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What Needs to Change to Save this Season?


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Me? I keep it simple: win the next game. And then, the one after that. 

I know, it’s not profound, but if ever a team needed to just take it a game at a time, it’s this team and it’s right now. 

Everytime this team starts to find momentum and something resembling identity, there’s another damned injury. I firmly believe this most recent setback to Phin caused us some serious issues. Devonte Green running this offense is, generally, a mess. We were able to disguise the problems with wins over a couple cupcakes...but, against stiffer B10 opponents, our disjointed, listless, unorganized offensive mess was really spotlighted. Combine that with, more recently, problems on the defensive glass extending our time on defense with a short bench and tired guys.

Purdue is a great chance to get things right: biggest rival, suspect quality players, suspect quality coaching...away game will make it brutal, but, and I shy away from sweeping rhetoric like this, but: this next game is as close to a “must win” as there is.

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9 minutes ago, zerawkid said:

Me? I keep it simple: win the next game. And then, the one after that. 

I know, it’s not profound, but if ever a team needed to just take it a game at a time, it’s this team and it’s right now. 

Everytime this team starts to find momentum and something resembling identity, there’s another damned injury. I firmly believe this most recent setback to Phin caused us some serious issues. Devonte Green running this offense is, generally, a mess. We were able to disguise the problems with wins over a couple cupcakes...but, against stiffer B10 opponents, our disjointed, listless, unorganized offensive mess was really spotlighted. Combine that with, more recently, problems on the defensive glass extending our time on defense with a short bench and tired guys.

Purdue is a great chance to get things right: biggest rival, suspect quality players, suspect quality coaching...away game will make it brutal, but, and I shy away from sweeping rhetoric like this, but: this next game is as close to a “must win” as there is.

Definitely agree on Phinisee.  He has become the glue guy on this team.  He is critical, and as I said in the story, I think he has to start to emphasize scoring the ball.

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One simple change is all for me.  Insist that Romeo becomes more selfish.  He already has established himself as a team player. Both in high school and at IU. So there should be no concern by his teammates, when and if Romeo becomes more of a "me first" player. 

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16 minutes ago, milehiiu said:

One simple change is all for me.  Insist that Romeo becomes more selfish.  He already has established himself as a team player. Both in high school and at IU. So there should be no concern by his teammates, when and if Romeo becomes more of a "me first" player. 

Agree 100 percent and included that point.  Even in being "selfish" he won't be selfish.  He'll still pass the ball and create putback opportunities for everyone else.

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I believe, although I have no evidence for this opinion other than SSDD, that 2, and maybe 3, and possibly even 4 guys on this team think they know more than the coaching staff.

If what I believe is the case, there is NOTHING that will turn this season around.

Bench em, and take whatever lumps come our way!

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I like your 5 items to turn the season around, TDH! Well done! Here is what I would go with...

1) Phinisee: I want the ball in his hands. As much as a 3rd scorer is really needed, what's even more needed is a 3rd playmaker. Someone besides Juwan and Langford that can create for himself and others. Phinisee is the only other guy I trust in that role, and while we weren't winning convincingly before he went out, the play did drop on both ends when he wasn't there. We need him at 100% and to continue to develop.

2) Smith: He's got to play because of his defense, but Archie has got to find a way to put him in positions to be successful offensively. Go back and watch how Troy Williams was used as a baseline slasher and a finisher, and figure out how to use Smith that way. He's useless on the perimeter with the ball and it kills the offense, the kid needs confidence and to be put in spots to be successful. That is definitely something that is on the staff. But figuring out how to use him as a weapon instead of a liability makes this team much more dangerous offensively. 

3) Langford The Playmaker: Put Langford in positions to create for others. He's drawing so much attention offensively, but he's not really getting others involved. This goes back to the Smith point, but Langford not only has to score/attack, but put guys like Smith in a position to benefit from the attention Langford gets. Has Fitzner gotten a wide-open 3 off of a Langford penetration all season? Maybe the Marquette game, but playing with Juwan and Langford, he should be getting 2-3 wide open looks a game. I know he's struggled, but he's not really getting 'rhythm looks'. 

4) Pace: We have athletes, we need to use them. Langford, Smith and Phinisee are great in transition. Langford is one of the best in transition in the country, and Smith is a great finisher in the open court. Let these guys run and push the pace. Walking the ball up the court when you only have two weapons allows the defense to really key in and make things difficult. We need easy baskets to get the momentum going.

5) Defense: IU needs to get back to their defensive and rebounding principles. To increase the pace (#4) you need to get stops. I think having Phinisee back will help this, and Archie also needs to emphasize team rebounding. We've been giving up too many easy baskets and too many second chance opportunities, which makes it very difficult to push the pace. We need stops, defensive rebounds and to create live-ball turnovers in order to push the pace. 

It's not rocket science, we need better and quicker offense, which requires getting stops/defensive rebounds in order to push pace, then the staff needs to do a better job in putting guys like Phinisee, Smith and Fitzner in a position to be successful offensively. This team is never going to accomplish much if it continues only having two offensive threats. The complimentary players need to be put in a position to be successful. We have who we have, so the focus needs to be on getting offensive confidence for Smith, Fitzner, Phinisee, Green, etc. 

