When the roster was built through the portal last year a concern voiced was if the mid-major all stars would be able to shoot their way to success. As the season progressed the shortcomings of the team surfaced a number of times.
Good to hear DeVries acknowledge the greater athleticism and physicality of Big 10 basketball in your article but as a collegiate coach he should have been aware of these realities last year. If he was clueless, IU basketball is in for a tough road.
I'll cut him some slack as I don't know all the factors involved in last Aprils roster building efforts. We'll soon see the direction the recruiting takes in a few weeks.
Thanks for the article. Gives us some names to identify when all the portal chaos soon takes place.
@bigmike I just can't fathom that he was clueless on it. MANY posters on this board picked up on the various needs we were lacking, early on in the portal process. Not to hurt all "our" feelings, but we don't know jack shit about building a college basketball team or roster, compared to CDD... Big Ten, Big 12, Valley... whatever. He knows more about what is needed than we do.
For whatever reason, he wasn't able to do it. Maybe he focused on shooters and skill too much early, thinking he could come back and get size and athleticism? Maybe he didn't have the money? Lots of possibilities. But I just cant entertain one of them being, he just didn't know he was going to need them.
I agree. We'll cut him slack as we have no idea of the issues he faced last April. Interested to see a different direction in the portal this April. The senior dominated team of 2025-26 will require a major re-load.@bigmike I just can't fathom that he was clueless on it. MANY posters on this board picked up on the various needs we were lacking, early on in the portal process. Not to hurt all "our" feelings, but we don't know jack shit about building a college basketball team or roster, compared to CDD... Big Ten, Big 12, Valley... whatever. He knows more about what is needed than we do.
For whatever reason, he wasn't able to do it. Maybe he focused on shooters and skill too much early, thinking he could come back and get size and athleticism? Maybe he didn't have the money? Lots of possibilities. But I just cant entertain one of them being, he just didn't know he was going to need them.
The prior IU basketball coach set the low bar for portal recruiting as the strategy was to throw bags of cash at players with high recruiting star ratings. Team fit will be a major segment of DeVries roster building effort.
We all think we know. But could any of us actually do it? That is the difference. It's much easier to think you know than to actually do. Then you find out that all of your assumptions were just a little bit off. Think about whatever field you work in or know deeply. How many times do people get moved up and they need to adjust to the new demands and pressures of the job before they are really effective. They "know" what they need to do but they need to learn how to actually do it.
@ams66 DeVries coached in the BigXII last year. Yes, he has spent most of his career at the mid-major level, but this wasn't like throwing a student teacher into an AP classroom on day one and saying here you teach em.
Is there an adjustment period? Yes, but everyone knows the Big Ten is a meat grinder. He got the data he needs and it's time for him to get to work on fixing what needs to be fixed.
so basically starting over again. Not ideal, but let's see if he is able to pull in a better set of transfers. Other than Dorn, I don't see single returning player that should be starting for a team that hopes to finish in the top half of the Big Ten. DD better bring in 4 or 5 Big Ten caliber starters or next year won't be much better.
Question about the players listed- do we know these players are hitting the portal or have a good idea that they will?
Sorry but I refuse to believe we hired a guy from a Big 12 school .. one year yes but still, and gave him a salary of 5m annually , 10m in NIL funds ... 1m of which went to his son? , to have that steep of a learning curve to endure. Sorry calling BS on that. There's always an amount of salesmanship going on both ends... DD sold them on his prowess and ability. They bought it. Now that said could any of us put together this roster any better.. maybe not.. but then again I didn't tell Dolson or anyone else I could, nor did I take 15m and pretend that I could. So there is a lot of responsibility to be owned here by DD. Obviously either Dolson sees the flaws or DD sees it and asked for Carr. Or they both see it ... I'm hoping Dolson sees it either way. And I'd tend to cut him some slack if I saw a team that continued to improve as the year went on ... to see a team not as confused in game 32 as they were in game 2 or kept displaying effort and good attitude in game 32 as they did in game 1. But I saw a team that was woefully inconsistent on all of those areas. And the last 6-7 games it was worse Their season on the line and they gave less and executed poorly.. that to me says DD lost the locker room and that is poison.
Sorry but I refuse to believe we hired a guy from a Big 12 school .. one year yes but still, and gave him a salary of 5m annually , 10m in NIL funds ... 1m of which went to his son? , to have that steep of a learning curve to endure. Sorry calling BS on that. There's always an amount of salesmanship going on both ends... DD sold them on his prowess and ability. They bought it. Now that said could any of us put together this roster any better.. maybe not.. but then again I didn't tell Dolson or anyone else I could, nor did I take 15m and pretend that I could. So there is a lot of responsibility to be owned here by DD. Obviously either Dolson sees the flaws or DD sees it and asked for Carr. Or they both see it ... I'm hoping Dolson sees it either way. And I'd tend to cut him some slack if I saw a team that continued to improve as the year went on ... to see a team not as confused in game 32 as they were in game 2 or kept displaying effort and good attitude in game 32 as they did in game 1. But I saw a team that was woefully inconsistent on all of those areas. And the last 6-7 games it was worse Their season on the line and they gave less and executed poorly.. that to me says DD lost the locker room and that is poison.
I think they all expected the season to go a bit better than it did. I've said many times it was a mistake to pick somebody who couldn't bring most of his staff and several players with him after having to endure 8 years of Woodson/Archie and that not happening is not a surprise. The makeup of his staff at WVU was known upfront. Fans want/need a quicker turnaround after 8 years of mucking around and Dolson set this up in a hole right off the start, even if DDV can turn it around.
