IUJoe

Yes. Stevens has only had one wife. I’m not new here, haha.

I wasn’t told anything about a family vote. What I was told was obviously from the IU side. But if the detail of what was shared with me was just Stevens playing games with IU, I certainly hope IU isn’t dumb enough to still have his phone number.

I understand what they told you. None of us are Brad Stevens so we don’t know what he was thinking. It’s certainly possible he threw a number out that he thought IU couldn’t meet just to play games, and IU met it. I tend to doubt that, though.

I’ve heard the same thing, same numbers, from someone else. Was told a big chunk of it would have come from a donor and IU thought they had him.

Wow!

Yes, the ending was disappointing. But the year before (which you also listed) we were in the NIT and something like 7-11 in the Big 10. So 85-86 was actually a really good bounce back season despite the Richmond loss. I’d compare the feeling of 85-86 to that of Woodson’s first season.

85-86 was my freshman year of college. We finished second in the Big 10 in a race that came down to the final game at Michigan.

Columbia City has been knocked out of the girls tournament, falling to Homestead 57-49 tonight on their home court in the sectional championship.

I think the way Purdue is officiated goes way back to the ‘80s with Gene Keady. He started bringing guys like Jim Rowinski in, putting them in the weight room, and having them go on the court and play like a snow plow. Every time the officials would call a foul, Keady would run up and down the sideline screaming “that’s bullshit” and before long the officials started backing down, and thus Purdue “established that’s the way they play.” Likely also the reason Keady never did squat in the tournament.

Remember that year well even though I was still a kid. Yes, even though 4 starters had graduated, the 76-77 team had talent. It was pre-season #5 in the country. It was a shocking season after 2 undefeated regular seasons, for sure.

Sure. I miss everybody here calling him Clappy and bashing his hair, his tan, his pants, and what and how much he drinks during games. Fun times.

What does that get him this year? Does he get an extra win or 2 in the standings? I guess I just don’t get what a FF 5 years ago means if I am evaluating what kind of success a coach is going to have now and in the foreseeable future. The game and the recruiting landscape has changed a lot in the past 5 years and, quite frankly, Izzo has had more scandals than successes in his program since 2019.

To be honest, I’ve never understood the rationale that a coach should be given “leeway” for sucking now because he was good 15-20 years ago. What he did before has no bearing on now.

He gets more attention by starting a new thread.

I think your comparison to Alabama is spot on. Of course at some point we have to find our Nick Saban.

Our elbow-throwing technique.

Well, it’s hard to buy wins unless you pay the refs, lol. As far as paying for the means to get wins, there are a lot of different and sometimes wild opinions about how to do that, even among people with money.

While I'm far from super rich, the few that I've known generally love to use their money to get what they want.

Yes. He's on everybody's list that wants to fire their coach. Browse around the Internet a little bit and you'll see. My apologies for making this a Dusty May thread with my joke, but while we're on the subject, I want to address the notion that Dusty May is probably no different than Crean or Archie, because more than a few people have made that comment. If you believe that, I invite you to do some research: Look at Marquette's program, both its long history and the 5-10 years before Crean got there and see if you think Crean really elevated the program, or just maintained it. Then do the same thing with Dayton, both its long history and the 5-10 years before Archie got there. Finally, do the same thing with Florida Atlantic and see if Dusty May elevated the program. If it doesn't hit you then that one is totally different than the other two, I guess I don't know what to tell you.

Don’t be surprised if Dusty is the most proven performer who will take the job. And since I posted it the thread, albeit jokingly, I’ll answer the question. I want to see honest effort from the players. I want to see blocking out and rebounding, defense for 40 minutes, and going after loose balls. That at least gets us to mid-March. If and when I see that, it will help me decide what I want to see from mid-March to May.

Do you mean the month, or Dusty? (lol)

I get that, but I hope the staff has multiple backup plans in place. I hope the staff remembers that their perspective as to what kids are going to do 5 months in the future hasn't necessarily matched what has actually ended up happening. And that's not a knock on the staff, it's just reality. Nobody can sit here and say with anywhere near 100% certainty what a kid is going to decide 5 months from now.

That’s exactly why nobody knows. And that is actually true.

I remember hearing that year after year about TJD. Nobody knew then; nobody knows now.

I’ve seen many of their games. They are legitimately as good as their ranking. Michigan, Penn State, and Nebraska are all good teams. Women’s basketball, though, has a lot less parity than men’s basketball. The “top level” has fewer teams and there is more separation between them and the rest of the field. We were maybe close to that level last year, at least for a while. This year? We’re certainly good enough to make the Sweet 16, maybe Elite 8 depending on our draw. But we are, at least right now, not on South Carolina’s level.