Latest / Podcast on the Brink / POTB 565: NCAA tournament expansion, spring football and IU basketball's roster with Josh Pos

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POTB 565: NCAA tournament expansion, spring football and IU basketball's roster with Josh Pos · Podcast on the Brink

0:17
Speaker 1: Welcome back to a new episode of Podcast on the
0:22
Speaker 1: Brink Thursday, April thirtieth, wrapping up the month of April
0:27
Speaker 1: with a new episode of Podcasts on the Brink kind
0:29
Speaker 1: of been on every other week's schedule here recently as
0:33
Speaker 1: the portal News and the end of the season has
0:36
Speaker 1: A Rabbi. Also had Spring football wrap up last week
0:39
Speaker 1: with the spring Games. One reason we wanted to have
0:41
Speaker 1: this week's guest on Podcast on the Brink Outgoing Inside
0:45
Speaker 1: the Hall writer Jack of all trades, Josh Pose. He
0:50
Speaker 1: did it all for Inside the Hall. Of the season
0:51
Speaker 1: he started last summer, he went to Puerto Rico, he
0:56
Speaker 1: covered the college football playoffs. He covered the first season
1:00
Speaker 1: and of the Darren Deriese era for I basketball, even
1:03
Speaker 1: sprinkled in a couple of women's games during the season.
1:05
Speaker 1: But he is graduating very soon. Be sad to see
1:10
Speaker 1: him go, but also excited for his future. Josh will
1:14
Speaker 1: be our guest on this week's show. Before we get
1:16
Speaker 1: to Josh. If you enjoy the show, please leave us
1:18
Speaker 1: a rating and review over on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.
1:23
Speaker 1: If you're watching on YouTube, like the video, subscribe to
1:25
Speaker 1: the channel. We always appreciate the support there. Send the
1:27
Speaker 1: video podcast to somebody that you know that might enjoy
1:31
Speaker 1: IU football or basketball discussion. We really appreciate your support. Josh,
1:36
Speaker 1: welcome in. For those who are watching on YouTube, will
1:38
Speaker 1: notice his hat Division champs White Sox hat. We may
1:41
Speaker 1: have time for a minute of White Sox talk at
1:44
Speaker 1: the end of this podcast, but Josh, welcome back to
1:47
Speaker 1: the show. Always good to have you want. Congratulations on
1:51
Speaker 1: your upcoming graduation and thanks for all the hard work
1:55
Speaker 1: over the last what little lesson a year now that
1:58
Speaker 1: you've been contributing Inside the Hall. May still have some
2:01
Speaker 1: bylines here and there in May into the summer, depending
2:05
Speaker 1: on what's going on. But Josh just wanted to take
2:09
Speaker 1: a moment to say thank you for everything you've done
2:11
Speaker 1: for the site, and I wish your best of luck
2:13
Speaker 1: before we get into this episode of podcast on the Brink.
2:17
Speaker 2: I can't thank you enough. Alex. It's been a really
2:20
Speaker 2: fun year. Never did I think that I was going
2:23
Speaker 2: to be going to the college football Playoff and seeing
2:26
Speaker 2: a national championship in football. I kind of envisioned if
2:32
Speaker 2: I ever wrote for this site, it'd be going to
2:33
Speaker 2: the Final four and writing Indiana basketball. When I was
2:36
Speaker 2: younger when I first started reading. So it's been a pleasure,
2:40
Speaker 2: it's been an honor, it's been everything. I'll be above
2:44
Speaker 2: to work for this site. Whatever it was, I love
2:46
Speaker 2: doing it.
2:48
Speaker 1: When you look back on the last year, I mean,
2:50
Speaker 1: obviously the Puerto Rico trip kind of kind of got
2:53
Speaker 1: started right out of the gate with that assignment, and
2:55
Speaker 1: I know you had a lot of fun going down
2:57
Speaker 1: there and getting a chance to see that. But and
3:00
Speaker 1: you mentioned the playoff. If you could pick two or
3:02
Speaker 1: three moments from the year, that was what maybe stands
3:06
Speaker 1: out just in terms of coverage and what you enjoyed
3:08
Speaker 1: maybe doing the most.
3:10
Speaker 2: I think the Rose Bowl was number one because everything
3:13
Speaker 2: was so new all We obviously went to Notre Dame,
3:16
Speaker 2: but it was just another game Rose Bull They had
3:18
Speaker 2: all this the pomp and circumstance, everything around it. Even
3:22
Speaker 2: a couple of days before in the media hotel, you
3:24
Speaker 2: just felt the weight. And then probably the Purdue Indiana game.
3:31
Speaker 2: It was the last one for me at Assembly Hall,
3:34
Speaker 2: and it was a bittersweet game and it was a
3:37
Speaker 2: it was a bin to Assembly Hall. It was one
3:38
Speaker 2: of those times where I didn't see that much. It
3:41
Speaker 2: was the lot has been probably since my freshman year
3:46
Speaker 2: against UNC and to sit next to Don Fischer for
3:49
Speaker 2: that that was just a top top tier moment right there.
3:54
Speaker 2: And number three, Oh, I think Puerto Rico is up there.
