You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cask Ale
and Clavio joining you. I'm going to bring Scott on here
in just a minute. We recorded this podcast on
Friday around noon as we were reacting to the news from the
previous night of the decommitment of Liam Mcneely
from the IU basketball program and kind of where that leaves
everything. It's obviously been a very
strange last week, really last month for IU men's basketball as
unfortunately things are not going well and we talk a lot
about that on this upcoming podcast.
We talk about kind of the overall set up of things with
the basketball program. We talked about the some of the
weird messaging that we've heard and I think just overall trying
to get a a bead on how all of this reconciles with where the
fan base is at right now. And and you know we didn't dive
a whole lot into some of the things that ended up coming up
later on on Friday. There was a lot of media that
came out on Friday that if you're an avid consumer of IU
men's basketball materials, you may want to go check out.
There was an interesting segment of a podcast from I think it was
the The Sleepers podcast which I'd recommend checking out.
There was a good segment with Rob Doster on field of 68 that's
worth checking out. There was a nice about 8 minute
video from Sam Vicini which delved into some things and and
left some things unsaid. But there were, there were some
clear implications. I think all these are worth
checking out if you're an IU fan right now.
And there's others. I mean the podcast on the Brink
with Zach Osterman's worth listening to.
There's just a lot to consume and and to think about there's a
lot of different perspectives. We tried to capture some of that
on this show that we're about to unveil.
And you know, before we get into the bulk of this first, well,
first of all I want to get the business out of the way.
But I've got a couple of other quick things to add to the
beginning of the conversation before we dive in to the bulk of
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Use the code Home 23 get 15% off your first order.
Also just a reminder, we're on sub stack
crimsoncast.substack.com free subscription gets you an e-mail
about once or twice a week with all of our podcasts and
occasionally some links to articles or other items that we
found to be worthwhile. I'll try to put a couple of
items from what I just discussed into that e-mail today, which
you probably if you if you're already subscribed you've seen
it and if not you will when you subscribe.
You also have a paid subscription option.
It's it's low cost, it's $5 a month, $50 a year if you want to
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some extra items, some extra videos.
In this e-mail today we've got Scott giving an IndyCar preview.
We're going to try to increase our overall IndyCar coverage
throughout the course of this upcoming season as as it's
starting tomorrow. The the Grand Prix of Saint Pete
is happening on Sunday, so you got that coming, so you should
go ahead and subscribe, it'd be great.
We'll try to do some regular podcasts on that as well.
Again, crimsoncast.substack.com. So a couple other items real
quick that I wanted to hit on before we got started.
First of all, you know in this podcast that Scott and I did, we
we didn't talk whole lot about Senior Day or the Michigan State
game. And I, you know a quick preview
on I guess one of those items is that we're still not sure and
I'm recording this at about 1:30 on Saturday and and so maybe
probably something will break right after I record this.
But we're still not totally sure if Anthony Leal and Trey
Galloway are planning on walking on Senior Day.
That was something that was was not revealed during Mike
Woodson's press conference on Friday and we still haven't
heard anything on social media at this point.
So we we may see Trey Galloway and Anthony Leal talk to the
crowd. We may not.
We know we're going to see Xavier Johnson talk to the crowd
and I'm assuming we're going to see Anthony Walker talk to the
crowd, but we're not sure beyond that.
You know, this is an interesting thing.
It's a little bit surprising, you know, not entirely shocking,
but it's a little bit surprising.
We don't know about either of those players and what their
intentions are and and look, they could choose not to talk
and Senior Day and and still not be back.
They could choose to talk on Senior Day and still be back.
I mean they're a bunch of stuffs on the table in terms of all of
this. But certainly you know this is
both an artifact of kind of the weird spot college basketball's
in right now with with not just the portal but the COVID year
that a lot of players including Leo and Galloway are are still,
you know, using or could use. It's, you know, there's all
there's that, but there's also the clearly the very odd
circumstances surrounding the IU basketball program right now.
So a lot to think about there and it will be interesting to
see how it all plays out on Sunday.
The game at 4:30, you know, hopefully fans go and are in
full throated support of of all the players, but particularly
the seniors and hopefully they're able to lead IU to a win
against the Michigan State team. That's a really interesting case
to take a look at. You know, Michigan State has had
one of those seasons that is just kind of peculiar to watch.
They are 18 and 12 right now. They're ten and nine in
conference. They had to squeak out a win
against Northwestern earlier this week That ended a
three-game losing streak, which included home losses to Iowa and
Ohio State. Which is not what one might have
expected out of Michigan State in any season, let alone a
season when Iowa's very mid and Ohio State is not very good.
But they did beat Northwestern, which was a good sign for them.
They look to be safely in the tournament largely because, you
know, they've done just enough. They've yeah, they beat Baylor
in a semi home environment. They beat Illinois.
They've got some Rd. wins, although nothing that's like
something you'd write home to your mom about.
They've they've won at Maryland, at Penn State, at Michigan.
They're one of those teams that has a really good defensive
presence. They're they're 11th in Ken Palm
and defensive efficiency. They play a pretty slow down
style. They really slow down their
opponents. That's probably been one of the
key items of of what made this made their defense so good.
Similar to IU, they're not a team that that takes a lot of
threes as a proportion of their overall offense dissimilar to
IU. They do hit threes at a pretty
good clip. They're about a 36% three-point
shooting team, but their offense has just been kind of gunky all
season. You know, they've really only
got one truly efficient scorer and and that's Malik Hall, the
the senior post player and most of his work is getting done in
the paint, but he's also been fairly effective.
When he's gone out and shot threes, you know, they've
they've not gotten the season I think that they would have
wanted offensively out of Tyson Walker.
They haven't gotten the season they would have wanted
offensively out of AJ Hogard and they've just struggled.
I think from an identity perspective, a lot of the things
you expect out of the Michigan State team, you haven't really
seen out of this team. Now that said, they are one of
the unluckiest teams in college basketball, which is something
that we talked about in an earlier episode when we were
talking about, you know, trying to figure out how teams rate
against each other. If you recall Maryland also a
tremendously unlucky team and and as I mentioned when I was
trying to explain that earlier the luck statistic in Ken Palm
is a stand in for looking at your statistical performance as
a team in each game and the computer saying based upon how
you performed you should have this record and if you're above
that in terms of wins that improves your luck standing and
if you're below it it decreases your luck standing.
So it's luck is almost, it's a it's a catch all phrase and it
isn't really luck as much as it is over or under performance
according to what the computers would expect.
And Michigan State has underperformed quite a bit.
A lot of that is because they have had a lot of relatively
close losses in in their season. They they lost by three and
overtime in the first game of the season to James Madison,
they lost by what, nine points to Duke on a neutral floor?
