Initial79

4 hours ago, FKIM01 said:

It's also possible that players and recruits are simply screwing with fan forums and enjoying the entertainment.

We are overstating how much they actually care if we think that 

2 hours ago, RoadToZion said:

^ my wife is following other guys on instagram, does that mean she is going to divorce me? 👀☹️😓

Yes 

Kansas really doesn’t have room for him. Now, their fans which are talking plenty on Twitter (maybe not their forums) about him claim they will just push a guy out. Things is, if Hunter goes there they have no open scholarships and heavily involved with multiple other guys. 

Keep in my the sole reason he didn’t stay with Duke is playing time, that will matter a lot here.  I just don’t see him going there at all based on this. 
 

St John’s - is the feel good, home school. It doesn’t work when it comes to money. 
 

My gut, adding a few comments together from multiple places, yes, some social media stuff and more. His leader was Louisville and he was looking at Rutgers and St John’s for close to home options. They didn’t have the money to compete with Louisville and he knows the assistant there. He has Adidas money lined up and is connected with the main Adidas agent. So, Louisville messed some things up (maybe over committing things to multiple guys?). The Adidas guy says “here are 2 more options.” All the sudden he is visiting IU and Kansas. Lots of other schools like Alabama, Arkansas, UNC etc are still very active for top guys but he adds 2 big Adidas schools???

I am the biggest supporter of social media meaning lots. However, I have said many times that too many read things wrong. For example, someone said none of our players have followed him since his visit. Not true. Lots have. Also, not every follow means the same thing. Not a single person followed Walker at all but I knew he was planning to commit when he came here (said that on here) because he added Tipton Edits the day he came in (all the guys do that before announcing)

Now, what does the unfollow mean? Not fully sure but have a feeling it doenst mean what people are reading into it. Just because guys decide not to visit doesn’t mean they immediately stop following. Heck, X still follows Knecht but not even Walker. 

Ware, Cupps, Howard and more still do. Also one staff but important people connected as well to him. There is strategy on who they want certain guys to connect with. For example, the have X on Dingle. Maybe in this case, they want Ware to help sell him since they are coming from a similar top recruit position etc. there was a reason but probably not important. Keep in mind he is a recruit and not a transfer. There could be some really odd NCAA rule here they are trying to be careful of. 

What this should prove is while social media can be tricky to read, there is way more to this than some want to ever believe. This is even the avenue where important guys for NiL, big money fans, agents, life style guys etc can all connect with a recruit but they still are not allowed to call him. That is a violation. There is even rules on what they can post, retweet, comment, like etc. but this is how it is done now. 

long post short. I honestly believe IU will be the leader at the end of this. Too many things play to our favor. I also don’t think this guy commits fast. He will take every visit. This is all business and he already left freaking Duke. He will take all things into account and not be sold on a visit.  If not, the staff has so many options now. 

29 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

Targeting and identifying talent has never been an issue with this staff. Was never my gripe.

Getting them to commit however is a completely different story. Landing Dingle and/or Mgbako would go a longggg way in the grand scheme of things. But let’s wait until the ball clears the fence before we bat flip.

I’m looking forward to your apology tour 🤣

4 hours ago, HoosierDPU95 said:

Why would you think that was directed at you? If I was directing that at your comment I would have quoted you.

Chill man.

Because I am the one who said that very vocally while most all disagreed. Good thing is we don’t have that worry for any of these guys right now. IU competes well. 

7 hours ago, OGIUAndy said:

That would be a dream scenario, not sure how likely. If Woody and the crew pulled that off, colored me impressed. 

It will be those 2 or Mgbako and Dennis. Back up options for my there. That is the level of guys they want. 

I would put it over more likely than more likely not. Something I said in another thread, the competition here for these guys is not that hard. St Johns, Louisville (mess), Illinois, etc (I think Kansas is a no go. IU wins those match ups in all areas. 
 

always possible it doesn’t work out but I personally feel good about these final 2 being very good.

side note - I agree with IUFLA - I think too many are discounting chemistry, the need to not upset recruits or you also burn bridges with HS coaches, new recruits etc. I feel ok about it though because I don’t think Woody just promises things. The entire team will know it comes down to who practices the best. Look at how hard he was on Malik early on last year. He didn’t just play him. 

8 hours ago, IndyResident16 said:

Should be, no? I would assume the staff has aspirations of winning the B10. Staff is clearly targeting starting caliber guard/wings in the portal and just offered Mgbako.

Wait… so you tell me they are targeting talent and wings? So you are coming around. 😳

3 hours ago, RoadToZion said:

But based on your logic, he just followed players on St John’s. So he must be going there right? 

Based on your “insider” info you should already know the answer. 🤷‍♂️

7 hours ago, HoosierDPU95 said:

Don't forget about our crappy facilities 

Now you are taking a shot and twisting what I said.  Go read what I said again in detail. I stand by all of it.  That was in defense of the staff fyi 
 

but I liked and agree with the rest of the above because I said all that at same time at that time. More were coming, trust the staff, some have different needs etc. we are also not competing with certain schools on these ones which helps. 
 

much easier to beat out Louisville, Illinois, St John’s etc.  give it maybe 2 weeks and every person who questioned the staff will look really bad.  We just have to weather the next wave of “Walker, really, why? We need shooting and wings 🙄” 

Think this will happen. Think many are hearing different things and you have to piece it all together to get a good look. Once you do, IU is the one by far that makes sense here. All the rest have issue in one way or another in landing him. 

