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Because I refuse to have Matt Haarms looking at me every time I open this app. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners mobile app

Not here to do anything but point things out : 1) Indiana played less than 5 games this season with every available player healthy. If it wasn't Thompson, it was Davis. If it wasn't Davis it was Green. If it wasn't Green it was Phinisee (and I don't think he was really "back" for a few weeks). If it wasn't Phinisee it was McRoberts. Then it was Langford. And Thompson again. And Morgan for a short time 2) Morgan - as good as he was, played out of position for 2 years. Since we had trouble shooting for whatever reason, he got doubled a lot and couldn't be as effective. That's just a sad truth. Davis was not yet mobile enough (and may never be) to allow Morgan to play the 4 and have a consistent post partner. 3) Romeo's agenda hurt. He was very clearly not on the same page with the others; and I will submit a terribly disappointing player, despite scoring 16.5. (And I don't buy that he was out with a bad back for one second) 4) Because Davis was limited, we had very little depth in the front court, and were forced to play Fitzner in spots he just wasn't used to because Moore is Godawful and Forrester just wasn't ready yet. 5) Durham, a sophomore was our only high-minutes player who was healthy all season, and not only were we thin up front, we were equally so in the back court. 6) Not having Hunter hurt us. No if's, and's or but's. Especially so with the OTHER injuries and Anderson not being close to ready. (I sawe that guy stand around in high school, and it worried me. Reminded me a lot of how Jeremy Hollowell played. In a perfect world, he and Moore would transfer, and we'd add a couple of grad transfers or incoming freshmen. One big and a couple of shooters to replace the would-be 5 openings we'll have to add to Franklin and Jackson-Davis. 7) Sometimes...the pieces just don't fit. We had pieces that didn't fit, others that weren't ready to play; others who tried to do things they can't do, and it just didn't work. I truly believe Archie learned some things this season. It was subtle, but I saw growth in him and a couple of players, including Green, as much as he frustrated the holy hell out of me. I'm here to tell you....Frankin will help. Who knows what opportunity he'll get, but the last game I saw him play was against Lawrence North, who has at least 2 D1 kids, and he scored an easy 30. He did what Romeo does and he's a better shooter. Not THE shooter we need, but better; and he's very long and explosive. Jackson-Davis is also going to help. With those 2 and Hunter, I already think we gain more than we lose; and if we add other pieces, that gap widens. Plus another year of improvement and maturity for Green, Phinisee, Durham, Davis, and Thompson? And a 3rd year in a system with coaches who are more comfortable? I like our chances to be better. I also think adding multi-year players is a good thing and the new option for high school players will help Indiana. We can get better talent than Purdue. We simply need to so simple things like value the ball and rebound. Shooting will come...Archie HAS to prioritize that, and he knows. Lots of reasons this season was difficult, and I don't think they're excuses.

I'm just going to chime in on Joey Brunk. I feel like I'm in the minority in that I prefer we bolster the 5 before we target a shooter. The first reason for this is that I think the high volume of poor shooting is leaving this year. I made this point elsewhere, but it was the Morgan/Langford/McRoberts/Fitzner that really killed our 3pt shooting percentages. Those guys took a ton of our attempts, and each of the 4 was under our average. Which means this will literally be addition by subtraction as to the 3pt shooting (maybe not as to the overall efficacy of our offense). Take those 4 guys out, and our 3pt percentage would at least put us at average, ideally opening the lane up for our offense to run better. I might be wrong, but the 3pt shooting still feels like something that will get better. Next, Juwan had to play most of our minutes at the 5 this year. He was out of position, and still handled most of those minutes. Trayce will not be a better post defender than Juwan next year. No one else is coming in. No one else showed me they are ready to defend opposing 5s. And shoot, De'Ron is decently effective there, but he might be injury prone, and is usually foul-prone. Simply put, I do not feel comfortable going into next year with no one else coming in to help us guard the 5. I think we need two legitimate 5s on the roster. Playing a 6'8" center just doesn't cut it. Now let's look at the actual player, and the effect he can have on our offense. I spend a lot of time looking at the barttorvik.com PORAPGATU! stat. That is, Points Over Replacement Per Adjusted Game At That Usage. It's an attempt to gauge an individual player's value over other players. For the full explanation, go here: https://www.bigtengeeks.com/new-stat-porpagatu/ The short story here is that after Romeo and Juwan, Indiana's roster was not good. Many subpar players soaking up minutes, if what we want is success in the B1G and tourney. Here's just a quick look. Look at the PRPG! stat, 3rd column after names. Notice that the good teams are 4-6 players deep with good players: Duke Virginia MSU Michigan Purdue (this one was eye-opening) Even Iowa Now here we are. We have Romeo and Juwan, very good (although not elite). And then we have bench players when comparing to teams above. And so people say they think a shooter will fix things or whatever, but to me we just need elevated play 1-5. For what it's worth, I wonder what, schematically, Archie could do (or do better) to put guys in a better position to succeed. That's not what I'm going after here, and I'm trying to avoid it. Evan Fitzner was supposed to come in and bring a threat. Last year at St. Mary's his PRPG! was just a 1.1. He was not an impact player or transfer. He was down to 0.8 this year, for some reason unable to maintain his 40% 3pt shooting. We all saw the open looks that didn't go down, so I don't blame that on Archie. De'Ron, as much as we love him, is still just a 1.3 PRPG!. Joey Brunk this year at Butler was a 2.5 PRPG!. Not a star, but that's at least the level of play that can keep up with other rosters' role players. If he were to come, that would be higher than anyone we have returning. He buys us two years of very good depth at a position that is difficult to fill. I think he'd be a huge get.