They lost by 6 to Arizona and on a neutral floor They lost by 7
to Nebraska on the road. They lost by three to Illinois
on the road. They lost by three to Minnesota
on the road. They lost by three at home to
Ohio State. Like they played well enough
that they probably could have either gotten closer or won
almost all those games. But it didn't happen for them.
And so does that mean anything? I mean it didn't against
Maryland. Indiana was able to to play
well. And I think this is an
interesting match up for Indiana because Indiana, I would argue
is playing better right now on the whole than Michigan State
is. And how much of that maintains
in this particular game when Michigan State could really use
the win just in terms of stabilizing their tournament
resume And for seating purposes, it's going to be really
fascinating to see. Michigan State has played really
well. They really only had, you know
like four games this season where you could say, wow, you,
you played significantly under under standards, actually maybe
5 and all of the more losses. But the vast majority of their
games, they have been pretty impressive in terms of their
overall performance. And what's going to be
fascinating to me is how well do they perform offensively in a
road game. They're only, statistically
speaking, on pound. Ken Palm, they're only a four
point favorite. And on Torvik they're only a 3.3
point favorite. So the computer's kind of like
Indiana in this one. And you know Michigan State not
being able to hit threes consistently, they were two for
17 in that win against Northwestern.
They were two for 14 in their win on the road against
Michigan. And that ultimately ends up
being one of those deals where I don't know how Michigan State
will necessarily perform when they come in to Assembly Hall
and you know that has been, they've had luck.
They have obviously beat Indiana last year you know at home, but
they lost an Assembly Hall. They they lost 8269 at IU that
was in what mid January last year but they beat Indiana by 15
at the Breslin Center in in 2022.
They they beat Indiana at home and they didn't play Indiana on
the road that year. But you know, Michigan State
hasn't been the unbeatable foe for Indiana that that they, you
know, maybe had been consistently over the course of
some time that, you know, Archie's last year they did
sweep Indiana, but that Indiana by that point it already really
started to go downhill and was losing games left and right.
So anyway, all that said, I am really curious to see how all of
this plays out and what we're going to get out of both teams.
I think for IU, whatever lightning they've managed to
bottle over the course of the last couple of games or last
three games in terms of offensive positivity has got to
be where it starts and and they've got to play good
defense. If if you look at what Indiana's
done in terms of their performance so far in this
winning streak, they they were really impressive offensively
against Wisconsin. They were really impressive
offensively for the whole game against Maryland.
They that they're adjusted offensive efficiency in that
game was 130.3 and then even though they weren't nearly as
impressive offensively on the road against Minnesota, they
were very impressive defensively.
Minnesota, they they held to an adjusted defensive number of 79,
which is ridiculously low. That's that is if you go all the
way down the list they've only played one better defensive game
all season and that was the game at home versus Maryland back in
the beginning of December. So.
Looking at all that. I think Indiana's got a fairly
good chance to win this game if they can get the field goals to
drop. And you know the last three
games, Indiana's effective field goal percentage.
And for those who don't know what that is, effective field
goal percentage is counting 3 pointers, 1 1/2 times what you
would count 2 pointers to account for the fact that
they're worth more points. Indiana's effective field goal
percentage in the stretch of games from the Illinois loss all
the way through to the Penn State loss on the road, hovered
somewhere between 45 and 52%. In the last three games,
Indiana's effective field goal percentage has been 68% against
Wisconsin, 62 1/2% against Maryland and 59.1% against
Minnesota. So if the shots are falling, I
like Indiana's chances in this one and we'll just have to see
if they've, if they've crap captured some kind of a vibe
from a shooting perspective that will allow them to take
advantage. Because at the end of it all,
this ends up being kind of newfound strength for Indiana in
terms of, hey, we can shoot the ball and it'll go in versus what
has been an existing strength for Michigan State all season,
which is their ability to play defense and and hold teams to
not great shooting percentages. So with all that said, we'll see
what happens in the game. I hope if you're going that you
have a good experience and hopefully Indiana's able to give
the fans something small to cheer for as they close out the
home campaign and get ready for the Big 10 tournament.
We'll see what happens. Anyway, we're going to go ahead
and go to Scott. We'll have probably a recap
podcast coming on Monday sometime, so be sure to stay
tuned for that. And obviously we'll in that same
period of time, we'll finally have a sense of what Indiana
seating is going to be and what their pathway will be for the
Big 10 tournament, which will take place starting on
Wednesday. Although it sounds like now for
Indiana, they've removed themselves from the equation for
the first games that are played on Wednesday.
So Indiana will start on Thursday.
We just don't know who they're going to play or what their
seeds going to be. All right.
Joining us now, Scott is with us, Scott.
Good to see you. How you doing, hey?
Man, how you doing? I'm doing fine.
Interesting way to go into the last game of the season,
obviously for IU as I just. Want to let you know that I'm
committed to the podcast? Are you?
I'll just choose my words very carefully.
Are you sure? I don't know.
I mean, Barstools call it. I'll see what they have to say.
Wow. Scott on Barstool is absolutely
a scenario that we let's like an alternate universe that I would,
I'd be frightened to see how it played out.
Yeah, I mean. Definitely would hit the
explicit button for. Sure.
Anyway, we need to talk a little bit about what's going on with
the IU basketball. Obviously, we've we've covered
this quite a bit in various ways over the course of the last
month, month and a half. And then obviously there's been
a lot of news that's come out. I talked about this a little bit
at the beginning of the live pod on Wednesday with Zion Brown.
We talked about the announcement that Mike Woodson was going to
be coming back. It was an odd announcement in as
much as you don't normally get those kind of announcements on a
Wednesday in the middle of the week, 2 hours before a road
game. Interestingly, Indiana played
well in that game. Then after the game, Mike
Woodson like categorically refused to talk about his job or
his position at IU despite the university putting out a
statement saying that he would be coming back next year.
I mean, anytime you have that vote of confidence as we know it
in this business, it's normally worth talking about, but just
categorically shut down that conversation, which is fine,
That's his prerogative. But then yesterday, about almost
exactly 24 hours after that news leaks, the bombshell drops that
Indiana's lone recruit for the 20/24/25 season, Liam Mcneely,
the five star out of Montverde Academy, has asked out of his
NLI and is asking to have his recruitment reopened with a
heavy amount of speculation that he might be refocusing his
efforts on going to Kansas, which is the school that he
basically chose Indiana over back in the fall.
So now things are even in sharper relief for IU basketball
As as of today, the 8th of March, Indiana has zero
committed recruits coming in next year, an uncertain future
in terms of their current roster.
They they could all be back. But even if they are all back,
it's clear that it's not a very complete roster and you've got
the very high likelihood that Khalil Ware is going to be
leaving to go to the draft, and you have a coach who has
essentially been assured of his spot as the head coach.
