Rev_AK

Goodnight. I will lurk. I can’t stay away lol. Hopefully it doesn’t get to 30. This is the digital version of leaving the game with 13 minutes left.

What’s going to turn this around? I want to have something positive to say, but there’s just not. Coming out of the half like this against a rival? Maybe we can hope IU covers?

I’m still in the camp that say we need to make a change. I’m expecting to see a solid win by the “school up North” tonight. A win would be on my wish list, but after what I’ve seen this season so far, I’ll be fairly satisfied with a strong effort, reasonably low turnovers, reasonable substitutions, NO flagrant fouls or technicals, and a feeling that we are in striking distance for most, if not all of the game. Besides a Dub, also on my wish list would be a Free Throw percentage over 75%, and not getting beat at the line 3-1 or worse. Many of these items are reflective of good coaching. Having said that, if the Hoosiers go in and get the win, and play a great game with a great game plan, that could move the needle for me, BUT, long term, I still feel that I have enough evidence to be confident that this is not “the guy.” I’m smart enough to realize that they may keep CMW another year or two, giving him the benefit of the doubt to have “one bad season.” AND, there’s always the question of who do you hire? Who would be better? Although tonight’s game is not a referendum on the coaching situation, it would be nice to see this team do something to build on a historic 2nd half comeback. I still have a spark of hope that they could begin playing to their full potential. That is what my heart says. My head says things are probably not going to work out that way. Things have been on a downward trend this season, and there is not much showing that next year will be different. I guess the question becomes, if we finish, let’s say, 15-17, and make no move, are we willing to be in this same position this time next year? I don’t have all the answers, but I don’t necessarily see the logic in that, unless we get no interest from any potential candidates thru the back channels. We will see.

I’ll take it. Very happy for Leal. I think he needs to get more minutes, but that’s for tomorrow.

We are STILL IU. We still have 5 banners. Still have the most formidable building to visit for opponents. We still have one of the most rabid fan bases in CBB and are ready and willing to galvanize behind a team who is playing hard and smartly. We still live in one of, if not the most fertile recruiting grounds in the US, with many hometown heroes playing to thousands on Friday nights hoping to wear the Candy Stripes. We still have Mark Cuban and one of the best NIL set ups in the game, and still get great ratings on big ten +, Peacock, and whatever other paywalls they try to hide our games from our fans thru. Although several programs have passed us in the last two decades, we are still one of the top programs in CBB. We just need all the ingredients to come together. This is what I can be positive about…

I think the reason for all the impatience and IU fans being ready to drop a coach after a bad year, at least after the last 3 coaches Crean- we look back fondly on him now and rightfully so- high character guy that got a lot accomplished for the program. Not to revisit so many things, but when they were winning, all of his quirks were amusing. They lost and the quirks became more than annoying. We as a fan base do have high expectations and we could not see Crean getting “over the hump” so to speak. The next season was trending badly and word was that he lost the in state coaches for recruiting. Archie- Seemed to be in over his head, with the exception of being a decent recruiter, at least in- state, which is what we all wanted.Lost many fans’ support after a lackluster home game when RBK came back for the Purdue game. But again, there was nothing trending in a way that appeared that there was going to be any improvement the next season. Coach Woodson- seems to lack fire during games, looks apathetic during blow outs. Gets early leads and subs in a lot of bench players. Loses lead. Poor FT shooting is something that may be able to be fixed, at least improved on. Makes the team appear undisciplined- as well as several of the off court issues. For me, again, it is more about where we are trending, with 1 recruit and heading to Rupp next year after a decade+ of the Watshot reruns and the embarrassing re creation, this appears on the surface to be more than just a down year. At the moment, next season appears a little bleak on the surface.

Open question about the “star” rating system. i agree I don’t put as much emphasis on stars, I remember thinking the kid from Army who was probably unrated was better than any of our guards, at least that 1 night, but, why are only 5 stars that end up at IU the ones who are ranked incorrectly? I know other schools have “busts”, but the big time players going to big time schools seem to work out more often than not. I think the issue for what seems like forever is development. Players have seemed to regress, and I wonder how much the last two seasons can be attributed to CMW telling Trayce what he had to do to go pro, and Trayce having the work ethic to do it. As simple as it sounds, other players on other teams seem to just be better than our guys .(especially in the IQ dept) love Malik, but he fouled TWO 3 point shooters today. Time and Time again we see players, many of them lower “ranked” than our guys and with the exception of Leal, come into SSAH and play the game of their lives. Like they care. Like it means something to them. And how many times do we see IU run down the floor, miss a 3, and the other team simply come back down the floor and easily hit their 3? Really, like why can’t we shoot? Why play with such little care? (Except Leal and sometimes TG) It could be the pressure of wearing the uniform, ( speaking of which the pink uniforms have run their course and are becoming an eyesore) but something is or isn’t happening to all the high level talent that comes to Bloomington that has an end result of losing to teams like Penn St. Hate Purdue all you want, and I do not care for them, but the model of what they are doing, is what/ who we want to be. And this all has to fall on the coach.

