HoosierBrit64

More than agree with this. Which is one other reason I think we’ll have more than one open scholarship next season.

I have way too much time on my hands sitting in my home office finishing up my monthly billing. It’s like sitting on the toilet, way too much time to think. I keep seeing all these players that we’re in contact with, and I asked myself, how do we have more than 10 players next year if we don’t look to sign at least a couple of developmental guys? These portal players are looking for minutes, not mop-up minutes. Three high volume starting guards aren’t coming here at once from the portal. That’s just not realistic. Gallo is getting minutes. We have X minutes to give, and I suppose we have Ware minutes, but those aren’t going to a 6’2 guard. It seems to me that we must have a big from the portal maybe two, and two starter quality guards, then developmental guys willing to wait for minutes. I just don’t see the possibility of multiple guards coming.

Watching last night while recovering from the flu made the game not so bad in the scheme of things. To this point, CJ seems to only play well when the game is decided because that’s the position he’s put in by his coach. He isn’t constrained by archaic offense and can play freer basketball when he’s inserted and they’re down 20. When he goes somewhere with a modern, free-flowing offense, he will look so much better than he has here. Confidence and system matter. And Woodson taking that ejection should’ve gotten him fired as soon as he hit the locker room. What a chicken *#+&.

I’m not sure where to put this, but since quite a few posts here have pointed out that we have too much talent to get beat by PSU at home, I figured I’d post a comment here. Because no, we don’t have too much talent not to get beat by PSU at home. We have a really nice front court lineup. That’s it. Our backcourt would be average at best in the MAC. First, none of them can shoot, or will shoot (Cupps). I like Leal but he’s an average, spot up shooting backup. And other than being hardworking, can someone please explain all the love for Gallo on this board? That dude gets beat off the dribble more than I drink bourbon. And I love to drink bourbon! He can’t shoot, and I’m sorry but he does not play good defense. He simply doesn’t. He tries, but running around out of control is not good defense. We get beat by guards every game. Our guards can’t stop a dribble drive and are out of position on 3s not because of scheme, but because they’re SLOW. Watch other teams’ guards step over screens and beat their guy to spots. Ours don’t because they can’t. Because they’re SLOW. Add to that, none of our guards are leaders. If we had one leader at a guard spot and just two quick guards on this roster that were average shooters, this is a different season. We do have one but he’s a freshman who is out all season due to injury. Where’s the other? That’s a Woody responsibility for lack of recruiting one. We have a front court as good as anyone, if they had help from even an average backcourt. But they don’t have any help.

I think for this team, as constructed today, Sweet 16 is a very successful season. The reason we were playing so well at the end of the year last year, frankly, was not because TJD suddenly became a basketball killer on the court. It was because of X, the one guy on the team who plays chippy with attitude, who reigned the chippiness in and was under control. I am not saying that X is the best player on this team. But, what he brings, we lost that completely when he was injured. And that is killer instinct and, frankly, the desire to bury and embarrass the other team is the one thing we miss. X being in this lineup changes so much by getting others to play the same way, but also to play loose, to play rough, to body people up and if you're going to foul, get you money's worth. Not to mention, he got people shots, not only his own. Think of the wide open threes we got with X in the game. I remember all the drives to the rim for layups. Offense was freer, guys played meaner. That attitude is what we miss most from X. So yeah, without him I think Sweet 16 is a really good season. Anything more than that is because we get hot for a few games and ride it out. Honestly this is a season where that can happen, given there is no dominant team that we look at and say, wow, they're going to be tough to beat.

Hi friends, we are heading down to Bloomington in a couple of hours to celebrate my daughter's 19th birthday with some dinner, then gifts in her dorm room in Read Hall. Kind of last minute I know, but if anyone ends up with three extra tickets for me, my kid and my wife, please let me know. I would love to buy them from you. Otherwise we will just do dinner and listen on the way back to Richmond. Much appreciated!

I personally think he would be just fine on the defensive end. He has nice footwork and is a willing defender. And defends with physicality. For high school, and considering he was playing a challenging schedule for public high schools, in the two games he was actually a fantastic help-side defender. He seemed to have a really good feel for coming for help blocks, and was a more than willing rebounder on both ends, with an understanding of angles of where missed shots might go. In the two games I attended, he was guarding opponents in the 6'4- 6'6 range. He was really physical in both games. He certainly did not struggle defensively. What I noted was that, while the opponents couldn't get a mismatch to go at him, he was a mismatch in both games for the opponent. He would take a smaller guy to the rim, and would drill threes from everywhere on a bigger guy. As soon as a big would come out on him, he would head fake and drive. He is most certainly not a soft 6'7 perimeter only guy.

I have seen Centerville play in person two times this year. Cupps runs the show, but they don't win every night without Rolf. The dude is big, physical, and is a dog to play against. Plays with an attitude and seems to enjoy making his opponent look bad. Without a doubt, he is a better offensive player right now than at least three of our wings, maybe every one of them. A picture perfect stroke from 3, and athletic enough to dunk on someone who gets in his way. We would be damned lucky as fans to have this guy on scholarship.

Funny thing about those halftime stats. We shot four threes to their 13, yet have two FTs to their 12. That is the most ridiculous stat line I think I've ever seen. Except in a B1G-officiated game. One team is living on the perimeter and gets more FTs than the team living in the paint.

There are so many problems with the offense right now, it's really more difficult to find a place where there isn't a problem. Yes the offensive line is atrocious, but there are ways for Sheridan to protect them some, for example, if you can't block, run more creative quick hitter passes, run more screens and let your tight ends help, run more creative draws, throw more RPO action out there, and for the love of God use the middle of the field once in awhile. Give different looks! Second, we run tons of meaningless motion, which seems to have no point at all. It certainly doesn't look like it's being run to help identify man or zone. For example, when we do put someone in motion, it's often a WR that we bring behind the RB. Most times this WR is completely out of the play altogether because it takes so long to bring him out that wide that the opposing team is already to our QB. It is painfully predictable. Third, Carr seems like a good back who is constantly getting hit in the backfield. But look closer, the guy has no leg churn, no leg fight. Watch some of his carries yesterday. If he gets hit low, he has a complete inability to recover. It is very easy to take his legs out. He struggles to run through anything. Fourth, and this has happened for years, our receivers and evidently our plays include way too many 50/50 balls. I think back to Nick Westbrook and how I it always seemed to me that every pass thrown his way when he was here was a 50/50 ball. I thought then he would never play in the NFL because he couldn't get himself open. But miraculously I see him open now and running good routes. So this tells me one of a few things, either this is simply the plays we run, our WRs are just not good and run terrible routes, or the WRs are not coached well on route running. And finally, which I may get crucified for, our two best quarterbacks are a freshman not getting much run right now because he's a freshman, and the other having been out for the season with an injury. And the reason that I consider them our best QBs is that given all of our other options on offense, their abilities to RPO with really good arms (at least in HS), give us the best chance to make something from nothing.

Guys, I missed most of the game so far taking my wife out to shop, and don't have time to scroll through everything already posted. Was Zach Carpenter out today? I thought he was 1 on the depth chart at center.

Having graduate from CHS in 1982, and played against Steve prior to the '83 championship year, we most certainly didn't slow it down against New Castle. In that '83, we won 70-57 with Steve scoring 37. They had nothing else. As a side note, I believe Steve said that if they placed us 10 times, they'd win 7. I guess that would mean they would win the next seven, since he lost all three times we played him, and wore them out every game.