Transfers with IU Interest

[BADGERVOL]

20 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I am one of the older generation who has seen the greatness of IU basketball. Part of the problem is our expectations are still the same as when we had one of the greatest coaches of all time.  College basketball world is a lot different and today's kids has way more options than the kids of the 70's and 80's did.  Recruiting was more regional back then and RMK could pretty much get the best players from Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Today those kids will look at the whole country as possibilities over just their region.

 

 

The region has more than enough to take care of a historic program, with a gorgeous campus, solid facilities, etc. there’s enough here to sell if the right coach is selling it. There are programs that has certain perks that have faded away (Notre Dame used to get any too Catholic in America for example, Nebraska had a system under Osborne that fit perfectly with the beef fed giant linemen that locally they’d develop. The option doesn’t work really anymore.)

IU is different. IU is more like when Bama was down in the 90s in football. They were a sleeping giant because they had plenty of talent around them and a historic program to sell. They filtered through coaches until they found Saban. But they’ll be good after him also because the fanbase, facilities and history support it. It can be sold. So can LSU, USC, etc in football.

IU might not get back to to as many conference titles in a 20+ year stretch as under Knight. But it is one that can yearly be in the top 5-15 and fighting for Final Fours and BTT’s annually.

If Crean of all people could get us to where he did as such a below average coach, there’s a coach out there that can do a heck of a lot better then he did at IU.

[DC2345]

23 minutes ago, Artesian_86 said:

😉

Nothing really. Just that guys will continue to transfer up until the portal closes.

[BADGERVOL]

Just now, tdhoosier said:

Sports fans are the biggest a-holes that exist. They don’t see things objectively, their expectations aren’t realistic, they say stupid crap in the heat of the moment and they place blame anywhere they can assign it.  

Every fanbase that I’m a part of has these fans. Every one. Our fanbase is just bigger, thus it’s magnified. UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, etc. all deal with this to varying degrees. 

My UT Volunteer fanbase is as nuts as any in the country. We struggled so similarly to IU in respective sports with similar all time tradition and expectations.

Their fanbase and boosters refused to give up on the expectations and kept pushing thru coach after coach and poor department management. And it APPEARS they’ve finally found their man who can get them there.

IU will never get there if the fanbase lowers expectations. That’s when it’ll be over. IU fans must stay full blown demanding to get us back. Period.

[IUFLA]

11 minutes ago, tdhoosier said:

they say stupid crap in the heat of the moment

Just visit a game thread sometime to see this in hyper-action... 

[Kdug]

8 hours ago, IU247 said:

Bingo. 

Big ten HQ does not care How it’s basketball program looks. 
 

its officiated like a game of prison/tackle basketball. They have failed to have a team make a successful run in march madness in years. And thats off the top of my head. 
 

short of either the suits at b10 HQ pulling their head out of their ass and realizing their basketball program has an officiating and image problem there is not much IU can do, short of pulling a UCLA and moving to the pac12 or something 

To be fair, Tennessee plays more of a big ten style of basketball than most big ten schools. So if that really was a reason for Ledlum not choosing IU, he must not understand UT basketball.

[btownqb]

5 minutes ago, Kdug said:

To be fair, Tennessee plays more of a big ten style of basketball than most big ten schools. So if that really was a reason for Ledlum not choosing IU, he must not understand UT basketball.

GREAT POINT!! 

[btownqb]

25 minutes ago, BADGERVOL said:

My UT Volunteer fanbase is as nuts as any in the country. We struggled so similarly to IU in respective sports with similar all time tradition and expectations.

Their fanbase and boosters refused to give up on the expectations and kept pushing thru coach after coach and poor department management. And it APPEARS they’ve finally found their man who can get them there.

IU will never get there if the fanbase lowers expectations. That’s when it’ll be over. IU fans must stay full blown demanding to get us back. Period.

Oh I agree, but... the most important part of any program is the players that make up that program, the past, present, and future players trump the fans in spades. 

The Tennessee fanbase can for sure be toxic, but my lord do they bring it in support of their sports, across the board. 

