Florida Gulf Coast Post Game Thread

[Drroogh]

5 minutes ago, loviubb said:

Some want to win by 30 pts or are not happy!! I will take 30 wins by 1 pt and be pretty happy!! Lots to work on BUT WE WON!! SOME PRETTY IMPRESIVE NEWCOMERS AND SOME NEWCOMERS WHO WILL NOW HAVE some teaching coming from CMW!! IU IS STILL HUNGOVER WITH CRMK PASSING!! TAKE THE THE WIN AND TEACH!! GO IU!! LOV YA!!

I’ll also take that the team didn’t muck up the recognition game for Garrett like they did for Coach Knight’s return!

[DC2345]

Gunn needs to stop pressing and just play. Banks is still working his way back from missing some time. Walker needs to be utilized better. 

[5 championships]

3 minutes ago, DC2345 said:

I think it’s because when Woody finally went to the 3 guards in the 2nd half that lineup was working and Woody didn’t want to change anything. 

The entire first half the lineups were head scratchers. We had Banks and Walker in at the same time??? What are we doing? And the over helping has to stop! It took Penn State hitting 19 3’s last year to figure that out. Stick with shooters you have a 7’2 guy to block shots and help at the rim. Just ridiculous poor at times on defense. 

[KoB2011]

20 minutes ago, thirdgenhoosier said:

Pretty normal of fans honestly.  The eternal off-season optimism.  Last year it was Geronimo and Bates.

Bates was great in his first game for Mizzou. 

[thirdgenhoosier]

Just now, KoB2011 said:

Bates was great in his first game for Mizzou. 

He was but that doesn’t help us last year!  My comment was less about the players and more about us the fans.

[KoB2011]

9 minutes ago, DC2345 said:

That’s why IU needs guys to start proving themselves as shooters. I know people complain about Woodson not focusing on shooting more 3’s but I get it. 

I mean we shot 4/13. Not great, but good enough to shoot more than we did.  There are also systems (and messages from coaches) that inspire confidence in shooting and systems that don’t.

Our Coach deprioritizes shooting from three. He’s said so himself, and I think that could end up being a problem. 

[IUfaninIllinois]

28 minutes ago, MoyeCowbell said:

Positives:

• I really love what Cupps brings to the team. Hard, tough-nosed kid (we all know this) who simply plays 'up'. He's already got the confidence, but once he adds experience, he's going to be a problem for other teams.
• Ware. He impressed me. I think he's only scratching the surface of what he can do, and he has the potential to do A LOT. He's just so skilled... once he starts stacking good days, they'll become great days and he's going to be a force.
• Reneau's footwork on offense. He's so crafty. Same thing with Trey. Both can maneuver around defenders nicely.

Negatives:

• Rebounding. Outside of Ware, I didn't see a lot of guys attacking the boards early on. That has to change.
• Free throw shooting. Hell, at this point, is the program just jinxed in this area?
• 3pt D (and general awareness). KNOW WHO IS KILLING YOU FROM DEEP AND STOP THEM FROM KILLING YOU FROM DEEP. It ain't that hard of a concept to understand.

Sometimes I wish they would just go to a box and one and just stop the three point shooter

[KoB2011]

3 minutes ago, thirdgenhoosier said:

He was but that doesn’t help us last year!  My comment was less about the players and more about us the fans.

Yes, but I think our system wasn’t a good fit for him, which is a bummer. 

[IUfaninIllinois]

26 minutes ago, MoyeCowbell said:

My eyeballs just rebounded off the floor reading that.

Well then you’d have same anoint of rebounds as Reneau. Have eligibility left?

[KoB2011]

Also… what the hell was Malik doing with a minute left on that inbound? Absolutely awful.

Loved his scoring but man he had some absolutely stupid plays tonight. 

[IUfaninIllinois]

20 minutes ago, Hippopotamo said:

I noticed that too. I love the switchability, but it seemed like there were a lot of unnecessary switches that just caused guys to get out of position too often. 

