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IU picked 12th in two early BT projections

M

mushroomgod_1

All-American
Apr 9, 2012
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From "Busting Brackets":

1 Michigan
2 Purdue
3. UCLA
4. Illinois
5. MSU
6. Wisconsin
7. Oregon
8. USC
9. Iowa
10. OSU
11. Maryland
12. IU
13. Nebraska
14. NW
15. Washington
16. Minnesota
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

From "badger Wire":

1. Purdue
2. Michigan
3. UCLA
4. MSU
5. Wisconsin
6. Illinois
7. OSU
8. USC
9. Oregon
10. Maryland
11. Iowa
12. IU
13. NW
14. Minnesota
15. Nebraska
16. Washington
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

Some comments--

--PSU & Rutgers clearly look to be the two worst teams. PSU has 6'10" Yanic Niederhauser in the NBA combine. If he comes back they can top Rutgers and maybe Minneota. If he goes to the NBA they may be historically bad. Rutgers is just a disaster. Harvn Zino, the IU decommit, might end up being their best player.

--Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington won't be horrible teams, but there's not a lot of upside. Nebraska has Rienk Mast back and also got Sandfort from Iowa in the portal, but has no PG. It will be interesting to see if our man Leo Curtis plays much. Minnesota has a fairly nice portal class, but no one who looks like a star. Their pieces do fit however, so they should be able to best Nebraska. Washington probably has the highest upside, with a nice portal point guard in Washington and Yates at the 2. They also have Bryson Tucker and a decent assortment of bigs.

--I think Northwestern sits alone at #14 and rests directly on the dividing line between competitive and non-competitive teams. They have a legit star in Martinelli, a nice portal point guard in Jayden Reid, the combo guard Windham from Indy, and the center transfer Page from Cincy. His development is important. They think Singleton from Jeffersonville will play right away (Thanks Woody) and also like 6'6"Max Green from the portal. NW finished ahead of the M/N/W due to have some degree of continuity.

--I think the rest of the BT teams will at least be competitive. I would have Wisconsin 6th, which is really higher than their talent level would suggest. Blackwell is expected to forgo the NBA. He and Winter will be a nice guard combo. Otherwise they have mid-range portal guys in 6'3" N. Boyd and 6'6" A. Rhode, and two nice but not great recruits in foreign born 6'9" Aleksas Bielauskas and 6'2" Kinzinger. That shouldn't add up to a 6th place finish but probably will.

The top 5 teams would appear to be Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA, and MSU, in that order, IF 6'9" Lendenborg, the #1 portal player nationally, comes back after the NBA Combine. If he leaves, Michigan falls at least 5 spots, because the rest of the roster is a collection of very nice role players, plus 6'4" Trey McKenney, a very highly touted HS recruit. Illinois has Boswell, Rodgers, Ivisic, and Humrichous back, as well as three very highly touted foreign players, including a 6'3" PG, a 6 '7" sharpshooter, and a physical 6'9" forward. Also, Ivisic's 7'3" twin brother, a transfer.

UCLA has 4 very nice players in Dent, S.Clark, 6'6" Eric Dailey and 6'9" Bilodeau. Not a lot of good-looking depth though, for a team so highly rated. I definitely see MSU as #5 of these 6 teams. Unless Jace Richardson come back from the Combine, which seems unlikely, They have a lot of nice pieces, but no stars if Richardson is gone. If he does come back, they will be competitive with Purdue and a Michigan team with Lendenborg.

So...........Indiana sits with a middle group of teams which includes Oregon, USC, Iowa, OSU, Maryland, and IU.

Of those teams, I like USC most, at least in terms of talent. Like IU, they lost almost everyone from last year. 6'7" Terrance Williams, who once played at Michigan, is back. They added a highly ranked portal class with the headliners being 6'7" Baler-Mazara from Auburn and Rodney Rice from MD. They also add 6'4" Alijah Alenas and 6'3" Jerry Easter, who were the #7 and #40 rated HS players in HSs this year, as well has some other transfers who will complete the starting line-up and add some depth. Chemistry would be the ?? with USC.

At 8, I have Iowa. McCullum has Stirtz, who might be as good as anyone in the BT, and 4 of the top 6 other players he had at Drake, + 6'9" Alvaro Foiguieires, #52 guy in the portal, and a nice portal 2 guard in Brendon Hausen. 6'8" forward Koch returns off last year's Iowa roster. I would consider Iowa a team that could finish as high as 6th. At 9, I'd go with Oregon, which has a nice trio of proven players in Bittle, K. Evans, and pg Shelsta. No highly rated transfers, but 3-4 to complete the line-up and offer some depth.

