Let’s talk Roster! 2026/2027

[CSP]

No way Sherrell is getting paid what Jeremiah Smith is getting paid. No way

[jermhoosierfan]

46 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I’ll take a stab at the general philosophy, even though I haven’t been all that critical of this roster. In fact I think they did a pretty good job. But I assume the counter is something like: 

 

Take Sherrells $5mil and split up between the 4 and 2 spots. Could you get Estrella and Blackwell for $5mil combined? Probably not, but go a couple spots in each ranking respectively and you will get there. How about Vasks and Kwame Evans? 
 

Now that you have a 2 guard you can take the 1-2mil?? they gave Lyndsey and go get yourself a couple mid major backups at the Pg and C spot who 1) don’t mind not playing much, but ate 2) willing to come for a big payday. If you succeed, you’ve alleviated much nervousness throughout IU message board land. If you fail, you’ve likely down graded your starting lineup so you can have two unplayable guys like Tayton Conerway and Payton Sparks beef up your depth chart but largely sit the bench and be tall cheerleaders. 

Wasn't it just a few months ago, people on this board were complaining how the money was spread around to too many players and needed to spend big on 2 or 3 and fill in the holes?  It's pretty much what they did, but some still don't like it.

  

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Under these restrictions I would be have kept Dorn, the better prospect of Jason Drake/Jasai Miles, the better prospect of Josh Harris/Clemens.  
 

I also would have liked to know the market for what we spent on Lindsay/Darren Harris and see if I could have found players I like better in the spending space. 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

5 hours ago, IUHoosierJoe said:

Why don’t you apply?

Right?  It’s a career of stepping stones and I’m neck deep into a dental career.  Far too old to start that totem pole.  

Honestly, if I wasn’t supporting a family of 5 on a single income I could see myself in an alternate universe ‘wishing’ I had tried the Dusty May career path. lol.  

Edited 23 hours ago by WayneFleekHoosier

[WayneFleekHoosier]

6 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Under these restrictions I would be have kept Dorn, the better prospect of Jason Drake/Jasai Miles, the better prospect of Josh Harris/Clemens.  
 

I also would have liked to know the market for what we spent on Lindsay/Darren Harris and see if I could have found players I like better in the spending space. 

Additionally I wouldn’t have signed Manhertz or at least had him reclass back to his original class. I’d have encouraged him to get a Montverde type year of development and stay a ‘27.  Tried to add a freshman I like better or thought would be more ready to contribute.  

[AH1971]

I really want to know what we spent on Mustaf and Harris. Something tells me collectively it's between $2.5-$3mil. That's too much if that's the case. Dorn and a solid back up big that can play 15-18mpg would have been a much better bang for your buck. 

[HoosierHoopster]

9 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

I really want to know what we spent on Mustaf and Harris. Something tells me collectively it's between $2.5-$3mil. That's too much if that's the case. Dorn and a solid back up big that can play 15-18mpg would have been a much better bang for your buck. 

Good Lord no.

[AH1971]

8 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Good Lord no.

Why? What does Harris do that Dorn can't? Is Harris going to be a 38% volume 3 point shooter this year? I think that is absolute best case scenario for Harris this year. He's not an elite athlete or a lock down defender. His best case scenario is what Dorn did last season while likely making twice the amount.

What happens when Samet rolls an ankle in the middle of January and is out 3 weeks with a high ankle sprain? You going to play Sherrell 40 minutes a night with Sisley playing next to him for 32 minutes for 6-7 straight games? How's that going to work? What happens when Sherrell picks up 2 fouls before the first media timeout? Yeah good luck.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

2 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

Why? What does Harris do that Dorn can't? Is Harris going to be a 38% volume 3 point shooter this year? I think that is absolute best case scenario for Harris this year. He's not an elite athlete or a lock down defender. His best case scenario is what Dorn did last season while likely making twice the amount.

What happens when Samet rolls an ankle in the middle of January and is out 3 weeks with a high ankle sprain? You going to play Sherrell 40 minutes a night with Sisley playing next to him for 32 minutes? How's that going to work? What happens when Sherrell picks up 2 fouls before the first media timeout? 

