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Western Illinois Postgame Thread


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3 hours ago, Shooter said:

I see the makings of a really good defensive team. I still think we'll struggle to score in the half court against real teams, but the outlook looks a lot better if Al Durham can shoot it at a high clip. He was fantastic tonight.

Smith was also great tonight, he mostly focused on the stuff he does well. Played excellent defense, got out in transition.

As of now, Hunter is a long way from being the guy some described as potentially our best player. (this is not a critique, some rust is expected)

Remember we don’t have Green out there yet. Agree with you, but Green, assuming steady play, can really add to our shooting

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We talked about it this summer. Justin has had the potential to make a step up. I think we had an X factor thread and I’m pretty sure Justin got some votes.  It’s early, but great start.  

And can I interest anybody in a freshman who went for 5 points, 5 boards, 8 assists and no turnovers in his first game?  Wow!

And we all know that the other freshman is a big time athlete.  He’s mobile, has very good agility, can jump, is coordinated, etc. I think he’s going to be able to check threes in time.  

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I thought that was a really strong performance last night. A lot to be excited about, though the competition is pretty low so also not sure what to make of it yet. 

Some random thoughts:

- Obviously, Durham was fantastic, and what a great sign it was to see him shooting the ball so confidently and creating his offense. Imagin what it does for IU if Durham can shoot the 3 near 40%? It's a game changer. 

- I was really pleased with Phinisee's performance. He was clearly rusty having missed most of October. I'm one who thinks Phinisee's development is critical for the program, and while he had some rusty turnovers, one of the best/most encouraging things I saw last night was Phinisee being so aggressive offensively. He was really looking for his shot, while still getting others involved. I think once he's fully healthy he's going to make a big leap this season. 

- Smith was great! If he can play this active and with this much energy all season, it's going to be a good season. In the is he a wing or a forward debate, I thought his best moments were when Archie went small and had TJD and Smith at the forwards. 

- Franklin is going to be a player! What a boost to the program to have a kid like that come in ready to go

- Interested to watch more of TJD. I thought he played really well. He didn't get too involved in the offense, and that's ok, he will, and when he did he looked good. He's going to be a big help defensively. For a freshmen big he's already really, really good at hedging on the ball screens and recovering

- For all the talk about going big, I think the best lineups were Phinisee, Durham, Franklin/Hunter, Smith and TJD. I was really excited to see the team really push the ball for a couple of reasons, 1) this can be a really good transition team and it plays to the strengths. IU can be a really good team is they become a dominant defensive team and can get easy scoring opportunities in transition. 2) I've always been a big Archie supporter, but this reinforces it. I want coaches that adapt to their roster, not ones that are 100% set in their ways, and Archie so far is doing things with this roster that is different, and I love that. 

- With the above said, I think ultimate the lineup ends up being Phinisee, Green, Durham, Smith, TJD. Top bench guys being Brunk, Franklin, Hunter, Anderson and Thompson. Not sure what to make of De'Ron yet. He did not look good or even really healthy, but it's just one game. 

- Finally, 'Get Old, Stay Old'. Smith, Durham, Phinisee (I know he's a sophomore, but in today's game he's basically a junior in terms of experience), eventually Green, and then mix in TJD, Franklin, Anderson and Hunter. 

 

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45 minutes ago, BGleas said:

 

- For all the talk about going big, I think the best lineups were Phinisee, Durham, Franklin/Hunter, Smith and TJD. I was really excited to see the team really push the ball for a couple of reasons, 1) this can be a really good transition team and it plays to the strengths. IU can be a really good team is they become a dominant defensive team and can get easy scoring opportunities in transition. 2) I've always been a big Archie supporter, but this reinforces it. I want coaches that adapt to their roster, not ones that are 100% set in their ways, and Archie so far is doing things with this roster that is different, and I love that. 

 

The transition and get out and push/run game was one of the things, as I posted yesterday, I was most interested to see given CAM's earlier comments on this team's anticipated approach. And I thought he/the team nailed it.

This team can play that defense-to-offense transition game, and take those threes that come from transition along with the inside-out game. Do that, and I think this team, when fully healthy (just think what Green might've done last night), can be pretty damn good.

Weak opponent, just the first non-con game, but definitely some reason for optimism.

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52 minutes ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

The transition and get out and push/run game was one of the things, as I posted yesterday, I was most interested to see given CAM's earlier comments on this team's anticipated approach. And I thought he/the team nailed it.

