Kdug

Just now, Seeking6 said:

He hadn't...but any chance of a shot at Coach some will take. Such is the board.

I’ve been as frustrated as anyone with this season, but I try to keep my complaints practical.

Anyway, we need someone else to step up in the second half. We can’t expect Ware to duplicate that half, even if he does continue to play well.

2 minutes ago, CTrojan88 said:

Woodson can’t get out of his own way.  Up 15 and playing well and then he subs for no reason.  Momentum gone and here comes Bucky

I don’t think Ware had sat to that point had he? Ware isn’t the type of player who can go 40 minutes, he needs some rest.

Important last few minutes here. Can’t let them get any closer with how well we played for the first 15 minutes.

Key stretch here with Ware getting a breather. Up 15 when he went out, need to make sure we don’t let them back in it.

Ware is completely dominating this game.

XJ checks in. Glad that he’ll be able to finish his career playing instead of hurt.

Good start, we’ll see if we can keep it up.

4 minutes ago, BGleas said:

I don't really buy into these rumors, but with that said I think Bruce Pearl is probably gettable and would be a home run hire, though don't love his age. 

The hard part of all of this, and I'm not trying to start a debate on this, but I also think Chris Beard could maybe be gettable, and I think he'd be a grand slam hire. The problem of course is his recent legal troubles. 

It just stinks because I think Beard would check most every other box. He's even better than Pearl and younger. Also brings some of the Bob Knight connection, etc.  

If he didn't have the legal issues, he'd be a grand slam hire. 

Yeah, beard’s coaching abilities aren’t the question. But if it weren’t for the legal troubles, he wouldn’t be available. So kind of a catch 22.

If we do end up in a coaching search, I’ll be interested to see who the candidates are. Pearl’s age would be the biggest downside, but he feels like as close as a sure thing as you can get compared to other realistic options. I know a lot of people like Dusty because of the IU connection and what he did last year at FAU, but that feels like a risky hire, granted with huge upside if it works.

Hiring Pearl feels like what the Woodson hire should have been. Bring in a guy who you’re confident will succeed in the short term, even if they’re not the long term solution due to age. Then the next time around you’d have the prestige, money, fan support, and now recent success to attract a good long term option.

6 minutes ago, SawatchHoosier said:

Not trying to be that guy but since the discussion about firing Mike Woodson involves speculation about potential coaching candidates I can't help wondering why Bruce Pearl would want to leave the SEC? The SEC is either number 1 or 2 for the most current NBA players. The SEC overall plays a style of basketball that is decent to watch unlike the BIG Ten which is simply put "straight garbage." I say that while I continue watching BIG 10 basketball because that's what I'll do until I die.

Would you rather watch the top 2 teams in the Big 10 play or the top two in the SEC? One game would involve watching a 7'4" player hack everyone death, a free throw disparity of 4 to 1  and Brad Underwood pulling a choke job in the last 8 minutes. While the other would involve modern day basketball both offensively and defensively.

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't recall a decent coach leaving the ACC, BIG 12 and or SEC for the Big Ten in the last two decades. Maybe there was 1 but I think that proves my point. If some says Brad Underwood may god have mercy on your soul.

Lastly, the Big Ten is not place where NBA talent guards and the best NCAA coaches want to go. If we fire Mike Woodson most likely we will end up with another unproven coach from a mid-major conference. Does that mean we should want Woodson? No, it doesn't but in my opinion the issue will always be roster construction with any coach we hire until the BIG decides not to play bully ball. Change should occur but the type of change we desire for Indiana Basketball will always be limited by the Big Ten. 

 

Underwood left the B12 for Illinois and Willard left the Big East for Maryland. On the flip side, a coach rarely willingly leaves the Big Ten for any of those conferences either. Only one I can think of recently is Shrews leaving PSU to ND - which I think had almost all to do with lack of support at PSU and ties to Indiana.

2 hours ago, tdhoosier said:

That's an interesting stat for Cupps. I do believe that he has a very low usage rate because he doesn't get used in the offense. He dribbles the ball up court, passes it and rarely gets it back. So, I'll concede. 

Regarding Trey, it depends on the role he's playing on a team. Put 2 shooters next to him and he's going create a lot mis-matches for the opponent. He'd find a LOT of minutes no matter the system. Find the right system and I believe he's a second or third team all Big Ten. But that's hypotheticals. 

I'm getting into the weed's though. The overall point is that WE HAVE TALENT. It's not put together nicely, but it's enough talent to be WAY more competitive. We're not dealing with a team of walk-ons here. Two players could make it to the NBA. A few more could be pros in Europe.

And we are sitting at the bottom of the B1G and are getting blown out by PSU. 

Yeah, I agree with your overall point that we should be way more competitive than this. Just didn’t necessarily agree that we had that many individual players performing at or above their “star ranking”.

14 minutes ago, tdhoosier said:

Gallo is a fringe starter on just about every team in the conference. If he's able to play the role the excels in, any team would gladly take him.

I don't think this system does any favors for Cupps. His job is to dribble up the court and pass it into the interior. it doesn't create spot up 3's for him. He doesn't get help on the defensive end because we can't rotate. I think he's a Freshman, who will ultimately be a valuable asset though. Are you saying he's not performing like a 3 star freshman? That's not really a high bar. I don't think a 2 star sees the court no matter how bad we need him. 