I have IU at 9, Maryland 10th, and OSU 11th.. OSU has Thornton, Royal, and Mobley back, and added 7'0" Tilly (#115)from the portal. They also add Amare Brown a 6'8" HS recruit from Mo (#59). Maryland looks a tad better with 6'9" Pharrel Payne from Minnesota/A&M, Myles Rice, and 3 portal guys ranked 118-132, as well as Darius Adams, the #23 kid in the HS ranks this year.

So there are my predictions.......comments?
 
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mushroomgod_1 said:
From "Busting Brackets":

1 Michigan
2 Purdue
3. UCLA
4. Illinois
5. MSU
6. Wisconsin
7. Oregon
8. USC
9. Iowa
10. OSU
11. Maryland
12. IU
13. Nebraska
14. NW
15. Washington
16. Minnesota
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

From "badger Wire":

1. Purdue
2. Michigan
3. UCLA
4. MSU
5. Wisconsin
6. Illinois
7. OSU
8. USC
9. Oregon
10. Maryland
11. Iowa
12. IU
13. NW
14. Minnesota
15. Nebraska
16. Washington
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

Some comments--

--PSU & Rutgers clearly look to be the two worst teams. PSU has 6'10" Yanic Niederhauser in the NBA combine. If he comes back they can top Rutgers and maybe Minneota. If he goes to the NBA they may be historically bad. Rutgers is just a disaster. Harvn Zino, the IU decommit, might end up being their best player.

--Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington won't be horrible teams, but there's not a lot of upside. Nebraska has Rienk Mast back and also got Sandfort from Iowa in the portal, but has no PG. It will be interesting to see if our man Leo Curtis plays much. Minnesota has a fairly nice portal class, but no one who looks like a star. Their pieces do fit however, so they should be able to best Nebraska. Washington probably has the highest upside, with a nice portal point guard in Washington and Yates at the 2. They also have Bryson Tucker and a decent assortment of bigs.

--I think Northwestern sits alone at #14 and rests directly on the dividing line between competitive and non-competitive teams. They have a legit star in Martinelli, a nice portal point guard in Jayden Reid, the combo guard Windham from Indy, and the center transfer Page from Cincy. His development is important. They think Singleton from Jeffersonville will play right away (Thanks Woody) and also like 6'6"Max Green from the portal. NW finished ahead of the M/N/W due to have some degree of continuity.

--I think the rest of the BT teams will at least be competitive. I would have Wisconsin 6th, which is really higher than their talent level would suggest. Blackwell is expected to forgo the NBA. He and Winter will be a nice guard combo. Otherwise they have mid-range portal guys in 6'3" N. Boyd and 6'6" A. Rhode, and two nice but not great recruits in foreign born 6'9" Aleksas Bielauskas and 6'2" Kinzinger. That shouldn't add up to a 6th place finish but probably will.

The top 5 teams would appear to be Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA, and MSU, in that order, IF 6'9" Lendenborg, the #1 portal player nationally, comes back after the NBA Combine. If he leaves, Michigan falls at least 5 spots, because the rest of the roster is a collection of very nice role players, plus 6'4" Trey McKenney, a very highly touted HS recruit. Illinois has Boswell, Rodgers, Ivisic, and Humrichous back, as well as three very highly touted foreign players, including a 6'3" PG, a 6 '7" sharpshooter, and a physical 6'9" forward. Also, Ivisic's 7'3" twin brother, a transfer.

UCLA has 4 very nice players in Dent, S.Clark, 6'6" Eric Dailey and 6'9" Bilodeau. Not a lot of good-looking depth though, for a team so highly rated. I definitely see MSU as #5 of these 6 teams. Unless Jace Richardson come back from the Combine, which seems unlikely, They have a lot of nice pieces, but no stars if Richardson is gone. If he does come back, they will be competitive with Purdue and a Michigan team with Lendenborg.

So...........Indiana sits with a middle group of teams which includes Oregon, USC, Iowa, OSU, Maryland, and IU.

Of those teams, I like USC most, at least in terms of talent. Like IU, they lost almost everyone from last year. 6'7" Terrance Williams, who once played at Michigan, is back. They added a highly ranked portal class with the headliners being 6'7" Baler-Mazara from Auburn and Rodney Rice from MD. They also add 6'4" Alijah Alenas and 6'3" Jerry Easter, who were the #7 and #40 rated HS players in HSs this year, as well has some other transfers who will complete the starting line-up and add some depth. Chemistry would be the ?? with USC.

