That roster would probably be bottom third of the big ten. You are going to need four or five guys from the portal who can start or play very heavy minutes. A few guys on this roster are going to need to leave for that to happen. 

@arioznahoosier4554 they need 5 starters to be honest.

I think there's a pretty good chance that IU is worse next year, which means it will become difficult to recruit during the following off-season.

I agree with others that IU needs a huge influx of talent and specific positional needs: 2 PG or combo guards, at least one 3pt shooter, 2-3 guys over 6'8", at least one who can defend at the 5.

It is unlikely for more than one frosh to play meaningful minutes or be counted on for much scoring.

On top of that, Im not sure Sisley and Dorn can both start.  They are basically the same position, though they have different skill sets.

I think DeVries needs to hit the portal like his job depends on it.  Im rooting for him to succeed, but losing a lot of seniors from a team that finished 10th in the Big Ten doesn't give one a fuzzy feeling for an immediate turnaround.

The next 5 or 6 weeks may well be the most important ones of DeVries tenure at IU. A winning Big 10 record, 20+ wins and an invite to the NCAA tourney will require major roster upgrades. Seems like playing opportunity and a big paycheck are his two major recruiting selling points. 

@tr32 i don't think they're going to be worse but i have nothing to base that off of. 

iu wasted multiple millions of dollars on guys who just weren't good enough for the level. i think with an actual gm...a really good one who isn't a hired mercenary but an alum...they can add some nice pieces.

again, in any game in the 2nd half of the season iu had basically 2.5 actual high major players and nearly made the tournament.

@iureactionary I'm struggling to mentally square in my head that sometimes inconsistency does, in fact, come from lack of ability, skill, talent, etc... I'm wired to believe that if you do something multiple times, that implies you're "good enough" to do it all the time.  And those guys you're mentioning that aren't B10 level, had many, many stretches this year where they played like a top 15 team.  How did that happen?  We like to focus on how and why the downside type stuff happened.  But how did the good stretches happen?  How did they control Purdue for most of the game?  How did they control Nebraska for most of the game?  How did they destroy teams like Oregon and Minnesota?  How did they go out and beat UCLA at Pauley?  How did they do, what Michigan and Purdue were unable to do, and beat Wisconsin at home?

I guess maybe a legitimate hope should be that if CDD is able to field a team that has more B10 level starters, it will make the downside stuff, not slide nearly as far down as this team's did.  So games like Nebraska, at Minny, NW both games, USC... most of those type games will end up being wins next year.

So, I am still excited by a lot of the "stuff" I saw from this first team.  The highs were fun to watch.  And I'm hopeful an influx in size and athleticism, if it happens, will mitigate some of the lows.  But I'm still very concerned on WHY the lows happened more than the highs.  There was something very off about this team, especially late in the season.  They definitely didn't "come together" in March.  

Let Drake and Harris go.  Even the Bosnian kid.  Get 6 difference makers.  Anything short of that we will shit the bed again 

@iunorth i agree with you

what separates real high major players is consistency. 

you can see that with nick dorn. dorn can't consistently be that 3rd or even 4th option and his bad defense gets even worse when his shot isn't falling. iu needed one of him or bailey or alexis to do that every game. they just didn't do it enough. we saw it in spurts where iu looked easily like a top 25 team on both ends of the floor.

the ceiling for what this team did look like in spurts is why i'm still bullish on devries. the game i went to at the united center against marquette, iu had it all going. marquette wasn't good but iu ran beautiful offense to get guys shots. if the refs didn't call a million fouls (many were fouls but iu's defense hounded them), iu wins that by 50 and it wasn't just a guy or two getting hot. shots were open and shooters hit them.

we saw them play similarly in the games you mentioned. 

iu needs better athletes and more consistency. but, if they can get that (if being the operative word), i think devries can put out a good product and has a high ceiling as a coach.

lastly, i'm going to keep harping on this: once tucker went down at wvu, devries just packed it in and his team finished 7th nationally in defensive efficiency by torvik. he knows how to adjust, but it's hard to adjust when you have guys like conerway who look like they're actively disinterested or dorn who only looks engaged when his shot is falling or bailey who had major confidence issues.

unless things go totally off the rails, i think devries gets a 3rd year. he has to prove it next year so a lot of pressure but getting a good gm should help and hopefully he can show prospective portal guys how the offense can look when its clicking because when it was clicking, it looked elite.

@hoosiers94 i'm not even sure they keep anyone...i'm just saying that this is where the roster is right now.

the good news is that iu will literally have basically an entire rosters worth of money off the books.

@iureactionary oof. It sucks that we suck so bad that that could be considered “good news”

smfh

Posted by: @iureactionary

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@tr32 i don't think they're going to be worse but i have nothing to base that off of. 

iu wasted multiple millions of dollars on guys who just weren't good enough for the level. i think with an actual gm...a really good one who isn't a hired mercenary but an alum...they can add some nice pieces.

again, in any game in the 2nd half of the season iu had basically 2.5 actual high major players and nearly made the tournament.

@the-watsonr32 i don't think they're going to be worse but i have nothing to base that off of. 

They could very well be worse really depends on what bigs are in the portal and if we can get them or not. Remember Bailey was considered one of the better portal players so if the portal is like that again it find it hard to believe we will be any better.  There is a reason Duke signs 4-6 studs every fall you really do not want to have to us the portal as your main recruiting tool like we are being forced to do now two years in a row. 

One of the items to follow is how many of the 10 roster players return next year. With a full roster of 13, at least 3 of the current 10 must go to make room for the incoming higher level portal guys.

@arioznahoosier4554 

i don't think devries wants to be in the portal each year and that's why he has 3 freshman coming in next season while already having a '27 commit.

but after the failure to get to their goal of tournament or bust, they're in the same spot as last year but with three freshman. you're right...that sucks.

my main issue with devries, outside of being wrong on his evaluations for some of the guys he brought in, stem from the 4 guys that redshirted. those spots needed to be filled with multi year guys who were actually going to contribute this season and be guys you could build on for next year, especially if guys like conerway or bailey struggled.none of them even played (except ristic in only garbage time). i knew they weren't going to be stars as bench guys but having guys you could point to and say "see, this guys coming back" would have been ideal.

problem is, what multi year guy with talent is going to be fine with a bench role? carlysle and rice would never have come if they weren't starters. again, it's a fine line and iu was going to be in the portal no matter what in year two, so i don't really think its that big of a deal other than that they need 5 starters instead of maybe 3.

Devries has stated his preference to build from high school up. But that takes time. He'll have to lean on the portal for another couple of years.