HoosierDom

Didn't Texas Tech have back-to-back deep tourney runs with basically an entire starting 5 of transfers? I haven't taken the time to check my memory there, but I think it was something like that. That was back when there weren't nearly as many players transferring each year. With the right coach (maybe even with the wrong coach), next year's roster could have Galloway, Reneau, MM, Cupps and Liam. Add Sparks and Leal for depth and veteran presence, and that's not a bad start. There are holes, but in this age, we should be able to fill those holes.

We had several box outs down the stretch. It was a sight to see. The play where Malik boxed his guy for an offensive rebound, sure looked like the guy he boxed out had him in a hook and hold. One of the few that you see where it actually should be a foul as the guy prevented Malik from jumping for the board and the shot

That's the closest thing we have to leverage. If he wants to "retire" it will cost him some of that buyout, if he wants all the money the contract promises him, he's getting fired.

Your bottom two are not very accurate. How many starting guards in the BIG do they outperform? For Cupps, the answer is probably zero.

I have a really hard time believing that any top kid was scared to come in and compete with Galloway. At the very least, there was plenty of room for a guard to come in and get back-up minutes at both the 1 and the 2 - likely even the 3, depending on the kid.

Do we have committed recruits that I haven't heard about? I see no reason to think Woodson will have success with 2025 recruits. Even with his job seemingly secure, he basically whiffed on 2024. I'm sure the negative recruiting will go through the roof if Woodson is given the chance to continue going after these 2025 kids. If we had a big-time class already committed, I could at least see the argument, but we don't, and Woodson won't be able to get one.

The level of injury risk is far different. As is the percentage of guys that will go pro after a year. So, I don't think it will ever be a huge thing like in bowl games. I would guess you're right and it will happen a bit, but I don't think it will just become a normal part of the late/post season.

He did a pretty good job getting talent in the portal - it just didn't gel. If he gets Ware but in a point guard, Walker but in a SG and maybe another Walker in the exact same position, we will have a good team. I don't have much faith Woody will coach them up, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

Montverde players, more than most, seem to come in well coached and ready to play. I'd bet McNeely plays at a high level from day one.

Banks definitely has not, I agree. I don't see how you can say the same about Gunn. He's still not a power 5 player, but he looks like a guy who will get there. Even by your accounting, though, that strikes me as pretty average improvement. Especially considering JHS improved a lot - and I would say Galloway improved even more.

I was responding to a comment that said our guys didn't. Player development under Woody has been at least solid. Probably good.

I get people who do it because they want tickets. I sort of get people who want to sit in the locker room with coach and smoke cigars (though, I don't really get why that's so appealing - I understand that some would). I don't get people who are so connected to a school that they want to give money other than those personal befits. I like IU, but if I give them money, they will spend it to climb in the rankings (academic or athletic, it's all the same). Quite frankly, I don't care about that. If IU rises, someone else falls and the world is no better. It makes no sense.

"You tell me, how many long jumpers did HoosierDom take? How many times did he stand there and watch the other team miss with no thought at all about boxing out? How many times did he take his best player out with 2 fouls and refuse to bring him back in, no matter how bad things got?"

Galloway is playing far better than in past years. Kopp improved, at least on defense quite a lot. I would say MM, though still not living up to his ranking is playing a lot better than at the start of the year. Even Gunn is much better. The only guy I see that hasn't improved under Woody is X.

Why did it take us so long to make it hard for Edey to get the ball?

He had Cupps for the easy pass. Why not throw it?

Seems like you have to guard Edey with the idea that you are going to get elbowed in the face and like it.

I don't know enough about any of those teams to know what they looked like and what kinds of information they provided about the coach in question. But, I would wager they didn't have an NBA bound 7-footer, above average size at positions 2-5, and really 1-5 when X is healthy, and still be near the bottom of their conference in rebounding. That's where Woody really lost me. We were on low range of mediocre rebounding the ball last year and we're bad this year. Our personnel has been flawed in many ways, but it should excel at rebounding and it hasn't. I'm in the camp that would definitely get a new coach if we can have a top guy lined up and I'm okay either way if we don't. But, I really value rebounding and I don't understand why they guys we have had these last three years haven't been good at it. I think you also have to consider that in the days gone by, it's a long process to upgrade a roster. Now, it's much much faster.

I don't know the letter of the law, but refs have to take into account that a guy just got fouled. Sure, if you elbow someone in the face as you drive, I'm fine with that as an F1 - you shouldn't do that normally, but when you just got hit, your arms go up to balance/protect yourself, you're going to be in an unnatural position as you react unsure if the whistle will blow. There should be a lot of leeway to not be in a natural basketball position after getting fouled.

He wasn't even getting garbage minutes last year. I don't know if he was hurt, or he's improved or he was misjudged. But, looking at his 2.2 minutes per game in his 11 appearances from last year, thinking he wouldn't play was the easy prediction.

It's a live ball if you don't call it, though.

How is this taking so long?

Let's get a shot that's better than a mid-range jumper from Ware.

This season has been rough. To me, our record is such that I would love it if we put our feelers to see if we could get a top guy, but I would be reluctant to just fire Woodson without a plan in place. What makes me want to fire Woodson is they way we lose: the margin certainly matters a lot, but the many things we do wrong is what puts me over the top. - The number of complete defensive breakdowns in beyond unacceptable. Guys don't know what they're doing. On of our guys having to push someone to where they should be seems to happen multiply times a game. How many times has Hummel been shocked at how open we leave an opposing player? It's better than it was early in the year, but it's still really bad. - The rebounding. I think there are a lot of lineup constructions that can lead to success. Woodson clearly favors bigs and interior play. It goes against the trend in basketball, it probably wouldn't be my choice, but that's okay, it's not objectively wrong. But, how do we play such a big lineup and get outrebounded every time? How have we not learned to box-out? We have a great rebounder in the paint, had one last year, too. Still, we do an awful job rebounding. - How many double digit leads have we given up this year? To me, that speaks to our guy getting out-coached. Other teams can adjust and we can't. Why do we go to the bench everytime we get up early? If a guy gets in foul trouble, there's a reasonable discussion to be had as to how long you let him play. Reasonable people can disagree. But, if you just built a 10 point lead in the first 10 minutes of play, why do Cupp, Gunn, Banks and Walker have to come in? How many leads to we have to give away before we just ride the guys who build the lead? Edit to add: why do we switch so often? Again, there are times where a good coach can be okay with it, but we don't even make the other team earn the mismatch, we just give it away when ever they want it.

TJD improved a lot under Woodson, no doubt. That doesn't mean he wouldn't have improved under Archie, nor does it mean he even would have come here in the first place under Woodson. It simply means that Woodson inherited a superstar, and was only okay with him on the team and now is approaching awful with him not on the team.