IUALUM03

The Pacers have easily been one of the highest performing organizations in the last 30 years championships aside. The problem with the Pacers is they try to do it the right way without tanking (don't even get me started on the lottery system. Fully believe they should do a playoff with the worst 8 teams for a shot at the #1 pick). Have they had their hiccups...of course, but ultimately it is one of the more consistent, better run teams in the league, despite being in a small market.

Yeah, I haven't got that impression on Hill, but could just not be around the right people, although in general there are always those fans, so doesn't surprise me.

Still love Rob. Bummed he was never able to get out of his own head, but also glad he got his moment before leaving.

Oladipo...yes, Hill no. For VO, he did it to himself. He was brought in and given a stage for which he excelled, only to turn his back on the organization and do it in a manner that was unprofessional and disrespectful to Indy. He did however end up giving the Pacers/city a gift by not accepting their offer in hindsight.

The more I look at prospects, the more I want the Pacers to select Bilal Coulibaly. I think he has all the potential to be a great player in the league and fills our need of a wing. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2023-nba-draft-victor-wembanyamas-teammate-bilal-coulibaly-is-the-best-prospect-you-know-nothing-about/

I found this interesting as well and surprising. Would like to know how we have grown our budget and revenue so much over last half-decade.

Our apparel is terrible from Adidas. I can't tell you how many times I have seen players, coaches, etc. wearing something that looks nice only to find out it is not available to the general public. I really think whomever handles our licensing needs to do better, whether it is the throwback stuff or what is put out by Adidas. A soccer jersey seems like a no brainer as an example, but there are so many more creative things they could do with our stuff. It is often just bland and cheap looking. I am constantly jealous of other programs, even Adidas sponsored.

This has been stressed time and time again, but don't downplay the research dollars involved on the academic side. That is why academic schools like Stanford, Duke, John Hopkins (B1G) lacrosse are attractive beyond just their brand and football. We are literally talking billions of dollars shared among research institutions, who often partner with other universities.

The same reason we think players from xyz mid-tier college should want to play at IU for men's basketball...the history, the fans, etc. My niece played softball at IU and graduated recently. She loved her time there, but if a traditional powerhouse would have been open to her, I am pretty sure she would have went. When it comes to softball, just like baseball, the warm weather schools are king. Competitors want to not only play for, with, and against the best, they also want to play in front of fans, etc. For the most part in women's sports (sans basketball), college athletics is the pinnacle of their sports career. Midwest schools in softball and baseball, still spend lots of the early part of the season traveling due to weather (which I why I have always felt the seasons should be pushed back).

My guess is her options have opened up to more established programs. Just a guess.

My only critique from the game is we could have been a bit more selective on our bats. I felt too often they were going up their swinging away. Also, a few times, when the count was in our favor, we sat on what was often a meatball down the middle. This is what prevented us from converting runners on base to runs.

What was the UK coach yapping about?

I think the transfer portal has eliminated the inability to rebound from losing people to the draft/one and done's. The problem with Calipari and Kentucky is he has never really went to the transfer portal model in balance with pulling the best high school kids with balance. He rode the one and done train for too long and the transfer portal in conjunction with NIL leveled the playing field and may have even beat him.

Growth in both Austin and San Antonio are slowly bleeding into each other. They are an hour away. Eventually, it will turn into a megalopolis. Agree with San Antonio for most part, but he wouldn't need to spend his time anywhere else and I feel most players don't spend their off seasons in the places they play, unless it's Miami, LA, or New York.

Duke doesn't have K anymore. The idea they are contenders every years with a first time head coach is laughable. It could be argued they very much underperformed last year, even with some of the injuries. A few more seasons and reality will set it. Scheyer is not K.

There it is. Might as well post this comment over the entire recruiting forum. Also, sort of ironic making this comment in the thread lol.

The northern burbs focus on urbanization has definitely hurt Indy in the short-term. Lots of the great restaurants that would have opened downtown previously seem to pop up there.

I am sorry to hear that, but in the end it is a city. Unfortunately these things happen. More often than not most of the murders/shootings are not random acts of violence, but people caught up in bad stuff killing other people caught up in bad stuff. Shootings, guns, violence is happening everywhere, including the burbs nowadays, but of course they are going to happen more in population centers. The only thing depressing is the lack of vibrancy that came with people working from an office versus home. Unfortunately, with that transition, some business have not been able to make it out, but have definitely seen downtown slowly recovering from the pandemic. It's not there yet and won't be for a while, but it will get there.

I live and work downtown. This is a gross exaggeration and built off a talking point that more and more suburban people are latching on to. Is it perfect and did the pandemic give it a hit? Absolutely, but this sentiment that it is a scene from mad max or you can walk without being endangered is tired and untrue. Fear mongering at its finest.

This is them trying to created viability where other conferences have not gone. It reeks of desperation, but don't see how this makes sense. I am not going to watch a game in the US for a third tier soccer team from Europe, so not sure how much interest there can really be. With that being said, ND did do a football game in Dublin, but there was a connection with the who Irish thing.

I hear you to some extent, although there was that whole FBI investigation thing that seems to have gone nowhere, but was related to this very topic.

Just wait, eventually some of these kids are going to get audited and it will be found taxes weren't paid. While everything is on the up and up now regarding paying athletes, you know there is still some backdoor stuff happening with money and Uncle Sam aren't getting theirs. When this happens, that is when you will see D.C. get involved and this becomes more regulated.

Curious to see if NBC getting some rights to B1G games will help or hurt our cause with Notre Dame. The word prior was NBC was looking to add some games to either lead into or run post weekly ND game.