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St Mary’s Post Game Thread


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17 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

Yeah it stunk.

I will say one thing though, the "excuse" narrative is really bugging me.  Before I get into this, if this is not what you meant, then I apologize in advance.

Whenever pro schedules are released, what do they say about stretches where the team would play several games almost back to back to back?  Like if your favorite pro team played a game Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then a late game on Tuesday (EDT) and then began a West Coast swing (if they are an East Coast team) early on Thursday (like 4:30 West Coast time)?  Would that be a tough stretch?  Would people be figuring fatigue and travel into the performance on that Thursday game?  Yes.  A resounding yes at that and everyone here knows it.  So it is not an excuse to have seen the college kids (not true pros) absolutely run out of gas about 15 minutes into that game last night and say, "Hey, you know what, that sucked but it was a perfect storm, we were obviously fatigued."  Now add to that the fact the other team had 9 days rest and their coaching staff had at least 3.5 days to prepare to play against your team.  It is not an excuse to say that probably factored into the outcome.

One last thing, it has not been as bad on this board but some people act like being 18-23 means you are some superhuman.  "The guys at Normandy were tired..."   Yeah, they were in a war and so were their opponents.  The Allied staff didn't sleep deprive them leading up to the invasion and then say, "You are young guys, go get it."  This wasn't a war though.  And yeah, 18-23 year olds were able to get out there and play.  And they would have collectively kicked the ass of probably everyone of us at the same age because they are peak athletes.  HOWEVER.  However, the guys they are playing were also peak athletes.  Peak athletes on a week of rest.  Peak athletes who have been practicing to play us for days.  Peak athletes who did not spend the night and following morning, the day before the game, sitting on a cramped airplane.  Some of the people (not necessarily you...but definitely on another unnamed board) really kind of piss me off with their approach to this sometimes, and I am probably one of the more pessimistic posters.

"Oh are we still talking about that travel excuse?"  Yeah, we damn well are because if that type of game load would be tough for a pro athlete, then it damn sure is going to be a factor for a bunch of student athletes.  The incessant narrative that needs to be pushed by people who have not figured out that this is not 1980 freaking 7.

Call me an excuse man.  This team had deficiencies.  This coaching staff made moves I did not always agree with.  Those mistakes cost us games at times this year.  We were an imperfect team that relied on effort on the defensive end to win most games.  That effort won 21 games.  That efforts had us in about 6 to 8 games we lost to the very end.  That effort takes energy and a presence of mind.  Two things which ABSOLUTELY are impacted by fatigue.  That team we saw last night was not indicative of the ability of the team.  Would we have lost that game if we were full strength?  Perhaps.  St. Mary's is a good team.  Their offense was really good last night.  However, I think we were a step slow on just about everything last night and that impacts everything you do.  I really wish we could have entered that game without everything I pointed out above, I think the score would have been different if not the final W/L outcome.

Sorry IUFLA, most of that is not directed at you, I just have read some stuff across IU Fandom that has pissed me off over the last 10 hours or so.

I understand where you're coming from, and believe you're only saying what most, including Mike Woodson, feel...he's just not going to say it publicly...

Coach Woodson said all year you can't run from it, and it is what it is...

Excuses are a crutch, and not a solution though...I think Coach Woody is a smart man and understands the psychology of leadership very well...continuing to rely on excuses and expressing that publicly fosters a losing attitude...

So, yeah, you're just stating what a lot of us feel, but Coach Woodson can't afford to do that if he's going to get IU back on top...

 

Edited by IUFLA
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I read a post Trayce made that has really stuck out in my mind and I can't stop thinking about it.

He was speaking about Coach Woodson........"He's almost like our dad in the sense where we can come to him for a lot of things, and he's going to help us out and do whatever he needs to do," Jackson-Davis said. 

His statement says a lot about this team's commitment to Indiana Basketball and belief in their head coach! Every time Coach Woodson speaks about his team and his players, you can tell deep down inside that he truly loves those boys! Now that's an encouraging and refreshing feeling. 

