FKIM01

Great stuff...brought a tear to my eye at the end.

Ol' "Hide the Italian Sausage" has been busy lately!

Boogie sees daylight! 😜

Eh, I'd respectfully disagree...maybe more on the substance than the style as I get that Cal sells a good story to recruits. Personally, I see Cal's pitch as a bit of fools gold. At least most of the players Cal has gotten to the NBA, an average college coach could have likely got them there as well. Then there's the Harrison twins and the Skal Labissiere disasters (among others) where highly ranked recruits clearly underperformed expectations. Where Cal excels is selling the dream. That and a lot of illicit benefits has gotten him the talent to appear successful in getting kids to the NBA. I'd argue that if he had average RECRUITING success, his NBA track record would likewise be average. His foray into the NBA was by most standards, poor. A little over two seasons as head coach with less than a 40% win record. Conversely, Mike Woodson's last head coaching job in the NBA produced a 58% win record and he has nine years head coaching experience. That's not even considering Woodson's successful NBA PLAYING career. Maybe recruits don't see much daylight between them, but if they don't, I'd argue they haven't done their homework. Aside from creating a slick recruiting machine at UK, I'm not overly impressed by what Cal has done with all the talent he's been able to amass and there's a significant portion of the Kentucky fanbase that would readily agree with that assessment. I could see more recruits coming to this conclusion as the evidence piles up, and now that the playing field is much more even, there's going to be a lot more pressure on Cal to get the kind of talent he needs to win games. It's pretty hard for me to get past the fact that Cal cheated, and cheated and cheated to get the players he needed to be successful. He's the guy who showed the path to the Will Wades of the basketball world and it's nice to see Cal now having to actually work for recruits rather than just be the high bidder.

One thing I keep coming back to...and it has to be important to players with NBA aspirations... No one Woody competes with for recruits has had the level of success as a player and as a coach in the NBA that Woody has. Calipari, Self and Scheyer may pitch "I can get you to the NBA", but Woody can pitch, "Not only can I get you to the NBA, but I've also experienced enough to know what it takes to succeed and stay once you are there." None of the guys Woody is competing with can say that. Howard is the closest, but he never had an NBA head coaching gig and the product he's putting on the floor at Michigan is not all that inspiring unless you want to be a professional slap fighter.

I think a lot of these players are going to simply identify more with Woody than they will with coaches like Self and Calipari now that he's shown he can coach and develop on a high level. There's a reason schools take chances on the likes of Patrick Ewing and Penny Hardaway. The big difference is, Woodson can coach. When he beats Self and Calipari on the floor, the dam will break and the 💡 will come on for a lot of these national writers (Goodman, I'm talking to you).

...and I think they're 100% guessing based on past history. Eventually these guys will figure out that IU is going to get players that UK and Kansas really want.

I think that's old news.

I see your argument and counter with... ...a seasoned developer and leader of men... ...a generous financial aid package... ...and a supportive fanbase...

While I don't recall participating in the prayer vigil for Moses Abraham, I still can't help but feel slightly embarrassed every time I see that candle reference.

...and for anyone thinking Tipton knows, I doubt it. A savvy recruit asks Tipton to make an edit for both schools.

In my limited observation, I think you hit a lot right on the head. I'm not a basketball technician, but I'm pretty good at spotting driven, hard-working people and I never saw that with Romeo. It's a shame because I think he had talent. In the end, looking back, it just doesn't feel like he cared enough to develop it.

What do you think went wrong? Was he simply overrated?

Captain Underpants strikes again!!!

Easy call for me...

Two baby carrots?

He's a big boy and you need that in the Big Ten. I'd love to see IU get him but I'm a little more jazzed over McNeeley who can really shoot.

McNeeley had 16 and looked pretty good on a team of superstars. Can shoot from the outside and hits free throws. Me likey.

That's just an insane amount of talent on that team. Makes me vomit thinking Flagg is a Duke lock. Kid literally hasn't missed from the field yet.

Man, I am loving McNeeley's stroke from outside...

"He's the second coming of Larry Bird." - FKIM01 - Hoosier Sports Nation

Kinda hard to take this seriously when (1) Illinois and Iowa are both missing a conference game and (2) Many of the teams in question don't even remotely resemble last year's version. These numbers are about as irrelevant as they can be before any of these teams have played a single minute this season. If IU finishes 9th in the Big Ten, IU fan forums will have a complete meltdown.

Thanks...I'm cracking up here...

I'd make sure every time IU goes up against Kansas, the recruit sees that super-lame Hunter Dickinson announcement video.