Yep.  Yigi is also particularly foul prone.  Something to watchout for. Knowing DeVries he’ll run some 4 guard sets and have Mustaf at the 4.  Could be some solutions.  

[HoosierHoopster]

36 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

Why? What does Harris do that Dorn can't? Is Harris going to be a 38% volume 3 point shooter this year? I think that is absolute best case scenario for Harris this year. He's not an elite athlete or a lock down defender. His best case scenario is what Dorn did last season while likely making twice the amount.

What happens when Samet rolls an ankle in the middle of January and is out 3 weeks with a high ankle sprain? You going to play Sherrell 40 minutes a night with Sisley playing next to him for 32 minutes for 6-7 straight games? How's that going to work? What happens when Sherrell picks up 2 fouls before the first media timeout? Yeah good luck.

 Are you pining for mediocrity? The why is completely obvious 

[AH1971]

51 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

 Are you pining for mediocrity? The why is completely obvious 

What’s mediocre about have a solid bench? Have we just convinced ourselves Harris is better than Dorn? Mediocrity is best case scenario if one of Sherrell or Samet get hurt.

[HoosierHoopster]

30 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

What’s mediocre about have a solid bench? Have we just convinced ourselves Harris is better than Dorn? Mediocrity is best case scenario if one of Sherrell or Samet get hurt.

 

30 minutes ago, AH1971 said:

What’s mediocre about have a solid bench? Have we just convinced ourselves Harris is better than Dorn? Mediocrity is best case scenario if one of Sherrell or Samet get hurt.

Oh come on already, you wanted to dump 2 we landed as part of the #3 portal class in favor of a lower tier big and Dorn whose scoring fell off significantly through the season and failed to help at all as we missed the tourney . This is pure hypocrisy and laughable— complain and bitc% about what DeVries has done in the portal while disregarding it’s the #3 class for good reason and ignoring that the player you now pine for gave us nothing down the stretch. Just laughably hypocritical. 
 

We have a group of much better players now, except for Wilkerson (who I’ll miss). Depth is a question mark, but pinning for the guy whose scoring dropped off a cliff and just some so so big is just plain laughable. Yeah, drop Mustaf for a cheaper guy and keep Dorn, that would make us so much better. Good grief. And yes Harris is worth the roll of the dice, dude is an outstanding shooter, well-ranked and recruited out of HS for it, now he’ll get a chance to show when not buried on the bench. Dorn? I would’ve like him to stay for depth but not at the expense of who we landed, no way.

[AH1971]

13 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

 

Oh come on already, you wanted to dump 2 we landed as part of the #3 portal class in favor of a lower tier big and Dorn whose scoring fell off significantly through the season and failed to help at all as we missed the tourney . This is pure hypocrisy and laughable— complain and bitc% about what DeVries has done in the portal while disregarding it’s the #3 class for good reason and ignoring that the player you now pine for gave us nothing down the stretch. Just laughably hypocritical. 
 

We have a group of much better players now, except for Wilkerson (who I’ll miss). Depth is a question mark, but pinning for the guy whose scoring dropped off a cliff and just some so so big is just plain laughable. Yeah, drop Mustaf for a cheaper guy and keep Dorn, that would make us so much better. Good grief. And yes Harris is worth the roll of the dice, dude is an outstanding shooter, well-ranked and recruited out of HS for it, now he’ll get a chance to show when not buried on the bench. Dorn? I would’ve like him to stay for depth but not at the expense of who we landed, no way.

Who said anything about a lower tier big? $1.5M would have gone a long way in securing a solid 15-18 mpg big off the bench. Doubly, it prevents the staff from completely running Sherrell and/or Samet into the ground by seasons end playing each 30+ a night. God forbid one of them gets hurt, season is over if that is the case.

I’m not sold on either Harris or Mustaf, lofty high school rankings be damned, which are completely irrelevant at this stage. You may be, that’s your opinion. Dorn is a proven high level 3 pt shooter on good volume, we don’t have any of those next year. I’m not convinced the production from Harris or Mustaf is going to match the price tag they came with, especially compared to what Dorn was likely commanding. 