At 8, I have Iowa. McCullum has Stirtz, who might be as good as anyone in the BT, and 4 of the top 6 other players he had at Drake, + 6'9" Alvaro Foiguieires, #52 guy in the portal, and a nice portal 2 guard in Brendon Hausen. 6'8" forward Koch returns off last year's Iowa roster. I would consider Iowa a team that could finish as high as 6th. At 9, I'd go with Oregon, which has a nice trio of proven players in Bittle, K. Evans, and pg Shelsta. No highly rated transfers, but 3-4 to complete the line-up and offer some depth.

I have IU at 9, Maryland 10th, and OSU 11th.. OSU has Thornton, Royal, and Mobley back, and added 7'0" Tilly (#115)from the portal. They also add Amare Brown a 6'8" HS recruit from Mo (#59). Maryland looks a tad better with 6'9" Pharrel Payne from Minnesota/A&M, Myles Rice, and 3 portal guys ranked 118-132, as well as Darius Adams, the #23 kid in the HS ranks this year.

So there are my predictions.......comments?
Click to expand...
I expected more like 10th but seems about right given the roster on paper compared to the other rosters. If he can do one heck of a coaching job we can finish higher but who knows we really know nothing yet except the roster of 11 guys he got. Making the tournament is not going to be easy imo.
 
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mushroomgod_1 said:
T-Rank 2026 Metrics:
Click to expand...
1. Purdue
2.Michigan
3.UCLA
4.Illinois
5.Michigan State
6.USC (Top Portal in BT)
7.Ohio State
8.Wisconsin
9.Iowa
10.Maryland
11.Indiana
12.Nebraska
13.Washington
14.Oregon
15.Northwestern
16.Minnesota
17.Penn State
18.Rutgers
mushroomgod_1 said:
So...........Indiana sits with a middle group of teams which includes Oregon, USC, Iowa, OSU, Maryland, and IU.
Click to expand...
IU will have a tough time getting into this group. OSU has the third rated talent in the BT. USC has the top Portal class in the BT. I would move Nebraska up into this group and wouldn't be surprised to see Northwestern overachieve.

Purdue, Michigan, UCLA, Illinois and Michigan State are in the top heavy BT. the bottom 5 per the metrics, are Rutgers, Penn St., Minnesota, Washington and IU has the lowest talent metrics. T-Rank has IU at #16 talent level. Still waiting on NBA Draft effect on the BT, also it is hard to judge the foreign talent impact on the BT. But the reviews on these players are pretty good.
 
mushroomgod_1 said:
From "Busting Brackets":

1 Michigan
2 Purdue
3. UCLA
4. Illinois
5. MSU
6. Wisconsin
7. Oregon
8. USC
9. Iowa
10. OSU
11. Maryland
12. IU
13. Nebraska
14. NW
15. Washington
16. Minnesota
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

From "badger Wire":

1. Purdue
2. Michigan
3. UCLA
4. MSU
5. Wisconsin
6. Illinois
7. OSU
8. USC
9. Oregon
10. Maryland
11. Iowa
12. IU
13. NW
14. Minnesota
15. Nebraska
16. Washington
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

Some comments--

--PSU & Rutgers clearly look to be the two worst teams. PSU has 6'10" Yanic Niederhauser in the NBA combine. If he comes back they can top Rutgers and maybe Minneota. If he goes to the NBA they may be historically bad. Rutgers is just a disaster. Harvn Zino, the IU decommit, might end up being their best player.

--Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington won't be horrible teams, but there's not a lot of upside. Nebraska has Rienk Mast back and also got Sandfort from Iowa in the portal, but has no PG. It will be interesting to see if our man Leo Curtis plays much. Minnesota has a fairly nice portal class, but no one who looks like a star. Their pieces do fit however, so they should be able to best Nebraska. Washington probably has the highest upside, with a nice portal point guard in Washington and Yates at the 2. They also have Bryson Tucker and a decent assortment of bigs.

--I think Northwestern sits alone at #14 and rests directly on the dividing line between competitive and non-competitive teams. They have a legit star in Martinelli, a nice portal point guard in Jayden Reid, the combo guard Windham from Indy, and the center transfer Page from Cincy. His development is important. They think Singleton from Jeffersonville will play right away (Thanks Woody) and also like 6'6"Max Green from the portal. NW finished ahead of the M/N/W due to have some degree of continuity.

--I think the rest of the BT teams will at least be competitive. I would have Wisconsin 6th, which is really higher than their talent level would suggest. Blackwell is expected to forgo the NBA. He and Winter will be a nice guard combo. Otherwise they have mid-range portal guys in 6'3" N. Boyd and 6'6" A. Rhode, and two nice but not great recruits in foreign born 6'9" Aleksas Bielauskas and 6'2" Kinzinger. That shouldn't add up to a 6th place finish but probably will.

