5fouls Posted May 20, 2020 Report Share Posted May 20, 2020 2 hours ago, BGleas said: Yeah, I hate to be "that guy" but I think some expectations need to be tempered a bit. So, are you saying I was too optimistic when I bought FF tickets for every year through 2037? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IUFLA Posted May 20, 2020 Report Share Posted May 20, 2020 1 hour ago, tdhoosier said: If you could pick one guy to greatly excel beyond the ‘expected off-season improvement’ to put us over the top - who would it be? Rob Phinisee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brass Cannon Posted May 20, 2020 Report Share Posted May 20, 2020 3 minutes ago, IUFLA said: Rob Phinisee Yep him. We were a different team when he was playing well. He’s a stud when he’s playing to his potential. Hunter is right behind him though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IUFLA Posted May 20, 2020 Report Share Posted May 20, 2020 Just now, Brass Cannon said: Yep him. We were a different team when he was playing well. He’s a stud when he’s playing to his potential. Hunter is right behind him though. I agree with that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGleas Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 2 hours ago, tdhoosier said: If you could pick one guy to greatly excel beyond the ‘expected off-season improvement’ to put us over the top - who would it be? I’m going to go outside the box and say Armaan Franklin. I love Phinisee and agree IU plays well when he’s at his best, but the addition of Lander makes that a little less critical. I’m hopeful for Hunter as well and am excited for his potential But I also think Franklin has a ton of potential and if he could make a huge leap it would solve a lot of problems IU has had at that 2-guard/wing spot. He’s got the size and length at that position and last year showed the some really good skills in spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IU Scott Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 I am expecting a big jump from Race especially if he gets into the starting lineup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milehiiu Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 There's a ton of untapped potential on this team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdhoosier Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 4 hours ago, tdhoosier said: If you could pick one guy to greatly excel beyond the ‘expected off-season improvement’ to put us over the top - who would it be? good answers all around. I’m going to answer my own question and going to go outside the box as well. he was my pick last year to make a big jump and it didn’t pan out, but I think Justin has so much talent if he can keep his head in the game and give a consistent effort. If he can make defenders honest with a jump shot, then he can just go crazy crashing boards and get a bunch of put backs. He may also be that game changer defensively in the pack line. If this team is going to reach their ceiling they’ll need to be a top ten defense - Justin will need to lead that defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGleas Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 1 hour ago, milehiiu said: There's a ton of untapped potential on this team. Completely agree, but the difference between contending in the big ten with a deep tournament run and finishing closer to 6th in the Big Ten and getting a 7 seed or something is guys like Phinisee, Hunter, Thompson and Franklin tapping into their potential. IU needs those guys in particular to make leaps. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danomatic Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 I’m definitely not setting my hopes to high... however, I agree that it would take even larger strides from guys like Al, Race, Rob and Jerome. We kind of know what we have in Brunk(heart and hustle) and Smith(athleticism and defense)... both great traits, btw. I just think that they’re both near their respective ceilings. If we can get contributions from a Leal or Galloway on occasion, that would be wonderful. I personally love the potential that Geronimo brings and will not discard his capabilities, but with a senior Smith and sophomore Hunter, I don’t see substantial time at the 3. He could possibly slide in at the 2 for short spells... but realistically, I don’t look for much from any freshman not named Lander, and that’s a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierDom Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 14 minutes ago, BGleas said: Completely agree, but the difference between contending in the big ten with a deep tournament run and finishing closer to 6th in the Big Ten and getting a 7 seed or something is guys like Phinisee, Hunter, Thompson and Franklin tapping into their potential. IU needs those guys in particular to make leaps. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Any one of those guys could easily blow up, I don't think we should discount the possibility of Smith having a big year playing more of a true 4 with quality point guard play and better spacing. But, I think we're a top 25 team even if none of those things happen - we were playing like one down the stretch, we have everyone back and we added Lander (never-mind the possibility of one of the other freshmen over-performing). