tdhoosier

6 minutes ago, btownqb said:

So what teams did we lose to that we were better than? 

Rutgers. Penn St. twice.

But you know that it's not all about wins and losses when being evaluated for the tournament. We could've won those 3 games and still wouldn't have made it in.

The greater point is that when we play at an analytical disadvantage there is small room for error. This is the way Woody seemingly likes to play. It's also a main reason why when we won, it was typically by a small margin and when we lost it was typically by a big margin. 

I hope I'm proven wrong next season, but I don't think the way Woody has played the last 3 years is conducive to reaching our ceiling when we have talent and why we fall through the floor when we have average talent. 

If we were going to be a team with an identity of being highly efficient on 2 point field goals (like Kansas, for example), then we needed a greater emphasis in at least a few of these areas

1. rebounding
2. reducing turnovers
3. solid defense (top 50ish)
4. making our free throws. 

That's the only way the math works when making up the difference against teams who are going to shoot 10+ more 3 pointers than we do. More second chance points for us. Less second chance points for them. Capitalize on FTs.

This is something we didn't not do last year. Lack of talent has something to do with it. But I think the team could've used a better defensive system to match their abilities/cover their liabilities. Rebounding is about emphasis (from coaching staff) and effort (from players).....and we lacked both. AND I have no idea why this program is curse when it comes to FT shooting. 

I don't think we reached our ceiling, but our ceiling wasn't that high anyway. 

1 hour ago, IUfaninIllinois said:

I just saw an article where the person wrote our last two signings will be AH and Baba Miller. I haven’t heard his name discussed once in here. Thoughts everyone?

seems like wishful thinking. 

I will say that we bought our team and there's nothing wrong with it. I will also say that Woody deserved much of the the criticism for the play on the court and bad roster construction last season. I will also say that the false rumors flying around and leaks were straight up trash and an unnecessary low blow. 

So, it's time to put up or shut up for the coaching staff. Somebody put up a graph in another thread that said: as our roster stands right now, we have more returning power 6 production than ANY other team in the country. If Hurley had this roster I think many would be projecting us to be National Championship contenders.

But here we are. Many are debating whether we have enough to make the 2nd weekend. I think that says a lot about how much faith fans and CBB analyst's have in Woody's ability to coach at a high level. 

I will be rooting for Woody to prove all the naysayers wrong, but he's going to need to accomplish a lot next year to silence all the noise. I don't want to hear any excuses about talent, depth, experience, lack of fundamentals, etc if we underperform, because at that point, the answer should be pretty clear. 

We have the pieces. Now we need results. 

4 minutes ago, OGIUAndy said:

Won't be hard for me. 

I get it. I'll feel dirty. 

I just really like Dusty. Listen to his Hoosier Hysterics interview, it's hard not to like the man. I hope he does well at UM and when the time comes he'll have proven enough to be our next coach. 

8 minutes ago, Drroogh said:

I’ve posted a few times that the programs with established runners and bag men still have advantages. However, their advantages disappear when players don’t have the baggage around them. AAU coaches and promoters, family and people all holding out their hands. I like the recruits IU has been landing because of that. MgBako’s mom calling coach, Newton saying he wouldn’t transfer because he made a commitment, Tucker’s dad saying he wanted a Pro Coach. Those players 👍👍👍

I’d think that handlers looking to sell access to a player are mostly a thing of the past because players can now have legit, licensed agents. NIL or not, people who surround these kids will always be looking for handouts. However, I’d imagine that players are better protected now from that dark world of recruiting than what used to exist. 

Sure, I like that parents of our players are heavily involved in their well-being, but I don’t think our players are all that different from players you’ll find in many other programs. 

Michigan may be a dark horse. Dusty is pulling in some good transfers and it will be hard to root against him. I’ll definitely be interested to see some their games next season. 

Just going to leave this here because the conclusion they reach is because of NIL. Like it or hate it, our program will benefit from it. 
 

I’m celebrating with a hazy IPA. Thanks for giving me an excuse to drink, Luke. 

I really like this pick up. A piece that we needed to round out the roster. 

Now that Goode is on board, I’d say we have a pretty good idea of our roster. 

Our floor should be high. Our ceiling should be high. 

I will be disappointed if we are even flirting with the tournament next year; we should be solidly in. With the amount of talent we have on paper, I think we should be a top 25 team all year. Those expectations should not be considered out of line unless we have something like 3 major injuries. Agree?

Also, 3 Body Problem on Netflix is awesome. I couldn’t stop watching a few weekends ago. I tried reading the book a few years ago, but the translation to English (from Chinese) and the in depth science content made it a very hard read. 

The TV show, produced by the creators of Game of Thrones, dumbed is down (in a good way). Highly, highly recommend. 

I know some were fans and didn’t know if it was coming back. We’ll, it is!

52 minutes ago, Piston Honda said:

Hearing Boise State.

whoa. he lives. 

5 hours ago, Drroogh said:

Going to be fun watching Smith and Loyer try and stay in front of these two!

I just want our opponents to pay if they sag off of our guards on the perimeter and go under screens. Move the ball and keep the defenders honest. That's all i'm asking.

1 minute ago, FKIM01 said:

I'm the same.  Someone mentioned ND as competition but has he even scheduled a visit there?