But there, you know, with the number of questions that are
surrounding the current state of the program, it's got a lot of
fans on edge beyond that. I mean, it's just it's not a
great situation overall. Scott, I guess first of all, I
want to get your general reaction to the Mcneely news.
And then I wanted to do something and kind of lay out
what we know and what we don't know, 'cause I think it's
important that we split those things apart.
But let me let me start with you and your thoughts on the Mcneely
situation. Well, from a different point of
view, it's it's a bummer and we've been here in certain spots
with IU basketball. It's not great, but it's like we
should be talking about a three-game winning streak.
Like we should be talking about a team that's trying to get to
500, trying to get ready for the Big 10 tournament.
Like we're we're not talking about basketball.
That's not great with the Liam Mcneely news, you know that.
To me it's like the order of operations is really what's kind
of damning here is you know kids opt out all of the time.
It's not great that he was a high level recruit that we were
going after that Now the stacks up to basically we we took a
bunch of home run swings for 2024 and we're going to come 04
you know 04 at the plate. But the fact that you have that
Woodson announcement which I I I guess they had, I don't you
wonder why they had to make it. It's like they make it the next
day Mcneely makes his announcement like you you they
might be unrelated and it could very well be their unrelated.
They feel related and it just feels very much like 1 begot the
other which isn't a great a great vibe or a great look.
And now you're left you know where there were already a lot
of questions for next season. You know, with, and I'm, I'm
quoting you on Twitter kind of like, well now we don't need to
worry about who we're going to pair with Mcneely in the portal.
It's like there's already like all the holes to fill.
The trouble was Mcneely was a pig.
You are already kind of plugging in.
Well, that pig's gone and and now instead of, you know,
hitting a three run home run in the portal, you've got to hit a
Grand Slam and maybe also hit a second home run and then maybe a
triple of your third at bat. Like you've got to really go
pretty wild with what you've got to do.
It. It makes the path for a really
successful season next year unbelievably narrow and you
know, they've already shortened the recruiting window.
It's just so it it's it's not awesome.
It's not great. And you know, it's things can be
recovered. Things can be done.
But you know part of the college basketball viewing and fun
experience is, you know, you and I don't get into recruiting that
much, but there is kind of the fun of like, oh, like there's
recruits. I'm going to watch McDonald's
All American a game and there is an Indiana player and like so to
have none. Just to have no recruits, none
to look at, nobody from Mr. Basketball, nobody from the
Indiana, Kentucky game. Like there's just no recruits
coming in that that's that. That kind of takes away from
even just part of the fun of college basketball, of getting
excited about it. Not to mention the fact that for
a team that currently needs, it seems to have a lot of holes
that needs to be plugged. To have 0 answers on how it's
going to be done is a little bit daunting as a fan.
Well, I think all of that is very well stated and I guess I'd
add to it that it's just a weird spot for a program like Indiana
or like Indiana thinks that it is perhaps would be the better
way of putting it to be in at this point where you know you
the the recruiting and the overall acquisition of players
has been pretty uneven so far under Mike Woodson and that is
really starting to look more like perhaps the norm.
You know Indiana obviously when Woodson came in had to fill some
holes. They went out and got a couple
guys in the portal. They they grabbed A recruit off
the shelf that had backed out of a commitment at another
university. That was the first year.
Then you know they also brought in a player that had already
been committed. They had a couple of players
that they you know, they they wanted to try to recruit This
year it felt like all of the efforts were around some really
big pieces. Obviously, you know, Mcneely,
Boogie Flan and Derrick Queen, and, you know, it was a, it was
a kind of a bitter consolation prize for Indiana, that they
swung at three of those and we're only going to get one of
them. Now they've swung at three of
them and they've gotten none of them.
And the idea that that's it, there's no backup plan, There's
nothing like on the horizon, I think for a lot of fans is it
should be. And it and it is rightfully
concerning and I think for those people who are watching the
trajectory of the program very closely, what we've been talking
about over the course of not just the month but really the
last year is that the system that Indiana's playing isn't
that attractive right now to a lot of recruits.
It's attractive to post players and I think that's why you get a
Khalil Ware and it's why you get a a Malik Renew in Mackenzie.
And Baca is kind of a unique case which we will kind of put
aside for a second. But you know the the juice that
you would have in terms of trying to bring people in, a lot
of it is, is it's not just nil dollars, it's it's about fit as
much as anything else. People talk, we talked about
this before, but people talk about like Dalton Connect like
why did he go to Tennessee. You know Indiana was interested
in him and he didn't even take a visit.
I don't believe even if he did, if it was an official one.
It's not just about, hey, here's X number of dollars in NIL, it's
about what's the fit, how are you going to play within this
system. And as we've talked about, it's
hard to reconcile what you see out of players, freshmen and
sophomores especially that are in Indiana's system and how much
they are struggling to contribute.
Or how long of a in the Mackenzie and Bacco's case, how
long it took them to get up to speed versus what you're seeing
at Purdue, at Illinois, where not only are you seeing those
programs integrate freshmen, get them into their system, but
you're also seeing transfers. You know, Purdue has thrived
this year with a transfer that they got out of the Missouri
Valley Conference who has played a big role for them.
Illinois, same thing, you know Marcus Damask came out of the
the Missouri Valley and it's like it's the the system doesn't
seem to be attracting even mid level players who are looking to
take a jump up, let alone top level players who might be
looking at a place like Indiana as where they'd want to go.
And I guess what worries me now, you've left everything to do in
the portal. You don't get the long tail
development like you were talking about.
The Portal hasn't been around for that long, but we do have
all of this data that it's not a particularly reliable place to
go if you're having to rely on it to essentially bring a new
team or large parts of a new team in.
And the idea that especially you're going to go get a
starting point guard that can play it at a big 10 caliber
level throughout the course of the season in the Portal seems
fanciful given that those are among the most valuable players
in basketball. And there are offensive systems
out there and teams looking for players like that who would be
much better suited in most cases to allowing those players to
showcase their skills to get to the next level.
And yes, you can point to Jalen Hutchefino and say, well look
what we did with him, but I don't know if that's enough.
I think it might have been enough coming off a season where
you were a four seed in the NCAA tournament and finished second
in the Big 10. I don't know if that's enough.
If you're coming off a season where your offense is hovering
around 100th in Ken Palm, you're around 100th in Ken Palm
overall, and you missed the NCAA tournament, like at some point
it's not about the nil dollars or what happened two years ago.
It's about what are we dropping you into now as a Portal player?
I think if you're an IU fan, there's real cause for concern
because there doesn't appear to be a clear pathway towards
reconstituting a roster that already has some holes.
