Let’s talk Roster! 2026/2027

[ronzo4IU]

You can’t tell me that we don’t have donors out there who are spending several mil for NIL that would not spend a couple more to bring a player on who could really put us over the top.

We just can’t settle for a few top notch players and go budget on the supporting cast..not if you want to make a statement and get us over that old worn out hump.

[Stuhoo]

47 minutes ago, ronzo4IU said:

You can’t tell me that we don’t have donors out there who are spending several mil for NIL that would not spend a couple more to bring a player on who could really put us over the top.

We just can’t settle for a few top notch players and go budget on the supporting cast..not if you want to make a statement and get us over that old worn out hump.

A top-tier player is 100% concerned with their future career. Therefore they are not likely to be interested in being a 15 mpg backup unless the money was markedly higher at IU than anywhere else. And we aren’t the only wealthy school.

 

[str8baller]

2 hours ago, ronzo4IU said:

That’s how you build a NC contender roster.

Who is doing that? Certainly not IU. This is a program that missed the 68 team tournament last year. 
 

If you want that guy you better have an A+ scout on a kid who played very limited mins last year, a euro, a freshman, etc… Likely he just doesn’t exist. 

[ronzo4IU]

8 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

A top-tier player is 100% concerned with their future career. Therefore they are not likely to be interested in being a 15 mpg backup unless the money was markedly higher at IU than anywhere else. And we aren’t the only wealthy school.

 

You go find the David Punch type players and you sell them on rotation and give them all the minutes it takes to keep Yig and Sherrell fresh in which I think would be more than 15 min/game.  Even that is enough time for them to show their stuff without anyone getting overplayed I would think.

Were paying a GM to find these type of players as insurance and that is what has been lacking IMO.

[ronzo4IU]

6 hours ago, str8baller said:

Who is doing that? Certainly not IU. This is a program that missed the 68 team tournament last year. 
 

If you want that guy you better have an A+ scout on a kid who played very limited mins last year, a euro, a freshman, etc… Likely he just doesn’t exist. 

Exactly, like I said, go find the David Punch type players, they were out there.

[Stuhoo]

5 hours ago, ronzo4IU said:

Exactly, like I said, go find the David Punch type players, they were out there.

David Punch was the #127 recruit nationally who was from near TCU when he committed to TCU in October of his senior year in high school. He just portaled to Texas, which is an hour from his home town.

David Punch has been rated a top ten overall portal transfer nationally - that means he is rated higher than Sherrell or Yigi and is a $4-5 million a year guy. He averaged 14/7 while starting every game last year. That is a player that absolutely merits 30+ mpg and a starting role.

Could we strike gold and sign the freshman version of David Punch? I'm not seeing the potential for any high three star, new-freshman, physical bigs for 2026 to still be available. What is more likely is an under the radar Euro big, as @str8baller stated. And we already have one of those on the roster.

[ronzo4IU]

39 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

David Punch was the #127 recruit nationally who was from near TCU when he committed to TCU in October of his senior year in high school. He just portaled to Texas, which is an hour from his home town.

David Punch has been rated a top ten overall portal transfer nationally - that means he is rated higher than Sherrill or Yigi and is a $4-5 million a year guy. He averaged 14/7 while starting every game last year. That is a player that absolutely merits 30+ mpg and a starting role.

Could we strike gold and sign the freshman version of David Punch? I'm not seeing the potential for any high three star, new-freshman, physical bigs for 2026 to still be available. What is more likely is an under the radar Euro big, as @str8baller stated. And we already have one of those on the roster.

I may have got that confused and may have been looking at last year transfer portal with david punch so sorry about that,  but I would think that CYRIL or of like caliber could’ve been utilized.

 

[Stuhoo]

1 hour ago, ronzo4IU said:

I may have got that confused and may have been looking at last year transfer portal with david punch so sorry about that,  but I would think that CYRIL or of like caliber could’ve been utilized.

 

Dont get me wrong; I’d be thrilled if we pulled a last second high value big. I just don’t think it’s even remotely realistic at this point.

[AH1971]

14 hours ago, ronzo4IU said:

I would want Yig and Sherrell to play as much as possible together…that leaves plenty of time for another quality combo Big for rotational minutes, and a lot more if foul or injury happens.  That’s how you build a NC contender roster.  Not by skimping by and playing one big at a time in this conference. Shouldn’t we have learned that by now?

