BGleas

The ratings are higher because more people watch it, hence it's more popular. Many regular season college basketball games literally get a 0.0 to 0.1 TV rating.

To piggyback off your post, people need to step outside of their bubble in this discussion. It's not about your immediate circle of 5 friends or the couple neighbors you have a beer with after mowing the lawn. The NBA is vastly more popular than college basketball. Millions of people watch the NCAA Tournament, but hardly anyone watches regular season college basketball. It barely registers in the TV ratings. The general sports fan, or even the general basketball fan, doesn't know who the players in college basketball are. Most general fans will recognize very few names if they were to watch the NBA Draft. Nobody in Lithuania cares about the Gavitt Games or any college basketball. The NBA is massive on a global scale. People all over the world know who the NBA players are. NBA players get mobbed when they go abroad. Do you think anyone in a foreign country would even know who Trayce Jackson Davis is? The Final Four does do similar TV numbers to the NBA Finals, but again the regular college basketball season barely registers. Even popular, well-known sports reporters acknowledge that they don't watch college basketball until late February.

I hear what you're saying, but the numbers bear it out. The NBA is immensely more popular than college basketball, and it's not really even close. That wasn't really the point in particular to Stevens, I was just addressing BornHoosier's statement that if Stevens won a NBA title that nobody would care about it. Way more people care about the NBA than college basketball...like in the tens millions of people.

Agree. I actually think lack of athleticism has been a much larger issue the last 4 years than having too many athletes. Who are all of these ultra-athletes that IU has had? Phinisee isn't that athletic, Galloway isn't, Leal isn't, Hunter isn't, Race isn't, Durham isn't, etc., etc. IU hasn't had a super athletic wing since maybe Troy Williams. I'm not sure where this narrative I've seen posted a lot recently came from that IU needs "basketball players not athletes"? We haven't been a very athletic team in about 5 years when we had Bryant and OG.

I didn't mean odd in terms of it's reasoning or why it's incorporated, just in how it looks on a uniform.

Love it! Love the script "Bloomington" and while the quarry thing is a little odd, I think along with the "Bloomington" it makes it unique and something that players will really like.

More people care about the NBA than college basketball, and it's not really even close. The main stream sports fan does not care about college basketball. Even the majority of sports media openly admits that they don't even watch college basketball until the tournament. Brad Stevens is at the pinnacle of his profession coaching one of the most iconic sports brands in the world. I love IU basketball, and even as a Celtics fan and former employee I was hoping Stevens would come to IU, but with that said Brad Stevens doesn't owe IU or IU fans anything. He made the decision that was best for him, and frankly the decision that 99% of the coaches in his position would have also made.

Getting ready to watch the Celtics on ESPN. Langford is starting with both Jaylen Brown and Kemba out. Will be interesting to see with two scorers out if Langford gets more involved.

We actually traded back to #3. Knew the Lakers were locked into Lonzo at #2.

I really hope fans are allowed back next season. TJD deserves to go out with a season full of packed houses. Health and safety #1 of course.

Solid pick up! Side note, is he wearing Phinisee's number in that mockup of him in an IU jersey?

Still so weird watching Romeo Langford with the Celtics, he's basically a defensive specialist (and a really good one) that basically runs away from the ball on offense. Just shows you how hard it is to play in the NBA. This guy is one of the most prolific scorers in Indiana history and averaged 18ppg in the Big Ten as a freshmen, and in the NBA he barely even looks to score. Don't get me wrong, he's valuable to the Celtics and playing an important defensive role, its just so weird on the offensive end.

Maybe, we'll see if he has the chops. Certainly the narrative of his demise in Boston was premature.

Celtics are 8-3 over their last 11 with wins over Milwaukee, New York, Charlotte, Denver and Portland. Not a murders row, but all current playoff teams. Its been huge to have Tristan Thompson and Langford back (6-1 since Langford returned), and this has been done without Fourier. I'm not claiming they're a title team, and I'm sure there will still be bumps in the road, but I was always confident most of their issues were injury and covid related.

Just looked it up, Oates literally recruited over him by accepting a Spring 2021 PF as well as two transfers. Before this kid decommitted, Bama was 2 scholarships over the limit after accepting 3 players this Spring.

So what? If we're recruiting at a high level and winning, and he's kept in line, who cares about suspicion?

I'm fine with IU doing whatever the majority of their peers that consistently compete for conference titles, high rankings and deep tournament runs do.

I'm ok with this, assuming we're finally operating like a major college basketball program. All this FBI stuff and nothing really happened. A few assistants got fired. Bruce Pearl is still at Auburn, Will Wade is still at LSU, Bill Self just got a lifetime contract, Sean Miller only got fired because of losing, UNC completely got away with 20 years of fake classes, nobody ever even looked at Coach K, Cal or Oregon. Time to recruit talent, develop players and win games with the top programs in college basketball.

I don’t care who Woodson hires as the 3rd assistant, just recruit talent, develop players and win games!

Could be. I hope so. I do think we still need at least one more guard/wing. Xavier and Stewart are great additions to Franklin, but it loses a tad of luster when they're basically replacing Franklin and Durham. Obviously, I'd hope/expect Lander, Phinisee, Galloway, Geronimo, and Leal to improve, but we need one more sure thing on the wing.

Honestly, that's kind of my thought too. I want to be very careful to not disparage Franklin as he seems like a great kid. But again, this just seems odd.

I'll be honest, this one is a bummer. Franklin is obviously allowed to make his own choice and he hasn't done anything wrong at all. I wish him well, though I won't be rooting for him or anything, he'll just be any other player. I just think it's weird that every other player came back (we knew Al was leaving all along), and every other in-state kid especially came back. It's just odd to me to have all of your teammates, again especially the in-state ones, profess their desire to bring IU back and their belief in Woodson, and then just have one guy bail. And, it's a guy that got a ton of playing time and the fans loved. So again, no ill will and I wish him well, and he has every right to make this choice, it just seems odd to me. I would more understand a guy like Geronimo wanting to get closer to home or even Race wanting to go to the school his dad and brother went to, but it just seems really off to me that an Indiana kid chose to leave when all of his teammates are staying.

I posted this before, but this is where it is weird for Franklin IMO. Everyone has to make the best decision for themselves personally, and I hate to separate the team by in-state vs out of state, but how does Franklin leave when TJD, Phinisee, Lander, Leal and Galloway are all staying. If Franklin leaves he would be the only kid from Indiana to leave. That's probably not the best way to look at it, but if he's participating in team activities with these guys currently, it just seems like it would be weird to leave at this point.

Not worried about the Celtics. This is a throw away year. They've been hit with injuries and Covid as much as anyone. I honestly can't remember the last time Tristan Thompson played because of Covid protocols. Fournier is out again because of protocols. Tatum missed time having Covid, and Brown, Kemba and Smart have all missed time with injuries. It's just one of those years. It happens.