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Ballin Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 6 hours ago, Danomatic said: I’m definitely not setting my hopes to high... however, I agree that it would take even larger strides from guys like Al, Race, Rob and Jerome. We kind of know what we have in Brunk(heart and hustle) and Smith(athleticism and defense)... both great traits, btw. I just think that they’re both near their respective ceilings. If we can get contributions from a Leal or Galloway on occasion, that would be wonderful. I personally love the potential that Geronimo brings and will not discard his capabilities, but with a senior Smith and sophomore Hunter, I don’t see substantial time at the 3. He could possibly slide in at the 2 for short spells... but realistically, I don’t look for much from any freshman not named Lander, and that’s a good thing. OMG, if you just started the "is Smith a "3" or not argument again. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤣🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IUFLA Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 10 hours ago, tdhoosier said: good answers all around. I’m going to answer my own question and going to go outside the box as well. he was my pick last year to make a big jump and it didn’t pan out, but I think Justin has so much talent if he can keep his head in the game and give a consistent effort. If he can make defenders honest with a jump shot, then he can just go crazy crashing boards and get a bunch of put backs. He may also be that game changer defensively in the pack line. If this team is going to reach their ceiling they’ll need to be a top ten defense - Justin will need to lead that defense. Just my opinion, but the two things I think would lift Justin into another stratosphere as a player are gonna be difficult to rectify... With his current mechanics, his outside shooting will never be consistently good. His off hand is too far underneath the ball, and he has a tendency to float backward on his shot. This is strictly my opinion, but at this point I don't think it's feasible to reconstruct his shot without possibly losing some ground in other parts of his game. The second issue are his hands. @btownqb and I kinda went around on this last year, but I think Justin "tenses up" as the ball is coming to him. He also gets stripped easily on the dribble-drive. I wish he had De'Ron's hands. DD had some of the softest hands I've ever seen for a big man. But, Justin is what he is. Play defense, rebound, get trash points around the rim, and get out on the break...that's what Justin brings in my eyes. I see Justin, Al, and Joey as being guys who are pretty much finished products that could only make incremental improvements in their games. They could prove me wrong and I'd be just fine with that. All the other players mentioned have a ton of upside...mainly up to them, but the coaching staff has a hand in it too. Just takes doing the work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGleas Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 10 hours ago, HoosierDom said: Any one of those guys could easily blow up, I don't think we should discount the possibility of Smith having a big year playing more of a true 4 with quality point guard play and better spacing. But, I think we're a top 25 team even if none of those things happen - we were playing like one down the stretch, we have everyone back and we added Lander (never-mind the possibility of one of the other freshmen over-performing). Absolutely, any of those guys could blow up. I'm not saying IU won't be good. I think as is, IU is a lock tournament team. I think we'll be really good. I'm just trying to temper the "we're primed for a deep tournament run" line of thinking. If all the question marks come together is that is a realistic scenario, for sure. This roster could win a Big Ten Title if everything comes together, but I think IU has more that has to come together than the other contenders. Despite so much experience coming back, this is still very much a roster with a lot of question marks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierDom Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 1 hour ago, BGleas said: Absolutely, any of those guys could blow up. I'm not saying IU won't be good. I think as is, IU is a lock tournament team. I think we'll be really good. I'm just trying to temper the "we're primed for a deep tournament run" line of thinking. If all the question marks come together is that is a realistic scenario, for sure. This roster could win a Big Ten Title if everything comes together, but I think IU has more that has to come together than the other contenders. Despite so much experience coming back, this is still very much a roster with a lot of question marks. Usually when you say a team has question marks it means they have some areas that could be real weaknesses. All of those question marks for this team are questions of whether certain guys will be the perfectly acceptable players they were last year, or live up to the promise they have shown, if only at times. I'd say the only thing we really need that's less than certain is for Lander to be a worthy