AxnJxn

I think a lot of older fans would disagree with you here. The guy coaching the team played for RMK, and I guarantee you that suspending the WC5 and the way we play defense is because of what he learned from RMK, at least in part. Three of those five banners we are so proud of, that we can use in recruiting (TJD: “Hoosier Nation has been down for awhile now and I want to be a part of the change that makes it great again"), are his. The standards some of us expect - competing for B1G titles, going to FFs, running a (as much as possible these days) clean program, and so forth - are directly because of what RMK did. He's also the reason IU is still referenced in discussions on a national level in college basketball ... although to be fair, most times it's people discussing whether we're still a blue blood or not. So, understood why you might not find him relevant, but he still is.

I might try re-writing it - it was kind of fun to go back to those days, but as you noted, there were also some warts that were hard to defend. I've been out of Bloomington for almost 30 years now, and I still get nostalgic when I see the campus on TV, and RMK and what he did at IU is definitely one of the reasons why.

I just wrote this ridiculously long, multi paragraph post about RMK, the positives, the negatives, the whole lot. It was a thing of beauty, and it completely vanished when I hit Submit. Majorly bummed right now. Note to self to copy/paste before submitting next time. The short version of it - you kinda had to be there to truly understand and appreciate the RMK experience.

I'm hoping we catch them at a good time - in between a quick turnaround from a Saturday game against Iowa, and a big matchup with Illinois next Thursday. Not the best of situations when you're crossing your fingers on something like that, though.

I think the question around that is what are reasonable expectations for this to happen? The transfer portal and the (perceived) ease of plugging holes using it, does that accelerate the amount of time expected to turn things around? The portal is almost like free agency in a way.

Yep, completely agree. RMK's last few years were hard to watch. He was always somewhat curmudgeonly, but it was always laced with a sense of humor. He always seemed to have a bit of fun mixed in with his anger, and liked to troll people, like when he brought the donkey on his show to reference Purdue and so forth. I think the lack of success on the court + the pressure he was getting from the admins of the school translated to someone who was just angry at everything, and it showed in the play on the court.

The important question: is our offense at the end of games better than this site's server?

This is by far the biggest positive to me, and not just with rotations and team defense, but the individual defense just seems to be much better with respect to technique. That's why I feel pretty good going forward - if you can get guys to buy into the defensive mindset/scheme, that's more than half the battle, IMO. Plus, if you struggle to score, it's certainly helpful to make it equally difficult for the other team to do so.

I mean, XJ had an absolutely wide open 3 and just missed it. I don't really think you could ask for a better shot in that situation, unless you change the shooter to PS or MK or something. Your options there are XJ shooting a wide open 3 or TJD (possibly) going to the line. Pick your poison.

The whole night just left a bad taste in my mouth, from Tyra Buss wearing Wisconsin gear (call me old school, but that just seemed unnecessarily disrespectful) to Davis trash talking at the end of the game to Davison doing his usual cheap nonsense to all of the frustrations in between with the lack of execution to the bad calls and on and on. Five days until OSU is going to be a long time.

That's what I thought. It's just so strange that no one really complained about it at the time, and I'm sure there won't be any repercussions for the refs. And, yeah, we still had opportunities to win the game and blew it, but that doesn't make it ok for referees to just make things up on the fly.

I mean, you're quoting someone who has been over the top negative towards this program for years. I don't think any reasonable IU fan thinks that CMW's on the hot seat, or anywhere close to it. Despite all of the frustrations, there are plenty of positives to point out from this season.

I'd really be interested in clarity on whether that out of bounds play is allowed to be reviewed in the manner that it was. It doesn't really matter if they got the call right if that part of it wasn't supposed to be reviewed. Also, what I find really odd is that we're a really tough team defensively, which usually means mental strength, yet we don't seem to have any of that. We've been completely taken out of our game in the last two contests because our opponents are pushing buttons and getting results from that. It doesn't matter how many wings or how much talent you bring in if that doesn't change.

Sorry, but don’t forget to save some blame for CMW, because the buck stops with him. This is a really dumb basketball team down the stretch of games, and it’s way too common to not put some of that on the coaching staff, especially when it’s still happening this late in the season with this many upperclassmen on this team. We had multiple periods in this game where we had lineups on the court that were completely inept offensively, too, without a single player that could create their own shot. There’s really no point in having someone like PS in the game if you don’t have anyone that can press the defense into leaving him open. I hate putting everything on one player, but man, XJ was just awful in the second half, particularly down the stretch. Finally, yes, missing Rob hurts, but if losing a guy who is also kind of inept offensively tanks your season, well …

That’s some of the worst offensive execution down the stretch that I’ve seen in a long, long time. Multiple bad shots by XJ, Trey shot at least one 3 and possibly two, and for some reason we had Parker/Race doing nothing on the perimeter and dribbling out the clock with plenty of time to get a quick 2 and foul. Wow.

C’mon, man, you’ve seen the lineups we’ve had out there for significant minutes.

Doesn’t change the point I’m making.

You don’t have to sub them all in at the same time.

He’s already there. That last offensive foul was really stupid by PS.

Aaaand there it is.

I feel like Davison is going to do something borderline cheap/dirty and is going to mentally take at least one of our guys out of the game. Hope I’m wrong.

XJ is going to have to play a lot better in the second half for us to win this game. That’s it. That’s my expert analysis.

Is it bad that i think it’s kinda lame that you’re the leading scorer in IU women’s basketball history, and you show up in Wisconsin gear? Just go with neutral red or something.