The top 5 teams would appear to be Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA, and MSU, in that order, IF 6'9" Lendenborg, the #1 portal player nationally, comes back after the NBA Combine. If he leaves, Michigan falls at least 5 spots, because the rest of the roster is a collection of very nice role players, plus 6'4" Trey McKenney, a very highly touted HS recruit. Illinois has Boswell, Rodgers, Ivisic, and Humrichous back, as well as three very highly touted foreign players, including a 6'3" PG, a 6 '7" sharpshooter, and a physical 6'9" forward. Also, Ivisic's 7'3" twin brother, a transfer.

UCLA has 4 very nice players in Dent, S.Clark, 6'6" Eric Dailey and 6'9" Bilodeau. Not a lot of good-looking depth though, for a team so highly rated. I definitely see MSU as #5 of these 6 teams. Unless Jace Richardson come back from the Combine, which seems unlikely, They have a lot of nice pieces, but no stars if Richardson is gone. If he does come back, they will be competitive with Purdue and a Michigan team with Lendenborg.

So...........Indiana sits with a middle group of teams which includes Oregon, USC, Iowa, OSU, Maryland, and IU.

Of those teams, I like USC most, at least in terms of talent. Like IU, they lost almost everyone from last year. 6'7" Terrance Williams, who once played at Michigan, is back. They added a highly ranked portal class with the headliners being 6'7" Baler-Mazara from Auburn and Rodney Rice from MD. They also add 6'4" Alijah Alenas and 6'3" Jerry Easter, who were the #7 and #40 rated HS players in HSs this year, as well has some other transfers who will complete the starting line-up and add some depth. Chemistry would be the ?? with USC.

At 8, I have Iowa. McCullum has Stirtz, who might be as good as anyone in the BT, and 4 of the top 6 other players he had at Drake, + 6'9" Alvaro Foiguieires, #52 guy in the portal, and a nice portal 2 guard in Brendon Hausen. 6'8" forward Koch returns off last year's Iowa roster. I would consider Iowa a team that could finish as high as 6th. At 9, I'd go with Oregon, which has a nice trio of proven players in Bittle, K. Evans, and pg Shelsta. No highly rated transfers, but 3-4 to complete the line-up and offer some depth.

I have IU at 9, Maryland 10th, and OSU 11th.. OSU has Thornton, Royal, and Mobley back, and added 7'0" Tilly (#115)from the portal. They also add Amare Brown a 6'8" HS recruit from Mo (#59). Maryland looks a tad better with 6'9" Pharrel Payne from Minnesota/A&M, Myles Rice, and 3 portal guys ranked 118-132, as well as Darius Adams, the #23 kid in the HS ranks this year.

So there are my predictions.......comments?
Click to expand...
Not a shock.

Should be better.
Might be worse.

With a prospective metric like this. how does anyone with a new coach and a completely new locker room give them any credence. Win January not July.

We shall see.
 
Zero insight.

The one thing they get right every year is wiping their predictions from the years before away so no one can laugh at how far off they were.

DeVries hasn't even finished the roster yet at a new school with a new team and they are predicting where IU will finish?
 
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Coming from biased competitive sites I could not have expected anything less. That automatically handicaps IUBB 1 to 5 spots. Pretty boring. 1 big presently here or arriving who performs as a solid "3☆" rewrites this stab in the dark. We'll see. High on DeVries. His full pedigree and particularly his season at WV with key injuries and mostly roll the dice talent proved he can evaluate talent pieces, teach and motivate for positive results. Gonna finally be fun watching IUBB. Been a while.
 
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Here's another one... From IUNORTHalytics.com

1. Michigan
2. Purdue
3. UCLA
4. MSU
5. Iowa
6. Indiana
7. Wisconsin
8. Illinois
9. Oregon
10. USC
11. Maryland
12. OSU
13. Washington
14. Nebraska
15. Northwestern
16. Penn State
17. Rutgers
18. Minnesota

How the NBA draft shakes out could change some of this around. If Loxembourg stays in the draft, probably drops Michigan a bit. But there will probably be some portal guys available from guys that portaled, and are still testing the NBA waters, that will decide to come back to college. Obviously any team that were to add impactful talent, the list would change.

Notes:

Iowa probably seems high. McCollum is the best pure basketball coach now in the B10, in my opinion. He'll have arguably the best player in the conference leading his team. And his talent level is better than what he had last year at Drake.

I think DeVries is probably going to prove to be one of the better coaches in the league. His roster isn't showing on metrics to be as good as it obviously is. Lots of All conference, CPOY, type guys. And nearly all of them are good with the ball, can shoot it, can pass it, and can score in multiple ways.

