BobSaccamanno

I think player development is 100% an issue and so is managing the trappings of being big man on campus which at IU is a special animal. But we have consistently been mis-identifying in state talent for 20 years to the point that it’s not just luck or coincidence. It’s not being handled right, and this far pre-dates Woody. It’s not just in-state failures even though that’s the most acute issue. Foreign talent acquisition is also a zero. We need somebody in our player personnel group who needs to study Canada, Europe, Australia, etc Heck, isn’t Tominaga literally from Japan? I was reading about a 6’10 European kid in Canada. Of course we aren’t listed with him. We probably don’t know about him. It’s a department failure. Yes, we spend a ton on recruiting. This year we have exactly zero recruits. The process needs to be overhauled. When the head coach doesn’t get out and look at players, doesn’t know the names of on-campus visitors, etc., you need a player personnel department that is out looking at talent, figuring out that Conwell is better than Gunn even if Kyle Neddenriep doesn’t know it. He’s a writer, not a scout.

Agree. He and Gunn are both Sophs out of Indy. We picked the wrong one. We do that a lot. As a program, our scouting of in-state talent hasn’t been good enough. If our coaching staff doesn’t have the energy to do the work or the eye to identify talent, then hire a personnel department who can evaluate talent get out there. You can’t just let Matt Glenesk list the top 5 players in the state and then recruit off his list because the Indy Star anointed a few guys. This isn’t just Woody although he inherited some of the prior staff too. Gotta roll up the sleeves and find the Desmond Bane, Jake LaRavia, Craig Porter types who are all in the NBA from in-state schools yet we overlooked them. It’s Braden Smith. Matt Howard. Bryant McIntosh. We keep getting it wrong. Bob Knight figured out that he wanted Tom Coverdale and Brian Evans. He went out of state to find a little known recruit named Kirk Haston. Our recent coaches wouldn’t have recruited any of these guys. Overhaul player personnel.

XJ needs to go to work on D on their “little guard” who has been the best player on the floor. Tominaga was just toying with the younger Cupps. Maybe XJ can cover him but he is going to have to go out on him and not worry about the drive as our scheme normally is set up to do.

I think there are problems with the NET but it’s basically the law. I may disagree with a law that says I can’t rob a store just because I’m hungry, but it doesn’t change the fact that I have to follow the process and work within the rules to satisfy my hunger. We need a head of analytics to study the “law” and translate it for the staff so we can optimize it as it stands. The head of analytics can do a number of other things like study where players are maximized and weaknesses they can improve, combinations of players that succeed and don’t, how to maximize efficiency based on the data and certain plays, apply strengths vs weaknesses with the opponent, etc.

We need better player development and management to get more out of these guys. I will be shocked if we don’t get at least one new assistant and overhaul our basketball infrastructure. It looks unwieldy and inept. I don’t think Scott is going to let that stand. It’s one thing he can control.

Gunn can’t create shots for himself. That’s one of the reasons he isn’t very good. Leal was always the better option over Gunn. Everyone can see that. Moves like that killed them with the metrics. The staff doesn’t understand analytics and the NET. Remember Woody being befuddled by the questions, defending himself by talking about W’s and L’s (as if a narrow margin at home against West Point was fine since they won)? I’m urging Scott to bring in a head of analytics and lead on this. This isn’t the NBA where your record is exclusively tied to your seeding. Gunn can be solid wherever he goes next year if he gets it together with his makeup. He didn’t develop here but he also never had a good approach.

Smart boy!

What’s Purdue’s campus got to do with this?

Leal has a great knack for getting himself into great position. Kudos to him. Lifetime memory. Also, great credit for the team being resilient after falling behind at the start of the second half. That was a huge story.

A bad or mediocre team, 9 or 10. A good team, 6.

IU’s guards aren’t good enough and there’s not much we can do about it as that was determined in last year’s lackluster offseason. It is exacerbated if TG is limited or out as he’s the one good guard. It is a head scratcher but the one thing you might do is bring Leal’s minutes way up and Cupps’ way down. Maybe even try Gunn again in lieu of Cupps. XJ is a sixth year guy. He gives you a chance to manipulate the rotation. I like Cupps. He shows flashes with shooting, defense, and getting into the lane. Those flashes, even though somewhat isolated, indicate potential that he can someday be a good player in all those facets. However, if you look at his high total number of minutes, his production in terms of assists, scoring, rebounding, etc may be a record in terms of being empty. It’s not his fault, because he shouldn’t be playing those kinds of minutes at this stage. But with XJ out there, this is an opportunity to get other guys on the floor to try to get better production and less empty guard minutes, with or without Trey.

Payne may not know how to coach on the floor but he’s been credited with many top recruits at Kentucky. Probably a decent chance he ends up here as we shakeup the staff. Or you put him in charge of player personnel and hire assistants who can scheme and develop talent.

In some houses the women are in synch. Maybe that’s happened here 🤣

They haven’t called out screens all year. Total pet peeve and inexcusable. You will consistently see screens called out at the HPER. It’s just basic.

I’d say Denver but hard to say if Payton could adapt to him.

Before my time but certainly a legendary name. RIP

Totally fair and you can’t expect miracles in one year. But I think he can get us to a bowl despite conference expansion if we don’t have catastrophic injuries. I’m expecting smart, sound football where we don’t beat ourselves. Then we go from there. It’d be nice if the boosters cranked it up on football instead of overpaying some of the basketball players for just being there and not producing.

Every team in the league is going to regret letting him get by.

Would be amazing if it could happen. Maybe the NET moves up dramatically by then. I believe the committee used to look at the final ten performance but no longer does. That would have helped under your scenario.

Xavier Booker isn’t a good fit at MSU. I haven’t seen enough of him to make a judgement on him. But with his length, I don’t see how he doesn’t see Ware and contact Woody for next year.

Yeah the numbers were very predictive and reflective of how good we are. That’s the problem, they were right.

Every win should help with recruiting even if the analytics killed us this year. We need to win as much as possible to attract the next group. As for the guards, other than Galloway, no one will be devastated if anybody else leaves. With what they are paid, there needs to be production. Gotta have ROI.

Predictable. The McNeely decommitment is epic and will live in infamy. It’s not a shrug

Yeah he’s way overrated and overpriced for what he is, which is ok. Stats on bad teams never do anything for me.

Seven Stages of grief. Some people can’t get past bargaining yet.