Not that i've seen. On the Insiders podcast they were saying ND is a possibility because he'll get a lot of shots in Shrew's offense and they also have a great Business School. But they both seemed to think it's going to be IU.

2 minutes ago, FKIM01 said:

Has he scheduled any visit beyond IU this Thursday and Friday?  That would indicate something...

I'm not the one to ask. i'm just sharing info I've seen in other places. My feelings should hold no weight. 

3 minutes ago, Hoosier4Life53 said:

How confident are we that Goode is coming? For some reason I don’t feel good about this…we’ve been fooled by the portal before. Just a few days ago Essegian was a done deal, and look how that turned out.

I only feel better about Goode than Essegian because of the big family connections to IU. His dad and uncle played FB at IU. His brother attends IU right now. His parents apparently have season tix for basketball. And most importantly he wants to attend a business grad school. 

But other than that I know nothing - I'm just sitting back and eating popcorn like the rest of us.  

13 minutes ago, DWB said:

I still think we need to find a true point guard. Rice may be an OK part time at the 1, Cupps isn't even close to being a true PG (yet), and I'd rather have Gallo @ 2-3.

We've got the opening, just need to fill it. Seems like most of the attention in the portal is 2-5 positions. (we needed those as well, but I'd like a knock down shooter point guard)

We have 4 players who can play the 1: Carlyle, Cupps, Gallo and Rice. Granted that you ideally don't want Gallo to play PG for long stretches, but he can help out in a pinch. 

I think that if we get Goode, the next main priority would be a 4/5 guy who can get rebounds and protect the rim. I don't think we'd need him to score much. 

Overall, I like the potential versatility. We have a lot of multi-positional players. The question on everybody's mind is how versatile Woody will get and what combos will work defensively. 

Gallo 1-2-3
Carylle 1-2
MM 3-4
Malik 4-5
Tucker 2-3
Goode (fingers crossed) 3-4

Ballo will probably only play the 5. And while Rice may be able to play off the ball, I'd imagine he'd be the primary ball handler at the 1 when he's on the court. 

We always say we hav a lot of depth at this time of year, but at least on paper, it seems that we can show the opposition a lot of different looks. 

16 minutes ago, Indykev said:

Is Goode, Goode enough to play 20 -25 mins when MR goes on a hack attack 5 mins in?

He averaged 20 minutes on a top 20 team last year. I’d think so. 

11 minutes ago, FKIM01 said:

How do you know that staff wasn't?  It's not like they didn't TRY to get more quality guards...?

I don't think they tried as hard as they could have. At least not compared to this year. I see a huge turn around in their organization and effort this year. Plans. Back-up plans. On-campus visits. It seems like we've at least reached out to more than half of the 'gets' in the portal. 

Credit to the staff this year for learning from their mis-steps and seemingly turning it around. 

20 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

If you remember, Joey Hart was a name to know at one time...Does anybody really think he would have made much of a difference last season?

Love ya man, but at this point you're trying to argue that elephant dung don't stink. 

Can you not see the urgency from the staff in the transfer portal this year vs. last year? Woody didn't get any guards and Mgbako fell into his lap. Last year there was room to get a guy BETTER than one who'd accept a 13th spot. So if you want to use Joey Hart as an example, I'll still say yes (to what degree, I don't know). But I'll also say we should've have had 10 prospects better than Joey Hart on the radar. 

And it's not true we didn't know about Newton until August. Maybe officially, but there was uncertainty in April on whether or not he'd play because the procedure he had is really tough to recover from.

Iron sharpens iron. 13 is better than 12. 

22 minutes ago, ledies22 said:

I see that as a win win for the player. Sounds like a favor type of scholarship. Season is already down the drain if the player is needed. Still lost games, but at least the kid made some NIL money and went to school for free.

I am absolutely not against using it. Take a flyer on someone, but all scholarships don't need to be filled just to fill them for the optics to appease the fan base. 

 

 

 

What can go from an attitude of 'a meaningless spot to just appease the fans', can quickly go to 'oh shit, we don't have as much depth as we though and 3 players are injured'. I'm sure I can dig up posts of people shrugging off that 13 spot last year. 

There are, what, about 2000 players in the portal? Nobody is talking about walking down to the rec center to find a player. I'm sure there are plenty of worthy players in the portal who can contribute as a valuable teammate, with potential to give minutes. This is still Indiana University, a top 3 program in terms of value. We can get a player. No unwarranted 'gifts' given. No fans being appeased. Just coaches utilizing all the resources given to them.

2 minutes ago, ledies22 said:

It works both ways. Just because we want another guard doesn't mean there is one interested in coming. 2 Gabe Cupps would not have helped this team last year. 

So let me get this straight. you would sign a guy fully knowing you are going to kick him out the door next year? so really you are using a scholarship for a single year for someone that will not get a single minute of playing time... just to say you used the scholarship? 

I already said they could make some money via NIL. 

Just because you have a scholarship available doesn't mean you walk to the rec center and offer a kid that made 10 free throws in a row. There still needs to be a baseline level of talent/potential. You don't just use it to use it. 

If coach and player will are on the same page, yes.  
 

A player gets a chance to prove himself and make some money in a big time program. The team gets an insurance policy (in case of injuries) and another body in practice to up the competition. 

i see this as win win.