Edited by Artesian_86
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2 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

I understand where you're coming from, and believe you're only saying what most, including Mike Woodson, feel...he's just not going to say it publicly...

Coach Woodson said all year you can't run from it, and it is what it is...

Excuses are a crutch, and not a solution though...I think Coach Woody is a smart man and understands the psychology of leadership very well...continuing to rely on excuses and expressing that publicly fosters a losing attitude...

So, yeah, you're just stating what a lot of us feel, but Coach Woodson can't afford to do that if he's going to get IU back on top...

 

I can specifically remember two former coaches since Coach Knight that would sometimes use excuses after a poor performance or loss....

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9 hours ago, Steubenhoosier said:

Jay Bilas came out and said that performance in the conference tournaments shouldn’t matter . That the regular season performance should be the barometer, and that the post season tournament should only reward whoever wins that tournament.

If that’s the case, what is the incentive for a team like IU, who made the tournament in large part due to their performance in the conference tournament?

 I think that, right or wrong , that the conference tournaments should be a thing of the past. Damn the greedy bastards who want to maximize profits from these games that don’t really mean that much 

Yeah, Bilis said the at large bids should be locked before the conference tourneys. If that was the rule, if I was coaching a team that was a lock for a bid, I’d rest my starters in the conference tournament. It would be a joke. That said, it’s hard to see where late conference tourneys impact seeding much. IA for example. 

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Was pretty upset last night during and after the game. Called the team weak and then WEAK in all caps. 

Feel kind of bad about that, when it was clear they were gassed. 

Excited to see what the next team looks like and believe that Woodson and his staff are the real deal. NCAAT in the first year is a good start. 

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1 hour ago, IUFLA said:

I understand where you're coming from, and believe you're only saying what most, including Mike Woodson, feel...he's just not going to say it publicly...

Coach Woodson said all year you can't run from it, and it is what it is...

Excuses are a crutch, and not a solution though...I think Coach Woody is a smart man and understands the psychology of leadership very well...continuing to rely on excuses and expressing that publicly fosters a losing attitude...

So, yeah, you're just stating what a lot of us feel, but Coach Woodson can't afford to do that if he's going to get IU back on top...

 

He can't, but we can. ;)

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38 minutes ago, Lostin76 said:

Was pretty upset last night during and after the game. Called the team weak and then WEAK in all caps. 

Feel kind of bad about that, when it was clear they were gassed. 

Excited to see what the next team looks like and believe that Woodson and his staff are the real deal. NCAAT in the first year is a good start. 

I was upset with the loss and I kind of thought one was coming before the game because of everything.  That is why I kind of made the post early on to say this was a step forward and expectations were met before the game.  Sometimes we forget that in the heat of the moment.

As to the game, we were punching each other back and forth for the first 15 minutes of that game, give or take.  Then you just saw the air leak out of the team.  I have seen people saying, "It wasn't fatigue, they were just better..."  I don't know if I buy that honestly.  When it looked like we had our legs, we were hanging with them just fine.  Their style is designed to tire you out and we were already 70% of the way there before the game started because of circumstances.  They don't normally shoot like they did.  We don't normally allow that kind of shooting.  We looked a step slow about 15 minutes into that game and to their credit, they took advantage.  I would still love a rematch at full strength.

Getting beat like we did sucked.  I understand the coaches and players not making excuses, but I believe my eyes.  Fatigue caught up to the team last night.

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10 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

He can't, but we can. ;)

Yessir...

And a tip of the hat to Coach Bennett...as someone else said, he showed a lot of understanding, not to mention class, with his comments about our team and the issues we dealt with. Hope they go far in the Tournament...

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1 hour ago, IUCrazy2 said:

Yeah it stunk.

I will say one thing though, the "excuse" narrative is really bugging me.  Before I get into this, if this is not what you meant, then I apologize in advance.

