go_iu_bb

I don't know about all the teams but I did see that Michigan has 2 bigs coming in. 6'8" and 6'10". Both 5*.

Situations like Matt Cross will be the exceptions, I think. I remember his exact circumstances but I do recall that he went from big minutes to benched with little to no PT or suspended or something like that. So it seems like he got in trouble or had a falling out with the staff and/or his team. As for the others, this year was an odd one. I just don't think we'll continue to see players leave in the middle of the year. The way it was before, the sooner they left the sooner they could play again. That was the incentive to leave at the end of the fall semester, for example. That's no longer the case. Now they can leave in November or wait until March and either way they'll be able to play with their new team for the whole next season. So not only is there no incentive to leave early, they'd lose playing time they could've had at their current team. Like I said, I could be wrong as people don't always do what makes sense. I just think that 99% of the players will enter the portal in March and April most years. I will say that next year might be another odd one since the large majority of the incoming freshmen didn't get to make visits and meet their future coaching staff and teammates in person. So their might be some players who are so unhappy that they'd rather not play at a new school for 1/2 the season rather than stay.

I still think mid-season transfers will happen only in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Before now players usually did that so that they would be able to play part of the next season with their new team. Now it doesn't work that way. If a player transfers in December they'll be able to play at the start of the next season but they will lose the rest of the current season. So there's not any incentive to leave early. I could be wrong. It just wouldn't make and sense for them to leave early but people will be people

They can enter the portal and transfer at any time but to be immediately eligible they will have to do so before May 1 (June 1 this year). So March and April every year will be crazy but other than those months it'll probably be pretty quiet with regards to players entering the portal. Mid-season transfers will probably become non-existent except for special cases.

Well, in that case, a guaranteed approval of their application for an extra year. Better? They're guaranteed to be able to play 2 more seasons of college ball if they want to.

Eligibility-wise this team has no seniors so everyone has 2+ seasons left they can play. Since this past season didn't consume eligibility, they would receive that extra year. That said, TJD will be gone. We're lucky he was able to be convinced to come back for next year. XJ and Thompson will have played 4 seasons of college ball and decide that is enough. Others may transfer for various reasons. So there could be a lot of turnover but right now, just looking at eligibility, the roster for next year is full.

I agree that it appears that is the way things are heading. I also wouldn't be surprised if P5 coaches discuss the free transfer with the athletes to get their foot in the door if the player does well then decides to transfer in the future. Something like, "We can't take you now but if play well and decide to transfer down the line, we would be interested." Or if they don't say that, they might try to maintain a relationships with the player and/or his family. Low- and mid-majors will become the development leagues and testing grounds for lower ranked recruits.

There have been talk that he's headed to Kentucky. This was before he entered the portal.

Yeah, TJD is most likely gone but that's been said for the last 2 years and he's still returning next year. I think the staff should (and probably will) recruit as though he's leaving but that still leaves 3 scholarships max at this point. None of the others are good enough to go pro right now so unless they're resigned to playing overseas or just want to get on with their non-playing careers will use that last year. I wouldn't take quotes about "final year" too literally. I wouldn't be surprised if just hasn't really set in yet that last season didn't count as far as eligibility is concerned. Or maybe he's just hoping to have such a great season that he'll be in the draft next year. Maybe both. My point is that I don't count them as gone until it's official or at least obvious that they are. The coaching staff should have a better feel for that than I. I just think that Smith is on the outside looking in as far as scholarship offer from IU go. Which is too bad because he sounds like someone you want on your team. Time will tell.

It's quite likely that the extra year of eligibility plus the change to the transfer portal will hurt the recruitment of players like this. Right now IU doesn't have a lot of scholarships to hand out for this class. They currently have 2 open and no seniors as far as eligibility is concerned. Depending on who they use those 2 scholarships on this year (or if they don't use them), they'll have 0-2 scholarships available for the '22 class. There will probably be transfers out of the program but that is hard to plan for. Will the coaching staff take the Crean approach and over-sign or will they wait for the spring and just try to replace though the portal? Either way, I think only the top candidates get scholarship offers from IU and, while he sounds like a solid player, I don't think that includes Smith.

Did Rosemond recruit Lewis to Alabama? Edit: I just saw he was not the lead recruiter there.

Woodson hasn't even coached a single game and we're already talking about the next head coach...

I was 2 his senior year so I don't.

I noticed that as well. I think it may have been because Durham was leaving no matter what while Franklin considered staying but ultimately left. So, in a sense, he lost Franklin but not Durham. That's how I took it, at least.

I guess one good thing about having a coach who has never coached in college before is that he won't have to relearn recruiting and try to unlearn the old ways.

Holding in football is cheating, that's why they get penalized for doing it. It's just a form of cheating that is considered acceptable. The rules say, "don't hold." They do it anyways to gain an advantage over their opponent knowing the whole time that it's not legal but hoping they don't get caught. It's not bad enough cheating that the player deserves to be kicked out of the game or have the team forfeit the game or anything like that but it's still cheating. You can view it as cheating "only a little bit" or "kind of" cheating if that helps.

I knew it! You're secretly a Purdue fan! 😁

I saw somewhere, maybe BTB, that one of his strengths is improving players' shooting.

From a recent interview with Larry Brown it sounds like he won't work for IU in any capacity. It also sounded like he will be around (as in Bloomington hanging out with Woodson and the team) a lot and is open to Woodson calling him for help.

That pretty much matches my thoughts. Second best to that (although this would be a big step down from that) would be a skill development specialist from the college ranks who has a long list of players he either helped put into the league with examples of exactly how he helped them.

At the moment it is temporary but that will likely change. The NCAA will vote to implement a permanent 1 time transfer waiver rule. They were supposed to vote on this, along with the NIL rules, last spring but punted. The transfer rule is expected to pass. Whether it will be a clean slate as far as the waiver is concerned when the rule passes or if the players who transfer this year will no longer be eligible for another waiver remains to be seen. So the transfer market will remain a big deal but might not be quite as crazy as this year. As for Braden, I wonder what Woodson's thoughts are on him. Since he can't comment I guess we'll find out depending on whether he gets and offer or not. He is an intriguing player but the high majors might just start using low and mid majors as their development leagues for players like him who could be viewed as a risk of a wasted scholarship.

Not even that good of a fantasy to be honest. I wouldn't mind if he ends up at IU but I'm certainly not pining for him.

Someone jokingly said that since there hasn't been news we should start b!tching at each other again. Looks like some of you took that seriously. 🙄

Brooks only hits ~20% from three and that "maybe" there is the key word regarding him even being at IU next season. 26% freshman year and 21% last year compared to 20% for Thompson last year. More of an outside threat than Thompson, sure, but not by much.

I make that dip, too. It's good stuff.