3:58
Speaker 2: That was That was one trip to remember. I just
4:03
Speaker 2: couldn't imagine like leaving that place and every single day
4:07
Speaker 2: was different, yet it was the same because it was
4:09
Speaker 2: eighty five and sunny and it never rained there. And
4:13
Speaker 2: then the basketball there was that sense of whoa, look
4:17
Speaker 2: at this new toy and Darren de Breeze and this
4:19
Speaker 2: new team. Even though it was July August, it was
4:24
Speaker 2: a really good time getting to know those players and
4:27
Speaker 2: the coaching staff and for the first time it kind
4:30
Speaker 2: of humanized an Indiana basketball team, not on social media,
4:34
Speaker 2: just it was right there and it seemed like everything
4:37
Speaker 2: was going great, which it was from a team standpoint. Yeah.
4:42
Speaker 1: That I had a chance to do one of those
4:43
Speaker 1: trips back in twenty fourteen, going up to Montreal, Canada,
4:47
Speaker 1: and it's a unique experience from the standpoint of there's
4:50
Speaker 1: just not a lot of people at the games and
4:52
Speaker 1: you can kind of pick up on a lot more
4:54
Speaker 1: I think from being at those games and washing up close.
4:56
Speaker 1: Obviously you don't want to take any big takeaways from
5:00
Speaker 1: exhibition games in the summer, but in terms of seeing
5:04
Speaker 1: the players interact with one another, seeing the coaching staff
5:06
Speaker 1: interact with the players, you just kind of get a
5:08
Speaker 1: little bit more of a personal look than you would
5:09
Speaker 1: get at a Big ten game when there's ten, twelve,
5:13
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand people in the stands. It's just a different environment,
5:16
Speaker 1: different atmosphere, way more laid back. So glad you got
5:19
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do all those things again, Thanks for
5:22
Speaker 1: all the work. We've got a variety of topics that
5:24
Speaker 1: I want to get to this week. Really, the headline
5:27
Speaker 1: of the week, I feel like in college basketball was
5:29
Speaker 1: the news that Pete Bamble I think reported Tuesday that
5:33
Speaker 1: although there's I guess some votes that still have to happen,
5:38
Speaker 1: but the NCAA Tournament appears as though it's going to
5:41
Speaker 1: be expanding from sixty eight teams to seventy six. It's
5:45
Speaker 1: been long rumored, it's been long discussed, I think, with
5:49
Speaker 1: not much approval I think from the public. I bet
5:52
Speaker 1: if you did an approval poll from college basketball fans
5:55
Speaker 1: that die hard who love the sport, most would say
5:59
Speaker 1: they're not in favor of this, but full steam ahead.
6:01
Speaker 1: It sounds like for expansion. What what were your thoughts
6:04
Speaker 1: when when you heard that that's gonna happen? Do you
6:08
Speaker 1: do you fall in the camp of Oh well, it's
6:10
Speaker 1: still March madness. I'll still embrace it, I'll still love it.
6:13
Speaker 1: Do you hate it? Do you like it? I'm just
6:15
Speaker 1: kind of curious for your takeaways from that news.
6:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've always been an anti expansion really everything except
6:24
Speaker 2: for probably the NHL because it needs to go west.
6:26
Speaker 2: But I believe that it's too much. If you're playing
6:32
Speaker 2: too many games on Tuesday and Wednesday or Wednesday, Yeah,
6:36
Speaker 2: Tuesday and Wednesday, then it spoils the best day of
6:39
Speaker 2: the tournament, which is Thursday, the best two days of
6:42
Speaker 2: Thursday and Friday. You're playing too many games. You can't
6:44
Speaker 2: play twelve games or eight games, whatever it might be,
6:48
Speaker 2: on those Tuesday and Wednesday, because it takes away the
6:52
Speaker 2: flair for Thursday and Friday. And looking at the bubble
6:56
Speaker 2: of last year, like there were teams in Indiana included
7:01
Speaker 2: that had no business being in the NCAA tournament. They're
7:04
Speaker 2: kind of just a waste of space, and this is
7:07
Speaker 2: what you'll have year in and year out with seventy
7:10
Speaker 2: six teams. I think they went too much with seventy six.
7:13
Speaker 2: I think seventy two could have been that soft launch
7:16
Speaker 2: in that maybe going to seventy six and then cutting
7:18
Speaker 2: it off there. But this has to be it. If
7:21
Speaker 2: you do seventy six, you can't go any higher because
7:24
Speaker 2: now you're just putting teams in. You get Auburn. They
7:26
Speaker 2: would have gotten in. Auburn could have gone under five
7:28
Speaker 2: hundred and made the tournament last year. That's not what
7:31
Speaker 2: the NCAA Tournament's about.
7:33
Speaker 1: It.
7:33
Speaker 2: It's about earning your spot in the big dance, and
7:37
Speaker 2: it's expanded. Obviously, when Indiana first won the national championship,
7:41
Speaker 2: there might have been I think there's two teams, four teams.
7:44
Speaker 2: So it obviously goes without saying that this does happen.
7:48
Speaker 2: It has happened in the past, there is precedent to it.
7:53
Speaker 2: But at some point you have too many teams in
7:55
Speaker 2: the field and it takes away the flare. Might not
7:59
Speaker 2: take away the German addicts of certain games, but there'll
8:03
Speaker 2: be a lot more misses than hits with this. Yeah.
