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No team with Trayce Jackson Davis can be called a complete dumpster fire

Losing sucks. That was a tough loss. No moral victories. That said, we lost by 4 to the #2 team in the country without our starting PG and while battling a bunch of foul trouble. Couple more FTs go down, convert a few of the transition opportunities we missed, and we win this one. Cupps looked great, his development during this time without XJ will make a big difference on our ability in B10 play. Career day for Trey. Mack continues to improve. Ware and Reneau - generally high floors, but your two best players need to be better during key moments. I thought the sub patterns generally were a lot better. I dont ever want to blame the stripes but a few times we got really screwed today. I hate that we lost. The SSAH crowd is like none other, truly fueled the team throughout the game. Hard not to like a lot of what you saw in a game where we legitimately led for 35 minutes against the #2 team in the country. No, we did not help ourselves in the non-conf and need to finish top 4/5 in the B10 to make the tournament now. At the same time, do I feel a lot better about our ability to do that after today's game? Yes, for the most part. Yes, we have a long way to go as a program still and we're not a perfect team/roster. Still... it can be a very good year. We've got to be better and be able to close games out, but this team has shown a lot of ability. I really hope XJ does return and can be healthy this year. If I were going to pick any single thing about today to gripe about, it's more of a question... why do we seemingly only leave it all out on the floor/fight hard in front of the home crowd? We are tough as hell to beat at home. But our neutral site games were ugly. I'm P.O.'d about today's outcome but I'm not going to say a loss on December 16 kills this season at all. That's.... misinformed.

Man, some of you.................................................... We get it. We get it.

I’m results driven. I like Woodson. Pretty much everything about him (sans sub patterns). But our results so far have just barely scraped the bottom of expectations that our fans and administration want. Year 1. Barely make tournament. Blown out in round of 64. Year 2. Title hopes internally. Not a bad season overall. Round of 32. Year 3. Don’t sniff the preseason top 25. Results so far have been predictable and worse. Currently trending as a very fringe NCAA team. Will likely need a top 5 B1G finish to even make the dance. Lots of time left but if things continue as projected…….l Year 4. 1 very good recruit. 2 of 3 our most impactful players don’t project to be back. Building block guys don’t look like stars. We didn’t create a super team in the portal last Spring, why would we this Spring? I’d say it’s fair to be anywhere on the spectrum from very worried —-mildly content. Portal season always gives a program hope but it comes down to results and results haven’t been too kind to us. And what is changing to get us to that next level? To be determined, I guess. Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners

What a fantastic day of basketball yesterday. I know some couldn’t enjoy it because of the early loss IU had but great day of hoops. Watched the old fashion way yesterday with a bunch of friends over to overdose on basketball so didn’t get to post much. Nothing better then great games on all day

" Woke up Fell out of bed Read the words posted on this thread."

Some of these takes are either revisionist or false. pretty much everyone wanted IU to bring in another guard. nobody has said that woody has done an A+ job. There is no award for ‘poster who is angriest’.

Sampson was the only serious coaching hire we have made since Knight. None of the other hires were the moves of a serious program.

Wedig is in the boat. Good job Bob!

I see he went away from the typical IU football choice of kissing hands and shaking babies.

I guess I may never get to the point of iu losing at assembly hall and finding positives. I remember when we went into a big game like that and expected to win and it was devastating not to. I am not attacking or blaming the positive posts in this thread! I like reading them and enjoy the point of view. It does show me how far we have fallen and how far we have to go. If purdue loses to Zona I don't think many of their fans will try to find positives in the game. That's the difference of where our programs are and it is devastating to me. When you get to a certain level winning becomes the expectation and we need to get there. I believe we are farther from that than many fans think. Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

I said last week ESPN is an agenda driven network and has been for eternity. But now that the B1G is their enemy they will stop at nothing to disparage them. It’s disgusting. Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners mobile app

I guess I'm old too, then. I remember watching the Van Arsdales, Jimmy Ray and Jon McGlocklin with my dad on a little b/w tv...