[HoosierHoopster]

1 hour ago, AH1971 said:

Who said anything about a lower tier big? $1.5M would have gone a long way in securing a solid 15-18 mpg big off the bench. Doubly, it prevents the staff from completely running Sherrell and/or Samet into the ground by seasons end playing each 30+ a night. God forbid one of them gets hurt, season is over if that is the case.

I’m not sold on either Harris or Mustaf, lofty high school rankings be damned, which are completely irrelevant at this stage. You may be, that’s your opinion. Dorn is a proven high level 3 pt shooter on good volume, we don’t have any of those next year. I’m not convinced the production from Harris or Mustaf is going to match the price tag they came with, especially compared to what Dorn was likely commanding. 

 

1 hour ago, AH1971 said:

Who said anything about a lower tier big? $1.5M would have gone a long way in securing a solid 15-18 mpg big off the bench. Doubly, it prevents the staff from completely running Sherrell and/or Samet into the ground by seasons end playing each 30+ a night. God forbid one of them gets hurt, season is over if that is the case.

I’m not sold on either Harris or Mustaf, lofty high school rankings be damned, which are completely irrelevant at this stage. You may be, that’s your opinion. Dorn is a proven high level 3 pt shooter on good volume, we don’t have any of those next year. I’m not convinced the production from Harris or Mustaf is going to match the price tag they came with, especially compared to what Dorn was likely commanding. 

You said backup big over Mustaf. Come on now. Your call is to run back a weaker group and with Dorn who completely fell off the rails and gave us next to nothing over the second half of the season. Dorn is proven??? Exactly what did he do for IU??? You suffer from memory loss? I liked him early in season. Then he got scouted and completely shut down. He’s at best a backup sometimes scorer for IU. You talk out of both sides of your mouth and ignore his season. Have at it

[AH1971]

1 hour ago, HoosierHoopster said:

 

You said backup big over Mustaf. Come on now. Your call is to run back a weaker group and with Dorn who completely fell off the rails and gave us next to nothing over the second half of the season. Dorn is proven??? Exactly what did he do for IU??? You suffer from memory loss? I liked him early in season. Then he got scouted and completely shut down. He’s at best a backup sometimes scorer for IU. You talk out of both sides of your mouth and ignore his season. Have at it

?

He’s the perfect floor spacer for a 2 big lineup and as a 5th scoring option. And probably costs half the money of Harris who hasn’t done anything in his career. The money used to acquire Mustaf and Harris ($2.5-$3m) could have been used to retain Dorn, added an actual playable big off the bench, and likely an older/experienced guard from a mid or low major to be an 8th-9th man. 
 

Samet

Sherrell

Dorn

Lindsay

Burton

is still a really good starting 5 and a bench of

Sisley

Playable big

Moody

Veteran guard

Karvala/Manhertz

sure as hell beats whatever we’re going to trot off the bench this year. We’re an injury away from being worse than last year.

 

[BGleas]

10 hours ago, AH1971 said:

?

He’s the perfect floor spacer for a 2 big lineup and as a 5th scoring option. And probably costs half the money of Harris who hasn’t done anything in his career. The money used to acquire Mustaf and Harris ($2.5-$3m) could have been used to retain Dorn, added an actual playable big off the bench, and likely an older/experienced guard from a mid or low major to be an 8th-9th man. 
 

Samet

Sherrell

Dorn

Lindsay

Burton

is still a really good starting 5 and a bench of

Sisley

Playable big

Moody

Veteran guard

Karvala/Manhertz

sure as hell beats whatever we’re going to trot off the bench this year. We’re an injury away from being worse than last year.

 

It's interesting how we all see things differently. I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong and HH or I am right. Who knows until it plays out. 

I agree with you that I was hoping we'd be able to add more proven pieces to the bench. I'm nervous we're going to have to rely on so many unproven pieces and and to varying degrees rely on 3 freshmen off the bench. 

