Expectations are that Yigitoglu should improve in 2026-27 as it will be his 3rd year in collegiate ball.I have not seen him.play. I work with a guy who played on an IHSAA state finals team and played some small college ball. This guy really seems to have his shit together when it comes to basketball. He said SMU played U of L 2 times during the season and Yugi looked totally in over his head both games. I've heard from a couple other dudes I consider good sources that gave similar assessments of the guy. I hope they are wrong, but this has me spooked I think we need another quality big or this roster might be "one man short".@redandrowdy Not sure why you say that about the kid from SMU; he's been pretty productive in a solid league already. Moves well for a big man. The guy he has me hoping he can become is Mara, and he's certainly got a better resume than Mara did before heading to UM.
I agree that IU needs some more bench size with Sherrell and Yigi being the only guys over 6'8'' in height. If the portal recruiters fail to add some height and rebounding depth to the roster they should be charged with negligence.
I am guessing you are writing about Christian Reeves.Next unrealistic target on my list is Christian Anderson. Apparently already seems Duke or Florida are in his cards. Some players seem worthy of opening the pocketbook to raise the team up another level. He is certainly one of those players.
@bigmike No... Christian Anderson from Texas Tech. One of, if not the, best player in this years portal class. With Blackwell to Duke, Florida maybe for Anderson?... or maybe he's leveraging to get Texas Tech to up the bag significantly, and he'll ultimately return there... like Rob Wright did with BYU?
@bigmike Mara was a very flawed player coming out of UCLA. Its possible Yiggy could make similar improvements. I would say banking on that isn't a very good strategy, though. Its still pretty obvious IU needs to add some more depth and talent on the front line. Seems like they've been pretty good at operating behind the scenes with all this portal stuff. So hopefully they're very actively pursuing more bigs. With how last years class went, its pretty normal for us IU fans to be nervous about it, though.
Two years ago IU grabbed Oumar Ballo out of the portal. Expectations were sky high as Indiana now had one of the top portal targets, two time first team All Pac-12 and shot blocking defensive player. The season that followed turned out to be one of the most disappointing in recent years.
Last year many were skeptical with the roster of mid-major height challenged all stars. The message fandom heard was the roster was stacked with elite 3 point shooters. For the season the team shot a not so elite 34.7% and if Wilkerson and Dorn are taken out of the stats, the overall team percentage on 3's is a dismal 31.8%. Fan skepticism turned into reality.
So far it seems far greater thought has gone into roster construction for IU. The initial 6 portal additions are all from power conferences and are younger players with potential upsides. All but Burton have 2 remaining years of eligibility and it's possible Burton could get a medical redshirt for an additional year. I expect better results for 2026-27 but as it stands the current roster has many question marks and some remaining holes to fill.
The absence of any proven inside players other than Sherrell and Yigitoglu could turn about to be a major problem.
A number of the talking heads have suggested Indiana is done with its major roster lifting. These people are probably right but it would be nice to get surprised with the addition of one more impact player. Ultimately DeVries needs to get all the pieces to work as a cohesive unit and improve upon the disappointing results of his first year.
@bigmike If they're "tapped out" on funds, then they're tapped out, I guess. And this roster is constructed better, overall, than last years was. And Sherrell and Yiggy, is a better front court stable than Bailey, Alexis, Harris, Amicovic, were. But as we saw last year, injuries happen. And only having 2 rotation capable bigs, if that is how it ends up, is not a good idea. And while it has to be acknowledged that the roster IS better, and appears to be more purposeful and thought out... its still pretty early, so throwing out these IF's is pretty whiny sounding, at this point... but IF, those 2 guys do end up being the only 2 rotation capable bigs on our roster... that flips me back in to the major red flag territory for CDD and our staff, when it comes to roster decisions, team building philosophies, etc...
Lots of time left. Hopefully this gnashing and worrying ends up looking silly. But until we add another rotation level big, I'll be worried about it.
