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What will it take for IU to make the Top 25


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36 minutes ago, BGleas said:

The team also lacks upperclassmen leadership, and while TJD, Phinisee and Franklin seem like good future leaders, it's tough when your two captains are wildly inconsistent and your senior big can't play 30-seconds without committing two fouls. 

I actually think it's a pretty big accomplishment what Archie is doing with this team, given what he has in the junior/senior class. No, I'm not trying to make this a Crean thing, but let's be real, Green, Durham, Davis and Smith aren't the strongest upperclassmen around in terms of leadership, consistency and overall skill compared to high level competition.

Exactly the place I'm at. 

The funny thing to me are the "Archie's in over his head" and "3 years and still this stuff" posters who, at least in the ND game thread, didn't make an appearance until IU got behind, and, for the most part, have suspiciously low posting numbers.

I'm no expert, but it's apparent to me that the guy can coach. He's playing the hand he was dealt pretty well if you ask me. 

It's just a few of our upper classmen need to learn there's sometimes a small difference between the Sportscenter Top 10 and the Not Top 10...

Just make the smart basketball play.

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7 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

Exactly the place I'm at. 

The funny thing to me are the "Archie's in over his head" and "3 years and still this stuff" posters who, at least in the ND game thread, didn't make an appearance until IU got behind, and, for the most part, have suspiciously low posting numbers.

I'm no expert, but it's apparent to me that the guy can coach. He's playing the hand he was dealt pretty well if you ask me. 

It's just a few of our upper classmen need to learn there's sometimes a small difference between the Sportscenter Top 10 and the Not Top 10...

Just make the smart basketball play.

I agree with pretty much your entire post, though I do have some comments on the bolded. I'm not so sure it's really about Sportscenter or trying to make big, home run plays. It's more just that those guys, outside of Smith in the right situation, aren't frontline guys on a contending team. I don't mean they're bad players, but IMO Green is a microwave guy off the bench on a really good team. He's the guy that if he's on you're winning by 20, but if he's not you're still good. He's not good enough to be the guy on a top tier college team that is counted on to be the teams leading scorer or at least leading guard/go-to guy. He just isn't. 

I think Durham is a guy that is a rotational guard/wing on a really good team. 7th or 8th man that is in the rotation, but not a starter on a Big Ten contending caliber team. 

Smith is obviously a talented guy and has natural athletic gifts that you can't teach. He's the one guy out of this group that does fit in on a talented team. I think the biggest thing for Smith is that he's playing out of position and that he isn't surrounded by enough talent. If Smith was playing the 4 and was surrounded by a bunch of guards/wings that could shoot, he would thrive in that slashing role and thrive in the paint. You put Smith in place of Troy Williams on the team that won the Big Ten Title Yogi's senior year, with all that talent and the shooters, and he would probably thrive big time. But, since he can't shoot and nobody else around him can reliably shoot, his strengths are minimized. 

Davis obviously has been decimated by injuries. 

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Just my opinion, but I think it's hard at this point to really classify, or pigeon hole several of the players, because we just haven't had a squad of starters, consistently, on the floor.

Each of Al, Green and Smith can thrive with a healthy, consistently playing starting point guard in Rob. None of them have had it all season.

Until the last couple of games Al has shown a consistently good, improved 3-point shot, but he's not a point guard. 

Green has continued to have exceptional 3-point shooting, but he's a combo guard and really isn't suited to making floor decisions. He can absolutely, imo, be a high scoring guard regularly, but he needs a consistent point guard. 

The Smith discussion is the one we've had all year. He's a 4 playing on the perimeter. That's OK, he can thrive in that role, and has at times, but again you need a floor general. We've run with a freshman point, with a lot of promise but still a frosh and learning the college game, and guys who aren't really point guards, and, off and on, a not 100% Rob. 

So qualifying their games based on this season's play to me has a limited basis at this point. 

To the college basketball Gods: Please let Rob be and stay 100%, for the freaking rest of the season. Please let us see our actual team, not just pieces of it. Amen.

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I'm still waiting for someone to put together a list of 25 teams that deserve to be ranked more than IU.   Whether we are playing like what a Top 25 team is supposed to look like or not., we do not have the number of losses and.or the bad losses that 15 or more of the Top 25 teams have.  This team is winning despite not playing it's best, and that is all that matters.

 

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19 minutes ago, BGleas said:

I agree with pretty much your entire post, though I do have some comments on the bolded. I'm not so sure it's really about Sportscenter or trying to make big, home run plays. It's more just that those guys, outside of Smith in the right situation, aren't frontline guys on a contending team. I don't mean they're bad players, but IMO Green is a microwave guy off the bench on a really good team. He's the guy that if he's on you're winning by 20, but if he's not you're still good. He's not good enough to be the guy on a top tier college team that is counted on to be the teams leading scorer or at least leading guard/go-to guy. He just isn't. 

I think Durham is a guy that is a rotational guard/wing on a really good team. 7th or 8th man that is in the rotation, but not a starter on a Big Ten contending caliber team. 

Smith is obviously a talented guy and has natural athletic gifts that you can't teach. He's the one guy out of this group that does fit in on a talented team. I think the biggest thing for Smith is that he's playing out of position and that he isn't surrounded by enough talent. If Smith was playing the 4 and was surrounded by a bunch of guards/wings that could shoot, he would thrive in that slashing role and thrive in the paint. You put Smith in place of Troy Williams on the team that won the Big Ten Title Yogi's senior year, with all that talent and the shooters, and he would probably thrive big time. But, since he can't shoot and nobody else around him can reliably shoot, his strengths are minimized. 

Davis obviously has been decimated by injuries. 