Sidenote-- really like Thompson-Boling Arena 

[Kdug]

10 hours ago, IUfaninIllinois said:

What current options? Besides Cleveland I don’t see another option worth exploring. I think we wait until more players come out of the portal.

Are you wondering players who have confirmed IU interest/contact? That I don't know.

If you're just wondering players that could be fits, there are a lot. Just to name a few wings who were productive and can shoot: Aaron Estrada, Noah Thompson, Greg Dolan, Charles Pride, Max Shulga, Andrei Savrasov, RaeQuan Battle, Latrell Wrightsell Jr, Dawson Baker, Le'Tre Darthard, Eli Lawrence, Wheza Panzo, Will Johnston, Jaylon Tyson (my personal favorite), Cormac Ryan, Chance McMillian and more.

[IUProfessor]

Seems like the Hunter Sallis recruitment has been quiet. I'd think he'd be another great buy-low candidate that could burnish Woody's development credentials if he could rebuild his stock and get him to the league. Definitely worth a flyer at this point in my view, unless there are personality concerns.

[BobSaccamanno]

23 minutes ago, Kdug said:

Are you wondering players who have confirmed IU interest/contact? That I don't know.

If you're just wondering players that could be fits, there are a lot. Just to name a few wings who were productive and can shoot: Aaron Estrada, Noah Thompson, Greg Dolan, Charles Pride, Max Shulga, Andrei Savrasov, RaeQuan Battle, Latrell Wrightsell Jr, Dawson Baker, Le'Tre Darthard, Eli Lawrence, Wheza Panzo, Will Johnston, Jaylon Tyson (my personal favorite), Cormac Ryan, Chance McMillian and more.

@Indykev saw that the coaches’ cars were still at the office the other day at 9 pm, working hard.   They are probably poring over all of these guys and making calls.  
 

Edited April 20, 2023 by BobSaccamanno

[Zuckerkorn]

11 hours ago, BGleas said:

Yup, and we need bucket getters way more then we need sharpshooters. 

Call 'em whatever you want - sharpshooters, creators, or magicians.  All I know is we lost the lion's share of our offense from last season (and really weren't a high-pwered offense then).  It has to be made up for somehow. I'd guess Kopp, Thompson, and Bates accounted for a huge chunk of our 3-pt makes.  We need some threat from outside to keep defenders "honest".

Freshman major contributors are rare.  Hoping a returning player makes huge strides is a bit of a gamble.  The portal is a prime resource for bolstering areas of need and has thus far failed to bear fruit for us in the much needed area of scoring.

There's time left for sure and the roster is still a work in progress but feeling no concern or sense of urgency seems like "whistling past the graveyard".

[IU Scott]

1 hour ago, IUFLA said:

And I think saying we're "part of the problem" is absolute bullshit...

Just keep sticking your head in the ground then. 

You believe what you want and zI will believe what I want

[Hoosier987]

I see several comments along the lines of “if he didn’t want to be an Indiana Hoosier then he isn’t for us.” Maybe for some, you generally feel that way, maybe for others it’s a coping mechanism on a lost recruit who we prioritized. For me, it’s simple. I want a consistent winning program like I think we all do. I’d rather have a group of “one or two and done” players that don’t necessarily care to be an Indiana Hoosier but are here to learn the game, represent our university well and compete for a national title than mediocre players who love Indiana but lead us to the NIT. 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Hoosier987

[BGleas]

17 minutes ago, Zuckerkorn said:

Call 'em whatever you want - sharpshooters, creators, or magicians.  All I know is we lost the lion's share of our offense from last season (and really weren't a high-pwered offense then).  It has to be made up for somehow. I'd guess Kopp, Thompson, and Bates accounted for a huge chunk of our 3-pt makes.  We need some threat from outside to keep defenders "honest".

Freshman major contributors are rare.  Hoping a returning player makes huge strides is a bit of a gamble.  The portal is a prime resource for bolstering areas of need and has thus far failed to bear fruit for us in the much needed area of scoring.

There's time left for sure and the roster is still a work in progress but feeling no concern or sense of urgency seems like "whistling past the graveyard".