Agreed. Roster was constructed horribly. Sherrell and Yigi on the court together would have created a ton of matchup problems for opponents. Now, you're almost relegated to platooning them. Malpractice the staff didn't sign another a 5 in the portal. If the plan was to platoon those guys, they should have at least brought in a solid 4 man...couldn't even do that. I'm usually one of the longest to hold out and defend the staff, but not adding adequate front court depth could be fatal for DeVries tenure here. Adding both Mustaf and Harris just seems redundant at this point. Really a do or die season for Darian and staff. 

[Stuhoo]

21 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

Agreed. Roster was constructed horribly. Sherrell and Yigi on the court together would have created a ton of matchup problems for opponents. Now, you're almost relegated to platooning them. Malpractice the staff didn't sign another a 5 in the portal. If the plan was to platoon those guys, they should have at least brought in a solid 4 man...couldn't even do that. I'm usually one of the longest to hold out and defend the staff, but not adding adequate front court depth could be fatal for DeVries tenure here. Adding both Mustaf and Harris just seems redundant at this point. Really a do or die season for Darian and staff. 

We will most certainly not be platooning them.

Approximately 30 mpg for each; 20 together and ten with Sisley at the four.

[AH1971]

14 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

We will most certainly not be platooning them.

Approximately 30 mpg for each; 20 together and ten with Sisley at the four.

Who is playing the other 10 minutes? How many teams in the B10 last year had a 7 footer average 30 mpg, let alone two? I'm not sure there was a team that played two true bigs last year where each averaged 30 mpg. Michigan didn't. Illinois didn't. 

Awful egregious to think both are going to hold up for 30 mpg in the B10 over the course of the entire season. 

[Stuhoo]

1 hour ago, AH1971 said:

Who is playing the other 10 minutes?

Awful egregious to think both are going to hold up for 30 mpg in the B10 over the course of the entire season. 

For the 4 and 5 spot we need a total of 80 minutes:

• Aiden 27-30 minutes
• Samet 27-30 minutes
• Trent 20-23 minutes - ten with each true big, and the two starting bigs play about 20 mpg together. 

Samet averaged 29 mpg last year and Aiden averaged 24 mpg. It's not that far fetched to see each of them averaging 27-30 and Sisley picking up the rest. Especially since the two bigs will average far less during cupcake season - Sherrell only averaged about 9 mpg in the non-con last year.

The last solid team at IU was the 4 seed 2022-23 team. On that roster, Trayce played 34.5 mpg, Race played 23.2, and a raw/turnover prone Malik played 14.9. That's 72.7 mpg with two true bigs on the floor. The rest of the time we had an undersized Kopp at the four; Mustaf is easily as capable of guarding a college four as Kopp. And that team that was considered 'full sized'. 

Now if we have one of the two primary bigs suffer a significant injury? Then we have a real problem. But there's only so much money and 4/5 minutes to go around.

[AH1971]

6 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

For the 4 and 5 spot we need a total of 80 minutes:

• Aiden 27-30 minutes
• Samet 27-30 minutes
• Trent 20-23 minutes - ten with each ture big, and the two starting bigs play about 20 mpg together. 

Samet averaged 29 mpg last year and Aiden averaged 24 mpg. It's not that far fetched to see each of them averaging 27-30 and Sisley picking up the rest. Especially since the two bigs will average far less during cupcake season - Sherrell only averaged about 9 mpg in the non-con last year.

The last solid team at IU was the 4 seed 2022-23 team. On that roster, Trayce played 34.5 mpg, Race played 23.2, and a raw/turnover prone Malik played 14.9. That's 72.7 mpg with two true bigs on the floor. The rest of the time we had an undersized Kopp at the four; Mustaf is easily as capable of guarding a college four as Kopp. And that team that was considered 'full sized'. 

Now if we have one of the two primary bigs suffer a significant injury? Then we have a real problem. But there's only so much money and 4/5 minutes to go around.

If Mustaf is playing any meaningful minutes at the 4 next year, we're in deep sh*t. 

Ideally Samet and Sherrell would both max out around 25 mpg in conference and I wouldn't give more than 15 mpg to Sisley unless he's earned it. Going to have a lot of tired bigs, one that is extremely foul prone, playing extra minutes every game because there's no depth. That usually doesn't end well. 