Similar to the Boogie Fland recruitment. Staff was very high on Boogie but he didn't play particularly well in front of Woody and was put on the backburner. Clearly that subsequently changed and we battled to the wire for Boogie but lost. Woody watched Davis on Dec. 8, and he didn't have a bad game -- 20p; 8r; 2a; 4s; 0b; 1t 6-18 FG; 4-9 on 3s; 4-6 FT From what I read elsewhere seemed expectations were that Davis would be offered once Woody saw him play in person. That offer did not take place and I've not seen anything that offers any explanation other than Woody's playing a chess game with his guard recruitment. Sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush but what do I know?

Here’s a problem for Woodson too. We have a roster where there’s no help on the way really for what we are missing. He needs to keep the guys we have and land a solid contributor in the transfer portal. Our best guard is gone after this year and we have two guys clearly staring down the NBA although their play against good teams might indicate they aren’t ready. That doesn’t mean they are staying. He either needs to keep everybody and get one stud. Or get up to 3-4 studs in the portal. That’s not realistic given his track record. Currently we look to be a worse team in year 4. Peaking in year 2 is not a recipe for success

Exactly it’s year 3. This is Woodsons team if he didn’t want a player he’s had more than enough time to replace them

And Woodson chose to leave a scholarship open, so we can’t blame the other Miller player for taking up a scholarship. Woodson built this roster, flaws and all.

The fans aren't the ones that are supposed to have the answers. The fans aren't the ones that are supposed to identify and fix problems. It's the staff that is suppose to. They shouldn't need a magic want to put together something that at least resembles a modern roster in year 3.

“I read the board today, oh boy And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh I saw the photograph” Not saying we would have won. It just is what it is……

Playoffs?

Wished I was alive in the 80’s, my time with with IU has been watching the 2002 run when I was like 7 and so on. Would be nice to see IU elite again

Kind of funny, I was just thinking of UNC the other day. Smith and Knight departed at similar times. Since then we’ve had 5 coaches, including Woody, and they’ve had 4. Three titles for them. Zero for us. The by and large difference is they didn’t dwell on their mediocre coaches and moved on quickly. We extended ours and prolonged our misery. IU doesn’t have a problem firing coaches too quickly. We have the opposite problem. It’s a cutthroat business and our administration is usually making friendship bracelets.

Yeah, this. We’re not a disaster like we were under Archie. But he’s not knocking it out of the park either. People will say we’re just being negative, but it’s true. It’s year 3 and we’re looking like a fringe tournament team. Three point shooting is non-existent. Weaknesses haven’t been addressed in the portal. In-game coaching is still shaky.

Wasn’t one of the guards we went after sitting on the KU bench. Justin’s little “brother.”

We should care because we should quit acting like Woody is doing an A+ job. When he's sitting at a steady C or C-.

100% to your last point. He is not capable of that much responsibility at once. I think he’ll have no problem keeping them on the same level that Diaz had them on.

I’m guessing Coach Cig is done at the RB position. Ellison Howland and then Henderson short down/goal line back.

The 50’s are the new 30’s, right?

I’d argue we weren’t “complaining” Gunn, Leal, Geronimo aren’t good enough I’d say we were justifiably pointing out that they weren’t good enough. I’m still on the fence with Gunn because he has the intangibles but then on the court it doesn’t seem to work. Geronimo was similar. Gunn came in yesterday, missed a front end then took an I’ll advised jumper and missed it. Got yanked. He plays with ultimate confidence but the shooting has never matched. There are examples of 3 stars and less that become incredible players all across the country every year, it just seems rare to find them on Indianas roster. I kinda like this kid, but I think we need an alpha ready to roll at either PG or SG next year and Davis would be a developmental piece at IU. So, it makes things tough. Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners mobile app

Halftime quote from Davis during a OTE game I’m watching that they’re winning pretty comfortably: “We didn’t play with a lot of energy. We’ve got to fix the energy and play defense. Everybody wanting’ the ball and that ain’t gonna help us win.” Calling out his team at halftime of a game they’re winning by 13. Love it.