8:07
Speaker 1: The thing that worries me about it, and you kind
8:09
Speaker 1: of alluded to it and brought it up is where
8:12
Speaker 1: does it eventually stop, because we've already had expansion over
8:17
Speaker 1: the years, and I think obviously the argument from the
8:20
Speaker 1: NCAA President Charlie Baker and maybe others, there's obviously more
8:24
Speaker 1: teams now than ever in Division one in college in
8:28
Speaker 1: NCAA basketball, But there's also just a lot of teams,
8:34
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, that are going to take advantage of this,
8:36
Speaker 1: that are from the power conference levels. It'd be one
8:38
Speaker 1: thing if they were going to do this and they
8:39
Speaker 1: were going to give more opportunity to maybe some of
8:41
Speaker 1: the smaller conference teams to get in and have a
8:43
Speaker 1: chance to play, but we know that's not going to
8:46
Speaker 1: happen with the way the systems set up, with the
8:48
Speaker 1: net rankings and how the scheduling works. It's going to
8:53
Speaker 1: benefit the teams like in Indiana, like an Auburn, like
8:57
Speaker 1: teams from the Big East, from the Big twelve who
9:00
Speaker 1: are maybe five hundred or even worse in their conference play.
9:05
Speaker 1: Maybe they've picked up a couple of you know, quad
9:07
Speaker 1: one wins at the season, but they have some bad
9:09
Speaker 1: losses and they're right there on the bubble in the
9:11
Speaker 1: old format, and now all of a sudden, those teams
9:12
Speaker 1: are comfortably in and you go down to the next
9:15
Speaker 1: tier teams and those are going to be even less
9:17
Speaker 1: qualified teams in terms of should be in. So my
9:21
Speaker 1: question is, big picture, where does it stop? And I
9:24
Speaker 1: don't know the answer to that. I think the argument
9:27
Speaker 1: from the people that are making this decision as well.
9:30
Speaker 1: You know, obviously they can bring in more revenue, and
9:32
Speaker 1: the TV people want the games, but how many more
9:35
Speaker 1: games do they really want? I mean, how closely right
9:38
Speaker 1: now is the first four watching watched? Speaking from someone
9:42
Speaker 1: that has followed college basketball, you know, since growing up
9:47
Speaker 1: the son of a sports columnist in Louisville, Kentucky, which
9:49
Speaker 1: if you look at the NCAA Tournament ratings on TV
9:52
Speaker 1: every year, it's the top market for college basketball in
9:55
Speaker 1: the country every year. So I've watched the tournament, you know,
10:00
Speaker 1: throughout for pretty much my whole life, and I can
10:03
Speaker 1: tell you that when they added the first four, I
10:06
Speaker 1: really have only watched it a couple of times. Obviously,
10:09
Speaker 1: when Indiana was in it, I had to watch it
10:11
Speaker 1: because I had to right about the games, but otherwise
10:13
Speaker 1: I don't really care too much about those games. And
10:16
Speaker 1: I also don't like the fact that they've taken the
10:19
Speaker 1: sixteen seeds and made them a part of it. These
10:21
Speaker 1: are teams that won their conference tournament that you know,
10:25
Speaker 1: earn their way to be in the field, and all
10:27
Speaker 1: of a sudden, now you're making them play an extra
10:28
Speaker 1: game to actually be in the real tournament. So I
10:32
Speaker 1: don't like that. I hope that's not something that's going
10:34
Speaker 1: to be part of this making more of these lower
10:36
Speaker 1: seeded teams play in these playing games. Obviously more details
10:40
Speaker 1: to come, but I think we kind of agree on this.
10:42
Speaker 1: I think it just overall kind of dilutes the product,
10:45
Speaker 1: doesn't make it as appealing. And again, these games, there
10:49
Speaker 1: will be people that watch them, but I don't think
10:52
Speaker 1: they're going to be high quality games. Did anyone really
10:55
Speaker 1: want to see Indiana and Auburn do a playing game
10:58
Speaker 1: last year, because that's the kind of game that we
11:01
Speaker 1: would have had as a result of this. So and
11:04
Speaker 1: I'm sure coaches probably like it at some of these
11:06
Speaker 1: schools where now they can say they made the tournament,
11:09
Speaker 1: it might help them keep their job for longer. But
11:12
Speaker 1: in reality, I don't think it's a good thing for
11:15
Speaker 1: the sports. So we'll leave that discussion there. I'm sure
11:19
Speaker 1: we could do a longer ranging discussion. And I want
11:22
Speaker 1: to hop real quickly to IU spring football because you
11:24
Speaker 1: were there for most of that. I know you were
11:27
Speaker 1: at pretty much every media availability, you're at the practices,
11:30
Speaker 1: what you're able to see, you're at the spring game.
11:33
Speaker 1: As someone who doesn't follow college football as closely as
11:38
Speaker 1: you have for a long time, what can we take
11:41
Speaker 1: away from spring football in general? And more importantly, I
11:46
Speaker 1: guess for an Indiana team coming off a national championship
11:49
Speaker 1: perfection sixteen to zero, I don't know how you don't
11:53
Speaker 1: improve on that. But what did you learn from going
11:56
Speaker 1: to the media availabilities, going to the spring game, going
11:58
Speaker 1: to practice like you did there for a couple of weeks,
12:00
Speaker 1: about this team and what Indiana fans have to look
12:03
Speaker 1: forward to next fall.
12:06
Speaker 2: I think it's one of those things where you wanted
12:08
Speaker 2: to see the consistency, and with Kurt Signetty that's all
12:11
Speaker 2: you see. Everything is the same. There's new guys, there's
12:15
Speaker 2: new leaders. There was a new leader. They're trying to
12:18
Speaker 2: morph those guys in. They got Tyreek Tucker, they have
12:21
Speaker 2: Isaiah Jones, Charlie Becker, they're in the middle leading the
12:26
Speaker 2: pregay or the pre practice jumping Jackson and giving a
12:30
Speaker 2: speech before practice. But it's looking at those new guys.
