Blazin Hazin

Worries? Nope Tempered enthusiasm because they're impact will be for a short span? yes

It's weird when you hear fired coaches like Archie talk and realize that they're actually pretty smart and likeable. I thought the same thing when Mike Davis was interviewed a few years ago. Coaching at this level is really really hard, and for whatever reason, Archie just wasn't up to the task. The best reason I can give is his offensive scheme just didn't work. Perhaps non-coincidentally, it didn't work for his brother either in the last few years either.

People always attribute Archie's failure to basically being unlikeable. I don't necessarily disagree with this- but I think it's important to consider the following... -The transfer rate during Archie's time wasn't that high. Every player that left looked like they might either see a reduction in minutes or weren't going to play the next season either. - He recruited pretty well. And hell- how well could he have recruited we didn't suck so bad? If we don't fall apart in 2019- do we get Brooks? - There wasn't that much drama from his players. See Wisconsin. Again- I'm not completely disagreeing with this. However, for a losing coach, Archie's teams didn't have the obvious indicators of a program in pure meltdown mode because they disliked Archie. But please- do not misinterpret this as a defense of the Archie era. It needed to end and Im' glad it did.

agreed Football players have no professional options for 3 years. And freshmen don't contribute that much in football. Basketball recruits, for better or for worse, have way more leverage and options.

About 15 of the top 50 recruits have committed. And there's no guarantee those committed will hold their commitment.

I think we need to be compassionate to the Sea Turtles in our fan base. After Archie- they're inclined to believe that the only way to field an NCAA tournament team is to have a roster of 5 Star recruits. They see that we had a team of two five star recruits and a slew of other 4 star recruits and assume we just weren't talented enough since we went a putrid 7-13 in conference. They think..."If we landed Keion Brooks, and maybe Dawson Garcia, then maybe we could have gone 10-10." If you judge recruiting by rankings, our recruiting under Archie was basically on par with the Conference's best. The only school with players clearly more highly evaluated than us is Michigan St, who wasn't even that good. Michigan, Ohio St, and Illinois...about the same as us. Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Rutgers, they were far better than us last year with recruits rated worse than ours. In other words, an incoming class with Kaleb Banks, Cj Gunn, a 3 star guy, and a transfer should be enough to put us among the best 5 teams in the Big 10. I hope we get more talent, and think we can, but the success of the program is gonna hinge a lot more on the coaching than the recruiting stars. Last year's results were not because we simply can't land top-quality talent to Bloomington, they were a result of being one of the most underachieving and poorly coached teams in the nation.

Braden Smith may very well end up being a good Big 10 starting point guard, but.... We have 3 point guards with eligibility in the 2022-23 season. I don't think all 3 will stay, but it's probably the main reason the staff didn't offer him.

I'm beginning to lean towards.... XJ, Stewart, Bates, kopp, and TJD. I'm curious about how the three point guards situation plays out. I think Race's most important role will be when TJD is out of the game, but he'll still play 20+ minutes. I have no idea what to expect from Lander or Phinesee. Probably the biggest variables on the team. Lander's rating and Phinesee's freshman moments still have me wondering if they'll shine. And fair or unfair, much of what I think about Archie as a coach will hinge on what I see from them this season. I think Geronimo plays an important role off the bench. Leal and Galloway are still a year away. As is Duncomb. And I'm pretty meh on Hunter.

After further review....if the roster stays the same(which we know it won't)...I'll say TJD 100% chance he starts Two of the three point guards start (XJ 75%, Lander 60%, Phinesee 50%) One off guard starts(Stewart 70%...although I think an additional transfer is most likely here. Leal and Galloway have about a 15% chance each of starting) Either Race 70% or Geronimo30% starts.

TJD is 100% starting After that??? I'm honestly not sure there's a single player I'd say is more than 50% likely to start. Race? might start or be a guy who is the other post player and get 18-20 minutes a game. We have 3 point guards now. All have potential, all have flaws. We have 3 off guards. All have potential, all have flaws. Geronimo could definitely have a breakthrough- but reality is that he's a guy who didn't play much on a bad team. And I'm not sure if woodson would use him as a 3 or 4. Hunter might pan out and finally be the player we recruited, but that's exactly what I thought he would do a year ago. And Brunk's health is an issue. Duncomb is a nice get- but probably at least a year away. So much experience and so many question marks besides TJD.

I think anyone not concerned with this recruiting class is being a bit pollyannish. We were expecting a class of 3-4, we have 1. We missed on a very good recruit from southern Indiana to Purdue. He plays a position we need, he would have been a perfect fit, and we lost him to Purdue. We continually missed on others too. There's always a chance to correct basketball recruiting whiffs through transfers. And we'll see if a lot of guys stay because of the covid situation. But let's be clear, unless something changes, this class probably missed worse than any other in Archie's tenure. I highly doubt he would choose Parker Stewart over jordan Longino, trey Kaufman, Mason Miller, blake Wessley, or Aminu Muhammad.

Too much is made of the ....."this guy develops NBA players" debate. Hanner Perea was once a top 10 recruit as a junior. Victor barely cracked the top 150. OG didn't crack anyone's top 150. Is Crean an idiot because Hanner didn't develop? Is Crean a genius because Victor and OG blossomed? Same program. Probably many of the same drills. Far different results.