Don't know why everybody is so high on Beard. Dude was head coach at UNLV and didn't win a game.

Good point for the 94th time.

I agree. Might be time to skip a season huh. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners mobile app

Crean got a 3 year pass from me. Archie will get the same. I’ve seen enough solid defense and missed wide open shots to know the system can work.

Any of you ever hear of shiny object syndrome? Not saying Beard won’t be great, but every year we find another coach to glorify and put on a pedestal. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

There was a nice 3 minute stretch in game where both teams played at a ridiculous rate. Just a fantastic game to watch. I love watching a kid get into a zone. That was fun Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

There are 2 things I hate in this world: People that are intolerant of other cultures and THE DUTCH

Just a friendly reminder that I’m not going to make any serious judgements until year four. Enjoy your wallowing! Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

Here is my take from what I hear Grad guys like Brunk or guys with a shot of not sitting out with more than a year left to simplify are gonna be higher priorities for Archie. I don't think he wants to open up to many rides for the '20 class. He's bound to have a guy maybe more leave as is & there just isn't enough to fill major holes with the guys we're in on. I have heard Brunk is a high priority for the staff & one that IU has a shot with. Lewis I'm not so sure. Other than that there just really isn't much movement. Player meetings are supposed to start Sunday-Tuesday timeframe & I'm gonna guess mid to end of the week next week we should hear about rumblings or maybe even official news of guys leaving. I don't expect 3 like some say, but I have heard to expect at least 1 maybe 2.

It’s way too early to give up on race and Jake

We have legit shot here

Only in Indiana!

I think keyboard warriors are getting way out ahead of them selves on Archie. No one is denying the serious flaws, but I think some aren’t seeing the potential. He’s a young coach, we a promising background, and it takes time to learn and build a sustainable program. There’s no way around it. Go ahead, point out the anomalies like Beard and I guess maybe Holtman. But they are anomalies. Too many coaches have backed Archie’s talent, including the vaunted Bob Knight, for the keyboard firing squad to make the call after two seasons. There’s potential there - give it time to grow. We really have nothing left to lose at this point. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

I didn’t miss the point it’s just silly. You can’t use 4 roster spots hoping a 3 star is going to be a Victor Oladipo. It’s poor roster construction. Continually Having guys on your bench who will never contribute doesn’t work unless your are doing what Kentucky and Duke do.

Wait wait wait. I got this. Alaska: "Top 30, fools! I wrecked you hard! I rule, you suck! Suck it Lower 48ers!"

[emoji23] Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners mobile app

I find this obsession with bashing the former coach as a way to avoid addressing problems with the current program ridiculous. Tom Crean is not the reason IU lost 11 out of 12 games this year. Crean is not the reason IU lost to Ohio State in the Big 10 Tournament thereby losing a chance to make the NCAA Tournament. I know some people on this board really hated the guy and apparently still do. I'm glad he's no longer the coach, too. But he is not to blame for this year's disappointing season.

Chris Beard’s one year at Little Rock is another example of him being amazing. Here are Little Rock’s KenPom rankings before, with, and after Chris Beard: 2013: 220th 2014: 219th 2015: 235th CHRIS BEARD: 56th 2017: 245th 2018: 296th 2019: 225th Gary Parrish That’s awesome Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

I think we all were fine at the time when he was brought in. He was supposed to help fill a need.....you don't shoot 40% from three for three straight seasons by accident. And while his shooting percentage could have been expected to fall a little bit, the drop he had surely wasn't. By the end of the year, teams were giving him that And he had played in two NCAA games and five NIT games coming in....that kind of experience should have been helpful. I guess I don't get the criticism in hindsight. I don't recall much criticism when he committed. It was a free scholarship for one year going to a guy who was supposed to fit a role. It didn't work out, but I don't think we were predicting what we got.

Yay, we're getting Billy Donovan!

Wouldn’t pushing them out have affected our APR? Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners mobile app

He inherited a team that had lost its best 3 players after losing in the NIT. Then in year 1 he didn't get a chance to bring in his own players and had a missing class. In year 2 he brought in a good class that ended up being crushed by injuries with Thompson, Hunter, and Rob missing significant time. So he inherited a bad team and didn't have a chance to upgrade the talent in year one. A reasonable expectation would have been for that team to be worse than the team the year before. He upgraded the talent in this recruiting class, but between injuries and the fact that freshmen generally aren't counted on to be impact players, they didn't turn the team around. Also not that surprising... Don't get me wrong, I think this year should have gone better. But it's not like Archie is working with a veteran roster that he's had a chance to mold. His veterans are largely middling, and the young guys lack experience Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk