Stuhoo

They have two freshmen starting and playing back to backs, Page is a terrible matchup for us and is still out, and PSU made Martinelli work hard tonight (and boy does he ever work hard). More importantly, the IU team leaders have cited the prior NW game as the one single game they wish they could do over. Well here’s their chance; for all of those reasons I like our chances tomorrow quite a bit.

I’m not into “excuses” why this year didn’t go especially well; I’m interested in reasons. The primary reason I can identify is that Devries miscalculated what a winning B1G roster looks like. And believe it or not, even though that’s on Devries, I’m hoping that’s the reason, because unlike crappy player development and coaching, that can be fixed.

FWIW, Brian Evans, who tends to be very much an IU cynic on podcasts, says he personally knows Ryan Carr well and speaks to him regularly, and also says that Carr is absolutely excellent in pretty much every way that matters.

Losing to IU on a neutral site's effect on Purdue's tournament seeding:

And #18 would play out to a five seed. Seems like they'd be a four seed and hopefully would run into UF or Duke if they won their first two.

^^YES!^^ People treat new leaders as if they are some kind of ready-made savants. That is very rarely how it works. As I said yesterday: Bad leaders: Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and It's merely lip service to keep the barking dogs at bay. Good leaders: Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and Make appropriate changes to improve based on what they've learned. At IU we have the ultimate ready-made-savant new program leader, Curt Cignetti, as a vivid extreme outlier example. But Cignetti (and Dusty May) are not the norm. The norm when coaches succeed greatly are guys like Underwood, Golden, Hurley, or Gard; whom their fanbases pretty much hated early in their tenure. Of course, for every Golden or Underwood, there is an Archie Miller or Ben Johnson; guys that were meh early and never figured it out. So the primary takeaway? After one season a new program leader can learn and be fantastic, but it's far from a given that it will turn out that way. One would think that isn't a revelation, but human nature fosters impatience and early summary conclusions. I completely understand that, especially at IU where the all-time outlier thrives with an undefeated football national champion in year two, and a series of meh basketball coaches never did get it right.

Bad leaders: Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and It's merely lip service to keep the barking dogs at bay. Good leaders: Acknowledge when they make mistakes, and Make appropriate changes to improve based on what they've learned. Archie and Woody fell squarely into the first category; hopefully CDD will fall into the second category.

And the 2024 IU Football NIL budget was significantly less. My point is that money came only once winning happened. Rich people largely got that way by being smart and not investing in losing propositions. While it may not seem that way to less affluent folks, rich people do not have unlimited money to throw at two IU sports. And I assume that most will choose to throw their money at football until and unless basketball also begins to thrive. But not until it does.

I was more focused on offense, which has sucked for eight years. Better spacing, more movement, emphasis on open threes/inside out when available. But for an offense like that to succeed there needs to be a lengthy, physical big that rebounds long misses outside of his immediate space, and there needs to be a guard that can get in the lane and finish, thereby opening up kick out opportunities. When Enright penetrates no one leaves their man.

I can admit that because roster and staff acquisition was one of his primary initial tasks, and neither went especially well. i like the in-game stuff though.

Just saying... based on @Uspshoosier reminding us that IUBB has 4 above .500 conference finishes in the B1G in the past 18 years, a top half finish with a late-stage roster grab was a pretty lofty expectation. A better style of team play and future recruits with skills and character is where I agree with you. Generally I'm seeing that but time will tell. And yes; gotta go get that 22 year old point guard and some physical bigs for next year.

Your hope needs to include the caveat that you have reasonable expectations. For instance; our current incoming class of three kids all of whom are composite ranked from 51-80 should 100% exceed reasonable expectations. I'd be hard-pressed to find another mediocre program with that kind of incoming haul.

I'll play: Why should we be top 5 in basketball NIL, especially in light of our big money donors giving their attention and money to a proven-extraordinarily successful football team? And I don't want to hear about historical bball program success; that hasn't been true for many decades and for the last ten years not even remotely apparent. Big money invests in winners. Cig took a smaller budget and proved to big money that he was worth their investment. Big money that wants to invest in IU sports is giving a million and getting sideline access to football instead of courtside seats in basketball. Oh, that same donor should give to both football and basketball? Nope - gonna give almost all to football until basketball shows it is worth it. In summary, as mediocre as we've been for decades, it amazing that we may actually be top 20 in basketball NIL.

I'm reasonably sure that there is a roster building plan in place that will satisfy all but the most jaded. If I'm wrong? So be it. But the odds of a pretty strong roster build are very good.

Lose to NW/PSU and we are out. Beat NW/PSU and lose to Purdump and we are unlikely but possible as a play-in at 19-14. Win two BTT games and we are in, and probably not as a play-in team. 20 wins with an excellent strength of schedule and no bad losses is a tourney team this year, barring something truly crazy happening.

Northwestern is playing really well lately (for Northwestern). They've won three of their last five, with both losses by less than five points. Needless to say, we should beat them, but they are no cakewalk. Here's to hoping that their starters have to play 35+ minutes against PSU.

Exactly. Bring me Puredoo. This un-mightly yet proud band of Hoosiers shall destroy them!! (Or, I will continue to primarily be concerned with the upcoming college football season. Either way... it's cool).

Got it. Still holding my butt, but my head is now out. Anything else recommended?

Okay… holding my own butt. Waiting for next instructions.

Shhhhhh!! post quietly or you’ll wake Dorn

A quick two fouls on Royal

YOU WERE RIGHT! *so far

But we have no way of taking advantage of their defensive rebounding. Trying to kill any optimism rep I have lol. I really appreciate this transition-new era IU team, but not optimistic today.

A certain fanbase and their toothless CousinWives are NOT enjoying themselves. They have the Woodson/Tom Allen combo with cheez thing going: https://www.on3.com/boards/threads/gators-at-kentucky-game-thread.8717999/

Bynum and Tilly are big, physical, and do a ton of dirty work. For an undersized IU team that is a problem. Our guys truly focus on keeping opponents off of the offensive glass, but against some teams it’s physically really difficult. OSU will likely be one of those teams.