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OT!!!: IU grabs mediocrity from the portal

“NEWS: Stanford transfer Kanaan Carlyle, a top-10 player in the portal, has committed to Indiana, @On3sports has learned. The 6-3 freshman guard averaged 11.5 PPG this season.

During his first season in college basketball, Carlyle shot just 38.6 percent from the field and 32.0 percent from behind the arc. He also converted only 77.6 percent of his attempts from the free throw line.
lol. We shall see
 
A bit more athletic than Loyer so it's promising. Has a long way to go to being part of a winning team. Improved shooting numbers and the biggest things is defense. But Indiana added the Pac-12 freshman of the year and 1st team all Pac-12 vin Myles Rice(who is just a great story anyways, and technically a senior in college, Sophomore in playing). Added another Pac-12 1st teamed in Ballo and Carlyle who was honorable mention for Pac-12 freshman 1st team. It'll be an interesting year in Bloomington(and the entire Big Ten for that matter). Woodson is either going to save his job for a couple years and going golfing a lot more.
A bit more athletic? Ok……. 😎
 
So I posted this elsewhere but IU now has the following:

Rice
Carlyle
Mgbako
Reneau
Ballo
Tucker
Galloway
Cupps
Leal
Newton

That’s 10 guys already and I would assume they’re looking to add at least one shooter and a big.

Besides the fact that Mbgako is slow and will have a tough time guarding the 3, is IU going to have to tell the 5 star Frosh they paid big money for, to come off the bench or one of the guards they just paid big money for to come off the bench. wonder if anyone will get upset over that?

Still don’t see how Ballo and Reneau fit unless Malik can develop a consistent outside jumper that’s worth going out to guard. Ballo has no such skill in that department and while athletic, is slow to guard the PnR. Good rebounder, due to being bigger than everyone (we ve benefited from that), but awful FT shooter. I feel he clogs the lane for Reneau and others.

So, if you play those first 6 I listed, you’re probably going to play Galloway, a big and a shooter next in the lineup. Which means Gallo is your 7th-9th guy off the bench with reduced mins. Cupps probably sees way less mins than last year being the 10th man and Leal will barely sniff the floor, barring injury. The 3 guys who showed loyalty and stayed at IU, get recruited over and pushed down in the lineup and minutes reduced. That’s pretty $hitty if you ask me.

That also doesn’t even include Newton…not sure how he fits into the lineup.

I guess from IU’s perspective it’s a good problem to have? But Not sure as a HS receuit, why you’d want to go there, stay and develop at IU if they are just going to recruit over you. But hey, this is the most talented team (star wise) IU has had for quite some time so (as you said) no excuses this year….if they don’t win the conference and make it out of the first weekend….id assume that be an epic fail with all the money shelled out to buy this team.
How many 5 stars on next year's team? This last one had 3 five stars.
 
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Who did Stanford play vs Purdues schedule!
Loyer’s freshman year we didn’t have that great of a schedule. So what if he’s loyer 2.0, we are even talking about benching loyer as a junior. He has been a weak link. And loyer plays for co-coach of the year who uses him to win where now this guy will be playing for well not co-coach of the year.
 
Tucker and Mgbako are 5 stars out of high school.

Reneau and Carlyle were both “5 star” at one point in their high school recruiting.

Ballo was a high 4 star prior to college.

No excuses this year due to lack of talent…
IU had almost as much talent on last years team…
 
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This is the difference between painter/ Purdue and Woodson/IU:

Paint - we had a good team but to get over the hump we have a weakness and need a quick, athletic guard who can play good perimeter defense. Goes deep in portal and finds perfect plug, Lance Jones.

Woody - we were just bad last year, yeah we couldn’t hit 3s or FTs, and our locker room wasn’t great, but I’m not the one shooting the shots. I’m going to whoa my guys and recruit over them and buy the highest rated players and talent wins the game.
 
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A bit more athletic than Loyer so it's promising. Has a long way to go to being part of a winning team. Improved shooting numbers and the biggest things is defense. But Indiana added the Pac-12 freshman of the year and 1st team all Pac-12 vin Myles Rice(who is just a great story anyways, and technically a senior in college, Sophomore in playing). Added another Pac-12 1st teamed in Ballo and Carlyle who was honorable mention for Pac-12 freshman 1st team. It'll be an interesting year in Bloomington(and the entire Big Ten for that matter). Woodson is either going to save his job for a couple years and going golfing a lot more.
Sleepy Mike has to coach, though. Can’t wait for his NBA-caliber plays and in-game adjustments.
 
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Loyer’s freshman year we didn’t have that great of a schedule. So what if he’s loyer 2.0, we are even talking about benching loyer as a junior. He has been a weak link. And loyer plays for co-coach of the year who uses him to win where now this guy will be playing for well not co-coach of the year.
Will he be able to make the jump that Loyer did shooting % wise in this past year? If so, he makes IU pretty good. If I had to bet right now, id say he’s not going to, but ya never know.

 
Do you think it makes the rivalry less…intense/important? Since no one on Indiana is familiar with it besides the two Covid super seniors?
I'm sure it does. But that's up to the coach to get them into that mindset. Purdue has had plenty of out of state kids that got up for it right? Just depends on the coach and culture.
 