I also can never figure out why we sag so stinking much. It’s been an issue for two years now

[iuthruandthru]

46 minutes ago, Lizard said:

FGCU played great.  Chambers is a solid coach and class guy, IMO.  Looked like we found a core lineup at the end. (X, Cupps, Ware, MR, Gallo)  and I wasn't at the game, but it seemed like our crowd was the catalyst for that run that turned the game.

I was at the game and this is spot on about the crowd.  They were begging for something and once they got it they went crazy and no doubt feed the players effort.  It was a great feel for game one.  We are going to. Red that all year from the crowd.

[IUfaninIllinois]

17 minutes ago, DC2345 said:

That’s why IU needs guys to start proving themselves as shooters. I know people complain about Woodson not focusing on shooting more 3’s but I get it. 

The thing is Gunn has to be able to do all of the other things to get PT I think if he gets the PT he will start knocking down 3s. When we went down 6 Woodson got on him specifically really good

[5 championships]

12 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

I mean we shot 4/13. Not great, but good enough to shoot more than we did.  There are also systems (and messages from coaches) that inspire confidence in shooting and systems that don’t.

Our Coach deprioritizes shooting from three. He’s said so himself, and I think that could end up being a problem. 

Agreed 

[HoosierDPU95]

A new season and a new reminder of why I don't read the in-game thread. Sheesh.

The pre-game thread was all about how this would be a good test and tough game but when we don't jump out to a twenty point lead shooting 30+ 3's the sky starts to fall. 

Lots of room between here and the ceiling. Take the W against a good team and improve. That and HIT YOUR FLIPPING FREE THROWS is all I ask.

1-0

[IUfaninIllinois]

14 minutes ago, DC2345 said:

Gunn needs to stop pressing and just play. Banks is still working his way back from missing some time. Walker needs to be utilized better. 

I disagree on Walker! To me if you punish banks and Gunn for not playing defense you have to punish Walker too. He took bad shots and rushed everything he did. To me it has zero to do with utilizing him better it is more he has to know his strengths and do what he was brought here to do! 

[Seeking6]

1 minute ago, HoosierDPU95 said:

A new season and a new reminder of why I don't read the in-game thread. Sheesh.

The pre-game thread was all about how this would be a good test and tough game but when we don't jump out to a twenty point lead shooting 30+ 3's the sky starts to fall. 

Lots of room between here and the ceiling. Take the W against a good team and improve. That and HIT YOUR FLIPPING FREE THROWS is all I ask.

1-0

Yep...and this is the smart board. FGCU is a good team. They'll either earn a tourney bid or being playing for one in conference tourney. We replaced 60% of starters.....make it 80% if you count X being out and it was a tough game.

Instead of focusing on the FT shooting or apparently dissecting who should be playing with whom 30 minutes into a season we should say. Good win. Move along and trust the process or decision making of the staff.

Each fan gets to react how they want and that's what makes us all teammates. In my book. Good win. Plenty to clean up but nothing more than that. 

[Hoosier987]

We probably lose this game if Thompson was playing.

Banks and Gunn have a long ways to go. Frankly, Not sure if they will ever be where we need them to be…and if not, then hit the portal.

Was never a fan of the Walker grab…we need scoring. He’s not a scorer. 

Ware and Cupps played very well.

Must find additional scoring and I’m certain it won’t come from Banks, Gunn and Walker after what we’ve seen the first 3 games (2 exhibition). 

Despite a bad game…confident Mgbako will be a stud and our best scoring option.

Edited November 8, 2023 by Hoosier987

[ephul]

-Malik was awful defensively.

-We have to quit over helping

-We switch on defense WAY too much. It leads to breakdowns and easy baskets.

-If we didn't have a 7' guy inside, this would be been ugly, especially rebounding.

-Gabe Cupps is a stud. I was blown away by his defense. Thought he'd be a little behind there. He's quicker than what I thought.