Found my way downstairs and drank a cup and looking up, I noticed all the hate :)

It can't possibly get any worse? Get a grip man. I'm saying that as someone who likes the idea of Dusty in another 2-3 years.

That’s Rich. All you keyboard coaches and ADs — complain like Karens but have no actual answers.

Who is paid millions to identify and fix the problems? Last I checked, not anonymous posters on a message board.

We won the B1G (more than once) including beating that UM team at UM. We lost in the SW16 that time (and again more than once) bc CTC couldn’t deal with Zone and Hulls was trying to play with a bad shoulder. Here’s where I am - it’s just silly to live in some revisionist history saying things like we haven’t had a great team in 25 years. Get a grip on reality. We’ve had several (whatever your definition of great is, it doesn’t require you make a FF, it’s March Madness, that doesn’t measure your team). We haven’t had a great coach since Sampson. That’s actually accurate and it’s why we haven’t hit the level of post season success we want. I am on the fence whether Woodson can get us back, I don’t like the 3 point failures on both sides of the ball, but there’s a lot I do like.

There's ?'s but I think 7-0 is possible if I'm being naively optimistic. I'll say this is as good of a schedule as CCC could hope for to try and build momentum. Gotta go out and get things done though of course. Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

The tournament isn't for another 3 months. They beat two eventual Final Four teams in November 2 years ago.

And to make it worse, ref comes out and points Indiana ball, crowd goes wild, ref realizes he pointed the wrong way and corrects himself. He could not have f'ed things up any worse!

Believe it or not. Year in and out we were a top 10 team but man it’s been a long time! I hate to say, we aren’t an elite program. Nobody is fearing playing IU any more.

I’m not ignoring them, just recognizing the fact that one team in a couple decade doesn’t make a great program. Mediocre programs can accomplish that. Purdue, Illinois, Marquette, and a dozen or more other schools…have had similar teams or runs in that period. You need to be throwing out a team like that every 3-4 years, or more, to be a top program. We’re haven’t been that for thirty years.

JHS enters the chat.

Coal and switches Josh. Coal and switches for you.

Definitely self inflicted. But set the program back decades. Which may have been the idea with the boobs we had running things at the time.

Probably would’ve had a title or two by now too

Mallory with a "modest" 44p; 7r; 3a; 4s game in a 97-76 win over Maret.

Although he’s not a stud guard, I actually think Walker has really done pretty well the last few games off the bench.

Man... That 12-13 team, Zellers Sophomore year, would be the #1 team in the country this year... Sigh.. they'd easily be Top 5 every season since.

My from-the-stands reaction from today: There were a handful of old players at the game and at dead balls would get put on the video board for their round of applause. Started with Watford, then Elston, Race, maybe one other. All of course got really good reactions. Then they put up Phinisee and I kid you not I think he got a bigger ovation than all of them. It was really cool to see him get his love.

I know it’s a message board and negative opinions are part of the territory, but now that I’m jumping in this thread, some of the hot take negativity is mind-boggling. Today we saw the potential of this team, and saw it earlier than I hoped for. Cupps was excellent again. Extremely mature against a top 5 pg nationally in only his tenth game. As the game slows down for him his offense will come; certainly during his time at IU. Gallo is a worker. So when his shot broke he got to work and fixed it. Mgbako continues to trend better defensively and that matters a ton. Ware an Malik are a load…with tournament game winning talent. The two backup bigs are active and athletic. The third guard for March? We need X back 100%. Cupps is a good, low risk third guard. Before I submit this post, I want add that I am NOT interested in moral victories, and this is not a ‘moral victory post’ Instead? It’s an assessment of the team’s potential, which is so, so much higher than last year. We can be the 8 seed that no one wants to face.