Wisconsin is always good. On paper, they look to have a lower half roster...but they're always good, so I bumped them to upper half.

Illinois has a lot of foreign talent coming in. But they lost a lot too. I'm not sure some of the talent coming in fully matches how Underwood likes to play. But they're going to be very skilled.

Teams like OSU and Nebraska... same coaches, I think they mainly just turned over their rosters...so I would expect fairly similar results.
 
Cavanagh said:
Lou was picked last in a lot of these last year. Meaningless random dopes put these together. As good as any poster on here’s list. That said, if we finish 12th? lol. Shoot me.
Click to expand...
The only thing about that... the conference did improve coaching wise, and it seemed to add quite a lot of talent, versus last year. So the end result should be a much deeper conference. You're right, 12th, no matter how that happens, would be disappointing. But IU could finish 12th and be a legit bubble/NCAA team...I suspect.
 
TR32 said:
Zero insight.

The one thing they get right every year is wiping their predictions from the years before away so no one can laugh at how far off they were.

DeVries hasn't even finished the roster yet at a new school with a new team and they are predicting where IU will finish?
Click to expand...
Not only do they know how IU will finish, but they know who will get injured and how long they will be out, since obviously that matters quite a bit.

They are FOS.
 
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IUNorth said:
Here's another one... From IUNORTHalytics.com

1. Michigan
2. Purdue
3. UCLA
4. MSU
5. Iowa
6. Indiana
7. Wisconsin
8. Illinois
9. Oregon
10. USC
11. Maryland
12. OSU
13. Washington
14. Nebraska
15. Northwestern
16. Penn State
17. Rutgers
18. Minnesota

How the NBA draft shakes out could change some of this around. If Loxembourg stays in the draft, probably drops Michigan a bit. But there will probably be some portal guys available from guys that portaled, and are still testing the NBA waters, that will decide to come back to college. Obviously any team that were to add impactful talent, the list would change.

Notes:

Iowa probably seems high. McCollum is the best pure basketball coach now in the B10, in my opinion. He'll have arguably the best player in the conference leading his team. And his talent level is better than what he had last year at Drake.

I think DeVries is probably going to prove to be one of the better coaches in the league. His roster isn't showing on metrics to be as good as it obviously is. Lots of All conference, CPOY, type guys. And nearly all of them are good with the ball, can shoot it, can pass it, and can score in multiple ways.

Wisconsin is always good. On paper, they look to have a lower half roster...but they're always good, so I bumped them to upper half.

Illinois has a lot of foreign talent coming in. But they lost a lot too. I'm not sure some of the talent coming in fully matches how Underwood likes to play. But they're going to be very skilled.

Teams like OSU and Nebraska... same coaches, I think they mainly just turned over their rosters...so I would expect fairly similar results.
Click to expand...


Interesting...........

My list was: Purdue; Michigan; Illinois; UCLA; MSU; Wisconsin; USC; Iowa; Oregon; IU; Maryland; OSU; NW; Washington; Nebraska; Minnesota; Rutgers; PSU

Like you, I want to drop Wisconsin further down the list. There is really no objective reason they should be better than USC and Oregon. There was a point, maybe 3 years ago, when their recruiting dropped off to a point where I thought it a certainty their high finishes would end. They still finished 1st or 2nd in the league that year.

I agree it is tempting to say Iowa will finish ahead of USC and Oregon. Again, they shouldn't, based on the physical talent. But Iowa got something like 5 of Drake's top 7 guys. The two guys they lost were starters, but the two replacements they got in the portal are better players, especially the 6'9" guy, who really looks like a player. So........I think you convinced me. those 4 should probably be Iowa; Wisconsin, USC, and Oregon.

Now...to having IU ahead of USC and Oregon? I think those teams just have better collections of players. And we have the same disadvantage as them v. teams like Iowa & Wisconsin who have the advantage of continuity. Also, both of those coaches are proven winners. So the question is.....will our team be Cig-like in terms of unity and having a chip on their shoulder. There's a good argument for that. And also, I still think our fan following is an advantage, as long as our team plays with unity and effort. But it may be a disadvantage if we're not as good as hoped. The other question is.....we're bringing in 10 guys who all will think they should start. That will be a challenge for CDD, especially if we lose some tough ones in the NC.
 
Last edited:
mushroomgod_1 said:
From "Busting Brackets":

1 Michigan
2 Purdue
3. UCLA
4. Illinois
5. MSU
6. Wisconsin
7. Oregon
8. USC
9. Iowa
10. OSU
11. Maryland
12. IU
13. Nebraska
14. NW
15. Washington
16. Minnesota
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

From "badger Wire":

1. Purdue
2. Michigan
3. UCLA
4. MSU
5. Wisconsin
6. Illinois
7. OSU
8. USC
9. Oregon
10. Maryland
11. Iowa
12. IU
13. NW
14. Minnesota
15. Nebraska
16. Washington
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

Some comments--

--PSU & Rutgers clearly look to be the two worst teams. PSU has 6'10" Yanic Niederhauser in the NBA combine. If he comes back they can top Rutgers and maybe Minneota. If he goes to the NBA they may be historically bad. Rutgers is just a disaster. Harvn Zino, the IU decommit, might end up being their best player.

--Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington won't be horrible teams, but there's not a lot of upside. Nebraska has Rienk Mast back and also got Sandfort from Iowa in the portal, but has no PG. It will be interesting to see if our man Leo Curtis plays much. Minnesota has a fairly nice portal class, but no one who looks like a star. Their pieces do fit however, so they should be able to best Nebraska. Washington probably has the highest upside, with a nice portal point guard in Washington and Yates at the 2. They also have Bryson Tucker and a decent assortment of bigs.

--I think Northwestern sits alone at #14 and rests directly on the dividing line between competitive and non-competitive teams. They have a legit star in Martinelli, a nice portal point guard in Jayden Reid, the combo guard Windham from Indy, and the center transfer Page from Cincy. His development is important. They think Singleton from Jeffersonville will play right away (Thanks Woody) and also like 6'6"Max Green from the portal. NW finished ahead of the M/N/W due to have some degree of continuity.

--I think the rest of the BT teams will at least be competitive. I would have Wisconsin 6th, which is really higher than their talent level would suggest. Blackwell is expected to forgo the NBA. He and Winter will be a nice guard combo. Otherwise they have mid-range portal guys in 6'3" N. Boyd and 6'6" A. Rhode, and two nice but not great recruits in foreign born 6'9" Aleksas Bielauskas and 6'2" Kinzinger. That shouldn't add up to a 6th place finish but probably will.

The top 5 teams would appear to be Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA, and MSU, in that order, IF 6'9" Lendenborg, the #1 portal player nationally, comes back after the NBA Combine. If he leaves, Michigan falls at least 5 spots, because the rest of the roster is a collection of very nice role players, plus 6'4" Trey McKenney, a very highly touted HS recruit. Illinois has Boswell, Rodgers, Ivisic, and Humrichous back, as well as three very highly touted foreign players, including a 6'3" PG, a 6 '7" sharpshooter, and a physical 6'9" forward. Also, Ivisic's 7'3" twin brother, a transfer.

UCLA has 4 very nice players in Dent, S.Clark, 6'6" Eric Dailey and 6'9" Bilodeau. Not a lot of good-looking depth though, for a team so highly rated. I definitely see MSU as #5 of these 6 teams. Unless Jace Richardson come back from the Combine, which seems unlikely, They have a lot of nice pieces, but no stars if Richardson is gone. If he does come back, they will be competitive with Purdue and a Michigan team with Lendenborg.

So...........Indiana sits with a middle group of teams which includes Oregon, USC, Iowa, OSU, Maryland, and IU.

Of those teams, I like USC most, at least in terms of talent. Like IU, they lost almost everyone from last year. 6'7" Terrance Williams, who once played at Michigan, is back. They added a highly ranked portal class with the headliners being 6'7" Baler-Mazara from Auburn and Rodney Rice from MD. They also add 6'4" Alijah Alenas and 6'3" Jerry Easter, who were the #7 and #40 rated HS players in HSs this year, as well has some other transfers who will complete the starting line-up and add some depth. Chemistry would be the ?? with USC.

At 8, I have Iowa. McCullum has Stirtz, who might be as good as anyone in the BT, and 4 of the top 6 other players he had at Drake, + 6'9" Alvaro Foiguieires, #52 guy in the portal, and a nice portal 2 guard in Brendon Hausen. 6'8" forward Koch returns off last year's Iowa roster. I would consider Iowa a team that could finish as high as 6th. At 9, I'd go with Oregon, which has a nice trio of proven players in Bittle, K. Evans, and pg Shelsta. No highly rated transfers, but 3-4 to complete the line-up and offer some depth.

I have IU at 9, Maryland 10th, and OSU 11th.. OSU has Thornton, Royal, and Mobley back, and added 7'0" Tilly (#115)from the portal. They also add Amare Brown a 6'8" HS recruit from Mo (#59). Maryland looks a tad better with 6'9" Pharrel Payne from Minnesota/A&M, Myles Rice, and 3 portal guys ranked 118-132, as well as Darius Adams, the #23 kid in the HS ranks this year.

