Danomatic

I just don’t understand how little we value the basketball? Seriously, we followed up another decent first half(still had silly turnovers) with a complete dud on the back end. XJ gets visibly frustrated, and Woody left him out there again… just let him cool off a couple of minutes and sub him back in. TJD has to get the ball a lot more down the stretch. What did he put up, two or three shots over the last 7-8 minutes? Very frustrating loss against a beatable team. Also, the trend of guys having career numbers against us continues…

All good. Just aggravating watching them throw away a good opportunity. I don’t think that I’d be so frustrated if they weren’t up by as much as they were. If IU were to lose by five in Madison, and I didn’t watch the game… I’d chalk it up as another L on the road. It was how they lost that has everyone so fired up.

That’s it though… he’s incredibly inconsistent, and two years older than Lander. He has decent athleticism, but buckles when needed. I don’t see it in him.

I know that I can’t speak for everyone here, but Xavier and Rob are hurting this team’s growth. Meanwhile, Kristian Lander is not seeing any minutes unless injury or foul trouble occurs. Personally, I think Lander is a better option moving forward. I believe we’ve seen X and Rob's ceiling, and it’s abysmal. There was absolutely no way XJ should’ve been out there the last few minutes. He and Rob look lost whenever they get slowed down and have to run the offense in a half court set. Honestly, I trust Woody and have no idea why Lander doesn’t see much floor time. Perhaps it’s a practice thing. But I don’t think he’s going to gain any confidence without getting consistent minutes. Maybe X is better coming off the bench, and Rob used sparingly? I don’t know, but that second half should make our staff sick to their stomachs… it did me. Just an awful overall performance.

That first half was hard to watch. If Syracuse shoots like that again in the second half, I hope Woody plays the walk-on kids. We looked sloppy offensively and were abysmal on the defensive end. I don’t care if we lose… that’s going to happen, but how we lose is another story.

While Woody had a pretty successful tenure in the league, he wasn’t all that successful as a head coach, and I believe that got him a little fired up for this challenge. Couple that with being an IU alum and being fired up about what this program had turned into… never know, college might’ve been his cup of tea all along..

I wasn’t able to watch the game last night, but heard Lander, Leal and Logan didn’t see time. I thought I saw where Lander was in a boot, but haven’t heard why. I wouldn’t expect Logan to see much time yet, but was kind of surprised Leal didn’t play. Does anyone know if he’s injured? I hope he can help with our shooting woes. I know that we aren’t going to see 13 guys seeing significant minutes, but I figured the coaching staff would like to see the underclassmen get some minutes against less than stellar competition. I suppose we need our top of the rotation guys to put themselves in a position where that could actually happen. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Glad to be back! Looking forward to seeing IU get back to where they belong!

Hey, it’s been awhile since I’ve checked in. I had an extended bout with Covid, but I’m on the upswing now. Hopeful for some good news tomorrow! This kid is a player, and will make an excellent addition to the program. P.S. - You’d think that with the NCAA allowing kids to get paid now, the NBA minor league won’t be as prevalent. Unless of course the kids just struggle academically.

I don’t know much about him, but this just popped up on my timeline.

I’d beg to differ, as far as baseball goes anyway. There are more youth playing baseball and soccer right now, than ever before. I coach travel teams and I’ve never seen so many kids playing the game at a competitive level.

I feel like that should be common knowledge. I recently had a similar conversation with someone about baseball. They claimed that Babe Ruth couldn’t put up numbers against today’s pitchers, which I agreed… 1927 Ruth wouldn’t be able to stay above the “Mendoza line” against the best pitchers from today. BUT 2021 Babe Ruth would’ve been the phenom that we all would have imagined him being in 1927.

I really hate comparing eras, or saying that guys from 30 years couldn’t compete today. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Do any of you really believe if players from different eras were playing today, they’d appear and play as they did back then? Absolutely not. I’d be willing to bet that players from the Golden Era, or previous decades, would be just as successful today as they were back then. They’d be given the same supplements, nutrition etc as the players of today. The top dogs will always find a way to eat, no matter the time. It’s pointless to say otherwise.

I’m digging the Woody Recruiting Express! We seem to be in good shape with a lot of top tier recruits.

I’ve always been a believer that good coaching breeds confidence. We’re all a little skeptical of how Coach Woodson’s transition to the college will play out, if we’re being honest with ourselves. However, that being said… he has an outstanding staff capable of getting it done.

Think more along a Deron Davis comparison. He doesn’t have the motor, or playmaking ability that TB had/has.

I thought he was very bouncy last year, just a little heavy on his feet from time to time. His athleticism is his best attribute, so if he did indeed drop weight, his ability to defend the perimeter would play a huge role next season. I have no way of confirming the weight loss, just something I saw on another site. He seems to have the work ethic though, and I love that about him. If he can get better with his midrange jumper, he’ll be ready to step up for an expanded run.

I just saw someone mention that he’d dropped weight. I think his athleticism can be elite, but his skill set at that position would need polished. If everything lined up right, I’d like him there. Lot of “ifs” though, but I’m excited about next year for the first time in about 8 years.

Agreed, I just think that with Coach Woodson wanting to play 4 out and 1 in, Kopp will be interchangeable at the 3/4 offensively. I just didn’t think that he’s quick enough on his feet to defend that position much on the perimeter.

This commitment answered a question I had about the wing after Hunter’s departure. Coach Woodson must feel very comfortable with running Geronimo, Stewart and TG at the 3…. Not in any particular order, but he must feel good about one of them always being out there. If he can give us what we were expecting from Brunk, I’ll be happy.

This. I think one of Archie’s biggest mistakes was trying to be the “hard ass” type of coach, so he could appease the Knight crowd. Don’t get me wrong… I loved Coach Knight, but that’s no longer appealing to the youth.

I work in Kentucky for a chemical company, and the natives are past restlessness. They are absolutely fed up, and would hire Kenny Payne “right now!” 😂 Look, Frederick adds shooting to an awful group from last season, along with a couple of other “shooters” from the portal…. c’mon guys, that sounds like us the past couple of seasons. We had shooters coming in, but they forgot how to shoot somewhere in transition. Yes, they’ll also add a PG and someone else who can also handle the ball. However, it isn’t going to be an elite PG, most likely a former Crean player at Georgia. This has trouble written all over it, because they’ll sacrifice some of their athleticism when putting in their new experienced, but slower “shooters.” I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong and thankfully still an Indiana resident, but that’s how my Kentucky(the educated ones) coworkers feel, and me to a larger extent.

You could go down a lot of rabbit holes on this topic. What if Jay Edwards returned? What if Cody and Vic stay one more year? What if Epstein didn’t kill himself? I’d better show myself out...

Haha... wow! That’s what I get for posting past my bedtime. Thanks for clearing that up! 😂

I didn’t have time to read and catch up with the thread, but I’d imagine if a particular player were to leave at this point... it would most likely be the player making that call. I would also like to think that Woodson has talked to each of them individually and expressed his thoughts with them on their potential in his system. That player in particular will have to decide for himself if he shares Coach Woodson’s vision and role for him moving forward. That kind of decision isn’t an easy one, and may take a little time. Just my thoughts, but I would like to believe that there isn’t any “Creaning” going on. Some tough love? Perhaps. A side note; I think everyone here has enough knowledge to know that 40 divided by 13 doesn’t amount to much. So the younger guys may stick around to see what type of role they can carve out moving forward. However, the upperclassmen might want to go somewhere that they can get more run. I don’t know... seems like common sense to me.