AxnJxn

I don't think this is too complicated, as we've seen it all year - their backcourt is going to kill them in the tournament. Houston would eat their guards alive, as would a number of other teams with experience and toughness in the backcourt. They'll likely get to the S16 with that high seed, but I don't see them going much further. Illinois is a very interesting team to watch. Hawkins is kind of a jigsaw puzzle that fits in a number of places (he was bringing the ball up to start the offense yesterday while guarding Edey on the defensive end), Shannon is a terrific talent, and Mayer is ... well, I think he's kind of a chucker, but he can catch fire pretty quickly. Not sure I see them going all that far in the tournament, but that's an interesting roster build.

Yeah, I mean, I've had my own moments of "WTF is going on with this team?" One was yesterday when I thought I was going to sit back and watch a nice easy W, and next thing I know we're down double digits. But, hey, that's a far cry from the double digit minutes of time when we wouldn't score a FG with the former coach, or getting run out of the gym by a team whose school name has more letters than Coach K has in his name. Let's remember that this team was once 1-4 and could have easily packed it in, that this is Woody's second year, and another year of checking off some important benchmarks - not sweating out a tourney bid is a nice change, ending more losing streaks, sweeping Purdue, and winning tough, close games are all important hurdles to getting the program back to where we want it.

It's a bit odd that there are people questioning the heart of this team after coming back to win this game, and is something like 6-3 in games decided by 6 points or less (I eyeballed that stat, so don't kill me if it's a bit off). It's even odder when you consider that one of the comparison points - the McCaffrey clan (really?) - comes on a day when they lost at home to Nebraska. This team is what it is at this point. I think we all know they could fall flat on their face any time on the court, but that can happen to pretty much any team in the tournament. Look at some of the top line seeds - Purdue got smoked at Maryland, Alabama lost by 24 at Oklahoma, Kansas by 16 at Baylor, Baylor by 15 at home against Iowa State, and so on. This team could also go on a run to the FF - that is something that is certainly in play, depending on seeding/draw and if they can get consistent at the right time.

1. I think it makes zero sense to respond to a post about next year’s team saying that it makes zero sense to talk about next year’s team. 2. We do have some ideas of what the roster will look like. It won’t have 4 guys who have been in Woody’s system, and it won’t have one of the best freshmen in the country this year. We also know who could potentially return, and what those players have shown us to this point, which isn’t much outside of Trey. 3. I never said anything about not being competitive next year, just noting that there are good reasons to be concerned. Most of the teams in the B1G are going to be returning at least some of their starting 5, and other guys that are familiar with their individual systems and whatnot. 4. i think most people on here know the game has changed in a number of ways with respect to roster building.

With good reason. - We're losing our entire preseason starting 5. - Outside of Galloway, our non-freshman returning players are doing nothing ... remember late last year and before the season started this year, when we were talking about Geronimo taking minutes from Race, or finding a way to get him more time? I've honestly forgotten about him, because I rarely see him unless he's standing on the sidelines. Bates has been pretty terrible since mid January. Leal rarely gets on the court. Duncomb? And so forth. - Our best returning ball handler is ... Trey Galloway. Now, I think Trey is a terrific player, but I don't think that's an ideal situation. - I'm not all that familiar with recruiting overall, and completely understand that rankings aren't everything, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of IU commits on that top 100 list. - Odds are we're going to lose at least 1 of those returning guys to the portal. - Woody's going to have to hit the portal hard, and we're going to have a group of guys who have never stepped on the court with each other, and all the trials and tribulations that come along with that. In short, buckle up, because it could get bumpy very, very soon.

Here's what I don't get. Murray starts the game with a 3 that hits nothing but net. Soon after, does it again. Fool me once and all that, but hey, he does it a third, fourth, and fifth time. Ok, the guy's really good, so I guess it's one of those nights. However! Back door cut, easy layup. Soon after, back door cut, easy layup. And again. And again. I mean, are these guys paying attention to anything happening on the court? I think that's what annoyed me the most, was watching the same mistakes over and over and over again. We just looked, well frankly, kinda stupid out there, and that's never a good look. And of all the teams, I think I'd take a 20 point loss to Purdue over losing to that group of people at Iowa. Ok, that might be a bit much, but they're firmly in second place for teams I hate losing to. As for XJ, the whole "we would have beaten _____ if we had XJ" is getting pretty old. If we're going to play that game, you could also say that if XJ doesn't get hurt, maybe he gets knocked off balance in a game and tumbles into TJD's knee and blows it out. As Norman Dale once said, "My team's on the court." Let's face facts - this team has the potential to make a big run to a FF in March, and they could also lose all of their remaining games. None of us have any idea what's going to happen on a game by game basis going forward, and it sure seems like the team doesn't, either. Not really an idea spot to be in on March 1. But, it does seem that this team does have the ability to have a short memory when it comes to these things, so I guess that's something.

