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If anybody is interested, I did a breakdown of what I believe Mike Woodson will be brining to Indiana Basketball. https://iufilmroom.com/mike-woodson/what-will-mike-woodson-bring-to-indiana/

I don’t think he is implying the player on the back end is necessarily from IU. Could be anybody.

We have players in the portal yes, but there are some better players in there to. This team was 12-15. It needs more than a coaching change.

I think most are now on board and enthusiasm is building. I will say this: Much like Bobby Knight was sick of losing to Purdue, I'm even more tired of being more enthusiastic/optimistic in the off-season rather than during the season. I'm really eager to see that change!

I like the move for Fife, if true. He’s been in the league and he knows the coaches and teams. That can be a huge asset for Woody who obviously has not been in the league. He’s also recruited in the area. He’s learned from Izzo and can bring that perspective. Most importantly, I like developing an in house coaching candidate. This is the path that UNC seems to be on and it’d be nice if we had an in-house candidate on the rise too. Maybe we can avoid being rudderless in a future coaching search. From Dane’s point of view, he’s learned what he could from Izzo. He’s also obviously been coached by Knight. By coming here, he can get exposure to an NBA coach and his approach but also get around Thad Matta and possibly others. It can make him more well rounded in his experience. Plus it is his alma mater and he’s an IU guy. I see a win-win.

Didn't see much there except a couple of anonymous posters speculating. I'll believe Franklin to Illinois when I see it. Absolutely nothing about that move makes sense.

Hounds!!!

Spacing is such an underrated element in the game. Many, many times I saw CAM's sets and they just felt 'unbalanced' to the naked eye. Your point about room to create off the pick and roll was a very good one; the ballhandler needs to have the space to keep the defense on its heels. Gonzaga does a great job of this. They have the spacing to pass - and do so with incredible consistency - which keeps the defense constantly on the move, and tired.

Maybe he has been told by Woodson that his starting spot is not guaranteed here and he had been guaranteed that at UI. I am hoping Coach Woodson will make every player earn their starting spot and playing time. I don't want to lose him but I think Stewart is more than capable of replacing his numbers.

Brooks was UK’s leading rebounder at nearly 7/game, playing only 23 minutes. When I saw UK this year, he seemed to be the only guy giving consistent effort. Not a good perimeter shooter, though

I was thinking same, from a professional point of view, Fife’s resume would look much better if it showed time at multiple places from well respected coaches instead of all his experience being with one coach. Different styles and methods.

Smoked an Easter ham this AM on my Masterbuilt electric smoker. I've smoked ham on a Weber charcoal grill and they've been great, but this one was even better. Very moist. Smoked at 250 degrees until an internal temp of 140 (ham was already smoked, so this was double-smoking). Used apple wood chips for first two hours and then stopped the smoke. Ham was only 6 pounds and was done in 3 hours. Put water, apple cider vinegar and pineapple juice in the drip pan and basted ham with drippings every hour. When internal temp was 130, glazed with a pre-mixed packet of ham glaze to which I added some honey. Continued to heat to 140.

Is that the Stetson Hatters? Or is it the Stetson Hoosiers? I like the the Stetson Hooters.

Had heard rumors of this during the season but didn't think much of them, assumed they were from the Peoria crowd. Since Adam grew up there but moved to Chicago during his HS career, there were always some negative griping about him during his recruitment, assumed it was from folks bitter that he left their town. Basically he's another kid who wants the ball in his hands, of course he's too small to be a 2G in the pros so wants a PG role and he knows that's not happening at Illinois with Curbello around. So he and his mom are looking elsewhere. Disappointing since he really seemed to be "bought in", turned into a pretty good defender and seemed to accept his role while waiting for Ayo to move on. Tweeted lots of stuff about how the program was "back" after the season, then....*poof*. That's the new normal with the portal and free agency I guess. He's a good player but not irreplaceable. Illini will look a lot different next year! 😬

not so fast my friend. he has still only turned us down twice.

PG from Creighton, not Lander. I’m guessing Lander is not leaving.

I don’t mind at all going into the portal and seeing what your options are in case you’re not in Woody’s plan or going to get adequate usage/playing time...but when you’re a bonefide starter and leader of a team you don’t go in conference and play against your squad. There’s plenty of options outside the conference for him to consider that would be equally as good of a fit. If being the enemy is an option to him than coming back shouldn’t be. I can’t imagine the guys returning are cool with him considering Illinois and if they are that says a lot about why our program is where it is.

Pass

A guy on the Rivals board is saying Fife.

I think CMW checks all the boxes for Franklin and vice versa. Franklin can guard multiple positions -- 1 through 3 -- and has the whole offensive package including the ability to hit the 3. He's also hardworking and a good teammate. This is a guy we definitely want back. Franklin and his mom say they want someone they can trust. With CMW what you see is what you get. There may be some coaches that you can trust as much as CMW but none you can trust more. It probably seems that it is taking a long time because we're so anxious to get AF back in the fold. BTW I think AF was on his way to an all-B1G season until he hurt his ankle. He was shooting @48% from 3 and averaging 16 or so a game in the stretch before he got hurt (not the whole preseason though).