No one knows how this will play out or what roster ramifications it will have but there could be chaos in the near future if seniors are granted another year of eligibility with immediate implementation: https://twitter.com/WinterSportsLaw/status/2047277566990389673?s=20
Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey would have the possibility to play another year. I'd guess all eligible 5th year players would get a portal window of their own and then we'd see a scramble. For reference, potential notable players that COULD play again: Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Jakobi Gillespie, Nick Boyd, Tarris Reed, Alex Karaban, Ryan Conwell and several, several others.
Eventually what will happen with the roster will happen. For now it's something to talk and debate about as fans of IU basketball.@bigmike If they're "tapped out" on funds, then they're tapped out, I guess. And this roster is constructed better, overall, than last years was. And Sherrell and Yiggy, is a better front court stable than Bailey, Alexis, Harris, Amicovic, were. But as we saw last year, injuries happen. And only having 2 rotation capable bigs, if that is how it ends up, is not a good idea. And while it has to be acknowledged that the roster IS better, and appears to be more purposeful and thought out... its still pretty early, so throwing out these IF's is pretty whiny sounding, at this point... but IF, those 2 guys do end up being the only 2 rotation capable bigs on our roster... that flips me back in to the major red flag territory for CDD and our staff, when it comes to roster decisions, team building philosophies, etc...
Lots of time left. Hopefully this gnashing and worrying ends up looking silly. But until we add another rotation level big, I'll be worried about it.
Just wonder if the Charlie Baker push for 5 year eligibility is having any impact on schools regarding roster construction. Baker, as NCAA president has made it known he'd like to see the NCAA enact a ruling where 5 year eligibility starts with high school graduation or age 19 whichever comes first. Baker stated he'd like the rule to come into effect for fall 2026 competition. Seems like something would need to be done within the next few weeks to have any possible impact on the 2026-27 rosters.
I"d take Bailey and Alexis both off the bench.
It's perhaps a little early to give Ryan Carr a job evaluation but all the signs and indications are that he knows how to assess basketball talent.@bigmike Mara was a very flawed player coming out of UCLA. Its possible Yiggy could make similar improvements. I would say banking on that isn't a very good strategy, though. Its still pretty obvious IU needs to add some more depth and talent on the front line. Seems like they've been pretty good at operating behind the scenes with all this portal stuff. So hopefully they're very actively pursuing more bigs. With how last years class went, its pretty normal for us IU fans to be nervous about it, though.
No one knows how this will play out or what roster ramifications it will have but there could be chaos in the near future if seniors are granted another year of eligibility with immediate implementation: https://twitter.com/WinterSportsLaw/status/2047277566990389673?s=20
Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey would have the possibility to play another year. I'd guess all eligible 5th year players would get a portal window of their own and then we'd see a scramble. For reference, potential notable players that COULD play again: Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Jakobi Gillespie, Nick Boyd, Tarris Reed, Alex Karaban, Ryan Conwell and several, several others.
Winds have been blowing this direction for awhile.
The utter chaos of the NCAA execution of this initiative would be entertaining.
Then you have schools who have fully shot their player budgetary load and players who think they deserve top dollar if they return.
You gotta wonder if Painter knew this was for sure coming, hence why Purdue's basketball payroll is maybe 5 million for the upcoming season.
Thus leaving plenty of room for future Euro players, Smith and Loyer to return.
I had big men on the brain so referenced Christian Reeves.@bigmike No... Christian Anderson from Texas Tech. One of, if not the, best player in this years portal class. With Blackwell to Duke, Florida maybe for Anderson?... or maybe he's leveraging to get Texas Tech to up the bag significantly, and he'll ultimately return there... like Rob Wright did with BYU?
Christian Anderson is an elite point guard and a player I'd put several notches ahead of Markus Burton. Some day Anderson will play in the NBA. Burton, I'm not so sure.
Found our backup Big.
Toyota's CUE7 robot shoots hoops using AI
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/toyota-cue7-robot-shoots-hoops-using-ai
I"d take Bailey and Alexis both off the bench.
I'd take Alexis but cannot stomach another moment watching Reed "tissue" Bailey