Not to get into some positional back and forth, but there is a difference between a sharpshooter and bucket-getters/creators, especially with this fanbase. 

When many Indiana fans say "sharpshooter" they're thinking of a certain type of player. Guys like Matt Roth and Nick Zeisloft for example. Would I take those guys? Sure. But that's not the biggest need. I love Zeisloft in his two years at IU, but a Zeisloft is easy to guard when he's not surrounded by guys like Yogi, Thomas Bryant, Troy Williams, Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr. 

The biggest need on this roster right now are guards/wings that are three-level scorers that can create, beat guys off the dribble and finish or create, and make things happen. Not spot up 3pt shooters and that is the distinction I was drawing. 

Agree on the freshmen point, we have solid young players, we need proven guys to add to the roster at this point. 

[rico]

25 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Just keep sticking your head in the ground then. 

You believe what you want and zI will believe what I want

You keep believing it Scott. However I could do without your preaching about it constantly.  

[Muddy River]

12 hours ago, IndyResident16 said:

The NFL draft is irrelevant to Chris Ledlum. Going all-in on a player and not getting him is a miss anyway you want to slice it. Not landing Chris Ledlum hurts IU more than it helps. Not sure what’s so hard to understand about that?

I remember when we went all in and missed on Moses Abraham.  Devastating to miss on your #1 target.  Especially when we had to watch him accomplish so mu………..well, we were really upset that he didn’t come to IU.

[FritzIam4IU]

7 minutes ago, Muddy River said:

I remember when we went all in and missed on Moses Abraham.  Devastating to miss on your #1 target.  Especially when we had to watch him accomplish so mu………..well, we were really upset that he didn’t come to IU.

Moses Abraham…the gift that keeps on giving.

[IU Scott]

11 minutes ago, rico said:

You keep believing it Scott. However I could do without your preaching about it constantly.  

I could do without all the freaking out after losing one recruit 

[btownqb]

Just now, IU Scott said:

I could do without all the freaking out after losing one recruit 

Touché and same. 

[IndyResident16]

5 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I could do without all the freaking out after losing one recruit 

Why do you always do this? It's the ONE recruit the staff put the most time, effort, and energy into recruiting. 

[rico]

6 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I could do without all the freaking out after losing one recruit 

And then there is you blaming it on the fan base.  Which is worse?

[tdhoosier]

1 hour ago, Kdug said:

To be fair, Tennessee plays more of a big ten style of basketball than most big ten schools. So if that really was a reason for Ledlum not choosing IU, he must not understand UT basketball.

Thank you. By the way, has anybody watched clips of Ledlum? Dude looks like the prototypical B1G player. 

I enjoy listening to Rabby, but his information regarding the recruit was wrong. It's safe to assume the source of his information was wrong. And now he's claiming that the style of play in the B1G is a reason why Ledlum chose TN? Where is he getting THAT information? From his source that was wrong this whole time? 

I just don't buy the whole B1G style of play narrative for this particular instance. It just seems like a diversion to draw attention away from the egg on everybody's face. At the very least, take the info with a grain of salt. 

[IUCrazy2]

3 hours ago, 5fouls said:

To add to this.  Say a recruit schedules visits to both Indiana and Tennessee.  He's immediately followed on social media by 450 Vols fans and 15,000 Hoosier fans.  The recruit may not view that in the same way the fan base does.  

In an NIL world they should...just saying.

[IUProfessor]

12 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

Why do you always do this? It's the ONE recruit the staff put the most time, effort, and energy into recruiting. 

Do we really know this? I find it entirely plausible that the staff prioritized Ledlum before Ware came into play. But as others have noted, the fit became less apparent once Ware was on board. So it's entirely possible that our interest in him cooled accordingly.

Edited April 20, 2023 by IUProfessor

[iuswingman]

11 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

Why do you always do this? It's the ONE recruit the staff put the most time, effort, and energy into recruiting. 

And freaking out will change anything?

**** happens.  Woodson and staff just need to find another recruit that wants to be at IU.