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

[HoosierHoopster]

2 minutes ago, str8baller said:

If McCollum was doing bad what was Devries doing? 
 

9 seed isn’t great but it’s comfortably in the tourney. Iowa just had one of their best seasons in 25 years. I’m curious as to what your specific criticisms are?

We were a 9 seed then fell out. Good grief just read USPS’s post - which I quoted - to satisfy your “curiosity.”

[str8baller]

1 minute ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Iowa flat out sucked but then found a way

They did? Beat 2 tourney teams and lost to a 1 seed, 2 seed and 5 seed with two of those being on the road. Losing at Penn State isn’t great, I’ll grant you that. 
 

If Iowa “sucked” how would you describe what Devries was doing?

[HoosierHoopster]

2 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

A 9 seed is squeezing into the tournament now? I thought that was the metric for "safely off the bubble" based on posts here. Maybe that's inaccurate.

But yes, he had a better season because he made the tournament... then he made the elite 8. Just saying, tough to point to many "coaching failures" by them this year... DDV will hopefully get his 4th chance to win a March Madness game. I am rooting for him and think it's totally doable. I don't think there's much of an argument that McCollum is head and shoulders above him as it stands today in terms of coaching ability. 

Why ignore the post I quoted to try to make this stretched comparison. Of course they made the tourney and we didn’t. Comparitively we were similar teams with Iowa crapping the bed in multiple games — head and shoulders above him while ignoring everything USPS just posted and ai quoted is just ridiculous.

Maybe look at what the quote and tell me how USPS is wrong? 

[HoosierHoopster]

7 minutes ago, str8baller said:

They did? Beat 2 tourney teams and lost to a 1 seed, 2 seed and 5 seed with two of those being on the road. Losing at Penn State isn’t great, I’ll grant you that. 
 

If Iowa “sucked” how would you describe what Devries was doing?

What in USPS’s post that I quoted is wrong?

[Home Jersey]

Just now, HoosierHoopster said:

Why ignore the post I quoted to try to make this stretched comparison. Of course they made the tourney and we didn’t. Comparitively we were similar teams with Iowa crapping the bed in multiple games — head and shoulders above him while ignoring everything USPS just posted and ai quoted is just ridiculous.

Maybe look at what the quote and tell me how USPS is wrong? 

Lol... nothing is wrong, it's all factual. I'm not contradicting him or using AI... Can you tell me exactly what McCollum's coaching failures were in their losses? Teams sometimes lose games they shouldn't, right?

End of the day, they did what they had to do to make the tournament and we didn't. They excelled with the opportunity they had. They have a more straightforward path this offseason. Is what it is. I'm rooting for DDV to figure it out but there's no need to lie to ourselves about other first year coaches lol. He has his work cut out for him.

[Uspshoosier]

11 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

End of the day, they did what they had to do to make the tournament and we didn't

Yeah correct.   Iowa took advantage of their easier B1G and overall SOS.  They took advantage of schedule in front of them and most importantly won the games they should.    They did get a 9 seed this year  but was closer to the bubble then most 9 seeds before them I had ever seen.   The bubble was crap.  Basically you flip the away game at IU and even being a 9 seed that one game probably was worth 2 seed lines.   If they don’t beat IU they are 2-9 on the road with 0 wins away from home against any team close to tourney quality.    I definitely can admit they had the better year but I can also point out how razor thin their resume actually was on selection Sunday.    Kudos to Iowa and McCollum for taking advantage of the tourney restart and winning games.   Iowa fans were getting restless with how the regular season was ending 

[HoosierHoopster]

Just now, Home Jersey said:

Lol... nothing is wrong, it's all factual. I'm not contradicting him or using AI... Can you tell me exactly what McCollum's coaching failures were in their losses? Teams sometimes lose games they shouldn't, right?

End of the day, they did what they had to do to make the tournament and we didn't. They excelled with the opportunity they had. They have a more straightforward path this offseason. Is what it is. I'm rooting for DDV to figure it out but there's no need to lie to ourselves about other first year coaches lol. He has his work cut out for him.