And that's assuming that nobody else leaves.
So I think there's there's two other things here and each of
them are are I think real problems where you kind of have
diametrically opposed things that both need to be done kind
of at the same time. So when you look at you know,
what needs to be done in the portal, this is something
Woodson has talked about that you know, you know that the team
needs more continuity and a little more leadership.
And so on one hand you can think, all right, you know in
the portal you need to go after you know juniors and seniors and
and guys who can be leaders. You know, one of the troubles is
that if you you're going to need to get five or six guys in the
portal who are going to be big time contributors next year.
The idea that they're going to all have, you know, Jelly and
continuity is, is is probably really hard.
You're going to have the same problem next year.
But if you do go with the leadership aspect, you're just
perpetuating a cycle where now you need to get six more guys
the next year or you can go and get maybe some sophomores in the
in the portal. But now you're going to have the
same, you know going off of what Woodson has talked about with
leadership, you're now going to have that leadership issue.
But to me the the bigger issue that I see is something I listen
to the assembly call radio show last night and something that
Joe brought up. He kind of brought up his like
the the doomsday scenario. But I'm going to take a step
back, you know when when they announced that Woodson was
coming back. I think we can all agree that
this season has been you know various stages of disappointment
where where where it files and that continuum, it depends on
where you see things. But you know this is not gone
well and I I firmly believe that you know if they're going to
bring Woodson back there does I feel like need to be some kind
of change to the staff in my mind you can't just bring just
run it all back so you know if you.
But on the flip side, as Joe was mentioning on the podcast last
night, like if you start having to do some staff overhauls,
you're now when you lose an assistant, you lose all the
relationships that that assistant had with recruits and
transfers. And now not only are you trying
to work the portal in a 45 day manner while fighting other
teams, if you're also trying to hire two assistant coaches in
that process, that becomes an even more complex and a a
harder, you know, a harder problem to solve.
And I view this as a real problem.
It's like, so now you're looking at it as, like, you know, if you
just bring back the entire staff with the idea of like we need
continuity to at least solve this portal problem, it's like
okay, but you're are you solving the problems that caused a
really poor season this year? But if you do what you need to
do, which is maybe make some staff changes, you're now making
the the ability to get the players you need this offseason
even more difficult, which may not build the foundation that
new staff needs next year. It's like I I don't they're
they're kind of in a spot where they've got to pick one or the
other, but they're both kind of the the worst option for each
option. There's a whole separate
conversation to be had about 2526 right now.
You know and this is, this is where so one of the.
So first of all I think it's important to emphasize for
people listening to the show, We've got people who are very
online who listen to the show. They're on Twitter, they're on
the Discord, they're they're very plugged in to the chatter
online. We've also got a lot of
listeners who aren't plugged into those things.
And I and I think it's important for the people who aren't
plugged in online who might be thinking about all this, like
why do you guys keep talking about Woodson being in trouble?
Because a lot of that discourse hasn't really soaked in outside
and and and I to some degree think that, you know, you can't
say that there's a a clear pathway for why we're already at
the conversation of Woodson being potentially under fire to
the point that Indiana felt the need.
And when I say Indiana, I mean Indiana really loosely like
people, people who are involved with Indiana decided to put out
an unnamed statement, not even a statement, but just kind of a
confirmation that Mike Woodson would be back For a lot of
people. They're like, well, this
season's been a bit tough, but it's not like they have a losing
record like Archie Miller had in in his last year.
It's not like, you know, there's clear, like ironclad discontent
like Crane had in his last year and yet we've seen booing at
Assembly Hall already. There's all these things that
have occurred for I think for a lot of people who are observing
the program closely, the concern is not so much the results this
year alone. That is certainly part of it.
The larger concern is the real lack of clear pathway or plan or
strategy moving forward. And and I think just taking next
year into account and this idea that we're going to plug a bunch
of holes and there's going to be 0 recruits.
You know maybe you'll get, you'll pick someone off that
decommits somewhere else perhaps.
But again, you've the chance that you've built a long term
relationship with that player and you're really thinking
through how they fit into the the organic chemistry of IU
basketball I'd say is low. Maybe you get lucky and someone
that you spend a lot of time on the committed somewhere ends up
decommitting because a coach gets fired or whatnot.
That's there is a possibility there, but more likely than not
it's a situation like Tamar Bates where oh here's a five
star that's available because there was a coaching change at
Texas. We're going to grab him.
You saw how, and you know Tamar had other things going on, but
you saw how like that was not a great fit organically when you
compared it to, say, Jalen Huchefino and the way that that
recruitment went. So you don't have a player that
you've recruited like? That coming in.
Or even like, I mean just another example like Malik Renew
who has worked out but like his first year was still rocky.
So if you get that, you know you get a Malik Renew type next
year, it's like, is that enough to get you out of the hole
you've dug? Because it it could be a bit of
a project. And the point is, the point is,
you know, next year there might be the ability to do some
patchwork with the portal. Maybe you get lucky.
You know Mike Weymouth from the Ex's and Joes on Twitter laid
out kind of from a production perspective what Indiana would
need to do in the portal. And it's daunting, you know, I
mean even for a program that suppose you know has the nil
resources that IU has. IU doesn't have the market like
the brand value to go and just get anybody that they want.
They're not North Carolina. They're not a tough program like
Arizona that's you know, a a single digit seat every year and
and plays you know this attractive offense.
They're not Kansas, they're they're, you know, Indiana is
just kind of this sea level program right now.
And that might be being charitable, quite frankly,
because sea level programs probably make the tournament
more than twice in seven years. So you end up with this
situation where you are banking largely on not just going into
the portal and getting what you need and having those players
immediately contribute at a level that is significantly
above what you've seen out of this year's team.
You've blamed if you're Mike Woodson.
You've blamed the lack of continuity and all the fresh
faces this season on your team not playing well and now you're
going into a season where you'll have less continuity in most
cases. You know it's certainly you're
not going to have whatever continuity you had at the at the
point guard position if you lose Khalil where you're having to
break somebody new in there. But what worries me even more
the next year is without any freshman that you have
cultivated relationships with and really thought about their
long term placement within the program, you have an even weaker
foundation for the following year.
And the lack of success in recruiting and the lack of
strategic effectiveness in who you've targeted in recruiting
over the course of the last couple of seasons.
I mean, because let me think about it, the recruits that
Indiana's pulled in that they had a longer tailed recruiting
relationship with. I mean well, Gabe Cops, who's
struggled to contribute offensively at least in terms of
statistics. CJ Gunn, who has barely played.
Caleb Banks, who has barely played.
I mean, Malik Renew's been a success and Mackenzie and
Bacco's talented enough that he's been able to round into
shape on the floor. But you know the other players
that you've been relying on. But renew.
