Indiana Basketball 2024-25

Think this is a bad hire for IU. Feels like it should’ve been Beard. Pitino has proven, if you revitalize a dead marquee/blue blood program, your past indiscretions will be forgiven.
 
Have seen it postulated that Beard was an absolute nonstarter with IU’s female president. Given a few things and it being the Big Ten/midwest, I bet that was true.

After plugging a couple cold calls that went nowhere (I.e. Brad Stevens) it seems they circled the wagons on DeVries, McCollum, and a speculated “mystery” guy that as they’ve stayed under wraps so far, I am guessing was somebody like Brad Brownell that’s at a power conference school and in the tournament, and that they actually contacted.

Iowa would have hired DeVries if they didn’t, so I assume they pulled the trigger because he was their preferred candidate from those 3.
 
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nwwarrior09 said:
Have seen it postulated that Beard was an absolute nonstarter with IU’s female president. Given a few things and it being the Big Ten/midwest, I bet that was true.

After plugging a couple cold calls that went nowhere (I.e. Brad Stevens) it seems they circled the wagons on DeVries, McCollum, and a speculated “mystery” guy that as they’ve stayed under wraps so far, I am guessing was somebody like Brad Brownell that’s at a power conference school and in the tournament, and that they actually contacted.

Iowa would have hired DeVries if they didn’t, so I assume they pulled the trigger because he was their preferred candidate from those 3.
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St John’s is a Catholic university that hired Pitino, who paid for a back alley abortion. And he owned that, Beard had his criminal charges dropped.
 
Really don't know what Indiana is thinking. Very mehhhh hire and Indiana should never be settling. I mean look at the star power all of these SEC teams are getting as coaches and this is what Indiana settles for?
 
Omar said:
St John’s is a Catholic university that hired Pitino, who paid for a back alley abortion. And he owned that, Beard had his criminal charges dropped.
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All of those things are correct, but a lot of Big Ten/former PAC 12 type institutions have a history of being very leery of any type of controversial or negative press. Regardless of what eventually emerges as the truth.
 
I get it being lukewarm but I would expect this guy to be successful. The turnaround at WVU was immediate and probably would have been about in line with year 1 of May at Michigan and Kelsey at Louisville if his kid didn’t get injured early in the year.

If Tucker DeVries gets an extra year of eligibility he’ll average 15+ ppg for Indiana next year and be All-Big Ten.
 
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If they struck out on 2-3 reaches I probably would have hired McCollum, and some fortunate Big Ten school will in the next couple of years if Iowa doesn’t.

To me that guy appears to be the basketball equivalent of the Jim Tressels and Brian Kellys; has several lower division national titles and has had immediate (mid-major) D1 success.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
I get it being lukewarm but I would expect this guy to be successful. The turnaround at WVU was immediate and probably would have been about in line with year 1 of May at Michigan and Kelsey at Louisville if his kid didn’t get injured early in the year.

If Tucker DeVries gets an extra year of eligibility he’ll average 15+ ppg for Indiana next year and be All-Big Ten.
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Yeah, but I think IU has more prestige than Michigan. Louisville was an absolute disaster and was lucky Kelsey wanted to be closer to family.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
They fired Matta after a few missed tournaments and they didn’t make the NIT his final year. Once he stopped recruiting at an elite level he was done. Just look how bad he’s doing at Butler. Once he lost his recruiting touch he was done. A great COACH could navigate around that like Brad Steven’s for example

Yes expectations SHOULD be high. This is OSU and not Iowa. What Illinois has been doing in basketball is the level OSU should be operating on every single season. THAT is the expectation
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I felt bad for Thad Matta when he was at Ohio State. You're always going to be second fiddle there, no matter what you do. Matta has some talent, but he also turned alot of so so players into reasonable college players.
 
I didn't know Curt Cignetti a year ago so who knows??? There was a reason Beard didn't get hired. This guy was really good at Drake and turned WVA around in on one season. We'll find out and if he doesn't win enough, we'll be looking for another coach in a few years. With the boosters having so much control, coaches are just temporary now.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
Have seen it postulated that Beard was an absolute nonstarter with IU’s female president. Given a few things and it being the Big Ten/midwest, I bet that was true.

After plugging a couple cold calls that went nowhere (I.e. Brad Stevens) it seems they circled the wagons on DeVries, McCollum, and a speculated “mystery” guy that as they’ve stayed under wraps so far, I am guessing was somebody like Brad Brownell that’s at a power conference school and in the tournament, and that they actually contacted.

Iowa would have hired DeVries if they didn’t, so I assume they pulled the trigger because he was their preferred candidate from those 3.
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Boy, is West Virginia havin' a bad week.....
 
jdizzle said:
I agree with that.

I feel like he has power 4/5 basketball IQ, but the skills to play lower than that. Not knocking the kid, I really like his game.
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That could be accurate. I just remember watching him play in that post season tournament after his senior year and wasn’t impressed. Makes me wonder if he was hyped up doing so well in Ohio when Ohio high school basketball is terrible
 
For him to play on a power conference team or a power conference level mid-major it has to be for someone that plays at a very methodical and slow pace IMO.

Otherwise he probably needs to be going to a MAC or Horizon League school.
 
To date, IU has 7 players on the scholarship roster, 5 seniors, 1 junior and a freshman. Supposedly IU has one of the biggest NIL programs in college basketball, so the ability to bring players on board shouldn't be a problem.

But my thought today is how vastly different players are going to be viewed upon and remembered by programs. You look back over the last 4-5 years, it's hard to really get behind any player in the program outside of Trayce Jackson-Davis. Moving forward names like Kannan Carysle, Bryson Tucker, Gabe Cupps will just fade away and we'll likely forget they ever played here. I think guys like Trey Galloway and Anthony Leal will be remembered fondly. Leal especially as I feel he was kind of shortchanged throughout his career. He came in as a Mr. Basketball and was going to struggle to guard at this level. Ironically defense was the thing you could count on him the most. Galloway seemed like a guy with no position, and he was finally just handed the point guard job late this season and seemed to flourish in that role. He's big enough and strong enough to take some of the hits. Shooting never was his strength.
 
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