[ronzo4IU]

7 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

If Mustaf is playing any meaningful minutes at the 4 next year, we're in deep sh*t. 

Ideally Samet and Sherrell would both max out around 25 mpg in conference and I wouldn't give more than 15 mpg to Sisley unless he's earned it. Going to have a lot of tired bigs, one that is extremely foul prone, playing extra minutes every game because there's no depth. That usually doesn't end well. 

Well said… I would love for Sicily to do really well this season but so far he is unproven for such a significant role at this level.

[Home Jersey]

Curious how defense will be with a lineup of Burton, Lindsay, Mustaf, Sherrell and Yig... how switchable will Sherrell be? And when Harris subs in for Lindsay or Mustaf... how does that look.

Pleased with the high portal class ranking. Wouldn't call it a terribly constructed roster... it's not perfect but few teams have that heading into the season. Would be nice for Sokolov to surprise this year, see little reason to believe that will happen though. 

[Stuhoo]

25 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Curious how defense will be with a lineup of Burton, Lindsay, Mustaf, Sherrell and Yig... how switchable will Sherrell be? And when Harris subs in for Lindsay or Mustaf... how does that look.

Pleased with the high portal class ranking. Wouldn't call it a terribly constructed roster... it's not perfect but few teams have that heading into the season. Would be nice for Sokolov to surprise this year, see little reason to believe that will happen though. 

Exactly. For significant portions of game close outs, I'd fully expect to play only one of either Yigi and Sherrell with some combination of Sisley, Burton, Mustaf, Lindsay, Harris, and PA Moody. In a conference where our opponents will have lots of perimeter players that's a given to me. Michigan and Illinois will require a true-two big lineup, but even teams like Purdoo will only require one true big for us to match up defensively. 

I suspect that a season-long key to our success will be 6'6", 215 lb Jaden Mustaf's ability to be a defensive plus at the 2, 3 and occasionally the 4 spot. The kid is strng and supposedly a plus defender and rebounder.

[AH1971]

My biggest gripe isn't even the minute allocation, it's the complete lack of depth from the 4 and 5 position off the bench. Are we just going to punt on a road game where Samet inevitably picks up 2 fouls before the first media TO? And then we're stuck playing Sisley 32-33 minutes?

[Stuhoo]

23 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

My biggest gripe isn't even the minute allocation, it's the complete lack of depth from the 4 and 5 position off the bench. Are we just going to punt on a road game where Samet inevitably picks up 2 fouls before the first media TO? And then we're stuck playing Sisley 32-33 minutes?

There is no question that our roster shows as far deepr at the 1-3 spots than at the 4 and 5.

1. My point is that We had limited resources and with a strong financial base but no record of success or deveopment, that money doesn't get us an everything-everywhere roster.
2. Ultimately, the decision to sign two very expensive bigs but have no money left for a serviceable true 3rd big is how our staff's success will be judged. The final won-loss record is their report card.

[AH1971]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

There is no question that our roster shows as far deepr at the 1-3 spots than at the 4 and 5.

1. My point is that We had limited resources and with a strong financial base but no record of success or deveopment, that money doesn't get us an everything-everywhere roster.
2. Ultimately, the decision to sign two very expensive bigs but have no money left for a serviceable true 3rd big is how our staff's success will be judged. The final won-loss record is their report card.

I don't buy 1. You didn't need Mustaf, Harris, AND Lindsey, especially if you think Alexander-Moody is ready to contribute from day 1. And because of the money you spent on Sherrell and Samet, it's silly not to address the depth behind them. The money spent to acquire Harris or Mustaf could have been spent to elsewhere to acquire a more than serviceable backup 4 or 5. There is ~20mpg for a serviceable 4 or 5 had the roster been constructed appropriately imo.

[Stuhoo]

Just now, AH1971 said:

I don't buy 1. You didn't need Mustaf, Harris, AND Lindsey, especially if you think Alexander-Moody is ready to contribute from day 1. And because of the money you spent on Sherrell and Samet, it's silly not to address the depth behind them. The money spent to acquire Harris or Mustaf could have been spent to elsewhere to acquire a more than serviceable backup 4 or 5. There is ~20mpg for a serviceable 4 or 5 had the roster been constructed appropriately imo.

We could have gotten one less 2/3 and one more big?

That’s fair.