And Malik were not long term recruit.
I'm like, well your no, your point, your point's to it's a
good point but but but even with that it's like OK, take Malik
Renew out of that equation. You just don't have a lot of
that stability. If that's really the problem,
you're really in trouble I think in terms of trying to create
some kind of organic chemistry between your players and your
coaching staff on the fly in the portal.
When generally speaking, the players that are coming in from
the portal are not sure things as we've seen with several other
programs, there are success stories, but there's a lot of
non success stories that we don't talk about.
And and something more to that you know that that Twitter post
about you know what we would need to get in the in the
portals I've seen some of this. I've heard people talk about it
the last 24 hours about, you know what we what we would need
to get and how we need to do And just you know if we could dial
back the expectations for next year a little bit you know can
we at least get to like a 10 or 11 seater.
Just getting the you know and and this is where I have
struggle with it is again for those who are not in the online
discourse I'm kind of like foot in, foot out.
I'm not as deep into it as others.
But you know, all I can say is that the some people it is not
to do it now this different time for a different debate, but like
the fact is some people have checked out like some.
People, a lot of a lot of people have checked out.
Some people have been like I I think we need to move on and
that has happened. And as I've said many times,
once fans cross that Rubicon, rightly or wrongly, you don't
get them back by just performing at AC level.
You have to over perform and what I mean by that is like you
know last year you're you know fourth in the Big 10.
You you go a four seed in the NCAA tournament you don't make
it to the Sweet 16. Like that's not an over
performing year like over performing is winning the Big 10
making the Elite 8 having a real shot at a final four maybe make
the final four. Like this is where I think that
I I get concerned just from a wanting the the program to be
successful and healthy and vibrant is you have a a portion
of the fan base that is. That is out.
Right now and I continue to bring this up when people kind
of discuss like all right, let's just, you know we dial back
expectation, we can just kind of you know steady things for next
year and then move it for the year after.
It's like this is how you get into the problems of the Archie
problem. These are all these problems we
get into is like at some point you have to over perform you
might have to do it two years in a row to get those people back
and I think that's that's the issue is all of the things that
we're looking at next year now without Mcneely it it's kind of
like can we just struggle to get to here And I'm like that
getting to that minimum threshold is not good enough you
you have to over perform. And you know the last thing I'll
say too is just, you know, as it it's also tough just because you
know again part of college basketball is the fun of
recruiting and like you know, getting a five star recruit buys
you, you know, it buys you some of that window of time where
it's like hey you just you can talk about the future and you'd
like you've lost all of that now.
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, here's the thing.
I think that we too easily sometimes allow this idea that
fans are the problem, especially with Indiana.
Like there's been such an unbroken chain of a lack in the
problem, lack of success over the course of the last 25 years,
and it always seems to boomerang back to this idea that fans are
the problem. You're talking about fans
getting disengaged. You know, the the idea to me
that fans are at the root cause of like the Mcneely departure is
is about the dumbest thing I've heard spoken.
That is, that's a coaching thing.
I'm sorry. You know, players of that
caliber don't decommit because of what's going on on on social
media. And if and if you think that to
borrow something that you used to say for years on the podcast,
you're either lying or you're stupid.
I mean that that is, that is, it's amazing to me.
I think more than anything else. And this is more of a macro
thing. Over the last month and 1/2 as
as IU has failed to meet what I think we're pretty low
reasonable expectations for a program that has the type of of
recruited talent that's currently on the roster.
The amount of, oh, you people are, you know, you fans or you
people that are talking about this online or or you're causing
the problem and everything would be fine if people would all just
get It's like that's not the way that it works.
OK? Fans are reacting to what
they're seeing and what's being put in front of them and they're
not a unified. It's not like there's a hive
mind that, you know, this is not some kind of gestalt
consciousness where you know, all the fans just think
automatically the same way. There are, you know, from from
the 19 year old on campus who's just being introduced to IU
basketball for the first time, to the 46 year old living in
Noblesville who's been watching for 20 some years and hasn't
seen any any success. To the 75 year old retiree
living in Scottsdale who's seen it all, like everybody to some
degree is watching all of this, processing it.
They're seeing what's going on on the floor game after game.
They're seeing the the weird trajectory that recruiting is
taking and and that the overall discourse around the program has
has taken because of the stuff that's going on on the floor.
And a lot of them are just like, you know what this is?
I've seen so many people the last week even before the
announcement that you know that that Woodson was going to come
back and then the Mcnealy de commitment, which I'm still not
sure if those are connected in terms of timing or if that was
entirely incidental. I've seen so many people just
because of the nature of the way this season has played out in in
the context of the last 1020 years say I can't do this.
I'm I'm tired of giving this much attention this much money
to to focusing on it. And you know at some point if
you if you and you know we we see this with some of the
statements or lack thereof. You know you you know for for
there to be in the press conference today like well I'm
not going to talk about recruiting.
It's like really like the most of the season has been
predicated on this idea that the problem is guys not hitting
shots. So you go recruit a guy whose
primary thing is to hit shots and now that player is no longer
coming. Of course people are going to
want to hear something on the recruiting front.
You just got a public vote of confidence in your job from your
employer, which is never a good sign in any sporting
environment. Can you imagine?
Remember the last time that a a vote of confidence for anybody's
job in sports coaching came out and things were good?
Like the Miami Heat aren't coming out and be like, hey,
we're going to keep Spolstra for next.
Year. So.
So if it's not, if it's not Mike Woodson's job to talk about
those things, someone needs to say something.
Because what you're what you're relying on at this point is fans
being given occasionally a fun product, but more often than not
a not a fun product to watch. And you know you, you've got
fans who spent tons of money on tickets, far more than what you
see at other Big 10 schools for the same product because of the
brand, because it's supposedly special and they're not being
given a return and they're being asked to emotionally invest in
something. And they are.
And then when that doesn't work out, they're told, well, shut
your mouth, you don't know what you're talking about and you're
the problem. That's like that's that's how
you lose a generation, which has been happening, and I'm not,
this is not even a matter of saying, well, they need to make
a change. It's that right now.
If you're an IU fan, I think you are desperately looking in many,
in a lot of cases, I want to speak for everybody.
But I, the people that I'm seeing online, the people that
I've talked to, they're looking for a reason to remain engaged
because they've watched what looked like a positive
trajectory for the program take 180° turn.
And they're basically being told, well, you need to not
worry about any of that, just sit in your seats and cheer and
that's that. And I I hate to say it like
that's not the era that we're in.
Like that's that's not how audiences work.
And I feel like Indiana basketball is even an even worse
case scenario now than it was when Crean got fired because at
that point there was at least some success to point back to.
