwgreenway]

34 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

I think DeVries built this team more for the NCAA tournament where games typically turn into track meets and lack of size is less of an issue.  But he forgot that you have to go through the Big Ten gauntlet to make the tournament first.

That's an interesting thought. He also may have miscalculated that this team would be able to dictate more 'up tempo' offense within the BIG conference and win games 93 to 85. And that didn't happen. Thus the needed adjustments going into next year.

[Unexpectedflash]

1 hour ago, Kentuckysucks said:

I think DeVries built this team more for the NCAA tournament where games typically turn into track meets and lack of size is less of an issue.  But he forgot that you have to go through the Big Ten gauntlet to make the tournament first.

The thing is we don’t play fast all. It’s actually one of the things i hope we do more next year 

[AZ Hoosier]

33 minutes ago, Unexpectedflash said:

The thing is we don’t play fast all. It’s actually one of the things i hope we do more next year 

DeVries said early on that his teams would push the ball up the court and get a shot within 12 seconds on the shot clock. Haven't seen much of that at all so far this year.

[Jeff Flabjohns]

9 hours ago, AZ Hoosier said:

DeVries said early on that his teams would push the ball up the court and get a shot within 12 seconds on the shot clock. Haven't seen much of that at all so far this year.

Do that for consecutive possessions and Tucker would be on the bench with an O2 mask.

Also doesn’t help that the PG can’t/won’t shoot