Since being hired, Woodson has invested much of his time and capital into recruiting aimed at either elite high school talent or high-profile portal recruits. Of course, that didn't always work, but it was clearly the plan. Indiana has added players like Gabe Cupps, Jakai Newton, Sisley and others who it believes are potentially good prospects and who could develop over multiple years of college. But beyond that, the company has consistently prioritized either high-end apprenticeship candidates or the portal, with the underlying assumption that Indiana wants ready-to-work talent.

The counterargument is consistently that this is a dangerous strategy. That Woodson had better put his portal recruiting into action or else. But when isn't that the case? Every rostering strategy carries risks. There is no end game to all of this, which essentially boils down to “This is so good the games don't actually matter” and the idea of ​​building a squad on robust NIL support used to recruit high-profile transfers, is just as valid a way to fill your locker room as any modern college basketball.

It comes with the warning that portal recruits tend to have a shorter shelf life in college, and that's true in the most fundamental sense. Just this spring and summer, Indiana added four players from the portal – Oumar Ballo, Luke Goode, Langdon Hatton and Dallas James – whose eligibility will be exhausted after next season.