12:34
Speaker 2: You got Turbo Richard, you got Joe Brunner, you got
12:37
Speaker 2: Preston Zachman, you have Josh Hoover, Nick Marsh, you have
12:42
Speaker 2: all those guys. And I know he's not a transfer
12:45
Speaker 2: coming in this year, but you have Tyler Morris coming
12:48
Speaker 2: off of an injury. That wide receiver group, they're a
12:51
Speaker 2: really good bunch. They might be more talented than the
12:55
Speaker 2: year before, just based on Marsh and Becker alone and
13:00
Speaker 2: going to Nick Marsh, that is a freak of nature.
13:04
Speaker 2: He is gigantic the first time he came on the field, obviously,
13:07
Speaker 2: the story of the gold cleats, and he's going to
13:11
Speaker 2: mold into a signetti player. Obviously at Michigan State he
13:15
Speaker 2: was kind of just that one guy, the one man band,
13:18
Speaker 2: and now he's going to be a part of the
13:20
Speaker 2: band of brothers. As Fernando Mendoza said, the thing I
13:23
Speaker 2: took away is the defense. The spring game kind of
13:27
Speaker 2: showed it a weak offensive line with Carter Smith and
13:31
Speaker 2: Bray Lynch being out kind of helped it show this.
13:35
Speaker 2: But the front seven is going to be just as
13:39
Speaker 2: good as it was, if not better than last year.
13:42
Speaker 2: You look at that front four Tyree Tucker and Mario
13:45
Speaker 2: Landino on the inside, chittyobi iSER and Opsinsani on the outside.
13:53
Speaker 2: On those edge rushers, those guys are really big, they're quick,
13:57
Speaker 2: they're violent. Then you go into that second level have
14:00
Speaker 2: Isaiah Jones and Elijah Hardy and Kayden Turner is gonna
14:03
Speaker 2: step up. Then the secondary you have Jamari Sharp. These
14:06
Speaker 2: guys are are back for more and they're gonna be
14:09
Speaker 2: playing with a little bit of revenge or not revenge
14:13
Speaker 2: you went sixteen to know. But people are gonna say,
14:16
Speaker 2: and he has defense is gonna be as good without
14:18
Speaker 2: D'Angelo Pond's, Makaw Kamara, all those guys, Aidan Fisher, they're
14:23
Speaker 2: really violent and they're quick, and any Bryan Haynes defense
14:26
Speaker 2: is going to be really good. So looking at Spring Bold,
14:30
Speaker 2: like I think I wrote about in my takeaways of
14:32
Speaker 2: the Spring Game, doesn't really matter, especially with Josh Cooper.
14:36
Speaker 2: I walked away unimpressed with Fernanda Mendoza, but I walked
14:39
Speaker 2: away unimpressed on August thirtieth after Old Dominion thinking is
14:43
Speaker 2: he as good as Curtis work. He's the best quarterback
14:46
Speaker 2: in Indiana football history and won the Heisman. So it
14:49
Speaker 2: doesn't matter right now what happens. What they're showing fall
14:53
Speaker 2: camp will show us a lot. But it was a
14:56
Speaker 2: really good spring, especially with a quick turnaround.
15:00
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing that I took away, and
15:02
Speaker 1: this isn't really even a football specific thing or anything
15:06
Speaker 1: to do with the practices, It was more the date
15:10
Speaker 1: of the spring game, and I think we texted about this.
15:12
Speaker 1: It kind of shows you that Kurt Signetti is not
15:15
Speaker 1: going to treat last season and the fact that they
15:17
Speaker 1: had eight NFL draft picks and won the National Championship
15:20
Speaker 1: and went perfection as a chance to kind of parade
15:23
Speaker 1: those accomplishments on. He is very much past that he
15:28
Speaker 1: won the National Championship. He's done his fair share media.
15:30
Speaker 1: I keep seeing different interviews that kind of pop up
15:32
Speaker 1: the spring. He's doing different podcasts and talking, but he's
15:36
Speaker 1: ready to move on. And the fact that he had
15:38
Speaker 1: the spring game on the night of the NFL draft,
15:41
Speaker 1: when his player that he's in good part responsible for
15:46
Speaker 1: bringing in from cal helping develop with his coaching staff,
15:49
Speaker 1: building that guy into a not only a Heisman Trophy
15:52
Speaker 1: winner and undefeated national championship and being the number one
15:55
Speaker 1: pick in the NFL Draft. A lot of coaches would
15:57
Speaker 1: have used that as a chance to go to the draft,
16:01
Speaker 1: or you know, in the case of Mendoza, he watched
16:04
Speaker 1: from home. Be there with Mendoza, get that TV time,
16:07
Speaker 1: use it as an opportunity. I mean, how many times
16:10
Speaker 1: in college basketball did we see John Cayler Perry in
16:12
Speaker 1: the green room with different Kentucky guys using him as
16:14
Speaker 1: an opportunity as a you know, basically an infomotionial for
16:18
Speaker 1: his program. That's not Kurt Signetti. He was in Memorial
16:21
Speaker 1: Stadium that night. I think you told me they showed
16:24
Speaker 1: the pick in the stadium, but it was a little
16:26
Speaker 1: bit delayed. It wasn't even live, so it was like, okay,
16:28
Speaker 1: we'll cut to that. But we're very much focused on
16:31
Speaker 1: the game. We're focused on the next team. And the
16:36
Speaker 1: other thing that I notice, I don't know if you
16:38
Speaker 1: notice this when you go to the Sunday's press conference.
