mdn82

Finally…  Stan has been the most deserving starter outside of Noah since conference started.  

  Who is that?  

I think it hurts.  As of now, there are only 5 teams over .500.  OSU is going to make the tournament.  I don't see them finishing under .500 though.  I think the B1G gets 6 this year.  MSU, UM, OSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the 6th is up for grabs.  IU's next 8 games are perfectly winnable.  They have to take at least 6 to have any chance, IMO.  Unless we beat OSU or Iowa, and then get to at least 19, we aren't making the tournament.  If we win 6 of the next 8, we can get to 19.  I think we still must win one in the tournament, but we have a shot.  Looking at the other conferences, they are as top heavy as we are for the most part.  I am sure that is overly optimistic, but teams make runs out of nowhere all of the time.  

  Yes there were those reports.  I also think it was a great opportunity, but couldn't have come at a worse time for IU.  From those reports, I wasn't worried about this team and shooting.  I thought it would allow the Freshman to slash.  I really think Will is just one of those players who has trouble creating when he is a primary option and defenses zero in on him.  I think he has to be a 4th or 5th option like last year.  This year when he is on the court he is at worst 2 or 3.  Yogi better be one hell of a leader this summer if we are to be anything next year.  

  IMO, it goes beyond that.  I think this team had a crappy summer.  You can just tell Crean is not comfortable with anything on the court right now.  For as crazy as his sub patterns are, we haven't seen anything like this year.  He has been here a while now.  I can't recall a time he was trying to prove points in late January.  To me, that looks like we did not have a good summer.  Really wonder how much Yogi and Will being gone hurt the team.  Nobody beyond those two are really leaders.  I think they had to go, but Crean is really limited on contact hours in the summer.  Team leaders are the ones accountable in the summer.  I sure as hell hope everyone is here this summer.  

  Agree.  I think the whole Crean thing is what it is at this point.  It isn't like this debate started recently.  It has been going strong for at least 4 years for many familiar faces.  My thing where I have concern is recruiting and the construction of the team.  We know what he is as a coach.  I don't think that is going to change.  I think as a recruiter he is pretty damn good.  The construction of this team just isn't where it needed to be before the season began.  There is nothing he could have done for Luke.  There have been plenty of posts pointing to the fact we were one big short before Luke left.  I agree with that.  We have projects, but at some point we need to have basketball players.  My biggest beef with how this team was constructed was with the shooters.  Austin is an ok shooter, but he isn't going to score at a high level at college.  The only other player considered a shooter was Colin, and he isn't going to play a lot as a Frosh.  We knew that going in.  I honestly think our best shooter is Noah Vonleh.  Its like he spent so much time trying to find the next Vic, that he forgot he still needs a Jordy to open up the middle.  Again, coaching is not the issue with me.  I know what he is.  I think he is a good enough recruiter to overcome that.  He cannot fail there.  IMO

Well.  Crean is the coach who pulled us out of the situation we were in.  From here it comes down to if the Administration feels he is the man who can take us to the next level.  He was good enough to get us out of the bottomless pit.  Is he good enough to do something IU hasn't done in almost 30 years?  If they feel he is, he will have a longer leash.  Honestly, I feel like at this point he is a nicer, better spoken Mike Davis.  Mike Davis almost won us a title.  Davis wouldn't have been looked on so harshly had he not followed RMK.  I think Crean has the ability to win a title, but a lot has to click for him to do that like a Calipari.  Funny, we always see people trashing the loss to Syracuse like they were the worst team in the NCAA with the worst coach.  Yeah they run the 2-3.  Have for most of Boeheim's tenure.  He is a hall of fame coach running a defense that "easy to beat".  Really wish people would pay attention to the detail within that defense.  There is a reason he has one of the top defenses year after year.  

Yeah, I feel bad he got hurt, but this is idiotic.  I am sure that fan base will talk that up to make him seem like a great team guy wanting to win.  I look at that as doing something stupid that has no upside, and will only end bad.  You either set a bad example or get hurt.  He did both.  No wonder Izzo looks like he is going nuts this year dealing with that crap.  