We need another big and I also think another ball handler. I was hoping we'd be able to push Karvala and Manhertz down the depth chart with the last 2 additions. 

With all of that said, Nick Dorn is where we disagree. He was the returning player I wanted back least (outside of the two international guys from last year). 

I don't know what Harris will be, but I don't see how it can be worse than Dorn. Outside of his 3-game hot shooting streak, he was pretty awful. He's a terrible defender, doesn't handle or create offensively, really does very little outside very streaky spot-up shooting. 

Again, I have no idea what Harris will be, and can agree that I wonder what else we could have done with that NIL investment, but I don't see how Harris can be much worse than Dorn. Harris' ceiling is much higher IMO. 

Maybe Dorn will prove me wrong at Miami, but I wasn't too high on him last season. 

[Home Jersey]

Dorn at Indiana: .380 3FG% on 5.3 attempts per game (2 makes)

Luke Goode at Indiana: .392 3FG% on 4.9 attempts per game (1.9 makes)

Goode on Illinois's E8 team: .389 3FG% on 4.1 attempts per game (making 1.6)

Harris will need to make about 2 3s a game for us if he is expected to be a shooter. On 1.9 attempts last year, he made .6 per game in 9.7mpg. Hopefully the extra playing time helps him.

[Stuhoo]

1 hour ago, BGleas said:

It's interesting how we all see things differently. I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong and HH or I am right. Who knows until it plays out. 

I agree with you that I was hoping we'd be able to add more proven pieces to the bench. I'm nervous we're going to have to rely on so many unproven pieces and and to varying degrees rely on 3 freshmen off the bench. 

We need another big and I also think another ball handler. I was hoping we'd be able to push Karvala and Manhertz down the depth chart with the last 2 additions. 

With all of that said, Nick Dorn is where we disagree. He was the returning player I wanted back least (outside of the two international guys from last year). 

I don't know what Harris will be, but I don't see how it can be worse than Dorn. Outside of his 3-game hot shooting streak, he was pretty awful. He's a terrible defender, doesn't handle or create offensively, really does very little outside very streaky spot-up shooting. 

Again, I have no idea what Harris will be, and can agree that I wonder what else we could have done with that NIL investment, but I don't see how Harris can be much worse than Dorn. Harris' ceiling is much higher IMO. 

Maybe Dorn will prove me wrong at Miami, but I wasn't too high on him last season. 

The only possible upside to Dorn that I saw was that he was out until October with his foot injury, so he didn’t get to develop his game and conditioning. The version we had kinda sucked.

[BGleas]

54 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Dorn at Indiana: .380 3FG% on 5.3 attempts per game (2 makes)

Luke Goode at Indiana: .392 3FG% on 4.9 attempts per game (1.9 makes)

Goode on Illinois's E8 team: .389 3FG% on 4.1 attempts per game (making 1.6)

Harris will need to make about 2 3s a game for us if he is expected to be a shooter. On 1.9 attempts last year, he made .6 per game in 9.7mpg. Hopefully the extra playing time helps him.

I know this isn't necessarily fair to Dorn, but I wonder what those shooting numbers are if you take out his 3-game heater? 

I also wonder what Harris can bring beyond. I'm not trying to hate on Dorn, but he did very little beyond streaky shooting. 

If Harris can defend better, has some handling or creating he can provide, etc., he could upgrade in other areas. I don't know if he can do those things, but from what I saw from Dorn he can't. 

[go iu bb]

2 hours ago, BGleas said:

I know this isn't necessarily fair to Dorn, but I wonder what those shooting numbers are if you take out his 3-game heater? 

I also wonder what Harris can bring beyond. I'm not trying to hate on Dorn, but he did very little beyond streaky shooting. 

If Harris can defend better, has some handling or creating he can provide, etc., he could upgrade in other areas. I don't know if he can do those things, but from what I saw from Dorn he can't. 

For the whole season, he was 60 of 158, which is 0.380.

In a 4 game stretch he went: 4/9, 6/10, 4/9, 6/15. All 40% or greater. 

If those are excluded, his totals become 40/115, which is 0.348.