That was at a level where you could say, well, look, we've
hit, we've hit some pinnacles. They're not the pinnacles we
want. It's like they've been no
pinnacles hit. You know, going to the NCAA
tournament, that's not success at IU.
That's just, that's supposed to be what you do and that that
gets pointed to as well. You know that that's a
justification for XY or Z is kind of.
Baffling at this point. So I'm going to take an even
more like macro 30,000 foot view of this.
But to to the fan engagement thing is, you know, I've been
thinking about this for a while is like just kind of like, you
know, are are you taking it seriously?
Because I take it seriously like.
And are you not you like you as the university.
Are you, are you guys really taking this seriously?
And, you know, I have no stats pulled up.
I'm just kind of thinking of teams in the top of my top of my
head, like, you know, UCLA basketball.
It's like over the last 20 years.
Are they really taking it seriously?
I bet I would just like probably not.
Like probably in the last 1050. It doesn't feel like they're
taking it as seriously as they used to.
It's like Alabama. I don't think they did.
And now I think they do like Oregon.
I think they did for a while. I'm not sure they do anymore.
You know, and this is all based and you can go micro and be like
they made this good decision that that bad decision.
But I think if a UCLA podcast is having the same discussion, they
said Indiana, you think they're taking it seriously.
Like, no, they're probably not. And you look here, it's like, do
you think North Carolina takes basketball seriously?
I do like and and yes there are coaches who've been good and bad
and like you get the right coach and it and it it it makes things
different. But this is where I just kind of
step back and, you know, I'm not picking one decision here, but
just kind of an overarching, like part of me is honestly like
is is this something that is that that the university is
taking as seriously as I do because the the checks keep
coming, you know, the bills keep coming due.
And like we always talk about like, you know, what is
deserved? Like are you deserve this,
deserve that. Like I know that I'm deserved to
to pay the bills for the tickets when they come every year.
The prices don't ever go down. And there is a part as a fan
where it's like, are are you taking this seriously?
Because we're not having the results of a program that takes
it seriously. Now you can be taking it
seriously and make a lot of wrong decisions.
And it's like are you doing things the correct way?
But it it does feel like, you know, when programs feel like
they're taking it seriously. Like I said with like, you know,
UCLA at times, Oregon at times, Alabama now, you know when they
start taking it seriously, like they pop.
They just, they they pop and and you see them hit here and there.
They don't all win a title. They don't all make an Oregon
made a final four in that run. But it's like there was five or
six years where Oregon was like, wow, that's a real force.
They're doing something there. And it's just that's kind of
where I go back to like it's just I I know people are taking
it. I I know people are trying and
like I don't think they're just fluffing this off.
But it it it is something that has crossed my mind.
I think sometimes it's too easy to assume when we say are they
taking it seriously, we're talking about a unified
organization that's running things.
And I don't know that that's necessarily something that can
be assumed. I mean, and I don't want to get
into this now, but if you understand how this
communication generally works in college sports, a lot of weird
stuff that's happened over the last couple of weeks that has me
scratching my head a little bit about, you know, the idea of IU
as a unified entity moving forward with all of this.
It's just it's a little bit off from what I would normally
expect even. And I look, I think the biggest
exemplar of that you're going to, if you feel the need to, in
year three of a coach, come out and say he's going to be back,
you obviously somebody has realized there's a problem.
Well, normally I think in that case, like there needs to be a
road map put out there by somebody like fans.
This is, this has not been a successful season.
We understand that. There's concerns.
We have full faith. Here's stuff that's being done.
Maybe that's coming at the end of the year if if the statement
on Wednesday was supposed. Yeah 'cause it's so much I like
you got MIL at the end of the. Year.
Well, that's. Well, no, you're right.
I mean, but but you know the idea that that statement that
came out Wednesday again with which wasn't a statement, it was
essentially just a message that was sent out to media saying
Mike Woodson's going to be back next year.
The idea if that if the idea behind that was that that was
going to tamp down the the angst and and the irritation that a
lot of fans both online and offline are expressing in the
apathy that has started to well up.
If that was the idea that that was going to fix that it's
actually had the opposite effect, especially coming so
proximally to Mcneely decommitting, you know, so
there's got to be something else.
And I just at this point, this is a weird thing to be watching.
And you know, you and I have covered IU basketball for over
15 years now doing this podcast. We've seen a lot of weird stuff.
You know, this is really starting to remind me of like
the the end of Davis's interim year or or that period of time
like an O four O 5 after Greenspan got hired where, you
know, it felt like the the train was leaving the station and they
were going to move on from Davis and then they didn't.
And you know what? The reason I bring those times
up is that there was a clear within Indiana Athletics and the
broader Indiana administrative landscape, historically
speaking, there was a lack of coherent planning and strategy,
you know, and at the time you got to remember, like you had
Miles Brand who was trying to grandstand his way into an Ivy
League job and firing Bob Knight was part of that.
But hiring Mike Davis was part of that too.
And kind of undercutting the existing power structure of the
athletic department was part of it.
And that's why a lot of those decisions that happened over
that 4-5 year span from like 2000 to 2005, you go back even
extended out to when Samson got hired, like 2000 to 2007.
You look at it in papers like what the hell was going on
during that time. And you know, Indiana didn't
even have a full time athletic director during part of that
time after Michael nearly got fired.
No relation. And that, sorry, you're a fine,
Siri. Don't worry.
You know they end up bringing a vice president from elsewhere on
campus to come in and run athletics for like I think 18
months, you know? So, and the reason I bring all
that up is I can't remember a general vibe around IU athletics
being this disorganized, at least around basketball since
then. And it's it's so jarring coming
off of what happened with football, where it felt like
there was finally a clear vision about what IU Athletics wanted
Indiana football to be. And they went out and found a
guy who they could build around and they gave him financial
resources. And obviously we have to see
what happens with IU football, but it feels like there's a
pathway towards success there. Here, like with basketball, it
just feels so disjointed. And so there's there's such
inconsistent philosophies right now, and it shines through in
what you're seeing on the floor. It shines through with the
recruiting process. It shines through with the
reliance on the portal, which I never, I never thought of all
things IU would consciously choose to become a school that
relied on the portal to fill roster holes.
I mean, obviously not mean you're going to fill bits and
pieces as you can, but to fill this many potential roster holes
with Portal players, that just smacks of there's there's not a
clear consensus about what direction the program is going
and and so it's hard to even say, like are they taking it
seriously, 'cause I don't know who they is at this point.
It's fair and and you're not. You're right, this is a one of
the most awkward times we've had cloudy as to where we're going.
And it's it, you know, the two things are one, it's wild
because again, the whole idea with bringing back a former
night player and somebody from that era was that you're going
to bring some of that night lineage with you.