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I think some guys that have been passing wide open shots need to shoot with confidence and make them. That will open up driving lane and give Morgan more space to operate inside. What Nebraska did was nothing special; they just did the film study well. They knew some guys wouldn't have guts to take open shots. 

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1 hour ago, BGleas said:

I like your 5 items to turn the season around, TDH! Well done! Here is what I would go with...

1) Phinisee: I want the ball in his hands. As much as a 3rd scorer is really needed, what's even more needed is a 3rd playmaker. Someone besides Juwan and Langford that can create for himself and others. Phinisee is the only other guy I trust in that role, and while we weren't winning convincingly before he went out, the play did drop on both ends when he wasn't there. We need him at 100% and to continue to develop.

2) Smith: He's got to play because of his defense, but Archie has got to find a way to put him in positions to be successful offensively. Go back and watch how Troy Williams was used as a baseline slasher and a finisher, and figure out how to use Smith that way. He's useless on the perimeter with the ball and it kills the offense, the kid needs confidence and to be put in spots to be successful. That is definitely something that is on the staff. But figuring out how to use him as a weapon instead of a liability makes this team much more dangerous offensively. 

3) Langford The Playmaker: Put Langford in positions to create for others. He's drawing so much attention offensively, but he's not really getting others involved. This goes back to the Smith point, but Langford not only has to score/attack, but put guys like Smith in a position to benefit from the attention Langford gets. Has Fitzner gotten a wide-open 3 off of a Langford penetration all season? Maybe the Marquette game, but playing with Juwan and Langford, he should be getting 2-3 wide open looks a game. I know he's struggled, but he's not really getting 'rhythm looks'. 

4) Pace: We have athletes, we need to use them. Langford, Smith and Phinisee are great in transition. Langford is one of the best in transition in the country, and Smith is a great finisher in the open court. Let these guys run and push the pace. Walking the ball up the court when you only have two weapons allows the defense to really key in and make things difficult. We need easy baskets to get the momentum going.

5) Defense: IU needs to get back to their defensive and rebounding principles. To increase the pace (#4) you need to get stops. I think having Phinisee back will help this, and Archie also needs to emphasize team rebounding. We've been giving up too many easy baskets and too many second chance opportunities, which makes it very difficult to push the pace. We need stops, defensive rebounds and to create live-ball turnovers in order to push the pace. 

It's not rocket science, we need better and quicker offense, which requires getting stops/defensive rebounds in order to push pace, then the staff needs to do a better job in putting guys like Phinisee, Smith and Fitzner in a position to be successful offensively. This team is never going to accomplish much if it continues only having two offensive threats. The complimentary players need to be put in a position to be successful. We have who we have, so the focus needs to be on getting offensive confidence for Smith, Fitzner, Phinisee, Green, etc. 

Great points.  The live ball turnover thing is a real problem.  It really got the Marquette game rolling and has been notably absent ever since, especially in January.  This is a topic for another post, but a part of me wonders if the combination of this roster and the pack-line doesn't work.  In other words, the pack-line, at least in my opinion is inherently passive when compared to teams that deny passing lanes.  We don't have any players that I would call alpha/aggressive.  Put them together, and I am starting to think that you end up with games like Michigan where we only force three turnovers.

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32 minutes ago, The Daily Hoosier said:

Great points.  The live ball turnover thing is a real problem.  It really got the Marquette game rolling and has been notably absent ever since, especially in January.  This is a topic for another post, but a part of me wonders if the combination of this roster and the pack-line doesn't work.  In other words, the pack-line, at least in my opinion is inherently passive when compared to teams that deny passing lanes.  We don't have any players that I would call alpha/aggressive.  Put them together, and I am starting to think that you end up with games like Michigan where we only force three turnovers.

Great point as well. The pack-line does a good job of forcing tough, contested shots from further out, but another issue with the roster is that we don't have the length and size in the front-court to clean the defensive glass. Fine against Marquette who didn't have anyone inside, but against teams like Michigan, Maryland and Nebraska we didn't force turnovers and we gave up second chances because we have a 6'7" guy playing center. You can't win that way against most good teams. 

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3 hours ago, BGleas said:

Great point as well. The pack-line does a good job of forcing tough, contested shots from further out, but another issue with the roster is that we don't have the length and size in the front-court to clean the defensive glass. Fine against Marquette who didn't have anyone inside, but against teams like Michigan, Maryland and Nebraska we didn't force turnovers and we gave up second chances because we have a 6'7" guy playing center. You can't win that way against most good teams. 

Isn’t this another way of saying CAM is not adequately adapting to the players he has?  

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1 hour ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

Isn’t this another way of saying CAM is not adequately adapting to the players he has?  

No, i was saying that against teams with talented size, we struggle to rebound and give up a lot of second chances because we don’t have talented size and length on the inside. 

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38 minutes ago, BGleas said:

No, i was saying that against teams with talented size, we struggle to rebound and give up a lot of second chances because we don’t have talented size and length on the inside. 

Exactly right.

Someone earlier was using the argument that CAM’s offensive philosophy was based on Carolina transition and that we haven’t seen that. Hard to play in transition if you can’t rebound and have to send the guards to the boards to help out 

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