That said, I'd separate Carr from any kind of desperation. All programs are hiring positions like this now especially big programs. I would bet Carr outlives this staff if they don't pan out, as well. Whether or not he moves the needle for this staff remains to be seen, but he or that position will be here long-term.
saw a team that was woefully inconsistent on all of those areas. And the last 6-7 games it was worse Their season on the line and they gave less and executed poorly.. that to me says DD lost the locker room and that is poison.
There's got to be a weird dynmic also from the players (at least the ones getting playing time) are mostly seniors. This is their last year, they don't need to earn a spot to come back to or be good enough to go through the portal to another school, nobody but Wilkerson might have a chance at playing pro, they are all getting paid. The team is obviously not good enough to do anything in the tournament even if they make it in. Why work hard?
The competition over the last half a dozen or so games was tough and Indiana didn't come close to meeting the challenge (other than the Minnesota game). Extremely disappointing to see the most experienced basketball team in the NCAA play as they did. There are zero excuses. The coach and players need to take accountability for the poor performance. These guys are seniors but I saw little purpose, poise and passion behind the play.Sorry but I refuse to believe we hired a guy from a Big 12 school .. one year yes but still, and gave him a salary of 5m annually , 10m in NIL funds ... 1m of which went to his son? , to have that steep of a learning curve to endure. Sorry calling BS on that. There's always an amount of salesmanship going on both ends... DD sold them on his prowess and ability. They bought it. Now that said could any of us put together this roster any better.. maybe not.. but then again I didn't tell Dolson or anyone else I could, nor did I take 15m and pretend that I could. So there is a lot of responsibility to be owned here by DD. Obviously either Dolson sees the flaws or DD sees it and asked for Carr. Or they both see it ... I'm hoping Dolson sees it either way. And I'd tend to cut him some slack if I saw a team that continued to improve as the year went on ... to see a team not as confused in game 32 as they were in game 2 or kept displaying effort and good attitude in game 32 as they did in game 1. But I saw a team that was woefully inconsistent on all of those areas. And the last 6-7 games it was worse Their season on the line and they gave less and executed poorly.. that to me says DD lost the locker room and that is poison.
Following Northwestern's win over IU, Chris Collins addressed the press saying if you can't get juiced up playing a storied program like Indiana at the United Center in the Big 10 Tournament somethings wrong. I 100% endorse his statement. Obviously his players got the message.
As a long time supporter of Indiana basketball, nothing would please me better than for DeVries to turn this around next year.
saw a team that was woefully inconsistent on all of those areas. And the last 6-7 games it was worse Their season on the line and they gave less and executed poorly.. that to me says DD lost the locker room and that is poison.
There's got to be a weird dynmic also from the players (at least the ones getting playing time) are mostly seniors. This is their last year, they don't need to earn a spot to come back to or be good enough to go through the portal to another school, nobody but Wilkerson might have a chance at playing pro, they are all getting paid. The team is obviously not good enough to do anything in the tournament even if they make it in. Why work hard?
jease I don't know maybe pride. Work ethic. If you can't get in the court and give it your all then we have the wrong guys on the team. That's just despicable if that's the case and it seems it may be. Absolutely disgusting
Sorry but I refuse to believe we hired a guy from a Big 12 school .. one year yes but still, and gave him a salary of 5m annually , 10m in NIL funds ... 1m of which went to his son? , to have that steep of a learning curve to endure. Sorry calling BS on that. There's always an amount of salesmanship going on both ends... DD sold them on his prowess and ability. They bought it. Now that said could any of us put together this roster any better.. maybe not.. but then again I didn't tell Dolson or anyone else I could, nor did I take 15m and pretend that I could. So there is a lot of responsibility to be owned here by DD. Obviously either Dolson sees the flaws or DD sees it and asked for Carr. Or they both see it ... I'm hoping Dolson sees it either way. And I'd tend to cut him some slack if I saw a team that continued to improve as the year went on ... to see a team not as confused in game 32 as they were in game 2 or kept displaying effort and good attitude in game 32 as they did in game 1. But I saw a team that was woefully inconsistent on all of those areas. And the last 6-7 games it was worse Their season on the line and they gave less and executed poorly.. that to me says DD lost the locker room and that is poison.
I think they all expected the season to go a bit better than it did. I've said many times it was a mistake to pick somebody who couldn't bring most of his staff and several players with him after having to endure 8 years of Woodson/Archie and that not happening is not a surprise. The makeup of his staff at WVU was known upfront. Fans want/need a quicker turnaround after 8 years of mucking around and Dolson set this up in a hole right off the start, even if DDV can turn it around.
That said, I'd separate Carr from any kind of desperation. All programs are hiring positions like this now especially big programs. I would bet Carr outlives this staff if they don't pan out, as well. Whether or not he moves the needle for this staff remains to be seen, but he or that position will be here long-term.
I wasn't thinking hiring Carr was desperation .. it was the right move ... should have been done last year. Typ IU a day late and a dollar short.
@hoosiers94 I don't disagree but I think the vast amount of money now being paid to players with no performance requirement at all has corrupted the game. Players used to be motivated by pride and winning. There was nothing else. Now they get hundreds of thousands or even millions no matter how hard they work (or don't).
Does anyone think Coach Doorknob has the ability to fire up or inspire his players? He’s another Archie, in way over his head.