I'm sure it does. But that's up to the coach to get them into that mindset. Purdue has had plenty of out of state kids that got up for it right? Just depends on the coach and culture.
Sure but Purdue always had kids who were in the main rotation that actually grew up with the rivalry. I guess it doesn’t matter either way but just interesting that Woodson doesn’t recruit his own state when there are plenty of good to great players. But maybe it’ll work out for him this year
 
I'm sure it does. But that's up to the coach to get them into that mindset. Purdue has had plenty of out of state kids that got up for it right? Just depends on the coach and culture.
But why aren't in-state kids flocking (pun intended) to IU based on their pride in the ancient banners alone?
 
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So I posted this elsewhere but IU now has the following:

Rice
Carlyle
Mgbako
Reneau
Ballo
Tucker
Galloway
Cupps
Leal
Newton

That’s 10 guys already and I would assume they’re looking to add at least one shooter and a big.

Besides the fact that Mbgako is slow and will have a tough time guarding the 3, is IU going to have to tell the 5 star Frosh they paid big money for, to come off the bench or one of the guards they just paid big money for to come off the bench. wonder if anyone will get upset over that?

Still don’t see how Ballo and Reneau fit unless Malik can develop a consistent outside jumper that’s worth going out to guard. Ballo has no such skill in that department and while athletic, is slow to guard the PnR. Good rebounder, due to being bigger than everyone (we ve benefited from that), but awful FT shooter. I feel he clogs the lane for Reneau and others.

So, if you play those first 6 I listed, you’re probably going to play Galloway, a big and a shooter next in the lineup. Which means Gallo is your 7th-9th guy off the bench with reduced mins. Cupps probably sees way less mins than last year being the 10th man and Leal will barely sniff the floor, barring injury. The 3 guys who showed loyalty and stayed at IU, get recruited over and pushed down in the lineup and minutes reduced. That’s pretty $hitty if you ask me.

That also doesn’t even include Newton…not sure how he fits into the lineup.

I guess from IU’s perspective it’s a good problem to have? But Not sure as a HS receuit, why you’d want to go there, stay and develop at IU if they are just going to recruit over you. But hey, this is the most talented team (star wise) IU has had for quite some time so (as you said) no excuses this year….if they don’t win the conference and make it out of the first weekend….id assume that be an epic fail with all the money shelled out to buy this team.
If you go by last year's minutes for the three newcomers and the the three starters from last year, it leaves 21 minutes for Leal, Cupps, Newton, Tucker, and any additional players they pick up. But I'm sure they're getting paid handsomely to be practice players.
 
Will he be able to make the jump that Loyer did shooting % wise in this past year? If so, he makes IU pretty good. If I had to bet right now, id say he’s not going to, but ya never know.

Guys do get better at shooting but diebler and loyer were on teams that improve shooting, iu does not. Look at X and Galloway. Renau only made 2 his freshman year so too small sample size but .333 is not good. X dropped each of the years he was at Iu. Trey went from 46 to 26 after this year! Gunn and Leal had a decent jump but neither will be shooting many 3s this year for iu!
 
If you go by last year's minutes for the three newcomers and the the three starters from last year, it leaves 21 minutes for Leal, Cupps, Newton, Tucker, and any additional players they pick up. But I'm sure they're getting paid handsomely to be practice players.
Ware averaged 32’mpg and I think ballo was around 26? Walker, Sparks, and Banks averaged a combined 35 minutes so it’s not the guards that will be picking up those minutes. Maybe they will slide reneau at center when ballo is out and mgbako to 4 to get tucker more minutes but they have an issue with depth probably need 2 more bigs as they essentially replaced 67 mpg with 26. It reminds me when they had race and TJD out there the guards suffered.
 
Sure but Purdue always had kids who were in the main rotation that actually grew up with the rivalry. I guess it doesn’t matter either way but just interesting that Woodson doesn’t recruit his own state when there are plenty of good to great players. But maybe it’ll work out for him this year
I don't think it really matters. I think it's up to the coach to instill the rivalry into the players. Kind of like Duke-UNC.
 
Guys do get better at shooting but diebler and loyer were on teams that improve shooting, iu does not. Look at X and Galloway. Renau only made 2 his freshman year so too small sample size but .333 is not good. X dropped each of the years he was at Iu. Trey went from 46 to 26 after this year! Gunn and Leal had a decent jump but neither will be shooting many 3s this year for iu!
Diebler and Loyer also have beautiful form/quick release/soft landing of shot. What you want to teach. Not going to waste any time watching vids of IU transfers, but it is pretty easy to tell what guys could make a jump in percentages if they are OK between the ears. Assuming everyone will improve 10% from year to year is not the norm.
 
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I saw a preseason poll where Purdue was #12, IU #16, not going to lie I miss the days where IU/Purdue was must see television, might be that next year. IU has lots of talent, question for them will be will they buy in, also, Ballo and Reneau are lane pluggers, going to be an interesting dynamic seeing them operate.
 