16:40
Speaker 1: He still wears that pullover from the twenty four to
16:44
Speaker 1: twenty five college football Playoff pretty much every time. I do, like,
16:47
Speaker 1: you just won the national championship. One undefeated and you're
16:50
Speaker 1: still wearing the pollover from the first season. He's just
16:53
Speaker 1: a different guy, man. He's not gonna get caught up
16:56
Speaker 1: in the hooplah and all of the you know, reading
17:00
Speaker 1: the press clippings and celebrating. He's he's very much onto
17:03
Speaker 1: the next thing.
17:04
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think with that corror zip, the story is
17:08
Speaker 2: that he likes the comfortness of it and he doesn't
17:12
Speaker 2: just have one so like people who think that it's
17:15
Speaker 2: really dirty and it smells, but no, he I think
17:18
Speaker 2: he has like between five and ten of the same one,
17:22
Speaker 2: twenty four to twenty five. The twenty five twenty six
17:24
Speaker 2: is the same fabric, but he doesn't think it's as
17:27
Speaker 2: comfortable and he just wears twenty.
17:29
Speaker 1: Four twenty was he asked about that at one point
17:32
Speaker 1: and I missed it or what?
17:34
Speaker 2: No, he it's it's the rumor at least as of
17:37
Speaker 2: right now, like that's talking to some people that that's
17:41
Speaker 2: his thing. He likes the twenty four to twenty five one.
17:43
Speaker 2: It's comfortable, just like his recliner, right. Yeah, I mean
17:49
Speaker 2: he's sorted the trend of the nose shirt under the
17:52
Speaker 2: corror zip. It depends on the fabric. I'm kind of
17:57
Speaker 2: getting behind it. I'm not sure still the jury is
18:01
Speaker 2: still out on that.
18:01
Speaker 1: He can pull off whatever he wants. He could come
18:03
Speaker 1: in there with a just a tank top on if
18:06
Speaker 1: he wanted, right.
18:07
Speaker 2: That's the thing, Like he's just business. It doesn't matter,
18:11
Speaker 2: there's no I think he said it in the pre
18:13
Speaker 2: National Championship game with Reys Davis and Mario Christobal we
18:18
Speaker 2: don't have cheerleaders on the sideline. We're just business. And
18:21
Speaker 2: Mario cristoball got all mad. But it really is like
18:24
Speaker 2: he clapped a few times when they showed Fernando and
18:28
Speaker 2: that was it, and he recognizes I think in year three,
18:33
Speaker 2: and I think he did it the first two years.
18:35
Speaker 2: He did it on the Thursday of the draft, just
18:37
Speaker 2: as no one was drafted. I think it's something where
18:40
Speaker 2: he sees the value in the little five hundred weekend.
18:43
Speaker 2: It is a built in recruiting monster. You get all
18:49
Speaker 2: these five stars on campus, you have their hosts, you
18:52
Speaker 2: see campus, you see Bloomington for the most part, at
18:56
Speaker 2: its best, and it is a great weekend. I know
19:01
Speaker 2: Darren Devrees has people coming in and had people coming
19:04
Speaker 2: in over the weekend, like it is one of those
19:06
Speaker 2: things where he sees the value of little five hundred
19:09
Speaker 2: over being at the draft, and that's just who Kurtzignetti is.
19:13
Speaker 2: It's a recruiting monster, and he understands it now.
19:19
Speaker 1: I think if you're an IU football fan supporter and
19:21
Speaker 1: you see that, you gotta love it like he's not
19:24
Speaker 1: happy with. Obviously, you celebrate your accomplishments, but if you
19:28
Speaker 1: want to continue to be great, you have to put
19:30
Speaker 1: it in the past and move on. And that's clearly
19:32
Speaker 1: what he's done with this program. And I know everyone's
19:35
Speaker 1: looking forward to next season. Still quite a bit of
19:39
Speaker 1: ways to go, what like four months or so until
19:42
Speaker 1: the season will kick off, but I think it's going
19:45
Speaker 1: to be another fun season of football and Bloomington's so
19:47
Speaker 1: looking forward to that. Last thing I wanted to talk
19:49
Speaker 1: to you about, which we're kind of in a holding
19:52
Speaker 1: pattern right now. I think with IU basketball roster, there's
19:54
Speaker 1: ten players on the roster. We talked a couple of
19:58
Speaker 1: weeks ago with Tony Donya about the six commitments that
20:00
Speaker 1: they have. Obviously, there's just wonderturning player in Trent Sisley.
20:04
Speaker 1: Three freshmen coming in. Haven't had a chance to talk
20:07
Speaker 1: to you since all of this activity went down. What
20:11
Speaker 1: are your just general thoughts on what they've done from
20:15
Speaker 1: a portal perspective this spring. Do you think the roster
20:18
Speaker 1: is significantly upgraded from what we saw last season? You know,
20:21
Speaker 1: I think if we would have had this conversation a
20:23
Speaker 1: year ago, I think people were feeling pretty good about
20:25
Speaker 1: what Indiana did from a portal perspective. People were excited
20:28
Speaker 1: about Lamar Wilkerson. They were excited about Tucker Debris coming
20:32
Speaker 1: off an injury. Reed Bailey was a guy that a
20:35
Speaker 1: lot of schools wanted last year in the portal Indiana
20:38
Speaker 1: got them. There was excitement about Tayton Connorway coming up
20:41
Speaker 1: from Troy as the Sun Belt Player of the Year.