“lol” DeVries has a long well-established DI track record, and yes what USPS stated is factual and is an actual comparison of the respective records, which was the point. I’m not going to walk through Iowa’s losses they’re what they are,  as is DeVries wins at UCLA, against Wisconsin, against PU. He showed adjustments that led to wins in multiple games. He also lost badly in others - and the teams sometimes lose point applies equally to IU. Iowa’s regular season and McC’s coaching didn’t show he was “heads and shoulders better” than DeVries but sure they got in and we fell out from the same seed position, 9. I saw our players outside Wilkerson inability to contend well at the back end of the schedule — my vantage point it was much more on the players than coaching.
DeVries can coach, personally I’m waiting to see what he does both in the portal now that he has time to put a team together with a staff, and next season for how he competes in conf and the portal.

[Home Jersey]

Just now, Uspshoosier said:

Yeah correct.   Iowa took advantage of their easier B1G and overall SOS.  They took advantage of schedule in front of them and most importantly won the games they should.    They did get a 9 seed this hear but was closer to the bubble then most 9 seeds before them I had ever seen.   The bubble was crap.  Basically you flip the away game at IU and even being a 9 seed that one game probably was worth 2 seed lines.   If they don’t beat IU they are 2-9 on the road with 0 wins away from home against any team close to tourney quality.    I definitely can admit they had the better year but I can also point out how razor thin their resume actually was on selection Sunday.    Kudos to Iowa and McCollum for taking advantage of the tourney restart and winning games.   Iowa fans were getting restless with how the regular season was ending 

Yep this is fair. The margins are thin in college basketball. There is a gap between how year 1 went. 

It's not very productive to compare the two since he was never coming here, but he is a conference opponent, so it's natural people will feel strongly one way or another. Hopefully we have something better in year 2 to beat him with. 

[Uspshoosier]

2 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

There is a gap between how year 1 went

For some definitely agree the gap was way big because of the importance of the ncaa tourney for most.   

[Home Jersey]

1 minute ago, HoosierHoopster said:

“lol” DeVries has a long well-established DI track record, and yes what USPS stated is factual and is an actual comparison of the respective records, which was the point. I’m not going to walk through Iowa’s losses they’re what they are,  as is DeVries wins at UCLA, against Wisconsin, against PU. He showed adjustments that led to wins in multiple games. He also lost badly in others - and the teams sometimes lose point applies equally to IU. Iowa’s regular season and McC’s coaching didn’t show he was “heads and shoulders better” than DeVries but sure they got in and we fell out from the same seed position, 9. I saw our players outside Wilkerson inability to contend well at the back end of the schedule — my vantage point it was much more on the players than coaching.
DeVries can coach, personally I’m waiting to see what he does both in the portal now that he has time to put a team together with a staff, and next season for how he competes in conf and the portal.

Hopefully! I'm not saying he's a terrible coach, just not better than McCollum IMO.

• They got the 9th seed in B10 tournament we got the 10th seed. They were 24-13 (10-10) we were 18-14 (9-11). 
• One of them has a .764 D1 winning percentage one of them has a .695 D1 winning percentage (also very good!) 
• One of them is 4-2 in March Madness, one of them is 0-3. 
• One of them won the head to head by 17...

His D1 resume is better than DeVries... that's not really debatable. Hopefully DDV shows superior coaching abilities next year. Happy to drop the comparisons since McCollum never wanted to be here anyway

[str8baller]

34 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

What in USPS’s post that I quoted is wrong?

You guys mostly ignored the context of the respective teams records down the stretch, but I didn’t even say you were wrong. I was asking your specific criticisms that you found ridiculous and funny everyone was ignoring.  

[Uspshoosier]

15 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

They got the 9th seed in B10 tournament we got the 10th seed. They were 24-13 (10-10) we were 18-14 (9-11). 

Yep.  For some big gap between the 2 however for me after watching every Iowa and IU game in conference the gap just wasn’t that big.   Key one here would be head to head. McCollum won that.   But for him to go 10-10 against the 10 out of 18th schedule compared to DeVries going 9-11 against the 2nd hardest B1G schedule doesn’t move the needle for me.  Losing to 2 teams 138 + on the road within that schedule was alarming.   I think his system allows him to be in every game he will coach. I also think his system will allow lower teams to stick around and be venerable for an upset.   
 

it is what it is.   McCollum had the better year but for me and only my opinion it wasn’t by the landslide most on here think it was or should be 

[Jeff Flabjohns]

 

56 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Why ignore the post I quoted to try to make this stretched comparison. Of course they made the tourney and we didn’t. Comparitively we were similar teams with Iowa crapping the bed in multiple games — head and shoulders above him while ignoring everything USPS just posted and ai quoted is just ridiculous.