You can as long as it's not coach ran.

You want to be a good FT shooter/good shooter in general for next winter? Get shots up 4 times a week, game speed.. along with about 1000 FTs a week, get in the weight room 3 or 4 times a week.. spend time on form, and play 2 or 3 times week. Get up and down.. play with your buddies, pick up games. Shoot game shots, read screens the correct way. Communicate as you do it. Build confidence. You can't just "rise to the occasion".. you revert back to your training when the opportunity arises.

A lot of kids do that now. We'd have 4 or 5.. 2 or 3 times a week. We had 5 SOs on the varsity.. it was mostly them coming in, so it was just their parents getting them here.

Saw he was recently offered by Stetson and brown was speaking to him regularly

We needed some new threads! June is a huge month for IU. 16 recruits taking official visits that month, 7 of them being 4-stars on 247. IU only had four 4-stars visit the entire 2020 cycle, and they have 7 visiting for just the month of June for 2022. Pretty wild.

Famous last words. 😁

@KDB you're the man!!

Yep.. and then we offer some time in pre practice, as well.. also before school. Just not as simple as saying "work on it in practice." Basketball has evolved so much. Coaches have to prepare for press, half court traps, 2-3, 1-3-1, match up zones... developing shooting, ball handling, install your offense (which is a little more complicated than down screen/cross screen) etc. Then putting in your own defensive rotations, how to defend ball screens multiple ways.. so much. We also missed 3 weeks worth of practice from Covid this winter.

I think he matured/grew before other guys and they caught up to him. He’s probably a low major/mid major guy IMO. Maybe a Ball State/ISU kind of guy.

Having high end corners is so huge. It can really open up a lot of options on D when you can trust your corners.

In high school, we always finished practice with conditioning. Sprints, suicides etc. We would do a few suicides. Then coach picks a random player to shoot free throws. Make 2 in a row, we go home. Miss one, we run another suicide and coach picks another player to shoot. Seems simple, but it really paid off in games when you had big free throws, you were winded, and the whole team is counting on you. It also forced us to work on our free throws on our own as none of us wanted to be the reason we ran til we puked. Lol

Official visit to Indiana scheduled. (June 18-20)

Great stuff Coach. Can't wait until you get to break down the Hoosiers this fall.

Love your work.

Great article...kinda what I was hinting at.

And that's the part that just won't make sense to me. In a driving world or getting to the rim world.....players will be at the free throw line so much you'd think it would be 1B in practice. I was just the opposite when I played. People were always bigger, faster,etc.....but since Alford was my idle growing up I made sure I was 90% from the line too. 6-17 is a number they'll (players and coaches) be looking at forever.

Yep. In part due to IU's problems at the line, and the fact that Silver Creek struggled all year there as well, I've really started paying attention to how teams do at the line. More than ever, I appreciate kids that can go 6-6 or 7-8 at the line during a game. There's just not as many out there that can do that as there used to be. I honestly don't think it's emphasized in practice as much as it should. There are probably coaches that don't want to spend valuable practice time on it and expect the kids to do it on there own, which may or may not be happening.

Giorgi is heading home to turn pro. Hasn't seen his family in 2 years so can't blame him. Kofi will enter the draft, good chance he stays in but is a 2nd round pick at best. Small chance he returns but probably also headed overseas somewhere. Some other end of bench guys likely to transfer out. So most like we'll have Curbelo, Hawkins, Granderson back along with Hutcherson who sat out with back issues. Have added the big from Florida who is basically a Giorgi replacement. Need to get another SG, combo to back up Curbelo. Also trying to get the Mitchell kid from UMass. Just seems like a lot of these transfers end up shuffling the deck with similar players ending up replacing another guy much like themselves at a new school. Good times.

I fully expect Lewis to join the IU staff.

CJ Gunn looked pretty good in the 4A final. No one shot great, but he had a couple of nice 3's and was in double figures.

I mean, if you want to go to the league, Ayo and Kofi have been pretty slow to develop to that level vs. expectations.

Probably like our boards who said Stevens was a done deal coming here

Interviewed by the NYpost https://nypost.com/2021/04/03/mike-woodson-on-indiana-challenge-bob-knight-knicks-tenure/

Congrats.

Hopefully not

He would do well here, I hope it happens!

I’ve had a gut feeling on this one too. I noticed TJD asking for some IU love.

It’s good we only have to compete with 2 of the final four teams

If I never hear the phrase “inside out” again, I’ll be perfectly happy. Get the best kids you can who want to be Hoosiers whether they are from Bedford or Bismarck.