Back in January 2025, Owen Freeman as an Iowa Hawkeye outplayed Mackenzie Mgbako. Iowa crushed IU, 85 - 60. Checking the box score, Freeman 16 points to 6 for Mac. Freeman also won the rebounding battle 12 to 6 plus had 4 blocks and 3 steals. For 2024, Freeman and Mgbako were Big 10 Co-Freshmen of the Year,
Watching a game about a month ago it was mentioned by the announcer, Freeman had battled a knee injury for the season which limited his playing time at Creighton. The injury supposedly occurred during a pick-up game.
Thanks....I remember that now. He wasn't happy at all that he shared the BTFoY with MM. He's definitely a guy with an attitude, good or bad.
@mushroomgod Here's what I love about the potential of Amari Evans...his Defensive BPM (DBPM...advanced stat to help measure defensive performance) was above 5.0. He was one of only three freshmen to eclipse that mark while playing at least 30% of his team's minutes. Evans is probably not going to be a good perimeter shooter but he can rebound well for a wing, has physicality and length, plays with toughness and has the potential to a shutdown defender. Not to be too mean to Miles but I think Evans is in a different universe physically.
I like Elyjah Freeman and he should be looked at as well. Better shooter than Evans and you'd think he should make a jump after having a full year to transition up from D2. Not as good of a defender and I don't think he plays with the same "dawg" mentality that Evans has shown but Freeman would be worth a look. Kevin Overton, another Auburn wing, could be mentioned as well.
@arioznahoosier4554 Is it a big increase to "back Dolson's boy" OR is it a commensurate increase in resources to adjust to the increase in prices? The phrase "the price last month is not the price this month" could apply to the transfer portal market.
$16-$18 million should buy a 25 win, Sweet Sixteen roster at minimum. That amount should place the program in the top ten nationally.
@iugradman I hope so. Every year the number reach new unbelievable amounts. I keep thinking this bubble has to pop but it keeps going.
I don't think motivation as a problem for Dvries no matter his personality. Recruits want money now. So I don't see personality as an issue. The MSU game at home saw IU players being motivated and playing so hard. There was a stretch in the final 6 minutes where they were diving all over the place for loose balls. There were a couple low effort games but for most part I think motivations was not a problem. The lack of talent compared to other teams lacked. Gotta fix that.
Need 2 huge contributors to start and one to be a PG/scorer and maybe 2 more starters, Dorn, Sisley, and maybe Harris and maybe one of the Frosh can be contributors and earn a starting job but for now they form the bench. I don't see how they can be penciled in as starters if team wants to take steps forward. Really need depth in the paint.
What are the best link(s) to follow player availability, rankings and activity in the portal.
@arioznahoosier4554 Is it a big increase to "back Dolson's boy" OR is it a commensurate increase in resources to adjust to the increase in prices? The phrase "the price last month is not the price this month" could apply to the transfer portal market.
From what we are told its a much much bigger increase than last year. That is the type of money that should buy a sweet sixeteen roster .
@iugradman I hope so. Every year the number reach new unbelievable amounts. I keep thinking this bubble has to pop but it keeps going.
And NIL is still only like 5 years old. The first year was when TJD was a senior and he got like 500k. These guys will be making more than pro players soon there seems to be no end in site at all.
I like Evans. He was a highly recruited 4 star out of high school and looks like the type of guy that could play collegiate football. Defense being his #1 strength is very unique for a freshman. When you mentioned Elyjah Freeman, my memory was triggered back to last year when I believe Woodson and staff showed great interest in him.
Over the years there have been several success stories of players making the jump from lower collegiate levels to D-1. Looks like Freeman is doing fine. There is plenty of talent to look at internationally and in the D-1 ranks but are there any possibilities of D-2 players IU might want to check out?
I feel like IU is in a position where they can't take too many risks with lower level D1 or D2 guys, we ideally need proven power conference players. Of course those will be very expensive if they are even available. Of course I would love to find out that Carr (or other staff) has an ability to find underrated guys like Cig does, but based on what we got out of last year's roster we haven't seen that.
@mushroomgod Here's what I love about the potential of Amari Evans...his Defensive BPM (DBPM...advanced stat to help measure defensive performance) was above 5.0. He was one of only three freshmen to eclipse that mark while playing at least 30% of his team's minutes. Evans is probably not going to be a good perimeter shooter but he can rebound well for a wing, has physicality and length, plays with toughness and has the potential to a shutdown defender. Not to be too mean to Miles but I think Evans is in a different universe physically.
I like Elyjah Freeman and he should be looked at as well. Better shooter than Evans and you'd think he should make a jump after having a full year to transition up from D2. Not as good of a defender and I don't think he plays with the same "dawg" mentality that Evans has shown but Freeman would be worth a look. Kevin Overton, another Auburn wing, could be mentioned as well.
I really like the idea of having a couple of guys who are exceptional in one area ( eg..Vaaks shooting, and pretty good ball-handling, Evans D/rebounding ) even if they are meh elsewhere v. just every player being decent in all areas.....because a coach worth his salt will be able to play to the strengths and hide the weaknesses. I don't think you can have a team full of specialists but Vaaks & Evans would work. Our last 2 teams have had (1) no great shooters/scorers and (2) no great rebounders. A complete PG who is a capable outside shooter, 2 lights out shooters, and 2 defenders/rebounders/shot blockers would work.
Back in January 2025, Owen Freeman as an Iowa Hawkeye outplayed Mackenzie Mgbako. Iowa crushed IU, 85 - 60. Checking the box score, Freeman 16 points to 6 for Mac. Freeman also won the rebounding battle 12 to 6 plus had 4 blocks and 3 steals. For 2024, Freeman and Mgbako were Big 10 Co-Freshmen of the Year,
Watching a game about a month ago it was mentioned by the announcer, Freeman had battled a knee injury for the season which limited his playing time at Creighton. The injury supposedly occurred during a pick-up game.
Thanks....I remember that now. He wasn't happy at all that he shared the BTFoY with MM. He's definitely a guy with an attitude, good or bad.
I would think he'd be pretty expensive if his knee is ok. He is 6 10 and close to being an elite rebounder (about 4 more rebounds per 40M played than Alexis) and also blocked shots at a higher rate than Alexis (although still not elite in that area). Plus he's decent on offense.
I don't know if this Quinn Ellis guy is a recruit or portal guy. I am reading about this 22 year old guard playing in Italy. Don't even know how many years of eligibility he might have. It will probably take a lot of NIL to get him and some schools like UK, Duke, BYU, Florida are checking in. If Carr is to help significantly with International recruiting might be a good place to start if he can be the PG.
S16-level money, NIT-level coach. I don't expect anything special next season, regardless of the roster. I'd love to be as wrong as wrong can be, but I just don't see it. Others do ... and I hope those people are spot-on.
I'll stay out of the Devries should he stay or go. Have no idea what the plan was in hiring him. If he wants to tread water and build up thru HS recruiting and the AD agrees then he he'll probably be here 1-2 more years pending next years success on the court in the HS recruiting front. I liked the iowa St. coach and Texas Tech coach but wasn't against Devries. I like him and some of the system he ran but saw some things I didn't like. The lack of physical play was terrible though the team played hard. Was it the players or the system. So far all his 26 and 27 HS recruits are wings/guards so that doesn't seemed address yet.
Just trolling rosters of teams that have moved on from their coach, I was looking ASU who has moved on from Bobby Hurley. They have a 7'2" Frosh center from Senegal that has put in a nice year. I mentioned Thiem from cincy also. I have no idea that either of these 2 would be in portal but teams changing coaches usually have a lots of portal entries.
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