Whenever pro schedules are released, what do they say about stretches where the team would play several games almost back to back to back?  Like if your favorite pro team played a game Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then a late game on Tuesday (EDT) and then began a West Coast swing (if they are an East Coast team) early on Thursday (like 4:30 West Coast time)?  Would that be a tough stretch?  Would people be figuring fatigue and travel into the performance on that Thursday game?  Yes.  A resounding yes at that and everyone here knows it.  So it is not an excuse to have seen the college kids (not true pros) absolutely run out of gas about 15 minutes into that game last night and say, "Hey, you know what, that sucked but it was a perfect storm, we were obviously fatigued."  Now add to that the fact the other team had 9 days rest and their coaching staff had at least 3.5 days to prepare to play against your team.  It is not an excuse to say that probably factored into the outcome.

One last thing, it has not been as bad on this board but some people act like being 18-23 means you are some superhuman.  "The guys at Normandy were tired..."   Yeah, they were in a war and so were their opponents.  The Allied staff didn't sleep deprive them leading up to the invasion and then say, "You are young guys, go get it."  This wasn't a war though.  And yeah, 18-23 year olds were able to get out there and play.  And they would have collectively kicked the ass of probably everyone of us at the same age because they are peak athletes.  HOWEVER.  However, the guys they are playing were also peak athletes.  Peak athletes on a week of rest.  Peak athletes who have been practicing to play us for days.  Peak athletes who did not spend the night and following morning, the day before the game, sitting on a cramped airplane.  Some of the people (not necessarily you...but definitely on another unnamed board) really kind of piss me off with their approach to this sometimes, and I am probably one of the more pessimistic posters.

"Oh are we still talking about that travel excuse?"  Yeah, we damn well are because if that type of game load would be tough for a pro athlete, then it damn sure is going to be a factor for a bunch of student athletes.  The incessant narrative that needs to be pushed by people who have not figured out that this is not 1980 freaking 7 gets old.  "The team was not up to my par."  No kidding.  It hasn't been up to par for the majority of 20 years.  Expecting a championship level mentality and instant turn around results from a team that had not sniffed the tournament in 5 years is on those fans.  They are not realistic.  Making the tournament after all that is an accomplishment.  

Call me an excuse man.  This team had deficiencies.  This coaching staff made moves I did not always agree with.  Those mistakes cost us games at times this year.  We were an imperfect team that relied on effort on the defensive end to win most games.  That effort won 21 games.  That efforts had us in about 6 to 8 games we lost to the very end.  That effort takes energy and a presence of mind.  Two things which ABSOLUTELY are impacted by fatigue.  That team we saw last night was not indicative of the ability of the team.  Would we have lost that game if we were full strength?  Perhaps.  St. Mary's is a good team.  Their offense was really good last night.  However, I think we were a step slow on just about everything last night and that impacts everything you do.  I really wish we could have entered that game without everything I pointed out above, I think the score would have been different if not the final W/L outcome.

Sorry IUFLA, most of that is not directed at you, I just have read some stuff across IU Fandom that has pissed me off over the last 10 hours or so.

Wonderful post. As far as I'm concerned, we can lock up the post game thread after reading that.  

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Basketball Grandma GIF - Basketball Grandma Shake GIFs

........This may be too soon or seem a bit insensitive the day after a tough loss,.... but I just couldn't stop laughing at Mamaw as she appears "sluggish from goat meat" (SNL) and "ankles being broke"  from guarding her grandson!....lol 

Somehow, I think IU felt a bit like this last night. You gotta be able to laugh a bit. 🤣

Sorry, but not sorry. lol

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A season of ups and downs, but the ups were pretty sweet and good sign for things to come. Now to do the seemingly impossible, get some shooters. Woody and the team's downfall this year were sticking with "shooters" who missed way too many open shots. The difference between good teams and bad teams is the three. The three keeps you in games and can break the back of your opponent. No doubt they ran out of gas last night, but that's more of an indictment of losing games earlier they should have won. Would have had a better seed, not have so many "must" win situations and provided a normal schedule down the stretch. Interesting to see how the roster develops in the next few weeks and months. 

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