Are any decent or good bigs

[Jssanto]

Absolutely need five more fouls up front and a banger in practice.

Good point about the fouls. Someone to eat up some minutes to get our starting big back in the game.

 

[kkott]

Since they are all getting paid thus professionals, I say Cody Zeller should apply to get his final two seasons of eligibility.

Only a matter of time until this happens, and in some instances, it's not a ridiculous argument. The most likely case would be someone who was poor and wanted money to help their family, declared for the NBA draft in the immediate years prior to NIL based off a wild projection and went undrafted. They could argue that had they had NIL, they would've just stayed in college and not gambled. Think I heard that revenue sharing plan was going to compensate back to like 2015, and that might be the reasoning for that.

 

[IUNorth]

Small ball doesn't win championships. When a team has to guard the interior against players who can score, they get into foul trouble. This missing element will be exploited. I do hope that we are still recruiting.

I think that's probably still true in college. In the NBA, I think its getting to the point where its pretty much all dependent on skill. In other words, if you happen to have a 7 footer that's really damn good, like Denver does, then you use him a lot and ride him. But even Jokic, very rarely anymore posts up. Knicks, Celtics...watched for about an hour, not sure I saw a single traditional post up. And the Knicks main rotation is 4 guys 6-6 and under, and then Karl Anthony Towns. And the only big man depth they have is Mitchel Robinson. I've mentioned the Warriors before, they just took out a much larger team, playing long stretches without playing any bigs at all.

College doesn't always track or follow the NBA. But I don't think building a roster, style of play, however you want to look at it, around perimeter players is a bad approach. In fact, I think its the best approach he could have taken. But having said that, I do agree, IU likely isn't going to compete for a Natty, or even Final Four, without a rim protecting big that would fit his system.

 

[Hoosier Clarion]

If this ends up coming back to bite DD in the behind mid season he has nobody to blame but himself. If you are going to construct a roster of small ball you better hope like heck not any of your three guys 6'8 - 6'10 get hurt.

Same for any 3 deep position.

 

[trailrunner]

A couple of thoughts.

I don’t wasn’t to quibble about an inch or so. how tall was Barkley, versus Lindeman?

With that being said, I am skeptical that we have enough front court depth for conference play. I will admit that I’m skeptical in general. I’ve seen post after post mentioning their trust in DD. “If player X is good enough for the coach, I trust him and it’s good enough for me”.

I am in the opposite boat. I don’t trust the IU basketball program. I am in a wait and see mentality. For many people it seems that there is a level of confidence with this hire because of the Cig. hire. I’m not there. I’m staring at decades of incompetence, and I’m not convinced that the issue isn’t deeper than the head coach.

Until I see the players in conference action, the offensive and defensive schemes, teamwork, effort, basic fundamentals, recruiting results and in game coaching adjustments, I will defer judgment. It might be into conference play in the second season before an accurate analysis can be formed.