20:43
Speaker 1: And obviously you're not going to hit on all those guys,
20:46
Speaker 1: but there was far too many guys last year in
20:49
Speaker 1: the portal cycle that Indian missed on and that had
20:51
Speaker 1: a lot to do with how the season turned out.
20:53
Speaker 1: Fast forward to a year later. Six new additions, all
20:57
Speaker 1: from the high major level, each with varying levels of success.
21:01
Speaker 1: But one thing I do want to point out is
21:02
Speaker 1: four of them did play in the NCAA tournament last year,
21:05
Speaker 1: So that's notable to me that they've at least been
21:07
Speaker 1: on that stage, But just curious for what you think
21:11
Speaker 1: about what they've done so far in the portal and
21:14
Speaker 1: do you think they need more impact players or is
21:16
Speaker 1: it at this point. I've kind of said it's just
21:19
Speaker 1: at this point kind of filling out the depth and
21:20
Speaker 1: getting you know, a couple more guys that can at
21:22
Speaker 1: least be serviceable if they have to go in. But
21:25
Speaker 1: I'm curious for your thoughts on what they've done in
21:27
Speaker 1: the portal so far.
21:29
Speaker 2: I think it's one of those things where this staff
21:31
Speaker 2: has learned from the mistakes of last year. You don't
21:34
Speaker 2: you're not going to win with the guys as Kurt
21:38
Speaker 2: Signetti's guys said, like to say, group of five All stars,
21:41
Speaker 2: You're not going to win with that kind of mid major.
21:44
Speaker 2: Sometimes you can, but it has to be sprinkled. It
21:47
Speaker 2: just was way too many mid majors summed out kind
21:51
Speaker 2: of players. Davidson like going after high major players. They
21:55
Speaker 2: have the experience to play on a week night, maybe
21:59
Speaker 2: not the Big Ten, but in a major conference. It's
22:02
Speaker 2: one of those things where we saw the Minnesota game
22:05
Speaker 2: last year and they were shocked by the physicality of
22:09
Speaker 2: Big Ten play in their first road Big Ten game,
22:12
Speaker 2: and that won't happen. It shouldn't happen next year. And
22:18
Speaker 2: the roster construction, it's kind of Ryan Carr's doing here,
22:22
Speaker 2: where you have the right guys coming in, it's gonna
22:25
Speaker 2: fit this system and you're just gonna start filling depth.
22:29
Speaker 2: You need another big man, you need to keep you
22:33
Speaker 2: need you need to keep depth because that that hurt
22:36
Speaker 2: last year at times when both Read Bailey and sam
22:39
Speaker 2: Ulexis got into foul trouble. But getting high major guys
22:44
Speaker 2: has people excited. It has people more excited, and it's
22:47
Speaker 2: not really as much fabricated as it was last year.
22:51
Speaker 2: Is oh, look at this, maybe maybe this could work
22:53
Speaker 2: out the same way as Kurtzignetti bringing guys up to
22:57
Speaker 2: the big Big ten level. So overall, it's been a
23:01
Speaker 2: really good portal. Obviously, not being in the thick of it.
23:08
Speaker 2: All I saw from a recruiting standpoint was going out
23:13
Speaker 2: near Kirkwood and seeing the basketball golf cart and you
23:16
Speaker 2: just wonder who's in Buffalouis today, which is still happening
23:21
Speaker 2: as of yesterday, and just looking at the golf cart
23:24
Speaker 2: and being like, could go in there, but I'm not
23:26
Speaker 2: going to but they've done a really good job and
23:30
Speaker 2: having a full staff for this entire transfer portal cycle
23:36
Speaker 2: it has been huge. Last year you didn't have a
23:40
Speaker 2: full staff, you didn't have everybody in place. You're behind,
23:44
Speaker 2: and you had a roster that was behind. And I
23:46
Speaker 2: think really they overachieved with last year's roster given where
23:50
Speaker 2: they were. So I think this year has caused for
23:56
Speaker 2: it has reason for excitement going into the summer as
23:59
Speaker 2: long provided you get more big depth and you fill
24:03
Speaker 2: in depth spots.
24:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the two biggest things that I look
24:08
Speaker 1: at in terms of the roster, in terms of improvement,
24:12
Speaker 1: they needed to get better at the point guard league
24:15
Speaker 1: guard spot. I think they did with Marcus Burton. Now,
24:18
Speaker 1: obviously he's had some injuries. He's coming off an injury.