So there are my predictions.......comments?
Click to expand...
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
 
Hoosier Clarion said:
Coming from biased competitive sites I could not have expected anything less. That automatically handicaps IUBB 1 to 5 spots. Pretty boring. 1 big presently here or arriving who performs as a solid "3☆" rewrites this stab in the dark. We'll see. High on DeVries. His full pedigree and particularly his season at WV with key injuries and mostly roll the dice talent proved he can evaluate talent pieces, teach and motivate for positive results. Gonna finally be fun watching IUBB. Been a while.
Click to expand...


It would shake my confidence if I knew we were not hoping like hell to add another 6 8 to 6 10 guy, whether it involves a reclassification, a late decommit, or a late grad transfer. Surely that is the case.........That is the elephant in the room right now for me.
 
mushroomgod_1 said:
From "Busting Brackets":

1 Michigan
2 Purdue
3. UCLA
4. Illinois
5. MSU
6. Wisconsin
7. Oregon
8. USC
9. Iowa
10. OSU
11. Maryland
12. IU
13. Nebraska
14. NW
15. Washington
16. Minnesota
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

From "badger Wire":

1. Purdue
2. Michigan
3. UCLA
4. MSU
5. Wisconsin
6. Illinois
7. OSU
8. USC
9. Oregon
10. Maryland
11. Iowa
12. IU
13. NW
14. Minnesota
15. Nebraska
16. Washington
17. Rutgers
18. PSU

Some comments--

--PSU & Rutgers clearly look to be the two worst teams. PSU has 6'10" Yanic Niederhauser in the NBA combine. If he comes back they can top Rutgers and maybe Minneota. If he goes to the NBA they may be historically bad. Rutgers is just a disaster. Harvn Zino, the IU decommit, might end up being their best player.

--Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington won't be horrible teams, but there's not a lot of upside. Nebraska has Rienk Mast back and also got Sandfort from Iowa in the portal, but has no PG. It will be interesting to see if our man Leo Curtis plays much. Minnesota has a fairly nice portal class, but no one who looks like a star. Their pieces do fit however, so they should be able to best Nebraska. Washington probably has the highest upside, with a nice portal point guard in Washington and Yates at the 2. They also have Bryson Tucker and a decent assortment of bigs.

--I think Northwestern sits alone at #14 and rests directly on the dividing line between competitive and non-competitive teams. They have a legit star in Martinelli, a nice portal point guard in Jayden Reid, the combo guard Windham from Indy, and the center transfer Page from Cincy. His development is important. They think Singleton from Jeffersonville will play right away (Thanks Woody) and also like 6'6"Max Green from the portal. NW finished ahead of the M/N/W due to have some degree of continuity.

--I think the rest of the BT teams will at least be competitive. I would have Wisconsin 6th, which is really higher than their talent level would suggest. Blackwell is expected to forgo the NBA. He and Winter will be a nice guard combo. Otherwise they have mid-range portal guys in 6'3" N. Boyd and 6'6" A. Rhode, and two nice but not great recruits in foreign born 6'9" Aleksas Bielauskas and 6'2" Kinzinger. That shouldn't add up to a 6th place finish but probably will.

The top 5 teams would appear to be Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA, and MSU, in that order, IF 6'9" Lendenborg, the #1 portal player nationally, comes back after the NBA Combine. If he leaves, Michigan falls at least 5 spots, because the rest of the roster is a collection of very nice role players, plus 6'4" Trey McKenney, a very highly touted HS recruit. Illinois has Boswell, Rodgers, Ivisic, and Humrichous back, as well as three very highly touted foreign players, including a 6'3" PG, a 6 '7" sharpshooter, and a physical 6'9" forward. Also, Ivisic's 7'3" twin brother, a transfer.

UCLA has 4 very nice players in Dent, S.Clark, 6'6" Eric Dailey and 6'9" Bilodeau. Not a lot of good-looking depth though, for a team so highly rated. I definitely see MSU as #5 of these 6 teams. Unless Jace Richardson come back from the Combine, which seems unlikely, They have a lot of nice pieces, but no stars if Richardson is gone. If he does come back, they will be competitive with Purdue and a Michigan team with Lendenborg.

So...........Indiana sits with a middle group of teams which includes Oregon, USC, Iowa, OSU, Maryland, and IU.