This team can play that defense-to-offense transition game, and take those threes that come from transition along with the inside-out game. Do that, and I think this team, when fully healthy (just think what Green might've done last night), can be pretty damn good.

Weak opponent, just the first non-con game, but definitely some reason for optimism.

I think you are the first one to post this.  I questioned the first two years, where is the Carolina Fast break that CAM supposedly likes to deploy?  I wondered if he didn't trust the guards yet and was trying to reign in the turnovers.  I was happy to see 11 turnovers on 98 points.  We can live with those ratios.  As December hits with better competition, if we can live under 10 turnovers, defense like the one I'm expecting(top 25 or better), out rebound most opponents, this will be a surprise team.  I get the competition level.  That was a team with 5 returning starters that shot the 3 really well last year.  We made them look really really bad.  That is a good sign and what a top 25 team does with team like that.  Things looked pretty crisp.  Chemistry and cohesiveness were already there.  Good signs.  

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1 minute ago, IU Scott said:

Since I did not get to watch the game I was wondering how was the attendance last night and was the crowd into it.

You, my friend, would have been disappointed.   Lowest level probably 85-90% full.  Lower level, probably 75-85%  10 minutes to go, almost everyone could have fit in the first 7 rows.  

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13 minutes ago, NotIThatLives said:

You, my friend, would have been disappointed.   Lowest level probably 85-90% full.  Lower level, probably 75-85%  10 minutes to go, almost everyone could have fit in the first 7 rows.  

Well hopefully if we start out playing well more people will come.  So no one was in the balcony at all?

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1 hour ago, The Daily Hoosier said:
Putting the season opener all together with The Report Card.

I think some folks are going to question your grade for De'Ron.  I would likely include myself in that group.  Mile said he's still nursing his hamstring, so that undoubtedly contributed to why some thought he looked slow.  You saw things differently and that's good, I guess.  Wonder what the coaching staff thought?

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Some questioned it at the time, but Al Durham is going to turn out to be a huge bargain when it comes to recruiting.  He's not a superstar, but damn if he isn't turning into a rock-solid, efficient player. 

He certainly has his flaws, but you have to admit, Tom Crean can spot diamonds in the rough.

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The one thing I noticed in the highlights is that our bigs are really struggling with the recover after the hedge.  They gave up several easy layups by not recovering nearly fast enough.  That's only going to get worse as the competition gets better.  If I'm coaching, I'm probably having players like De'Ron hedge less and stay at home down low.  Maybe have someone like Justin or TJD do the lion's share of the hedging.  Davis and Brunk just don't have the speed to be hedging effectively.

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2 minutes ago, FKIM01 said:

The one thing I noticed in the highlights is that our bigs are really struggling with the recover after the hedge.  They gave up several easy layups by not recovering nearly fast enough.  That's only going to get worse as the competition gets better.  If I'm coaching, I'm probably having players like De'Ron hedge less and stay at home down low.  Maybe have someone like Justin or TJD do the lion's share of the hedging.  Davis and Brunk just don't have the speed to be hedging effectively.

It's also a question of physics.  Davis and Brunk have a lot of mass.  Keeping them within a smaller area of motion keeps that mass more stationary, meaning they could literally throw their weight around more effectively. 

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56 minutes ago, FKIM01 said:

The one thing I noticed in the highlights is that our bigs are really struggling with the recover after the hedge.  They gave up several easy layups by not recovering nearly fast enough.  That's only going to get worse as the competition gets better.  If I'm coaching, I'm probably having players like De'Ron hedge less and stay at home down low.  Maybe have someone like Justin or TJD do the lion's share of the hedging.  Davis and Brunk just don't have the speed to be hedging effectively.

how can you do that if davis or brunk are on the floor? lol

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1 hour ago, milehiiu said:

Yeah.  Even as late as last year. Coach Crean was continuing to work with and on Vic's game.

 Victor Oladipo gets post-game instruction from Tom Crean

speaking of "coach" crean, i noticed we ran the inbounds play followed by flex action as highlighted by the new indiana coach analyst on youtube. resulted in a layup for brunk. under crean, we struggled both with getting the ball inbounds and defending inbounds under the basket. i used to tell my wife when we were about to give up a basket on the inbounds before the ref handed the ball to the inbounder

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