Maybe look at what the quote and tell me how USPS is wrong? 

The games have to matter right? Since, ya know…they blew our doors off in Bloomington. Gap was pretty big for at least that 40 minutes. 

[Home Jersey]

39 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

Yep.  For some big gap between the 2 however for me after watching every Iowa and IU game in conference the gap just wasn’t that big.   Key one here would be head to head. McCollum won that.   But for him to go 10-10 against the 10 out of 18th schedule compared to DeVries going 9-11 against the 2nd hardest B1G schedule doesn’t move the needle for me.  Losing to 2 teams 138 + on the road within that schedule was alarming.   I think his system allows him to be in every game he will coach. I also think his system will allow lower teams to stick around and be venerable for an upset.   
 

it is what it is.   McCollum had the better year but for me and only my opinion it wasn’t by the landslide most on here think it was or should be 

For sure, he's not perfect... no coach is. And everyone will have their own opinion on things like how meaningful the tournament is to assessing a season and play style and the importance of NIL / financial resources in determining a program's ceiling. I don't think DDV is a bad coach by any means. And all coaches look better with better players. 

For me, it's kind of easy to be discouraged about where things stand after year 1 when you can see with your own eyes that McCollum has a pretty high "ceiling" (if you believe in such things) despite having much less competitive NIL. I can't see DDV's ceiling right now and there were not that many big moments in year 1 to make me a believer yet. JMO. That's comparing him as a conference opponent also in his first year in the B10, not a coach I'm pining for in Bloomington. 

I don't buy the idea that McCollum is a one trick pony with Stirtz and at 44 years old, I find it perplexing why some do. Maybe wishful thinking. He will have some momentum for the portal this year. They probably will take a step back next year, but I think it's fair to say at minimum Iowa won't be an easy W on the schedule while he is there. Could see him having a Tony Bennett like career.  

Luckily doesn't mean year 2 has to be the same way. We've got more of a blank slate to work with, so lot of potential to build a much improved roster and see what DDV can do with the benefit of a year under his belt and full staff. Hopefully there will be more to be optimistic about soon after the portal opens.

[HoosierHoopster]

1 hour ago, Home Jersey said:

 

His D1 resume is better than DeVries... that's not really debatable. Hopefully DDV shows superior coaching abilities next year. Happy to drop the comparisons since McCollum never wanted to be here anyway

It’s certainly debatable. MCCollum’s Iowa played a much worse - easier B1G schedule, IU’s conf schedule was significantly more difficult. That’s an actual comp. But McC got to play in the tourney so that is almost exclusively the focus and that’s simply not a comparison . Sure easy to say look he made the EE - and that is fairly impressive. But we don’t know what DeVries could have done in the tourney this year there is no direct tournament comp.
Next season should tell us a great deal more - and it really starts in the portal. I was calling out Woodson early for his moronic 2 big no outside shooting “system” with a complete lack of coaching and got all kinds of pushback for a long time - I have zero patience for lousy coaching. DeVries is a good coach, the early calling McC heads and shoulders better is just that, wayyy early and based on a false regular season comp. If DeVries fails next year I’ll likely have a different opinion, but ignoring how he took IU into UCLA, a tourney team, and win there - UCLA’s first home loss in a long time, beat Wisconsin and PU, tourney teams and just looking at overall records in reg season instead of how much weaker Iowa’s schedule obviously was. That’s apples and oranges. 
McC showed what he can do in the tourney he deserves credit for that, but no he hasn’t shown he’s better than DeVries, that’s way premature and I doubt it holds up. I’m really disappointed in the end of season collapse but I haven’t seen what DeVries can do with a team built with enough time and staff.