 

A fringe starter as a senior is essentially the definition of a 3 star, and that’s not meant as a knock at Gallo. But he’s tailor made to be a 6th man type who brings energy off the bench and isn’t asked to carry an offense like he’s been asked to do for IU this year.

And I don’t think Cupps has looked like a 3 star at all. I’d consider a 3 star talent roughly a top 150 player in their class. Using Torviks PRPG! ranking - which is essentially offensive rating weighted for usage and minutes - he has Cupps ranked as the 445th out of 452 freshmen who have played at least 20% of their team’s minutes. A lot of freshman struggle more than you think they would, so it’s not like he can’t get better next year. But he hasn’t looked like a player who was ready for college level basketball.

18 minutes ago, tdhoosier said:

Before we say stars don't mean anything.....

-Ware is individually playing like a 5 star
-Malik is individually playing like a 5 star (although he may have been a 4 star out of high school)
-Mgbako is working his way up to individually playing like a 5 star (highest freshman ppg), but let's say he's playing like a 4 star for the sake of argument. 
-I'd say Cupps is playing like a 3 star. 
-I'd say Gallo is playing like a 4 star. 

That's our starting line up. I don't necessarily think there's a disconnect in the rankings as much as there's a disconnect in the system. 

I don’t really agree with your assessment at all outside of Ware. Granted, I think a lot of that is guys aren’t being put in positions to succeed. I do agree that we’re playing well below what we should be based on the level of talent on the roster.

8 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

In the original post, I cited our offensive numbers from the first game...

54% overall, 44% from 3, and 80% from the line...So it wasn't the offense...

Klesmit scored 26 shooting 8-11 overall and 5-7 from 3...

Since, he's averaged 9 ppg, on 37% shooting overall and 34% from 3...

Our defense was the culprit the first time, but keep in mind too that Ware missed that game with a leg injury...

Defense has been the bigger issue recently too. Each of the last 4 games our opponent has score more than 1.1 points per possession, which essentially means our offense would need to score 75-80 points just to have a shot to win in a normal tempo game.

16 minutes ago, Indykev said:

Great we played as well as penn fricking state. i swear these guys and there dumbass takes. We should blow penn st. away EVERY time we play them.

What’s wrong with that take? That was the difference in the first half. There is no commentary on what we should or shouldn’t be doing vs a team like PSU.

35 minutes ago, NY hoosier said:

Dusty May going to Ohio State

Source? Or are you just trolling?

19 hours ago, KoB2011 said:

The thing I don't get is that he deserves another season or it's fair for him to get one.

What is fair to Mike Woodson very well may not be fair to the players, the fans, the alumni, the boosters, or anyone else in the program. When you're a highly compensated executive, you don't get the same runway or the same level of "fair". The question really should be every single season, is XYZ coach the best person to lead us forward IMO.

In the case of Woodson, that pretty clearly is 'no'.

Exactly. I like Woodson as a person, but he doesn’t deserve anything in terms of coaching into the future. All of that is earned, and he’s heavily compensated to be the coach.

I’ve said it in a different thread or earlier in this thread, but ultimately Dolson needs to do what’s best for the program. You see it in pro sports all the time where a coach gets fired who didn’t “deserve” to (I.e. the Cubs and David Ross), but those teams are doing what they think is in their best interest. With how much money goes into IU basketball, they need to start acting like a big time/pro organization.

8 minutes ago, Sea Turtle said:

Yes and generally more optimistic. 

Honestly, they should be more optimistic. They’re popular enough that they represent the fan base to a certain degree, and I think they do that reasonably well. I wouldn’t want a popular IU podcast to constantly be pessimistic. Even now I think they do a good job of communicating the disappointment without coming across like they’re just trashing the program.

1 minute ago, NCHoosier32 said:

we really might lose out.  finish 16-16?

Each of the last 3 games have theoretically been the easiest games left on the schedule, and we lost all 3 fairly convincingly. I’d bet we still win one more even though we’re underdogs the rest of the way, but I think we finish 15-17.

Missed free throws and lack of threes on offense. Penn State getting basically whatever they wanted while IU was on defense. We’ve seen this exact same game on repeat for most of the season.

Even though Mbako missed, I loved that last play. I just don’t understand why we don’t see more of that

Just now, tdhoosier said:

He needs both hands. One for the cigar. One for the wine. 

Can’t blame him. 

You’re on fire today. I got a good chuckle out of both of those comments.

3 minutes ago, kyhoosier29 said:

I can’t stand Baldwin, drama and flops left and right. But Ware did put his hands on him unnecessarily.

Yeah, but that virtually never gets called. Not a smart play by Ware to put himself in that position with no benefit, but that’s never called a foul. And Baldwin threw his head back for no reason which is the classic sign of a flop.

Just now, Reacher said:

Ware with his 4th

That one was a pure flop. I like that he didn’t pull him with 3 though.

1 minute ago, Reacher said:

Both teams have 12 field goals. Their lead solely due to 3s and FTs 

As a percentage, the free throws are actually relatively even, which is a win for this team. PSU just has one extra possession from committing 3 fewer turnovers minus the 2 extra offensive rebounds we have. The threes, as usual, are what is killing us.

1 minute ago, Hoosier987 said:

Most would’ve preferred to have had Mgbako at the 4 all season….

Absolutely, but I’ve just given up on that. Seems like that’ll only happen if we’re absolutely forced to