24:20
Speaker 1: He was also injured in a previous season where he
24:22
Speaker 1: missed I think six or seven games, so there's always
24:26
Speaker 1: that risk. But assuming he's healthy and ready to go,
24:29
Speaker 1: he's a guy that's been proven to be a really
24:32
Speaker 1: big time scorer at the ACC level. He's an Indiana kid,
24:35
Speaker 1: which I think excites people. He was a mister Basketball
24:38
Speaker 1: at one point. That's the kind of kid that I
24:41
Speaker 1: think a lot of Indiana fans like to have in
24:43
Speaker 1: their program. I think he's someone that they're going to
24:45
Speaker 1: get behind pretty quickly. Having him, I think will be
24:49
Speaker 1: a major boost. That's nothing against connor Enright, who I
24:52
Speaker 1: thought last season filled his role pretty admirably, But I
24:55
Speaker 1: don't think when he was brought on what they envision
25:00
Speaker 1: and in terms of how the rotations were going to
25:02
Speaker 1: work out. I don't even know that they thought he
25:04
Speaker 1: was going to be a starter. He ends up starting
25:06
Speaker 1: the whole season playing a ton of minutes when Tayton
25:09
Speaker 1: Connorway later in the season, for whatever reason, basically became
25:12
Speaker 1: unplayable at times and didn't really live up to the expectation.
25:16
Speaker 1: So I think they're better there with Burton and then
25:20
Speaker 1: obviously the front court. Same thing there with Reed Bailey.
25:24
Speaker 1: I think when that commitment happened, people saw it and
25:28
Speaker 1: they kind of talked themselves into the idea of all right,
25:30
Speaker 1: small ball, he's five that can thrust the four. But
25:34
Speaker 1: then the season actually plays out, he doesn't shoot any
25:37
Speaker 1: threes hardly at all, and when you see him going
25:40
Speaker 1: up against some of these bigs in the Big ten,
25:42
Speaker 1: you realize he's not going to be able to finish
25:43
Speaker 1: against that Indiana staff obviously makes the adjustment to go
25:47
Speaker 1: to sam Alexis more. He was super efficient. I think
25:49
Speaker 1: thought he played his role pretty well, but I think
25:52
Speaker 1: on a really good team, sam Alexis is coming off
25:54
Speaker 1: the bench and giving you fifteen eighteen minutes a game,
25:57
Speaker 1: he was forced into a bigger role. So what do
26:00
Speaker 1: they do. They go out and get Igatoglu and Cherrell
26:05
Speaker 1: from the transfer portal. Based on kind of the rankings
26:09
Speaker 1: that I've looked at, those guys are both somewhere, you know,
26:12
Speaker 1: in the top fifteen, top thirty of most of the
26:14
Speaker 1: portal rankings. Overalls impact guys. When guy's six foot ten,
26:18
Speaker 1: six eleven, two hundred and fifty pounds of form, McDonald's
26:20
Speaker 1: All American played a significant role in an Alabama team
26:24
Speaker 1: that won a lot of games the last two seasons,
26:26
Speaker 1: and the other guy's seven foot two a starter, he's older,
26:31
Speaker 1: twenty two years old, and you just watch the clips.
26:34
Speaker 1: He's not going to be a guy that people are
26:36
Speaker 1: going to move around to the post. He's going to
26:37
Speaker 1: be moving people around. He's going to be going at people.
26:40
Speaker 1: He's going to be the one being in a turn
26:43
Speaker 1: at the rim. Indiana didn't have that last year, so
26:45
Speaker 1: I think they've upgraded those positions. The questions for me
26:48
Speaker 1: are cam Darren Harris the Duke transfer, can he take
26:51
Speaker 1: a big leap? Obviously he was kind of stuck behind
26:54
Speaker 1: other players at Duke, really talented team. He was part
26:56
Speaker 1: of the recruiting class with Cooper Flag and Konk Nipple.
26:59
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you're gonna have a hard time playing
27:03
Speaker 1: when when those are kind of the guys you're looking
27:05
Speaker 1: up at the rotation. Same thing last year he got
27:07
Speaker 1: some time, had some flashes, but I think he's gonna
27:10
Speaker 1: get his opportunity to play more. So I like him
27:14
Speaker 1: as a potential breakout candidate if he can obviously get
27:17
Speaker 1: some confidence and get some reps in. So to me,
27:20
Speaker 1: he's he's kind of a swing piece on how this
27:23
Speaker 1: whole thing works out, because I definitely think they need
27:25
Speaker 1: the shooting they need when you look at the attempts
27:29
Speaker 1: that Tucker Devriez and Lamar Wilkerson took from Free last year,
27:33
Speaker 1: even Nick Dorn, they need to figure out a way
27:35
Speaker 1: to replace some of those three point attempts and makes,
27:38
Speaker 1: and I think Darren Harris has a chance to do that.
27:40
Speaker 1: Bryce Lindsay obviously is the guy that can fill it up,
27:43
Speaker 1: can play both guard spots, made six to three pointers
27:46
Speaker 1: in the NCAA Tournament game last year. I don't know
27:48
Speaker 1: how many teams are adding a player that made six
27:52
Speaker 1: threes into their program, so that that's a good thing.
27:55
Speaker 1: And Jayden mustav is a guy that I think in
27:57
Speaker 1: and the fans were familiar with from as high school
28:00
Speaker 1: days as a recruit, played a pretty significant role on
28:03
Speaker 1: a Georgia Tech team as an athletic guy that can slash,
28:06
Speaker 1: get to the rim, does some pretty good things. So
28:09
Speaker 1: I think overall the talent level is improved. But again,
28:13
Speaker 1: we've been here before and people have I think people
28:18
Speaker 1: you know, there is optimism, but I also think there's
28:20
Speaker 1: also a wait and see approach with a lot of
28:22
Speaker 1: people that they don't want to buy too much into
28:26
Speaker 1: this until they actually see it in practice. And I
28:27
Speaker 1: think that's a fair approach because how long now has
28:30
Speaker 1: Indiana basketball been going on where it's it's kind of
28:34
Speaker 1: winning the portal, right, winning the offseason, and then when
28:37
Speaker 1: the actual season tips off, something seems to go wrong.
