2025-2026 B1G Basketball Thread

[Wildcat4E]

I always liked Bruce Weber.

Bill (go play with your) Self not so much.

Bruce got his players to play hard for him.

He was never really loved by Wildcat fans, probably for a dumb reason from the jump.  KU hired Bill Self from Illinois, after he had built them into a power in a short period.  Bruce Weber took over there, and took the (mostly) Bill Self recruits to the Title Game, where he lost to Roy Williams and UNC.  Weber lasted a few more seasons, was fired by the Illini, and we picked him up after running the very successful Frank Martin off to South Carolina(!), where HE took that moribund program to the Final 4.

So, KU hired the wildly successful Illinois coach, and we hired the guy that program fired.  That didn't taste good from day 1.

However, he did win 2 conference championships, with a downturn in between, and then it went pretty bad for his last 3 seasons.

But hope springs eternal.  Tang had a good NIL budget, had some talented guys in town, but the only successful year was when we had a PG coach on the floor and a last minute (August) transfer that Florida wouldn't allow to play because he nearly died of heart failure while on their team.  

Sorry, I realize I'm in a B-10 board.  Hit the scroll and I won't be offended.

[847badgerfan]

The B1G board is the new catch-all, like the old XII board was. It's all good.

[ELA]

What even is a conference these days?

[847badgerfan]

I got nothing for ya.

[betarhoalphadelta]

I think there is a lot of truth here. 

As a fan I hate this new version.  I liked watching guys develop and looking forward to next year as guys improved but now I look at Ohio State's younger players from this year and wonder "will they even be here next year?". 

I also think that there is some feeback loop going on here in the way that you explained but also in another way:  When you develop a team through recruiting HS players it is going to be VERY rare that you wind up with five championship level guys at the same time.  Usually you'll miss on one position or a guy will leave early or whatever and you'll end up with 4/5 of a championship team and one MAC level guy.  In the old (like five years ago) days that was fine because most every team was in that same boat so even when you got to the F4 most teams had a position or two that wasn't really up to F4/Championship caliber.  You can't do that anymore because the teams that get to the F4 are going to be teams that filled ALL of their holes and can put five high end players on the court at once. 

In today's game you KNOW that other teams are going to fill their holes with portal guys so if you want to have a legit shot to compete at the highest level then you are going to have to do the same. 

I don't know about Izzo, but Painter has been active to fill holes with transfers / grad transfers / portal where he can. He was active in the grad transfer market for years when they were the only ones who could play immediately. Now he's making us of the portal. 

Just this year, Oscar Cluff came in as the #1 portal guy. We needed it. We had a gap at the 5. TKR is a more natural 4 and was forced to play the 5 too much last year after Daniel Jacobsen went down with a season-ending injury. And we didn't know whether Jacobsen was going to be good enough to hold down the position this year (note: he wasn't). 

So it's not either-or. You can try build your core around recruiting, but you're not going to hit on every recruit. You have to supplement and fill holes when they develop. 

What I think separates Painter and Izzo is that they understand what they want in players, and they know how to go out into living rooms and recruit THEIR guys. And they know that they can get those guys on campus and develop them to build a cohesive core of a program. Then you reach into the portal when/where you need to fill the gaps. 

[FearlessF]