lillurk

Really interested to see where he lands. Early post-May hire, UM folks said it was M or FSU. Then Rooths tweets he’s 100% open. Probably bad news for M. I wonder if IU sniffed around before getting Tucker.

I think this was a classic “only takes one sucker” thing with the wizards. Not sure anyone else takes him lotto

Love his game. Feel pretty confident from the finalists and the publicly available info that a big rule is a priority and there’s nothing wrong with that — he’ll do great with a big role — but even just MM, MR, Trey back and a PG, it’s easy to start to see more competition for shots and PT

If I’m not mistaken the Michigan visit either hasn’t been scheduled or keeps getting pushed back. The mgoblog confidence level that he ends up there has diminished considerably in the last week or so.

Yeah no player is perfect, and I get the fit concerns w/Malik, but I think Ballo has the possibility of setting a really high floor for your team on defense and the boards almost by himself. IU hasn’t been as good as you’d hope in THOSE areas recently and not every player plugs every hole.

Agree, tend to think there may be more meat on the bone with Essegian than a Just A Shooter career. Torvik’s statistical comps for his Frosh year, using only other high-major freshmen are in the attachment. A serious # of pros, with some shot creation. Maybe he’s not super athletic but I don’t think he’s bad there: shot 61% at the rim and only about the same % were assisted, which is a pretty good proxy for being B1G-caliber athlete. If he can defend, and the sophomore slump was about injury and the Gard doghouse, I’d expect a nice bench microwave scorer for two years.

Feels a little like IU risked it last year for late portal movement — maybe Antonio Reeves? — and got bit. I like this approach better, get your work done and then ask for more cash late if you need more.

Gotta mean you put more $ in the Conwell kitty, right?

A lot of us have this with Painter, too, I believe. To me, yes, best case scenario in balancing those two feelings is 1) we win head-to-head, 2) ideally we’re better year-to-year (if not always, then at least much more often then post-2016), 3) they hilariously slip on a banana peel sometimes and 4) they don’t get titles. Unlike Painter, Pope probably can’t last forever at UK with a resume that has those blemishes.

Hootin, hollerin

Yeah, that’s what I meant and I’m sure @Feathery got that, I think we’re on the same page. Same’s true for 50%, since I didn’t go into decimals, maybe that’s rounded up from 49.5. And finally, there’s the sample size issue, in one season the difference for even a high volume shooter between 30% from 3 and 34% is maybe 6-10 makes.

While I agree with you that IU should’ve shot more 3s, should shoot more going forward, and that Woody’s public comments on this haven’t been helpful, his 2012-2013 Knicks led the league in 3s attempted: https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/NYK/2013.html He hasn’t adapted as the rest of the league has caught and passed that pace, though college is behind the NBA in this regard on average. Not defending last season at all. I wish he’d adapted earlier, been less stubborn, seen what we all saw last offseason. But my hunch is he is fine with good shooters shooting whenever they want (think of Mgbako, senior Kopp, Parker Stewart, even JHS, who’s closer to average shooting than these guys). Now, the scheme needs to focus on that too. But if IU has 3 or more guards who can drive and kick, play PNR well? There will be open looks.

Yes, great post, you’re not being a jerk! I will say: can’t pinpoint the episode but the Cleveland Cavs beat writer was on an episode of Zach Lowe’s podcast, The Lowe Post. He said something that stuck with me: The Cavs undertook a study within the last few years, basically a chicken/egg thing. They asked: does making 3s create offensive spacing, or does simply taking them create the threat and do so? And they found that spacing comes from 3pt volume, not accuracy.* So they signed Max Strus, and even though he shot 35% last year in Miami, and he’s about there this year, they’re pleased when he puts one up because it allows more room for Donovan Mitchell to drive, more room for their bigs to work inside, and so on. Put differently: yes, IU was a mediocre 3pt shooting team this year, but they probably still should’ve shot more, because trading a few forced 2s for some 3s opens things up, 3s provide more likely OReb opportunities, etc. *I would guess there’s a lower limit here. If Payton Sparks is hoisting every time he touches it from 30 feet in, that wouldn’t matter much.

Yes! Saw something similar earlier this year. Thanks for sharing. I don’t think CBB is quite caught up to the NBA in this regard yet.