And Night lineage is about you know building players developing
players, seeing people grow and having continuity and kind of a
system It it's it's wild none of that is happening and that we
are at this point with you know that was one of the selling
points of a of a night person. The other thing that I would say
we'll have more time to talk about in the offseason, it's
just you know the, you know a lot of people are trying to find
you know what's the the positive way out if we lower expectations
for next year and this and that. I just I hate to be this guy but
I just want to lay out that like what is at the feet here too
that they could be going is like next year could be really funky
like could be really toxic. You already have fans who are
unhappy and voicing in an assembly hall.
And I I will tread lightly here, 'cause I I I don't I don't Boo
at games. I don't like booing players at
all. I think it's fair to kind of Boo
coaches. They're adults.
They get paid. It's fair to kind of Boo what
what you're seeing. I'm not a fan of booing players
even at the NBA level. I just don't it's not my style.
That said, you know, I, I, I'm hopefully you can understand my
point of making it across like next year if you have, if you go
out and get seven or eight guys in the portal and things start
to go sour next year, it could get really toxic because people
are already annoyed. They're going to be like, hey
man, you had a chance to make a change last year, you didn't do
anything and now we're with this.
And then you know guys like, you know, Will Sheehy who had been
around for four years, Yogi Ferrell, guys who you have a
relationship with. You know, at least it's like,
hey man, I'm pissed at what's going on.
But like I love those guys on the floor.
If you just have a bunch of guys who were just all new, just a
whole, and I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it's like it
could just get really toxic really quickly.
And it's just like this is as it's like half this podcast has
been you and I kind of lamenting the break in the IU fan base
between Davis and Knight. And then it's like did they do
the right thing with Samson? And then it's like with Crean,
it was coming back and then it became the pro Crean, anti Crean
faction. It's like we continually find
ways to fracture and break this fan base into different
sections. It's almost like the spider man
meme where like at some point we're going to come around like,
whoa, are you pro knight? Anti queen pro Woodson are like,
Oh no, we're both, we're both anti Woodson, pro queen one
like, anti knight, pro knight. Like it's like we we've broken
into 35 different factions. But like I could see next year
being another year where we just break the fan base in half
again. Yeah, I mean, I don't think I
would say that that was hyperbole or that you were
overdoing it. If we hadn't already seen fans
in the middle of February booing players, you know in the in the
middle of a big 10 game that Indiana end up going on and
losing it's man, I don't know. I I'm at a point right now where
I'm. I'm fascinated by where things
are currently AT. And again, like, if you've
gotten tired of this conversation, I don't blame you.
I'm kind of tired of talking about it because I don't know
what I mean. Yeah.
But so much of the problem has been like Indiana has continued
to struggle to find the right fit.
And if you listen to XS and Joes, which I recommend,
everybody does. They spend so much time
rightfully talking about the the actual successful programs.
The Villanovas. The North Carolinas.
The the the Kentucky's the, you know, the the Michigan's over
the course of the last 15 years and and what they've done and
what patterns have existed with the coaches that they've had and
the players that they've brought in and the way that those
players have meshed together and that just isn't here and it
hasn't been here for a while with IU and it can get solved.
And there's the thing I think it's important to keep in mind,
like college sports in particular, it's.
Yes, there's there's certain program aspects that matter, but
so much of it is about the coach.
So much of it is about the coach's ability to understand
the landscape, to navigate the different things you have to
navigate in terms of dealing with players, developing
players, having a system together that's going to be
compatible with those players and also work in the larger
framework of college basketball. And the, you know, a lot gets
pinned on programs. This, you know, we've heard this
about IU, like this program's over the hill.
Or, you know, like it's no longer a special program.
And it, you know, you can't with any intellectual honesty say
that, oh, it's a program thing. When you can look around at all
the programs that were in the dumps or had, you know,
declined, who then hired the right coach and then things took
off. Purdue's a great example.
Like Purdue basically abandoned their basketball program for
five years at the turn of the century, and then they made the
right hire. As it turned out.
And with a couple of bad years in the middle, that's made
Purdue as successful, if not more so than they were during
the Katy era. Villanova's another one.
Villanova had success in the 80s.
They tailed off. They were kind of in the pits in
the in the early 2000s. They make their right hire,
suddenly you're off. You can say the same thing about
Virginia, you can say the same, there's there's several other
programs that you can point to. And and so that's where this is
where I think having the situation with Woodson is so
difficult. And again we're talking about it
because the universities thought that it was important enough
that they had to come out and make a statement slash non
statement that Woodson was going to be retained.
So it's not like all of this stuff is just being invented.
But you know this is where having a former player who's got
a lot of NBA head coaching experience is just a it's a
difficult thing to try to parse because it's hard to look at the
results and the trajectory. More importantly, and I think
it's, I think it's the, you can look at the results this year
and it's one data point, but the trajectory as it's currently on
paper and the problems that have contributed to this season and
why it hasn't been as successful, it's hard to
reconcile that with a clear vision of success.
And at the end of it, it, it really does come back to whoever
the head person is and what they're doing.
And again, we have that example here at IU with Terry Moran.
You know, if you were following like Indiana women's basketball
was a nothing program and you know, Kurt Miller did some good
things to kind of get the beginnings going.
But Terry Moran's taking it to an entirely different level and
has had this sustained pattern of success over the last six
seasons. And that I think illustrates the
point. Is that still a possibility
under Mike Woodson? Maybe, but it seems
progressively less likely in terms of the, the, the, the
pieces that are currently there, the pieces that we know are
coming in, the pieces we know have to come in.
And the examples that have been given to us over the course of
the first three seasons in terms of how these things are likely
to be managed. And so I think if you're an IU
fan who thinks that Woodson deserves a fourth year, that's
fine. But I would recommend that
perhaps you think about, OK, what are the metrics of success
that Indiana should be focusing on and how is how is this coach
and this staff addressing those in a way that seems like
tangible progress? If you're someone who thinks
that a change needs to be made, I think you've probably crossed
a threshold where it's, as you said earlier, going to be hard
to bring you back. It's and and that does create
the fishers in the fan base that you just referred to that are
real hard to fix. I mean, when a lot of people
lost faith in Cream about halfway through the 1415 season
and it never got repaired, even with a Big Ten title and a Sweet
16 appearance. And that does not seem like a
likely scenario for next year for this particular program at
this particular point in time. It's a good point that you make.
I and it's something that unfortunately Indiana's just
kind of stuck with now. Yeah, I mean I I think at that
point we're, yeah, I I think we're kind of belabouring all
points at this point. But it's a it's it's it's a
bummer and you know it's this was you know you and I talked
about it last year that it's it's great to go out big game
hunting and I'm happy they tried and I think it's good and it's
something that Indiana is this the you know the take away from
this shouldn't be all right we got to be gonna go out for five
stars Like no you you can continue to do this You just
need to have backup plans and you know then you also need to
again I I have no idea nor do I care Like you know why Mcneely
did what you know decided to decommit what his reasoning was.