Nail, meet hammer.  I think this has been IU's main issue for a long time.  We have relied on players to be "the guy", when they are best suited to be a role player.  Growing up watching the Lakers and Celtics in the 80s, they had those role players like Ainge, Rambis, A.C. Green, Kite, etc.  They all would have been a foot note in NBA history had they been on the Clippers or Nets. We have also had some great players who have not had the role players around them to really make noise.  I think CAM will eventually build a roster that is balanced and has players fitting into roles that they can thrive in.  Green is super talented but will not be the main man leading us to a good to great season. I enjoy your posts, btw.  

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25 minutes ago, Hoosierhoopster said:

Just my opinion, but I think it's hard at this point to really classify, or pigeon hole several of the players, because we just haven't had a squad of starters, consistently, on the floor.

Each of Al, Green and Smith can thrive with a healthy, consistently playing starting point guard in Rob. None of them have had it all season.

Until the last couple of games Al has shown a consistently good, improved 3-point shot, but he's not a point guard. 

Green has continued to have exceptional 3-point shooting, but he's a combo guard and really isn't suited to making floor decisions. He can absolutely, imo, be a high scoring guard regularly, but he needs a consistent point guard. 

The Smith discussion is the one we've had all year. He's a 4 playing on the perimeter. That's OK, he can thrive in that role, and has at times, but again you need a floor general. We've run with a freshman point, with a lot of promise but still a frosh and learning the college game, and guys who aren't really point guards, and, off and on, a not 100% Rob. 

So qualifying their games based on this season's play to me has a limited basis at this point. 

To the college basketball Gods: Please let Rob be and stay 100%, for the freaking rest of the season. Please let us see our actual team, not just pieces of it. Amen.

You know I agree with you on Phinisee. A 100% healthy and in-shape Phinisee changes a lot for this team. 

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2 hours ago, 5fouls said:

I'm still waiting for someone to put together a list of 25 teams that deserve to be ranked more than IU.   Whether we are playing like what a Top 25 team is supposed to look like or not., we do not have the number of losses and.or the bad losses that 15 or more of the Top 25 teams have.  This team is winning despite not playing it's best, and that is all that matters.

 

Good point.  Perception may not always be true, and there are biases.  IU used to get the benefit of the doubt.  I remember Knight having a team ranked fifth or something and they ended up not being very good.  He knew it and that their ranking was bogus.  It may have been the chair toss year.  But, Knight was quoted as telling his assistants "wouldn't it be nice if we really had the fifth best team."

The point being that reputation carries alot of this.  Rankings have some value but in basketball it's decided on the floor anyway.  

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4 hours ago, 5fouls said:

I'm still waiting for someone to put together a list of 25 teams that deserve to be ranked more than IU.   Whether we are playing like what a Top 25 team is supposed to look like or not., we do not have the number of losses and.or the bad losses that 15 or more of the Top 25 teams have.  This team is winning despite not playing it's best, and that is all that matters.

 

Well the coaches who vote don’t think much of IU. We are 37th and even behind Purdue which is absolutely comical. 

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4 hours ago, BGleas said:

I do have some comments on the bolded. I'm not so sure it's really about Sportscenter or trying to make big, home run plays.

Normally I would agree, but I've seen too many one handed passes or headlong charges to the basket that a lot of the time fail, but occasionally turn into a spectacular play. That's just the kind of player Devonte is. He can be exciting as hell, but he can also get you beat.

I am a bit of a hypocrite on the flashy plays though, I'll admit. My best IU basketball memories are of George McGinnis plucking a one handed rebound and heading down court with a full head of steam only to deliver s behind-the-back pass to a teammate for a layup. It was something to see. The really special ones seem to always be able to execute those plays.

I do agree with your assessment on how both he and Al would be optimally used. And your comment about Archie and how he's handled this team. Spot on, in my estimation.

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On 12/23/2019 at 2:26 PM, 5fouls said:

I'm still waiting for someone to put together a list of 25 teams that deserve to be ranked more than IU.   Whether we are playing like what a Top 25 team is supposed to look like or not., we do not have the number of losses and.or the bad losses that 15 or more of the Top 25 teams have.  This team is winning despite not playing it's best, and that is all that matters.

 

The problem I have with the top25 is that it’s hard to crack the top 25 if you start way outside and almost as hard to fall out of you have a blue bloods name

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On 12/23/2019 at 9:00 AM, BGleas said:

I think the things holding IU back, in terms of being ranked, are 1) the soft early schedule, which is more a narrative at this point than actual reality, 2) the bad (in terms of point differential) loss in our only road game to this point, and 3) just squeaking by some teams that you’d expect a ranked team to beat in an easier fashion (especially Nebraska at home). 

For the long term (making the tournament) a win is a win, you take them any way you can, but in terms of getting ranked and the national perception of this team, the issues are that while we’ve beaten UConn, Nebraska and ND, those are teams that if you’re a rising team that’s gelling, etc., you’d expect to win at least 1-2 of those going away, instead of in nail biter fashion. 

Ask the #1 Teams in the Nation if they would like to WIN those nail biters you speak of?  I’m not saying this IU team deserves any recognition but looking at the current top 25 are they really that far off??  Did you think Virginia played sexy during their run?  I said it many times & I’ll say it again, this IU team can lose to anybody while beating anybody with both games coming down to one possession!  It’s who we are!!!

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37 minutes ago, IowaHoosierFan said:

The problem I have with the top25 is that it’s hard to crack the top 25 if you start way outside and almost as hard to fall out of you have a blue bloods name

It’s also as hard to fall in even with a Blue Bloods name these days!  Let’s face it CAM hasn’t made the tournament since being hired but you gonna tell me Dayton is top 15?  We must prove the naysayers wrong convincingly to be back in the National conversation!  It starts with Ark @ HOME!                       

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