tdhoosier

The thought of him and Troy Williams on the floor together gives me anxiety. lol

It's been slow. Thought I'd share some videos. Sleepers has been putting out a lot Indiana content lately. The first video, they talk about what's next, in terms of the transfer portal, for IU. The second video breaks down who has the better roster next year: IU or PU. Some interesting points are brought up that could make for some good conversation. *Sometimes I laugh because they have an on-going joke that Woody doesn't even know what the staff is doing in the portal and he's going to show up to practice on the first day and be like 'when did we get all these players?' haha.

This has happened a lot in Woody's 3 years. And the old 'tired' excuse is old and tired. Yes, give guys rest but rotate through your bench more strategically. You and I have been debating this for 3 years. it's one of the few things we disagree on. I wish I could find the post i made to you about this back in 2022, but I'm too lazy to look it up. In the first year I looked up all our close losses....because there were a lot of them. Woody was making these bad substitutions deep into February, and to make my point I recorded the point swing when the first major substitution (3 or more bench players subbed in) happened. Usually around the 10 minute mark. If I recall correctly, in every one of those losses, except one, the negative point swing was greater than our margin of defeat. I think you shrugged it off and said 'players need rest'....which side steps the greater issue that Woody can rotate players in differently (IDK, 1 or 2 at a time over a 6 minute stretch) and keep some semblance of momentum going. Yes, last year we sucked. So the substitution patterns, while still odd in the first half of the season, didn't effect the outcome of as many games because we lost by big margins. We would've maybe lost by 15 instead of 20. Big whoop. I'm just saying if Woody thinks we are deep enough to mass sub players in at the 10 minute mark, that is fine. Try it and see how it goes. If it yields successful results then continue to do it. But IF it doesn't work then stop trying to jam that square peg into a round hole. Please don't wait until January and blow up our analytics up testing something out that is proving not to work. This is my main complaint about Woody. it's like the light goes on in his head a month or a year too late. "Oh, we should tighten up the rotation". "Oh, maybe we should use TJD in the PnR". "Oh, we should be deep at the guard position". The man knows what to do. It just seems to me that he holds on to his stubborn ways a little too long. We will hopefully be playing for a protected seed next year, and i don't want the 'shoulda been blowouts' to mess it up. This is not the NBA. Like it or not, college is not solely based on wins and losses. It's about capitalizing on big wins and limiting bad losses. So, if he's going to 'test' a strategy out in lieu of a negative 10 point swing, please do it sparingly.

I will say one thing. (I actually said it last week, but will repeat): From an outsider's perspective: in comparison to last year it is obvious that a fire was lit under the staff's collective ass. Money or not, players still need to be identified and they still need to be recruited. We are showing interest in a LOT more players this year, getting meetings and getting them on campus. It appears they had a plan A, B and C. I don't know if it was being lazy last year, or simply not prepared, but I will credit the entire staff for turning it around this off-season and getting it done.

Rutgers. Penn St. twice. But you know that it's not all about wins and losses when being evaluated for the tournament. We could've won those 3 games and still wouldn't have made it in. The greater point is that when we play at an analytical disadvantage there is small room for error. This is the way Woody seemingly likes to play. It's also a main reason why when we won, it was typically by a small margin and when we lost it was typically by a big margin. I hope I'm proven wrong next season, but I don't think the way Woody has played the last 3 years is conducive to reaching our ceiling when we have talent and why we fall through the floor when we have average talent.

If we were going to be a team with an identity of being highly efficient on 2 point field goals (like Kansas, for example), then we needed a greater emphasis in at least a few of these areas 1. rebounding 2. reducing turnovers 3. solid defense (top 50ish) 4. making our free throws. That's the only way the math works when making up the difference against teams who are going to shoot 10+ more 3 pointers than we do. More second chance points for us. Less second chance points for them. Capitalize on FTs. This is something we didn't not do last year. Lack of talent has something to do with it. But I think the team could've used a better defensive system to match their abilities/cover their liabilities. Rebounding is about emphasis (from coaching staff) and effort (from players).....and we lacked both. AND I have no idea why this program is curse when it comes to FT shooting. I don't think we reached our ceiling, but our ceiling wasn't that high anyway.

seems like wishful thinking.

I will say that we bought our team and there's nothing wrong with it. I will also say that Woody deserved much of the the criticism for the play on the court and bad roster construction last season. I will also say that the false rumors flying around and leaks were straight up trash and an unnecessary low blow. So, it's time to put up or shut up for the coaching staff. Somebody put up a graph in another thread that said: as our roster stands right now, we have more returning power 6 production than ANY other team in the country. If Hurley had this roster I think many would be projecting us to be National Championship contenders. But here we are. Many are debating whether we have enough to make the 2nd weekend. I think that says a lot about how much faith fans and CBB analyst's have in Woody's ability to coach at a high level. I will be rooting for Woody to prove all the naysayers wrong, but he's going to need to accomplish a lot next year to silence all the noise. I don't want to hear any excuses about talent, depth, experience, lack of fundamentals, etc if we underperform, because at that point, the answer should be pretty clear. We have the pieces. Now we need results.

I get it. I'll feel dirty. I just really like Dusty. Listen to his Hoosier Hysterics interview, it's hard not to like the man. I hope he does well at UM and when the time comes he'll have proven enough to be our next coach.

I’d think that handlers looking to sell access to a player are mostly a thing of the past because players can now have legit, licensed agents. NIL or not, people who surround these kids will always be looking for handouts. However, I’d imagine that players are better protected now from that dark world of recruiting than what used to exist. Sure, I like that parents of our players are heavily involved in their well-being, but I don’t think our players are all that different from players you’ll find in many other programs.

Michigan may be a dark horse. Dusty is pulling in some good transfers and it will be hard to root against him. I’ll definitely be interested to see some their games next season.

Just going to leave this here because the conclusion they reach is because of NIL. Like it or hate it, our program will benefit from it.

I’m celebrating with a hazy IPA. Thanks for giving me an excuse to drink, Luke.

I really like this pick up. A piece that we needed to round out the roster.

Now that Goode is on board, I’d say we have a pretty good idea of our roster. Our floor should be high. Our ceiling should be high. I will be disappointed if we are even flirting with the tournament next year; we should be solidly in. With the amount of talent we have on paper, I think we should be a top 25 team all year. Those expectations should not be considered out of line unless we have something like 3 major injuries. Agree?