tdhoosier

I’d say Izzo has earned a little leeway. Per Wiki… Izzo has led the Spartans to eight Final Fours in the NCAA Tournament, which include the NCAA National Championship in 2000 and a Runner-Up finish in 2009. His teams have won ten Big Ten regular season titlesand six Big Ten tournament titles in his 28 years at Michigan State. Izzo has the most wins in school history and has appeared in 25 consecutive NCAA tournaments, the longest streak of tournament appearances all-time in men's college basketball. He has never had a losing season as a head coach.[4] In addition, MSU set the Big Ten record for the longest home court winning streak between 1998 and 2002. Several of these accomplishments led former ESPN analyst Andy Katz to deem Michigan State the top college basketball program for the decade of 1998 to 2007.[5] Izzo is currently the longest-tenured coach in the Big Ten Conferenceand his teams are often recognized for their rebounding prowess and defensive tenacity. He has won four national coach of the year awards and maintains a considerable coaching tree—several of his former assistants are currently head coaches at other Division I schools. Izzo has won 10 regular-season conference titles, the third most in conference history. He has also won the most Big Ten tourney titles (six) in conference history. On March 6, 2022, Izzo surpassed Bob Knight for the most wins by a men's basketball coach at a Big Ten school with 663.

My point was being that we may need another combo guard in the portal, in case he can't make it back.

I'm not sure he can bank on Newton just yet. I think I read somewhere that a very high percentage of athletes that get the same knee surgery do not make it back to their former selves. Where did I read/hear that. Did anybody else see the same thing?

Really a great post. I've found so many times in coaching athletes of all ages, it's not always what you instruct, it's how you instruct it. You need to be flexible in how you explain things. It can be something as simple as a visual vs. auditory explanation. Or just trusting another coach to give the instruction in his or her's own words. When getting across the same point, certain queues/vocabulary can be different, but more meaningful to an athlete. Even more challenging, every athlete has their own distinct way of how they grasp instruction and queues. In a group setting it can feel like you, metaphorically, need to be multi-lingual. The best coaches I know are very adaptable and clear with their communication. They are usually the ones doing more with less. And when they have more: watch out.

So did Archie have a better eye for identifying defensive talent? Not suggesting he's a better overall coach because his offense was horrid. But I do have to wonder, is not getting the players to successfully implement Woody's defense a matter of missing on transfers/recruits, or not identifying tranfers/recruits that will be able to come in and pick up his scheme? Or can they not successfully teach it as quickly as they need to? In Woody's words: 'they're supposed to understand', but why aren't they understanding it? At least he's admitting the obvious, but I'd like to have confidence that he will adapt to avoid this in the future.

This is interesting to me. Not surprising, but interesting. In Woody's first year the team looking great defensively. What was it about that team that grasped his scheme? I know Archie seemed to recruit 'defense first' players....so maybe the personnel had a better awareness to what was going on. The thing that doesn't make sense to me is why we started slipping defensively in year 2. Sure X was injured for half of the year, but the collection of players didn't change that drastically. And our vets were even older. And currently, the problems we had last year are even more magnified this year. Even the players who have been in the system for 2 years look out of sorts. Every time our opponents reverse the ball we are out of position. I fear that with the way CBB has changed - with the transfer portal - we won't have the luxury of keeping players in the program to learn the system in the way Woody needs for it to be effective. We will be in a perpetual state of learning and competitive teams will eat us up. So where does Woody go from here?

I've done my fair share of criticizing Woody lately, but I need to give credit when credit is due. Trayce has gone out of his way to credit Woody in his preparation for the league. There's been the quote I pasted below and others that I'm not going to take the time to look for. I think it goes a bit beyond just putting him in the right place. I think it's more about teaching him to recognize situations as they happen. It's not about being in a position to block shots, it's evaluating the defense and getting into the position to block a shot. It's knowing how to use the PnR - the timing of the cut to create a little more space. All these things that rookies are learning in their first year, TJD knows. It's why the vets on the team trust him and it's why he's earning playing time. "Coach Woodson did a great job and prepared me in the two years that he had me," Jackson-Davis said. "Just basically the style of offense that we ran, defensive coverages all translated over. So it's a huge thanks to him and the Indiana family."

I’d like to have seen Mgbako get more minutes. X started to get composed in the second half. Hopefully he can build on that. This team can play great in 2 minute flashes. That said, it seems impossible for them to remain focused for longer than 2 minute spurts. .

He decided to go take a shower early by throwing a cheap shot?

Because they read HSN…..duh!

Just like that….we’re back in the same spot

Leads the league.

Cupps needs a green light. Just let him go crazy and see what happens.

My wife just asked me why I’m not yelling at the TV. Haha. I said my expectations have been lowered and I’m past getting negatively excited. She said ‘awe’.

It looks like a pterodactyl who ate too many Cheetos shat on Chucky’s head. …..getting that posted made me feel a little better.

Keep on shooting those long 2’s boys. SMH

Wow. 4 red jerseys in the paint and 1 white. Rebound goes out of bounds off of X

Wiscy looking like sloppy joe.

This game Xavier game is definitely going to go over. Is there a way to watch the start of the IU game?

Whadda ya know. I just started The Secret.

I agree, but I think if we're talking about what is salvageable this season....we can't do anything about roster construction. And while those who aren't as quick to blame our problems on Woody would say: we can't just change the scheme in the middle of the season, I'd argue that he can tweak his scheme to get better results. I was listening to Assembly call this morning and they had a pretty productive/realistic conversation about this. Andy was saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that some schemes are built with the intention of shooting the 3. Our 3 point shots are used with the primary intent of creating space. So, if that is the intent of the scheme, we can make certain tweaks like stop shooting low percentage 2's (be more aware of where they are on the floor). Or we can implement more shot fakes on the perimeter, get defenders to bite, get them off balance and create a little more space. Again, these are just examples of things we currently don't do well on offense and don't require drastic schematic changes to implement successfully. By getting a little 'sharper' with our intent to create space on the interior and using better lineups can lead to some incremental improvements. At this point, I just want to see steady and consistent progress.

I will say I like our chances against IL, much more than Wiscy. If our chance to win against Wiconsin, per Kenpom, is 10%, then I'd put our chance to win against IL in the 30's.

As an obvious super fan of the series, do you have a favorite? Ever since Spotify introduced audio books, I've been listening to a few, but out of order (depending on what they have available). So far, the third one: Trip Wire, has been my favorite of any Reacher books/TV Series/movies I've consumed......that villain with the half burnt face and hook is awesomely disturbing.

Really, it’s best to just not start them. 😎