IUWBB vs Ohio State - B1G tourney - Thursday, 03.05.26 @ 2:30 on BTN

[TTT]

It’s not rocket science.  
No NIT nor WBIT needed.  Home stance NIT tournament and championship served its purpose during the T. Buss years.  It provided a springboard that IU Ladies basketball program is beyond.

 I doubt it would be a tournament home stand again. Maybe, maybe not.  If you don’t win it then you lose to a mid major or a lower level major conference team.

What is needed.

1.  Lots of NIL money or enough to purchase:

two elite transfer portal players or one elite transfer portal player and one elite 2026 signee yet to commit (another inside player, elite and another guard or wing shooter/scoring, elite 

2.  Go home and heal up, lick your wounds, have some fun, and come back and start training for 2026-2027.

 

 

[mickey one]

8 hours ago, LIHoosier said:

Or not

 

a "number of reasons"? Like what?

I don't think IU is heading to the Final 4 (or for that matter a Big 10 championship) until they get an inside banger like Etute.

[TTT]

6 hours ago, mickey one said:

a "number of reasons"? Like what?

I don't think IU is heading to the Final 4 (or for that matter a Big 10 championship) until they get an inside banger like Etute.

Inside elite and another scoring elite player (2 more) to go along with nucleus of returnees and what is currently coming into program 2026-2027.  Currently, still not there but could be.

[TTT]

20 hours ago, Aaron said:

Today is why I am ultra critical of this fanbase and its purely out of my caring. Fan base at Big Ten Tourney in Indy grew to point where it was largest here. One bad year and now its back to the size it was pre-Moren as not much larger than any others. 

IU has played in the middle of the day many times through their best years and still filled the entire first level. Now one year where team is not the best and it disappears like yesterday's news. I've been to Omaha during Iowa and Nebraska's down years for baseball and they still show up as long as team is there. Meanwhile, at Victory Field for yearly game it takes one year of a non-Schwarber team and still being competitive to drop attendance by 75% from 8k to barely 2k.

Now with women's basketball its the same pattern over and over again where as soon as team is not ranked, everyone is gone in 6 months. Its why I fear so much for football as soon as team win nine games season tickets drop to 30k. 

Our men's basketball first fans stick through the thick and thin there mostly, but as soon as a sport that's not that stops being ranked in top-15 its over. Yes every fan base has front runners, but its particularly bad at IU where a built fan base in another sport is gone within months. 

You can't claim to want to be good at every sport as our fans do, only to dump it within months like no other fan base does. Fan behavior has to change. I am not talking to the loyal who are there through thick and thin but the frontrunners which is far larger than other fan bases.

People can get mad at me for saying this, but its if the 'shoe fits, wear it' situation and its why so many sports struggle to ever regain momentum they build. 

An unimpressive year followed by a bad year that included several players exit of which 3 of them could have been used this season.

[Aaron]

1 hour ago, TTT said:

An unimpressive year followed by a bad year that included several players exit of which 3 of them could have been used this season.

In a vacuum I agree. However, its part of a larger trend we have seen multiple times.

If it were just this, I would 100% agree with you. However, when its another small data point on a larger scale, it becomes another concerning piece of evidence for the future as to whether IU athletics can keep up with the rest of the league.

[TTT]

1 hour ago, Aaron said:

In a vacuum I agree. However, its part of a larger trend we have seen multiple times.

If it were just this, I would 100% agree with you. However, when its another small data point on a larger scale, it becomes another concerning piece of evidence for the future as to whether IU athletics can keep up with the rest of the league.

Bottom line NIL purchase two elite players that fit with nucleus of 2026-2027.  Win and they will come.

Don’t forget to NIL nucleus of 2026-2027 either.

[ronzo4IU]

Like I’ve said before, one of her best teams in recent times gets knocked out of a first round home game by Miami/16 seed.  The stands were packed and I think the fan base lost hope after that game. Been going downhill ever since.