W.T.F. /end of game analysis

Conversely, maybe we're just waiting for the NCAAT to unleash the power of the KILLER MOPP, with the two of them raining threes like hellfire all the way to the FF. Someone really needs to photoshop Trey's hair on Miller's head, and this meme will write itself.

Agreed, but it's also a nice change from rooting for teams to lose so that we're not playing on the first night, or to get on the bubble for the NCAAT.

I don't usually have a problem with announcers, but the guy doing the PBP last night was terrible. Sounds like he's auditioning to be a 1970s classic rock DJ, "Xavier Jones," said some off the wall sort of stuff here and there, and got overly excited about the weirdest things.

There was a time when I wanted him to take those, but I'm ok with him not shooting them any more. I posted stats on him a week or two ago, and he was something like 3 of his last 28 or something like that, and it's clearly in his head now - that was pretty obvious last night when he thought about it multiple times, hesitated, and all that. You're not making that shot if you have to think about it that much. Same reason I don't want Miller posting up - we have multiple guys that are better at shooting 3s, we just need to do a better job at getting them open looks.

Yep. Conference tournaments are going to shake up a lot of those current teams hanging around the 4 seed quite a bit.

Meh. Not overly concerned with a loss here, as there was a lot of emotion going on, so tough environment. However, I will say that this team is starting to remind me of some of those Crean teams that would run out of gas in the second half of the season. That being said, I'm not sure there's much Woody can do with the (lack of) bench production we're getting. I'm also not overly concerned with our seeding for the tournaments coming up. Hold serve at home, and we should get a double bye in the BTT and be in the 4-6 range in the NCAA. If we're seeing this kind of effort in those last two homes games, time for some alarm bells to be going off. I'd also say that I'm happy for the MSU students. College is a place for inclusivity, for coming together and meeting new people and cultures, and what happened to them is going to have a ripple effect in some negative ways with respect to that, so it was good to see those kids have something positive to enjoy for a night.

Really good post here. My biggest problem with Tamar is the things you've said in bold above - he should simply have a higher basketball IQ at this point in his career than he actually does, and it's kind of hard to watch sometimes. I can't remember which game it was (NW, maybe?) where he took a terrible shot, and Hummel said something like "that better go in" because it was such a bad decision, on top of a couple of other mistakes Tamar had already made. In short, there are too many games where he has played like a freshman with respect to his decision making, and he's pretty close to being a complete liability on the road. OTOH, we've seen flashes of his talent, and there's a really good to great player in there, particularly with respect to his offensive abilities. Every time he checks in, I wonder if this is the game where it starts to click for him. All that being said, I couldn't imagine having a kid in college on top of playing basketball at IU and all that goes along with that. Maybe he can get some NIL money from Pampers or something (I have no idea how long kids wear diapers).

53 seconds. Push the ball, take a TO, and you’ve got 15-18 seconds to get a shot up.

I wish i knew why more teams don’t take advantage of 2 for 1 opportunities at the end of halfs. Perfect opportunity here.

I mean, it's a natural conversation, you've all made good points on both sides, and can't speak for others but I've enjoyed reading the responses and discussion.

Yah, I took your point, and I didn't word my response very well - what I was trying to say was that I was wrong to blame the bench when I don't know, and none of us know, what the tech was actually for.

Fair enough. I'll just say that I wouldn't expect things to change, since it's been going on for decades now. See Ted Valentine and others. I'm also not sure it's just the B1G - I watched the Xavier/Marquette game before ours, and it was even more physical and loosely called, and seemed to be favorable to Marquette overall. References to the old Big East "no blood, no foul" were made multiple times in the broadcast.

Let me take this in another direction. Different officiating crew, same complaints from Purdue fans about the officials in the NU/PU game, yes? So, what gives? Is NU now the Duke of the B1G?

Totally on board with this, and I appreciate the respectful discourse from you and others. I do agree with some things said about the officiating last night, just not all of it, but such is life. As Belichick would say, on to Illinois ...

That IS the issue. I'm glad you finally admitted it. Maybe some others can take the hint.

No, the ref is the only one that truly knows why he called that. It’s possible he had a grudge from Miller Kopp transferring. Maybe he doesn’t like the trident logo. Maybe he misheard something someone said from the bench. Or, maybe someone said something or did something that was worthy of a tech None of us know.

Ok, then you must know exactly why the ref called the tech. Please share with the rest of us. And yeah, I’ll admit to putting some blame on the bench, because this isn’t the first time. So, point taken there.

So instead of strawman stuff, now I’m just being contrarian? It’s not possible to have an opinion that goes against the 2% around here? Even with all of the attempted explanations, not one single person knows exactly what was said, or done, to cause the T. The only person that truly knows that is the ref. Any of you talk to him? I didn’t think so. If that’s being “contrarian,” I’m pretty sure I don’t want any of you on a jury trial that I am involved in.