I do actually buy this, and he’s still quite young (47, 4 ~years younger than Mark Pope, for example), that he could have a long career at his dad’s Alma mater. He’s proven to be quite a good executive, too. That’ll be great for navigating the new reality of college revenue sports. Trish is right, coaches get the itch to go back to the sidelines, especially someone so good at every part of the job. 1. get an NBA ring 2. kids age out of the nest 3. NCAA rules address some of the “Wild West” nature of the current landscape and maybe change the calendar to be less insane 4. IU needs a new leader… This gives me some peace about the long-term.

I tend to think UK could’ve done better (Underwood? Seems they could’ve waited for Donovan?) but if Pope doesn’t succeed or last there my hunch is the reason is more that he gives them 2012-2016 Crean-style results and they’re unsatisfied, and not that he flames out. The other thing I’ll say about Proven Winner (TM) stuff that comes up all the time…25 months ago Hurley hadn’t gotten anyone past R32. Oats hadn’t gotten anyone farther when he took the Bama job, and until this year had underperformed Bama’s seed every year. Drew’s got a title at Baylor, hard to poke a hole there…but before he broke through there were some serious flameouts. Pearl has an impressive resume with some serious tournament issues sprinkled in. Tournament success isn’t everything, since it’s single-elim. But that’s the problem with “Proven Winner (TM)” being the heuristic over every other thing you can do to evaluate a coach. You’d never hire these guys in the first place BEFORE their prime, and while it’s nice to, for example, get Pitino on the Louisville timeline, or Cal when Memphis or UK did, that same logic would’ve (did!) pick Archie over Hurley, for example.

I agree. I will say this one is so simple that anyone who took normal HS math should get it, not just 3>2 but 3*33%=2*50%

I kinda see the vision here but Sampson’s Houston guys are all legit tough SOBs on the court, and Gillis is a multi year first team all fake tough IMHO

Tristen Newton, all-American UConn guard, is 1) an East Carolina up transfer, who 2) coming into tonight has shot 31.9% on 3s this year. Now of course he plays with Cam Spencer (44%) and Alex Karaben (38%). But UConn’s other two starters, Castle and Clingan, are non-shooters (<30%). They have one of the top 5 Kenpom offenses of all time. Please, if we land a guard who isn’t Steph or Reggie or Ray Allen, don’t assume he can’t help IU win.

Agree here but I will say: he’s gotta make the easy pass out when he sees obvious doubles and triples. Now if more shooters or dynamic playmakers surround him, maybe he trusts the pass more

3s rock go trees

Love this, but the examples are not really from bands I hate or find terrible. Just, like, one good-or-great record and nothing else I like much. Bloc Party — Silent Alarm (debut, no bonus points) Phantom Planet — self-titled. 3rd album, weird for a s/t. Pretty cravenly tried and succeeded to jump on the Strokes-y garage rock revival. And then one by a band I like quite a bit, but they could’ve quit after their debut, it’s so sui generis and perfect: Sleigh Bells — Treats. Again, in this case I really like plenty of their other work, think the sophomore album in particular is quite good. But Treats was special.

If we thought the spacing was bad with Ware, just wait until we see it with a guy who’s shot 26 3s in four years. A shame if the plan would be to start him — he could probably match his MPG (or get close to it) in a bench role that mostly kept him with only one of MM or MR at a time.

Guys with 3 years of eligibility left who shoot well enough for you and have the other skills we’d want to see are lottery picks. IU definitely needs to shoot better but it also needs much better guard play overall. Lots of the good guards in the portal they’re in on have shooting skill but simply staring at the 3p% column may not show that in a helpful context. Not every player added this offseason is going to already have everything we’d want on paper.

He took 100 3s in 23 games, playing 25 minutes. 46% of his field goals were 3PA. It’s true that 32% is pedestrian in a vacuum, but please read this, to the point @btownqb and @RaceToTheTop are making: https://johngasaway.com/2019/11/01/one-shooting-forecast-for-tre-jones-and-his-statistical-cohorts/ The short version: frosh who shoot lots of 3s have the trust of their coaches and typically turn into good shooters. Tre Jones’ % increased by 10 points as a sophomore to 36%, and he’s currently shooting 35% from the longer NBA line. (He’s not the only example therein.)