-We need to use Malik's offensive prowess to open up the half court offense. Feed the ball down low like we did with trayce. Malik will need to learn to find open guys when needed.

 

[Joe_Hoopsier]

Someone up above sparked this thought, so here goes.

I will admit that I feel more engaged and remember more about games that are tight and hard fought than I do the ones that we jump to a 20 point lead in the first 5 min. Obviously one is better on my blood pressure than the other, but if I die while totally dialed into a scrapping IU MBB game, I'll die happy (when we win).

I can't say that we scrapped tonight, but we stayed, just enough for 32 minutes. if..........NO, When this team can play 40 minutes like the 8 minute ish run we had in this game, we could be scary. Until then, we will be scary in a totally different way. 

 

Oh in closing, STOP over helping and STOP sagging! We have 3 fenom ball pressure people so PRESSURE damnit !

[Steubenhoosier]

Haven’t seen it mentioned but there was a concern over losing TJD’s rim protection and his ability to erase others defensive lapses. I think Ware put that worry to rest in the first 10 minutes of the game.

Glad we won our first game. I know there needs to be a lot of improvement but pretty much what I expected from a team made up of so many new players. 

[kyhoosier29]

1 hour ago, KoB2011 said:

Some bright spots and we came away with a win. Loved what I saw from Cupps and Ware, that went a long way to answer a couple of key question marks about this team.

X and Trey were mostly solid. Our backcourt is thin on bodies, but I feel pretty good about the three main guys if they can stay healthy.

Malik and Mack have got to be better. Malik scored well but was as bad on defense as he was good on offense, and a non-factor on the glass. Mack just was no existent.

Gunn and Banks didn’t give us anything. Walker had a few flashes but looked like he tried to do things he isn’t capable of as the game tightened up. Need him to stick to his strengths.

Overall, defense sucked. We have some good pieces but we have got to stop over-helping and getting lost. We have three really good on ball defending guards and a great rim protector. Guys need to trust that and stop helping off.

Lastly, I am a little concerned for lack of a better term about our offense approach. We have to take more threes and we have to push the ball. 

Nailed it. The only thing I’ll add is that the FT shooting was pathetic, and there’s no excuse for that. 

[BGleas]

Decent win against a really good team. FGCU will be there in the postseason. 

Agree with a lot that's already been said, but a few thoughts. 

- Geez, please stop with the over-helping and being completely out of position on shooters. Been three years of that. 

- Love the 3-guard lineup and think we're going to need much more of it. I like that it got XJ off the ball a bit because we're going to need him to score and it just made the offense more dynamic  

- Not sure what to do with Reneau. I want us to play smaller and faster, or at least try it in a Cupps, XJ, Galloway, Mgbako, Ware lineup, but also can't deny what Reneau brings on the block. It's a weird thing, Reneau can get us out of scoring droughts with his post game, but I also think he gets into those droughts sometimes since he only passes when basically forced too and constantly misses wide open shooters. 

It's not surprising that when we went with the 3-guard lineup all of the sudden Galloway got two floaters in the paint and another drive or two, and XJ got 2-3 great looks. 

I really want to see us play smaller and faster. 

[NCHoosier32]

8 hours ago, 5 championships said:

The entire first half the lineups were head scratchers. We had Banks and Walker in at the same time??? What are we doing? And the over helping has to stop! It took Penn State hitting 19 3’s last year to figure that out. Stick with shooters you have a 7’2 guy to block shots and help at the rim. Just ridiculous poor at times on defense. 

absolutely can't have walker and banks in at the same time

[IUCrazy2]

I think we need to go small the first few games.  The guys that led the comeback and then put the game away would be my starting five to get the next game started.

I know that means putting the stud 5* on the bench to start but most of these teams we are playing are three guard, drive and dish for three type teams and having 3 bigs scrambling all over the place to try and cover that puts us at a disadvantage.