rotation player early on. Our guard depth is lacking if he's not. If no one really steps up from last year, we're still a top 25 team. We don't need all of the above mentioned guys to step up. If one of them does (or if lander is elite) then I think we compete for the conference title. If more than one does, we're on good shape for a deep tourney run Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierDom Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 2 hours ago, IUFLA said: Just my opinion, but the two things I think would lift Justin into another stratosphere as a player are gonna be difficult to rectify... With his current mechanics, his outside shooting will never be consistently good. His off hand is too far underneath the ball, and he has a tendency to float backward on his shot. This is strictly my opinion, but at this point I don't think it's feasible to reconstruct his shot without possibly losing some ground in other parts of his game. The second issue are his hands. @btownqb and I kinda went around on this last year, but I think Justin "tenses up" as the ball is coming to him. He also gets stripped easily on the dribble-drive. I wish he had De'Ron's hands. DD had some of the softest hands I've ever seen for a big man. But, Justin is what he is. Play defense, rebound, get trash points around the rim, and get out on the break...that's what Justin brings in my eyes. I see Justin, Al, and Joey as being guys who are pretty much finished products that could only make incremental improvements in their games. They could prove me wrong and I'd be just fine with that. All the other players mentioned have a ton of upside...mainly up to them, but the coaching staff has a hand in it too. Just takes doing the work... I mostly agree, but two things, I think, are worth noting. 1) As much as it made me cringe, Archie seemed okay with him shooting. That makes me think he must have made them in practice. 2) if Lander is constantly beating his man and/or Phinisee emerges as a big time PG, Smith could be in those situations you mentioned a lot more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGleas Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 44 minutes ago, HoosierDom said: Usually when you say a team has question marks it means they have some areas that could be real weaknesses. All of those question marks for this team are questions of whether certain guys will be the perfectly acceptable players they were last year, or live up to the promise they have shown, if only at times. I'd say the only thing we really need that's less than certain is for Lander to be a worthy rotation player early on. Our guard depth is lacking if he's not. If no one really steps up from last year, we're still a top 25 team. We don't need all of the above mentioned guys to step up. If one of them does (or if lander is elite) then I think we compete for the conference title. If more than one does, we're on good shape for a deep tourney run That's exactly what I was saying. If everyone returns the same and Lander is serviceable then IU is a tournament team and back end of the top 25 most likely. But that's not what I was pushing back on. I was pushing back on the growing idea that this team is "primed for a deep run". If nothing changes accept the addition of Lander, then IU is a solid, middle Big Ten team (middle meaning top half, probably around 5-7). But, if some combination of Phinisee, Hunter, Race and Franklin do step up big, then IU is a top 3-4 Big Ten contender and has a deep tourney run in them if things break right. That's all I meant, this is a good team, absolutely, but if some guys don't step up it isn't a 'ready to go' contender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IUFLA Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 17 minutes ago, BGleas said: That's exactly what I was saying. If everyone returns the same and Lander is serviceable then IU is a tournament team and back end of the top 25 most likely. But that's not what I was pushing back on. I was pushing back on the growing idea that this team is "primed for a deep run". If nothing changes accept the addition of Lander, then IU is a solid, middle Big Ten team (middle meaning top half, probably around 5-7). But, if some combination of Phinisee, Hunter, Race and Franklin do step up big, then IU is a top 3-4 Big Ten contender and has a deep tourney run in them if things break right. That's all I meant, this is a good team, absolutely, but if some guys don't step up it isn't a 'ready to go' contender. Agree with all of this... And I wonder how the chemistry and leadership of this years team will be... I'm hoping for a giant leap there as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IU Scott Posted June 24, 2020 Report Share Posted June 24, 2020 http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology New bracketology is out and has IU a 6 seed playing 11th seed Syracuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IU Scott Posted August 11, 2020 Report Share Posted August 11, 2020 http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology Last bracket we were a 6 seed and have not lost anyone since then but we fell to a 7 seed in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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