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IU Will Be Better/Worse Than 'Team' Because......


5fouls

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Thumbing through the Athlon season preview, and as has been mentioned in other threads, they have IU ranked 9th.  Instead of analyzing why IU deserves that ranking or not, I thought it might be interesting to take one other Big Ten team and specify why IU will be better or worse than said team.

Here's mine:  Michigan.

IU will be BETTER than Michigan because:

  • Michigan arguably lost more from last season than IU with Brazdeikis, Matthews, and Poole moving on.
  • Nothing against Juwan Howard, but he isn't John Beilein.  In my mind Beilein was the best coach in college basketball.
  • Brunk/TJD/Hunter/Franklin is greater than Bajema.Foulds/Wagner when you look at newcomers.
  • Michigan's returning players only shot 32.1% from 3 point land last year.  Meanwhile, while IU was terrible from 3 point land last year (31.2%), there could be addition with subtraction by taking away Morgan and Langford,  If the 'experts' are going to beat up IU for bad shooting, they should do the same to other teams.

 What team do you look at and say Indiana will be better/worse than that team?

 

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7 hours ago, 5fouls said:
  • Brunk/TJD/Hunter/Franklin is greater than Bajema.Foulds/Wagner when you look at newcomers.

I hope you're right. But I'm leery of Brunk being as good as advertised. After all, he's been in D1 for 2 years now, and has lower out put than Smith.

The limited video I've seen on Brunk says he's slow a foot, and I'm afraid he may be a fouling machine waiting to happen. Sure hope I'm wrong. I'd love for him to be as good or better than DeRon. But I'm taking a wait and see on him.

I think we're in good shape with TJD and Aarman. If Anderson doesn't step up his game this year, I look for Aarman to get those minutes.

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I watched a few of last seasons games again last night. I feel like we could be better than teams that do not have a prolific guard that can create space. It looked like we were playing some inspired defense toward the end of the Big last year.  All while being undersized no less. I can imagine us as a team with a strong interior defense next season. Like DWB, I tend to lean a little on the cautious side with Brunk as well (for the same reason). However I can also see TJD and Smith being window wipers at weak side if it all comes together. To the topic, I agree we should be better than Michigan. I will add Iowa as well for the said reason above.

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5 minutes ago, DJcandypants said:

I watched a few of last seasons games again last night. I feel like we could be better than teams that do not have a prolific guard that can create space. It looked like we were playing some inspired defense toward the end of the Big last year.  All while being undersized no less. I can imagine us as a team with a strong interior defense next season. Like DWB, I tend to lean a little on the cautious side with Brunk as well (for the same reason). However I can also see TJD and Smith being window wipers at weak side if it all comes together. To the topic, I agree we should be better than Michigan. I will add Iowa as well for the said reason above.

Welcome to the wonderful world of posting on Hoosier Sports Nation.. 

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Why I think this team will be no worse than 8th.  Rolling out a foul protected and exhausted Juwan Morgan at the 5 in the Big Ten was not sustainable.   Even still that team was able to achieve a 32 adjusted defensive efficiency rating.  That's impressive.  So replacing Juwan at the 5 defensively with the committee or Brunk/Davis with helpside of THD, Smith, and Race has got to be an improvement.  Teams ranked defensively in front of us last year and what kind of defense they lost.  

#2 Michigan Poole, Brazdeikis,  Matthews.  Key contributors defensively 

#4 Wisconsin Happ, Iverson. Probably their 2 most disruptive.   They will always play solid d.  

#9 Michigan st. McQuaid all conference d, plus Goins.  Still very talented and deep.  Obviously.   

#19 northwestern, law, pardon, taylor, and ash.  They are in big trouble this year.

#21 maryland Bruno Fernando went pro, all conf d

#25 Ohio st, loses nothing

#27 Penn st, josh Reaves defensive player of the year went pro

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Here's why I think IU will be WORSE than Maryland.

  • The impact of having a senior point guard.  I love Rob Phinisee, but there are few things in sports that have more impact than an experienced PG in college basketball.  IU fans need to look back no further than Yogi Ferrell's senior year to see what can happen.   Anthony Cowan returns to Maryland for his senior year and the Terps will be that much better for it.
  • Overall experience.  Maryland returns 136 of a possible 170 starts from last season.  IU is not terrible in that regard with 103 of 175 starts returning, but Maryland is clearly the more experienced team.
  • Free throw shooting.  An IU weakness is a Maryland strength.  The Terps shot 74.3% last year, and most of that dead-eye shooting is returning.

 

 

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On 9/30/2019 at 9:47 AM, Steubenhoosier said:

We will be better than Iowa because....

-They lost Moss and Cook

-Bohannon in all likelihood will be a medical redshirt

-Fran will be Fran

I think Iowa is going to be better.  Living out here, i know alot about their team.  They are going to be tough, just need to play above their coaching

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4 minutes ago, IowaHoosierFan said:

I think Iowa is going to be better.  Living out here, i know alot about their team.  They are going to be tough, just need to play above their coaching

Fran is a hot head for sure, and an easy target to make fun of, but I've never considered him to be a bad coach.  Not elite, but not the guy I would point to and say 'He can't coach a lick' either.

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1 hour ago, 5fouls said:

Fran is a hot head for sure, and an easy target to make fun of, but I've never considered him to be a bad coach.  Not elite, but not the guy I would point to and say 'He can't coach a lick' either.

I would pick Iowa pretty high if Bohannon was healthy but if he misses the season it will hurt them quit a lot.

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2 hours ago, IU Scott said:

I would pick Iowa pretty high if Bohannon was healthy but if he misses the season it will hurt them quit a lot.

Agree. They have some really good pieces, but Bohannon is the straw that stirs the drink. If he’s out and they also lost Cook and Moss that’s a lot to replace. 

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On 9/29/2019 at 5:16 PM, Coach Robby said:

I think losing juwan will be a huge factor. Who’s gonna flex for us this year? 

im not sure why Illinois is so highly regarded? I feel we’ll be better than them, esp on the defensive end 

Be hard to replace Juwan but if Davis stays healthy all year the flex will be replaced the get in your face enforcer attitude.  We saw it a couple of times last year.

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On 9/29/2019 at 1:23 PM, DWB said:

I hope you're right. But I'm leery of Brunk being as good as advertised. After all, he's been in D1 for 2 years now, and has lower out put than Smith.

The limited video I've seen on Brunk says he's slow a foot, and I'm afraid he may be a fouling machine waiting to happen. Sure hope I'm wrong. I'd love for him to be as good or better than DeRon. But I'm taking a wait and see on him.

I think we're in good shape with TJD and Aarman. If Anderson doesn't step up his game this year, I look for Aarman to get those minutes.

good point on brunk. he wasn't even the starter at butler

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19 hours ago, 5fouls said:

Fran is a hot head for sure, and an easy target to make fun of, but I've never considered him to be a bad coach.  Not elite, but not the guy I would point to and say 'He can't coach a lick' either.

mccaffery can't coach a lickliter

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