11 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

Crack Illini journalist Rees Woodcock thinks Dennis is an Illinois lock...

But I'm not sure ol' Rees is totally grounded in reality as he raves about recent Illini get Oregon transfer Quincy Guerrier "Look for Guerrier to start from day one and be dominant for the Orange and Blue."

Hey, Rees... Our Duck is bigger than yours 🙂

Maybe I ought to start writing puff pieces about IU under the pen name "Hershey Steelpecker."

😁

Yeah, well they are going to find out. At least make them sweat. 

funny thing is this might come down to who wants what and who do we want to allocate what to? 
Dingle - how high is he interested in IU and what does he want? Confident we know what Rayj wants. We were on him before he entered same as they were. They just seem to think because he grew up in ILL he is a lock. 

Knecht was CBed and locked to Oregon too 🤷‍♂️ 

13 minutes ago, slojoe said:

We seem to be going for (or maybe just getting) more bigs.  Wonder what the strategy is?  Maybe just get the best players we can regardless of position?  Maybe we are better set at wing/guard and don't necessarily need another.

He is not a “big” 

Now Rabby reporting the Rayj Dennis connection as well.  Hopefully he didn’t get that form me haha 

56 minutes ago, Hoosier987 said:

According to Rabjohns (take that as you will), Kansas is on the outside looking in, although you can NEVER count out Bill Self. 

Well… if Rabby has much left on being in the true loop then IU is the favorite. Louisville is a mess, agreed. Is even being quickly passed around that is the case and he is not likely to go there by some pretty in the know people 

This has Adidas written all over it. So St John’s is a no. 

5 minutes ago, Hoosier987 said:

TJD and JHS had big adidas NIL deals last year. I believe Dick from Kansas had one.

Yep, aware. That is why we have a shot with Mgbako and other people being debated in other threads haha

what I don’t know is the question I posed. How much do they love us? Do they play favorites or … you get the same dollars at any of those 3. You chose. Then it is up to us.

3 minutes ago, btownqb said:

Don't think UL is the competition here. 

If they are not then it is Kansas. I haven’t dug, what do they have open, coming back etc. 

7 minutes ago, Proud2BAHoosier said:

Is IU in on Catchings??

Last I read a few days ago was he was Purdue's.....

I don’t want to get into that again on here. Fully believe he is deeply looking at some options. We can debate on his thread but hard for me to follow all the sub threads. Hard to keep up. 

5 minutes ago, dwtaylor1055 said:

Currently following Mgbako in instagram are the following:

Ware, X, Trey, Adam Howard and Cupps. As well as Lenee Beaumont form the women's team.  

This all started Monday. The whole agent stuff etc. they are all in now. 
you have to see it both ways at this point. We are all in for sure and for us to become a visit when we were not even on radar last week means something got him very interested.

now, does anyone know how we fair with Adidas opposed to Louisville and Kansas. Would they favor us more? Or equal playing field and we fight it out? That is something I would never claim to have knowledge of (unlike social media and recruiting which I understand deeply 🤣) - considering we had 2 guys on a deal with them last year and they marketed well, that can’t hurt. 

29 minutes ago, MoyeCowbell said:

If I'm understanding what you're saying, Walker is locked in. That fills one of three spots.

Dingle, Dennis and Mgbako are next in line for the final two. Any insights on preferences from the staff and possible scheduling of visits?

Yes, they have wanted another big since DeLoach and a few said we moved on after Ware. No, they still wanted him but he wanted more than they would sign up for. Minutes, money etc. Georgia gave him that even when his old coach at PSU wouldnt. Walker doesn’t want that. He knows what his role will be and came here planning to commit. 

I think the challenge on the other 3 and other potential options out there is it comes down to timing. For example, they may prefer Dingle and they were waiting for that but in meantime, they have went hard at Dennis. I think some of that choice will come down to money expectations. They know they have to play there but also know it is not possible to max out each guy. So, maybe you like one a little more but he wants less and you take him. If that makes sense. Some of that is purely my opinion while using different facts to connect those opinions. 

Mgbako is full go. They want him.

17 minutes ago, btownqb said:

Not really, to me. He avged 10mpg on a F4 team. It is QUITE clear JG does not have that capability. 

It is debatable but what did it for me was watching his film. He does things JG could never do.

I also think the staff was fine with JG maybe staying for this exact role but he felt he could end up better. Might have miscalculated (that is purely my opinion fyi)

14 minutes ago, Indykev said:

There won't be any spots left for Kanon.

Possible… and this is where is gets fun. If he really only wanted to re-class we now have the ability to put pressure on people to decide. 

but if he wants to stay 2024 and get a shoe deal, then it would still be IU. He isn’t getting that at Purdue 

we will see but again, I think the amount of talent options should make many relax but I know some won’t until ink is dry. 

Funny thing to me is we won’t have room for all these guys when so many were flipping just a week ago and how Woody ruined portal season with his knee surgery. 
 

some need to let go of the trauma for Archie and believe in this staff more. 

11 minutes ago, btownqb said:

I'm not trying to be rude, but this gave me nothing. 

Because if I go into all the details, I will have to deal with the likes of the grand know it alls like Zion. Done with being laughed at for trying to share legit information and from people who have no idea how this works now. Came to this forum to share as a fan and is work at this point.  

if he bites, he bites but they are making a full court press when many assume he is a lock for Illinois.

10 minutes ago, btownqb said:

Duke nor St Johns are Adidas? 

Aware, it changed and he now is hooked in there.