28:39
Speaker 1: So we'll see how it actually turns out. But obviously
28:43
Speaker 1: you'd much rather be in a position where you have
28:47
Speaker 1: your most of your team, your roster set here on
28:49
Speaker 1: April thirty. Then you can kind of fill the last
28:51
Speaker 1: couple spots when you get the opportunity to, as opposed
28:54
Speaker 1: to being some of these high major schools that are
28:57
Speaker 1: kind of sitting there with money left over to spend
28:59
Speaker 1: and there's not the caliber player that you want to
29:02
Speaker 1: spend that money on. So that's not the position that
29:05
Speaker 1: you want to be in. So overall, I think you're right.
29:08
Speaker 1: The staff was more prepared this season. I think had
29:11
Speaker 1: a better plan. I wrote about that earlier this morning
29:14
Speaker 1: on Inside the Hall, so if you haven't had a
29:15
Speaker 1: chance to read that, go check it out. Last thing,
29:18
Speaker 1: Josh before we let you go, quick moment you know
29:21
Speaker 1: if you're not a baseball fan, because you can go
29:23
Speaker 1: ahead and football for the podcast now. But obviously we're
29:26
Speaker 1: fans of the White Sox. Sorry Cubs fans, but fun
29:30
Speaker 1: start to the season. Actually, remember texting you you missed
29:34
Speaker 1: the Kansas State game last year and a somebody Hall
29:36
Speaker 1: Colson Montgomery was there, got a chance to meet him,
29:39
Speaker 1: talk to him. Agat on a Mendoza shirt of some kind.
29:45
Speaker 1: Obviously a big IU sports fans committed AU baseball before
29:49
Speaker 1: he you know, forga his eligibility and went into the
29:54
Speaker 1: MLB draft. Was the first round pick of the White
29:57
Speaker 1: Sox and has worked his way up through the system.
29:59
Speaker 1: But the White Sox are actually watchable this year, so
30:01
Speaker 1: that gives us something to celebrate here as the spring
30:03
Speaker 1: goes on, though, you'll be going back to Chicago here
30:07
Speaker 1: shortly get a chance to go to some games. But
30:10
Speaker 1: this is just a much better start to the spring
30:12
Speaker 1: than we've had in quite a while.
30:15
Speaker 2: It's finally palatable baseball, and you get the emotions of
30:19
Speaker 2: the fun bad. I watched guys run into outs yesterday
30:23
Speaker 2: and just phonehead decisions, but then you tie the game
30:27
Speaker 2: with the triple in the ninth from a guy who
30:29
Speaker 2: just came up two weeks ago. That's the emotional roller
30:32
Speaker 2: coaster of baseball. I'd rather be a White Sox fan
30:35
Speaker 2: than a Dodgers fan, because you have to earn every
30:37
Speaker 2: win and earn every winning season, and being this close
30:40
Speaker 2: to five hundred this late in the season hasn't happened
30:42
Speaker 2: since twenty twenty two, So you know, you take the
30:47
Speaker 2: good with the bad. I'm not mad with where they're at.
30:51
Speaker 2: Their a game and a half out of first place.
30:53
Speaker 2: I'd love to see some meaningful baseball in May, June, July,
30:57
Speaker 2: just to even be close and maybe just maybe sneak
31:02
Speaker 2: to my seventy five win prediction that I told you
31:04
Speaker 2: back in February.
31:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been, it's been fun to watch. Hopefully whatever
31:09
Speaker 1: baseball team you fall, hopefully your team's off to a good,
31:11
Speaker 1: fun start. Always better kind of when we get into
31:14
Speaker 1: this period of the year. Obviously got the NBA playoffs,
31:18
Speaker 1: but you know, we're here to talk IU basketball and
31:20
Speaker 1: IU football, and it's kind of we're kind of in
31:22
Speaker 1: the no man's land portion of the schedule. Not a
31:26
Speaker 1: whole lot to look forward to in the immediate future
31:29
Speaker 1: outside of the IU football you know, fall camp starting
31:32
Speaker 1: later in the summer, but we've got to got some
31:33
Speaker 1: time to pass us by. So it's always better when
31:36
Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs and an MLB startup got a chance
31:39
Speaker 1: to get a chance to watch those sports. So we
31:42
Speaker 1: won't keep you any longer with any more White Sox talk,
31:45
Speaker 1: but just wanting to give you a chance on one
31:48
Speaker 1: of your final appearances on podcasts on the Break, Josh
31:50
Speaker 1: to talk White Sox again. Thank you for everything you've
31:53
Speaker 1: done for Podcast on the Brink, for the site. You'll
31:56
Speaker 1: still be around here for I've actually told you you're
31:59
Speaker 1: you're can stay around as long as you want, so
32:02
Speaker 1: you have no expiration date as far as I'm concerned.
32:05
Speaker 2: But thanks again for everything. Thank you. I've had a
32:09
Speaker 2: blast this last year. And thank you to listeners' viewers.
32:12
Speaker 1: Everything all right, everyone, We appreciate the support as always.
32:17
Speaker 1: You've been listening over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Leave
32:20
Speaker 1: us a rating preferably five stars. Watching again on YouTube
32:23
Speaker 1: like the video, subscribe to the channel and we'll be
32:26
Speaker 1: back soon with another episode of Podcast on the Brink.