Haven’t had much positive to say lately, and just lurking really. But I will say it has been a real pleasure watching Leal coach the team up on the floor

I wanted Woodson to be a success, and there have been some flashes. But how much of being in back to back NCAA tournaments can now be placed on the shoulders of TJD and his will to carry the team as far as he could? And does back to back tournaments signal us as to how far we have actually fallen? The hiring of Matta and Fife as consultants or whatever they were, were always red flags to me, and maybe showed that Dolson was not 100% sure on the hire. The quick exit of both coaches are also kind of telling, but I don’t think we’ll ever know the behind the scenes dynamics of what happened there- just that Woodson was probably justified to say “I’m either the head coach or not”- and that has no bearing on any of Fife’s alleged political views. I do not have a dislike Woodson, but do not want to pander to him, either. I see a lot of comments prefacing anything negative by saying “well, CMW know waaayyy more about basketball, but…..” The bottom line is, the product we are seeing does not represent IU, and this coming with one of RMK’s guys at the helm. Without directly referencing politics in 2024 (wink, wink) I have to wonder if Woodson’s age may be working against him a little. I am in my fifties now and do not have the same fire about sports as I used to. Sometimes he looks tired and disengaged. The players also reflect that. Think Assembly Hall will be able to work the same magic on home games as the wheels continue to fall off and the fans become more apathetic? Time for Woodson to go. Tournament was made, RMK was reconciled, and those are great accomplishments. But we, as fans/alumni/etc are the ones who pay for the content and have such an emotional investment, we all can see where this appears to be headed. And for God sakes, this coach has lost Don Fischer.

Reminds me of the infamous 12 game losing streak. Wheels seem to be coming off. Who can save the season?

W is better than an L, that is for sure

Present: i did not want to reward Peacock or some of these other streaming services and was hoping to stop the trend, but the KC fans and “swifties” will watch the playoff game and give them enough of a boost that this will continue. I can say what little I did listen to, the great Don Fischer seemed disappointed, and who wants to disappoint him? This was an awful game and we can’t help feeling like we are trending in a bad direction. Short Term: beating Minnesota doesn’t move the needle for me, but losing to them does.. Long Term: McNeely coming in, but what guards are we in good position with? What’s going to reverse these trends if we keep CMW? And, after years of watching replays of the Wat Shot, and the embarrassing re-creation, we are trending in a really bad direction to think about resuming our series with UK next season. At the current trend, that is not going to be a good thing, unless something changes for the better.

IQ the theme of the night.

At some point it becomes about coaching when teams with inferior talent always seem to be in the right place at the right time. I complained about low IQ plays, but Nebraska’s guys, especially Tominaga, are making us look silly. Maybe they are on a bit of a run here, though. It’s always redeemable

I think one of the things that has frustrated me forever are so many low IQ basketball plays. And I’ve never seen a team turn it over so much on potential fast breaks. This is a winnable game. Get it together guys

So happy for Leal- his 3 looked pure. I would like to see more of him since we are so thin at guard, but I wonder if this was the last good chunk of PT he gets in his IU career. Love the game from Malik, I do wish he would look to pass sometimes when he’s jammed up, but I get the feeling he doesn’t trust other team mates to score, so I get it. IU did what they were supposed to do, and it’s a relief. Maybe the hot hand from 3 can spread to more games just as the bad shooting did, and if so, can alleviate so much of the mental piece of this team’s shooting woes, and change the dynamic of this season. Here’s to hope!

I always try not to be too negative. These are only young men. But I have nothing. This is bad. EVEN if they somehow come back and win. This is bad basketball

I’m pleased with the effort, especially Trey. He took the kill shot and missed. I’m ok with that. Can’t “blame the refs”, but IU is not a big dog anymore and the refs seem partial to the higher ranked team these days. Certainly it can no longer be called the “Hall of Calls” anymore. One of the better coaching jobs by CMW, especially with the subs. There were at least 3 steals that should have been fast breaks, but were turnovers instead. Of all the Hoosiers, I did think Banks made a lot of bone headed plays and hurt the over all team- I lost my cool when he took a 3. I would like to see MR pass sometimes when he gets too deep. Teams seemed to play jittery sometimes and the ball was like a hot potato- Ware’s missed rebound at the end that was reviewed was the death knell.

At my age, these things shouldn’t bother me, but watching a loss when the other team talked smack after every basket and our guys just take it and play worse still bothers me. With Woodson, I see a parallel to Crean with the substitution patterns. I see a parallel to Archie with the style of play, pounding it inside while other teams hit 3’s. Seems like for 10 years I’ve been saying “3’s beat 2’s. Let’s at least all be intellectually honest and say it’s an antiquated style. None of this means that I’m being negative ( although it could be 20 years + pf frustrations coming out during these kinds of nationally televised routs), or that I’m calling for the coach’s job-yet. Bottom line is- everyone, including opponents, knows that guards are the weakness of this team. I want to give the staff credit by just saying we swung for the fences on some big names and didn’t have a plan B. But, long term, at the moment, unless XJ plays a 7th year, ( or transfers to Washington to play football and be a Heisman contender) what do we have coming in to make us think it’s going to change? Rant over. Assembly Hall has been a tough place for higher ranked teams and maybe the boys were sick this week. Get some rest and don’t let Hunter Dickenson run roughshod next week, and all will be right with the world again.

Ballgame

Glad to see some effort to start the half

I think B1G football would be having a better time against the SEC RN.

St Mary’s and Miami games. We may be somewhat built to compete in the B1G but in no way against national competition. No chance to be competitive long term unless Woody can stop subbing with 14 minutes left in the first half, and start recruiting guards

This team is shell-shocked. Need to be under 10 at halftime and reset

Subs killed the fabulous start. Reneau has a 1 track mind when he is down low. Refuses to kick it out