We are behind where I thought we would be.  One thing Tom Crean's teams have always been able to do is shoot.  This team can't shoot.  I thought Yogi would lead the team in scoring.  Again, I never expected he would have to do what he is doing to get there.  Very disappointed he is taking his best asset out of the game.  Stan is better than I expected.  Noah is in line with what I thought based on scouts.  Disappointed in Will.  Just think he is the type of player that needs better players around him to get his.  I just get the feeling based on where we are in the season and CTC has to still "prove points" the summer was not good.  For the first time since the year before Vic and Will got here, a CTC coached team had a bad summer.  The proof is in the shooting.  That is the most concerning to me.  Crean coached teams will not win during the season due to coaching.  I am not saying he is the worst coach.  I am just saying he is not the best.  For him to win at a high level, his players have to make plays at a high level.  We aren't out-coaching the top coaches.  This is done in the summer.  That "culture" was supposedly made a few years back.  If I were Crean, I would be most worried about that.  

A loss is a loss, but it sure felt different from Saturday.  No?  Our defense was pretty solid for the first 30 minutes.  The intensity was there from the tip.  Believe it or not, we actually were leading at the half.  Offensively, we really have no identity unless we are driving to the rim.  This game was no different.  When the Spartans made the adjustment and packed the paint, this one was academic.     As a team we turned the ball over too much to have a chance.  18 turnovers is not the way to beat MSU.  They had 14 assists to 14 turnovers.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out.  As a team we struggle to shoot the ball.  Yogi has spent too much time studying the Bracey Wright book, "My Way to 20" this year.  Once we got away from going to the inside, we are the easiest team in America to guard.  It wasn't even just Noah.  We put Jeremy, Devin, Yogi, and the list goes on in the paint.  Then, we would let the slashers find the seam.  We got away from that in the 2nd half.  I really thought the life of the team went away with about 12 minutes left when Jeremy went to the bench.     Individually, Noah was his usual beast self.  He had 13 and 13 in this one.  He should have had 25 and 15 in a game like this.  That is a group and coaching fault there.  MSU had nothing for him.  Yogi had 19, but it took quantity to get there.  I really liked the minutes Troy and Jeremy had tonight.  For as much flack as they get around here, they each put up points (9 and 8), while playing solid D.  Stan just reminds me of a more refined version of Vic when Vic got here.  He is just everywhere.  I can't wait to see what that kid becomes.     In the end, this is Indiana.  This fan base knows what we have at this point.  We have a 12-7 team who is 2-4 in conference.  That will not get it done.  At some point, the kids and staff will feel the pressure of IU fans expecting to be beyond this point in the program.  In all honesty though, if this team can learn how to bring what they brought for the first 30 consistently, they will be fine.  Starting with Illinois we just need to win.  

68-65 IU

There were two things that aggravated me in the second half.  With about 12 minutes to go, Crean pulled Jeremy who you could tell was the life of the team at that point.  That is when their run started.  A few people even said that during the game thread when we were still leading.  The other thing that bothered me was we got away from running the one play we continually ran they weren't stopping in the first half.  We rotated players in and out of the post, it wasn't just Noah in the first half.  Then that player would kick it to the perimeter, and they would run their weave around a high screen until one player had a lane.  Yes, I know we missed 14 layups in the second half, but most were very contested.  It wasn't like we were missing bunnies.  That play we ran in the first half got us to the line play after play if we didn't hit a free throw.  MSU did start to take Noah away by running a weak side player into him so he couldn't get a quick pass in the post.  Izzo is smart enough to realize when it isn't there quick, we reverse.  That small chip in the paint won them the game, IMO.  If we were more patient getting it to Noah, and letting him make the play, I think we win.  

In all honesty, I bet if he goes to a different school he is in the NBA.  When he came out of The Colony, he was special.  Davis let him do whatever he wanted and made him believe 25 shots was the only way.  He had a nice shot, but what it took to get his shot off was terrible.  We could have had 4 players sitting at the rim and 5 defenders on him, and he still would have shot.  

Here comes the 4 point play.  

  You would have loved that offense more than this.  Yes, I am being sarcastic.  

Lol, that is what I was thinking.  

Have to steal the inbounds.  We lost, but proud of how they came out today.  Doesn't change the fact we are 2-4 in B1G play though.  

Wow, you are that young aren't you?  

The one player we didn't want to get the ball.  

  He really can't at this point.  Only chance.  We will need to hit 2 more 3s.  

Appling is hurt and has been terrible from the line tonight.  I like we are fouling him. 

We will need to hit 2 3s to go to OT.  Can we do it?  

At least we know who to foul.  

My God.  Where was this fight against Northwestern.  We will lose today, but that loss still hurts.  

Young kids on the road, who don't have leadership on the court.  Nothing to go to when a team is running on us.  Difference between being a good team, and a NIT team.