[Home Jersey]

26 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

It’s certainly debatable. MCCollum’s Iowa played a much worse - easier B1G schedule, IU’s conf schedule was significantly more difficult. That’s an actual comp. But McC got to play in the tourney so that is almost exclusively the focus and that’s simply not a comparison . Sure easy to say look he made the EE - and that is fairly impressive. But we don’t know what DeVries could have done in the tourney this year there is no direct tournament comp.
Next season should tell us a great deal more - and it really starts in the portal. I was calling out Woodson early for his moronic 2 big no outside shooting “system” with a complete lack of coaching and got all kinds of pushback for a long time - I have zero patience for lousy coaching. DeVries is a good coach, the early calling McC heads and shoulders better is just that, wayyy early and based on a false regular season comp. If DeVries fails next year I’ll likely have a different opinion, but ignoring how he took IU into UCLA, a tourney team, and win there - UCLA’s first home loss in a long time, beat Wisconsin and PU, tourney teams and just looking at overall records in reg season instead of how much weaker Iowa’s schedule obviously was. That’s apples and oranges. 
McC showed what he can do in the tourney he deserves credit for that, but no he hasn’t shown he’s better than DeVries, that’s way premature and I doubt it holds up. I’m really disappointed in the end of season collapse but I haven’t seen what DeVries can do with a team built with enough time and staff.

Well, respectfully, we could debate hypotheticals all day... we won't know what DDV could have done in the tourney this year because the team didn't earn it. The direct tournament comp is 4-2 (in 2 years of D1) vs 0-3 (8 years in D1) 

Next season will tell us more about DDV. Iowa has more momentum than Indiana right now, we will see how that translates to the portal. Iowa returns a lot of players so they probably just need to add 1 or 2 difference makers. 

It's not a false regular season comparison... they finished with a better record and McCollum has a better D1 career winning percentage. These are the objective facts. Both had some bad losses and some good wins this year. We can see who has a better career. We won't know that next year either. So far, McCollum has a better D1 resume and more momentum after year 1 in the Big Ten. We will see if DDV can change that next year. Rooting for him. 

[Golfman25]

You guys arguing about Iowa is laughable.   Results matter.   They went Elite 8.  We went on spring break.   They had a better season than we have had in 33 years.  

[Asha’man]

1 minute ago, Golfman25 said:

You guys arguing about Iowa is laughable.   Results matter.   They went Elite 8.  We went on spring break.   They had a better season than we have had in 33 years.  

Agreed. But this idea we need to bash on our coach and prop up a guy who finished .500 in conference but went on a run in the tournament is a joke. Get behind out team or get off the bus. You can get back on once we have a roster and but I’m tired of hearing about Iowa. Nobody wants to be Iowa. The goal is to be what Michigan is. Talk about Dusty May but not Bo Ryan 2.0. 

[Home Jersey]

1 minute ago, Asha’man said:

Agreed. But this idea we need to bash on our coach and prop up a guy who finished .500 in conference but went on a run in the tournament is a joke. Get behind out team or get off the bus. You can get back on once we have a roster and but I’m tired of hearing about Iowa. Nobody wants to be Iowa. The goal is to be what Michigan is. Talk about Dusty May but not Bo Ryan 2.0. 

Who is bashing our coach? Thought message boards were intended for nuanced discussion.

I want Indiana to win. Don't particularly care what it looks like. We'd be lucky if DDV succeeds like Bo Ryan, based on Indiana's history since the turn of the century. The goal is to be what Michigan is? How the mighty have fallen...

Dusty May vs Ben McCollum is more of a discussion than Ben McCollum vs Darian DeVries, so I agree we should stop talking about McCollum. DeVries is running his own race. Hopefully he shows immense improvement and next year we enjoy a product that looks more similar to Michigan this year. The 3s will be glorious, I am sure. 

[Asha’man]

16 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Who is bashing our coach? Thought message boards were intended for nuanced discussion.

I want Indiana to win. Don't particularly care what it looks like. We'd be lucky if DDV succeeds like Bo Ryan, based on Indiana's history since the turn of the century. The goal is to be what Michigan is? How the mighty have fallen...

Dusty May vs Ben McCollum is more of a discussion than Ben McCollum vs Darian DeVries, so I agree we should stop talking about McCollum. DeVries is running his own race. Hopefully he shows immense improvement and next year we enjoy a product that looks more similar to Michigan this year. The 3s will be glorious, I am sure. 

All these comments about DeVries have been backhanded put downs. The people doing it just want to vent and I get it. But I started this thread to discuss the roster for next year but it’s evolved into something else. We all get it McCollum team got hot and made a run congrats to Iowa. It happens every year. Dusty has at least proven he can make multiple runs and is recruiting at a clip to be the sustained power in the Big Ten for years to come. Which is why I hope he goes to the NBA after winning it all this year. So yes Michigan is the standard right now. Iowa will be back to being .500 again next year with held the budget at best than the top conference teams have.