Of those teams, I like USC most, at least in terms of talent. Like IU, they lost almost everyone from last year. 6'7" Terrance Williams, who once played at Michigan, is back. They added a highly ranked portal class with the headliners being 6'7" Baler-Mazara from Auburn and Rodney Rice from MD. They also add 6'4" Alijah Alenas and 6'3" Jerry Easter, who were the #7 and #40 rated HS players in HSs this year, as well has some other transfers who will complete the starting line-up and add some depth. Chemistry would be the ?? with USC.

At 8, I have Iowa. McCullum has Stirtz, who might be as good as anyone in the BT, and 4 of the top 6 other players he had at Drake, + 6'9" Alvaro Foiguieires, #52 guy in the portal, and a nice portal 2 guard in Brendon Hausen. 6'8" forward Koch returns off last year's Iowa roster. I would consider Iowa a team that could finish as high as 6th. At 9, I'd go with Oregon, which has a nice trio of proven players in Bittle, K. Evans, and pg Shelsta. No highly rated transfers, but 3-4 to complete the line-up and offer some depth.

I have IU at 9, Maryland 10th, and OSU 11th.. OSU has Thornton, Royal, and Mobley back, and added 7'0" Tilly (#115)from the portal. They also add Amare Brown a 6'8" HS recruit from Mo (#59). Maryland looks a tad better with 6'9" Pharrel Payne from Minnesota/A&M, Myles Rice, and 3 portal guys ranked 118-132, as well as Darius Adams, the #23 kid in the HS ranks this year.

So there are my predictions.......comments?
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Thx for the info. We were picked high this past season and they were wrong. Let's hope they are wrong again.
 
mushroomgod_1 said:
Interesting...........

My list was: Purdue; Michigan; Illinois; UCLA; MSU; Wisconsin; USC; Iowa; Oregon; IU; Maryland; OSU; NW; Washington; Nebraska; Minnesota; Rutgers; PSU

Like you, I want to drop Wisconsin further down the list. There is really no objective reason they should be better than USC and Oregon. There was a point, maybe 3 years ago, when their recruiting dropped off to a point where I thought it a certainty their high finishes would end. They still finished 1st or 2nd in the league that year.

I agree it is tempting to say Iowa will finish ahead of USC and Oregon. Again, they shouldn't, based on the physical talent. But Iowa got something like 5 of Drake's top 7 guys. The two guys they lost were starters, but the two replacements they got in the portal are better players, especially the 6'9" guy, who really looks like a player. So........I think you convinced me. those 4 should probably be Iowa; Wisconsin, USC, and Oregon.

Now...to having IU ahead of USC and Oregon? I think those teams just have better collections of players. And we have the same disadvantage as them v. teams like Iowa & Wisconsin who have the advantage of continuity. Also, both of those coaches are proven winners. So the question is.....will our team be Cig-like in terms of unity and having a chip on their shoulder. There's a good argument for that. And also, I still think our fan following is an advantage, as long as our team plays with unity and effort. But it may be a disadvantage if we're not as good as hoped. The other question is.....we're bringing in 10 guys who all will think they should start. That will be a challenge for CDD, especially if we lose some tough ones in the NC.
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I don't trust either USC or Oregon to make big moves. Same coaches, lost as much as they gained.

My post was partly tongue in cheek, and a shot at how subjective some of the other rankings likely are.

IU, just optimism on my part. I like the types of guys CDD built his team with. I like that they were nearly all, All conference if not CPOY performers. I like that they're all skilled with the ball, many of them good shooters, many of them willing and capable passers and creators. And I actually really like the post group he assembled. 3 very different types of bigs, all comfortable playing away from the basket and attacking the paint. One of the bigger question marks I have is how will they all be able to defend? But the roster's collective size and length, CDD's recent teams solid defensive metrics, the addition of Clark as an assistant coach... I think its not to far of a stretch to assume they'll play pretty solid team defense.
 
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Iowa ahead of us McCollum did that good of job already havent paid attention to there roster but how does Iowa have a better roster then us with a 2 millions dollar NIL?
 
ndhuntington said:
Iowa ahead of us McCollum did that good of job already havent paid attention to there roster but how does Iowa have a better roster then us with a 2 millions dollar NIL?
Click to expand...
That is a great question because we only really signed two higher ranked guys so were did the 10 million all go? I would think we have more like a 5 million dollar roster.
 
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Think I heard this guy who played last season at Penn St. was showing well at the draft combine.

Yanic Konan Niederhauser​


If you have 3 or more million in the NIL piggy bank, there could still be options.
 
Middawg said:
Think I heard this guy who played last season at Penn St. was showing well at the draft combine.

Yanic Konan Niederhauser​


If you have 3 or more million in the NIL piggy bank, there could still be options.
Click to expand...
Not sure if he portaled or not before combine? Hed be a huge pickup for anyone.
 
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