I'm sorry , I know the season is early. But when you see clearly the holes in the dam it's hard to Pollyanna the rest of the way. And frankly it's way harder to evolve or reconstruct a Football roster than it is a basketball one. Cig has perhaps spoiled us but he has also shown us what's possible. If IU would have told us all that we are hiring DD but we expect the first two years to be a waste and we will be back on track in year 3 or 4. None of us would have bought that ... but yet it feels like that's what's going on. Now I'm super glad Football is now what it is. But our identity for so Long and hence all of "our" identities somewhat were founded on Basketball and The General. So personally, as much as I love what Cig has done and will continue to do so, I am still at a little of a loss when we put out a product on the court that we seem to have yet once again. Sorry but I'm seeing signs of incompetence and bad judgment in talent evaluation. A sense of desperation. DD brought no one over from WVU other than Tucker. Conor doesn't count either. We have a roster full of mid major players. Been saying since PR that we won't compete against the upper tier. Can't fix weak , slow and short .. and here we are yet again in this albatross of shitty basketball. How and when do we get out of this and get some semblance of prowess back. Beyond frustrating
I'm with you, mostly. Willing to reserve judgement and see where we are in February (what other choice do we really have) but anybody who was honest about this roster was not seriously expecting a conference championship or deep tourney run this season. CDD isn't Cig, and he's not RMK. Nobody thought he was. If that's your standard it will be decades before you are satisfied, if ever.
@hoosiers94 I used to live and die with Hoosier basketball, but the administration has bungled the majority of the last 25 years so I'm not all that invested anymore. And during that time, there have been many (very) unlikable teams, especially lately (Woody's non-TJD squads and this team, for example).
I hear IU has a decent football team, so they deserve all my fandom. IU could have hired a program changer like BM, but they flat-out settled.
In any case, it's tough sledding being a basketball program at a football school, so I'll give DD some leeway.
I knew the roster was flawed and I didn't expect any success based on the info. What I'm most disappointed in is the hire. The almost settling on a hire that doesn't move the needle for us in basketball. Not sure why we can't have both Football and Baskrtball. Last I checked Alabama has pretty decent teams. I know it's not common place especially in the same season but why we can't hire the right guy at the right time. IE Dusty May etc.
we are lucky as all hell we got Cig and I don't think anyone ever dreamed he would be able to do what he's done , not even Dolson.
@hoosiers94 would you have been thrilled with a Kelsey hire last year? I'm going to go on a limb and say no. This is the state of things now.
May would have been nice but you can blame Buckner for that.
I also don't see anybody saying this is intended to be a 4 year full rebuild. That won't fly and there's zero chance Dolson tries to spin that. He wanted to fire Bigfoot after 3 years a legendary former player with a ton of almni backers. There's no way he keeps DDV past 2, maybe 3 years unless things move in the right direction quickly.
No I don't think that, I'm just being dramatic. But honestly with this now being a business I'm ready to move on at seasons end if things don't make a serious turn
DD didn't get WV into the NCAA in their first year, not sure why we'd think he'd do it this year. They might squeak in as a bubble team, but they look more like a 8-12 or 7-13 big ten team right now. I guess they might win a random road game where the shots fall, but they will struggle against good teams, even at home.
The Big refs letting every game turn into a wrestling match adds an additional layer of adjustment for our guys, I guess.
DD didn't get WV into the NCAA in their first year, not sure why we'd think he'd do it this year. They might squeak in as a bubble team, but they look more like a 8-12 or 7-13 big ten team right now. I guess they might win a random road game where the shots fall, but they will struggle against good teams, even at home.
The Big refs letting every game turn into a wrestling match adds an additional layer of adjustment for our guys, I guess.
Which is one of the main reasons the B1G has constantly struggled in the NCAA tournament imo. I think DeVries put this roster together to hopefully do something in March but he seemed to forget that you have to perform well in conference just to make the tournament.
@whatthefrik missing a ton of context there. WV won 9 games, total, the prior year. He got them to 19 without their 2 best players who went down to injury early in the year and even then most agreed they were robbed of a bid. That was also in the B12 which statistically was the best conference last year. There was no reason to think he couldn't do the same here.
@hoosiers94 I can't see them giving him, or anybody, a single season barring some kind of scandal. Its a business yeah but thats a ton of buyout money to be tossing around every year and eventually the donors aren't going to be there for it without some gaurantee of a huge hire which in today's game is highly unlikely. We saw several major programs have openings and none them landed big, proven fish.
@whatthefrik missing a ton of context there. WV won 9 games, total, the prior year. He got them to 19 without their 2 best players who went down to injury early in the year and even then most agreed they were robbed of a bid. That was also in the B12 which statistically was the best conference last year. There was no reason to think he couldn't do the same here.
And when he arrived at Drake they had made the NCAA tournament once in the past 50 years. He took them 3 times and won 20 or more games every season. I think he just made a mistake in the roster construction this year. I wouldn't expect it to happen again.
Wow
If men were any more stupid, we would have breed for the extinction of women. Proof yet again that WE are the best thing they have going for them.
i think you're right that IU won't have the balls to do that after year 1. Although if I'm an NIL contributor and yet another year of my sizable donation goes to waste I'm thinking twice about giving again. And when I was a NIL contributor to VU that's what I did. Poor performance... waste of my money
While it's clear that this team has a much lower ceiling than any of us would like to see, one positive with this team is that they haven't rolled over. That alone will keep me watching.
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