Lots of pressure on IU to perform and actually win something. Can they win a conference championship? Can they win a BTT? Can they get to the second weekend of the tourney?

With what they have bought, they most certainly should and I’d say it’s a total failure if they don’t get 2 of those 3 things accomplished
 
Wasn't the downfall of Crean in part due to his losing the trust of Indiana high school coaches?
All HS coaches. He was just a weirdo. But gotta give him credit. He brought Indiana back to winning a B1G championship in 5 years without the portal and NIL. Won 2 B1G titles without either.
 
Lots of pressure on IU to perform and actually win something. Can they win a conference championship? Can they win a BTT? Can they get to the second weekend of the tourney?

With what they have bought, they most certainly should and I’d say it’s a total failure if they don’t get 2 of those 3 things accomplished
Win a conference championship? Maybe? Finished 2nd one year under Woody. Big Ten Tourney? No one cares about it honestly. It'd be nice. But no one really cares to actually win it. Getting to the 2md weekend is what matters. Goal should be Top 3 in B1G and a chance at an Elite 8.
 
Win a conference championship? Maybe? Finished 2nd one year under Woody. Big Ten Tourney? No one cares about it honestly. It'd be nice. But no one really cares to actually win it. Getting to the 2md weekend is what matters. Goal should be Top 3 in B1G and a chance at an Elite 8.
IU finished 3 games behind Purdue and was one loss away from finishing in the 6-8 range. Don’t care about BTT either but Illini nation thinks it counts the same as a regular big ten championship.

And a chance at the E8? Wow, expectations been lowered in Bloomington.

If IU doesn’t get to at least the E8, this season is a failure
 
IU finished 3 games behind Purdue and was one loss away from finishing in the 6-8 range. Don’t care about BTT either but Illini nation thinks it counts the same as a regular big ten championship.

And a chance at the E8? Wow, expectations been lowered in Bloomington.

If IU doesn’t get to at least the E8, this season is a failure
Yea... There isn't a single Big Ten team that'll have Elite 8 or failure type of expectations. Sweet 16 max really for Indiana and Purdue as far as expectations.
 
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Win a conference championship? Maybe? Finished 2nd one year under Woody. Big Ten Tourney? No one cares about it honestly. It'd be nice. But no one really cares to actually win it. Getting to the 2md weekend is what matters. Goal should be Top 3 in B1G and a chance at an Elite 8.
With the current portal class added to last year's recruiting class? Seems like pretty low expectations.
 
With the current portal class added to last year's recruiting class? Seems like pretty low expectations.
All IU fans are saying S16 for expectations…even though they scoffed at Purdue making 4 S16s in 6 years and now 5 in 7 years —with 2 E8s, a F4 and NCRU plus 4 B1G championships and a BTT (but that doesn’t matter apparently) and 3 straight years of an overall 1 ranking that no big ten team had ever done…not even IU’s beloved Bobby Knight or MSUs Tom Izzo.

They say S16 (even though they want to say F4) because even though on paper their team seems really good…they all know woodsons their coach with a prehistoric offense that doesn’t value the 3.

Boilerzz has shown what the top portal classes did last year and the top ones (KU and UNC) had either a really good coach (Self) or an All American Guard with a preseason AA big who had averaged a double double for 3 straight seasons.

We’ve also seen the analytics on their new backcourt and the numbers show they aren’t really that much better than what they had last year. Hell, Carlyle was worse than X (although he’s a top PG in the country when healthy 😂). They’ve collected all this talent but how are they all going to play? And they aren’t really developing any high school talent as cupps and Newton will be sitting the bench and won’t see ANY significant playing time this year. I guess you could mbgako is getting developed, but he’s playing out of
Position and should be playing the 4 and reneau at the 5 since he can’t guard the 4 and fouls too much, but is an undersized 5. Not sure how Goode is going to really change anything….maybe he hits 1-2 more 3s for them but not sure that translate into being “their shooter” they needed as I don’t think he will get much impactful playing time. And if he does that means Tucker, their 5 star or Galloway aren’t getting decent minute. Plus they still need a backup big for when Reneau or Ballo get in foul trouble/need breathers.

Anyway, If Woodson magically changes his offense, then maybe things do change. But until we see that, I don’t think I can believe they’ll actually be successful to a level where they actually win something that’s notable.
 
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With the current portal class added to last year's recruiting class? Seems like pretty low expectations.
With a better coach, would come better expectations. It'll really depend on shooting. They can absolutely win the B1G with how down it'll be top to bottom. But they could finish 6th. They could get a 3, 4 or 5 seed... Or be an 8, 9, 10 seed. As of now, I think expectations of being a 4 seed and Sweet 16 is pretty fair even though it's really maxing out the ability of roster/coaching.
 
With a better coach, would come better expectations. It'll really depend on shooting. They can absolutely win the B1G with how down it'll be top to bottom. But they could finish 6th. They could get a 3, 4 or 5 seed... Or be an 8, 9, 10 seed. As of now, I think expectations of being a 4 seed and Sweet 16 is pretty fair even though it's really maxing out the ability of roster/coaching.
When has the big ten not been down? It seems that it’s always a down year for the conference (according to a lot of IU fans).
 
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