But you know once you commit Mcneely you know this isn't I
just continue to use the NBA because that's where Woodson
come from and it seems to be where a lot of his philosophies
still evolved from. It's like this isn't the NBA
where like once you sign you know once you sign Carmelo to an
offer sheet like he's going to be here next year.
Like you know the the you can decommit from these things.
Like are you continuing to keep touch with this Mcneely
throughout the year. I'm I'm assuming they did but
they obviously didn't do enough or he didn't like what he was
seeing and or hearing because he is now decommitted and and so
but all of that said it's like you got to have a plan BI think
that's where you and I you know this shot across the bow
yesterday was like all right well whatever was left of plan A
is gone and it's too late to get Plan B in because there is no
more recruiting. And you really don't have time
to do that because you know now you got to hit the portal hard
And so you know we we shall see but it's going to take and you
know the last thing I will say is like it's it's going to take
a maniacal amount of work to get this done.
You know when you look at this like you're you're looking at,
you know there are 10 players coming back for next year.
One of those is Khalil Ware who who should go to the NBA.
Like anybody who says, oh, maybe Ware wants to come back like no,
Ware should be going to the NBA. So you effectively have nine
players coming back. One of those is Caleb Banks, who
I I'm assuming is still a player on the.
He was he. He came in at the end of the
Minnesota game. We actually saw him on the
floor. So yeah, I was, I was pushing a
103 fever that night. So I'm.
I'm not sure, but so. All right, great.
So so we we can count on him for two minutes.
We're up by 20 but you have you know him and CJ Gunn and Caleb
Sparks or or Peyton Sparks are three of those players who who
are barely playing in games. So you're down to like 6 players
so you need to get you know six or seven players.
It it's just it's a lot of work to be done.
You have you have to start short shoring up 2024-2025 recruiting.
You probably need to make a couple of staff changes.
Like this is a a ton of work for a coach who has has made some
good strides, made some good portal moves, but doesn't
doesn't always give off the appearance that he's burning the
the candle on both ends at all times.
That's just going to have to change.
This is going to have to be the hardest he's ever worked or the
most strategic he's ever worked in in college basketball.
And he's got to figure it out. He's got to figure it out
unbelievably quick because I think the portal now is like 45
days, right? Yeah, it's, it's 15 days less
than it than it than it has been in the past.
And so that's. Right.
The last thing I know, I'm cutting you off.
Like the last thing is, you know, for those who are not
fully engaged in the portal, it's like the idea that just,
you know, all of the portal doesn't start until the end of
the year and we'll just wait till then.
It's like, I'm assuming half of the guys have already who are
going to be in the portal already have a good idea of
where they're going. Like there's already
conversations going play it. Players have agents now like the
the all the rules are out the windows like it is, it is all
free games. So the idea that it's like, oh,
we'll just wait till the end of the year and figure this out,
like all of these discussions are already happening.
So it's kind of like we don't know it yet, but I think the die
is already cast as to whether we're going to win or not in the
portal. Yeah, I know I and it goes both
ways. And you know, if Indiana's been
doing their due diligence, they've been reaching out as
well. And look, magic can happen.
But I think that there is justifiable concern from fans
who are looking at a roster where you're going to lose your
most productive player regardless.
You're going to lose. The point guard that the head
coach has now multiple times said is the linchpin to
everything. And you're you don't have a
recruit, you have no recruits coming in, you have no four year
or Mcneely was going to be a four year player, but you have
no freshman coming in and you're going to rely on essentially
trying to get people to come here again to play in an offense
that isn't very attractive unless you are a post player.
And that is, that is daunting for any fan who's try.
And And again, IU fans are not unreasonable.
There are entire message boards, entire websites devoted solely
to recruiting and the idea that you just focus on the team
that's on the floor. That hasn't been college fandom
for decades now. It's about the recruiting
process. It's about who's in the
pipeline. It's about how those players are
developing and that there's there's such little to grab
onto. If you're an IU fan in those
areas that yeah, you're at a point where what do you do?
You're just kind of you're you're you're you're again,
you're being told to just sit there and and trust in the
process which is probably going to lead to some angst on the
part of a bunch of people. Anyway, let's go ahead and wrap
up. We'll see what happens Senior
Day coming up on Sunday, and apparently other than Xavier
Johnson, we don't know who is walking.
Mike Woodson, in His press availability on Friday, said
that he hadn't had a conversation with Trey Galloway
or Anthony Leal yet about whether they were going to be
taking part. Which to be fair, Chloe Moore
McNeil on the women's side also waited until she made that
decision. Like right before the Senior Day
for women's basketball. But still, given the general
concern around everything, it would be nice to have a clearer
sense of what to expect, you know, even just out of Senior
Day, let alone the rest of things for IU basketball moving
forward. And I don't say that from my
perspective, I'm not on anything, but if you're fans, I
think you're probably like, I'd like to know a little bit more
about what's going on moving forward because I'd like to know
how to feel. I have one last question.
Like it it feels like it's 17 and 13 we're we're going to be
getting an NIT berth or or possibly in the NIT like our
we're. We're still on the outside of
NIT Bracketology. Really.
So you you don't you don't see us hosting a game and having to
deal with funky, funky vibes at A at an Assembly Hall NIT game?
I mean, is it possible, you sure.
I mean if Indiana, if they beat Michigan State, they might move
into a position where they could host a game.
But I mean if you're on the, if you're on the lower edges of the
bubble in the NIT, you'd probably be going somewhere else
where they would host. But it's it's certainly
possible. If you're asking if Indiana
would turn down another NIT, I'm not asking that.
I'm just, I'm just like, I'm wondering if you know Siri, Siri
does not want, no. Just going nuts today with this
we. Don't need to.
Let's let's wait until we get through the Big Ten term.
I don't know. I just it's more like you know
what the vibes would feel like for that it's I'm with you, man.
I I don't remember a time that have been kind of this this odd
for vibes. It's a weird time, so I was just
thinking like an A home NIT game would probably be a really
another weird experience. Yeah, I mean, let's I I would
prefer to pass on that experience, if at all.
I didn't. I didn't go to the NIT games
back in what was it, 819? It just, I wasn't here that that
spring break. So that was part of the reason.
But yeah, those tend to be kind of odd experiences to say the
least. So maybe maybe would be best for
all involved if that didn't happen, but we'll see anyway.
All right, we'll go ahead and wrap up.
Thanks to Scott, and thanks to all of you for listening in.
We'll we'll catch you folks on the flip side, bring back the
Bison. So long, everybody.