JSHoosier

There's really no reason to lose to any of them.  (I still can't believe we lost to Nebraska...)

Pure guess on my part, but maybe McNeil since Strong left.

As am I, I just was passing along what he said when asked if he'd talk to other recruits.

He said about 5, and that some of them were committed to other schools so he wouldn't name names.

"I have other good recruits coming with me, some are committed to other schools".  Wouldn't name names, but said about 5.   Cool

"Good coaches".  He obviously never met with Doug Mallory.

It's IU

It will be a long year, because I have to watch this poorly coached team try and not get embarrassed in the Big Ten.  I have to watch an offense that doesn't move for the 6th year in a row, and a coach that refuses to make changes.  I have to watch street ball one on one garbage.  I have to watch a talented big man not get the ball, not be utilized for the 3rd year in a row.  I have to watch players make stupid decision after stupid decision after stupid decision and get rewarded with playing time they don't deserve because the coach won't hold anyone accountable despite talking about accountability in his politician speeches after games.   Youth is only part of the problem with this team.  Get your head out of the sand and stop buying into this fallacy that Tom Crean is infallible, that his Sweet 16 ring is some huge deal.  Or if you don't want to do that, there's a couple posters on another board that would love your posts because that's exactly what they believe.   Here's the thing.  Tom Crean took this job knowing what expectations are here.  The standards don't lower to make him look better, it is up to him to live up to those standards.   Here's an idea, if you want to quote my post, how about you actually contribute to the discussion instead of calling us whiners for not thinking the almighty Tom Crean isn't doing a very good job this year.

I don't see anyone here really saying he needs to be fired now.  Mainly it seems they're saying he's not doing a good job with this team, and they're seeing the trend of identical problems plaguing past teams.  Last years team, and the year before, had an offensive rating that had a lot to do with how good they were in the open court but in half court games they were still stagnant and struggled.  They still struggled with turnovers, including unforced.   Look at this year's team.  Undisciplined, sloppy, and sometimes downright lazy.  Those are not signs of a well coached team.  Sometimes a team just fails to execute, it happens, but that excuse is used A LOT by some fans.  If we're failing to execute that often, it's more often than a well coached team fails to execute.  Beyond that, this team hasn't even shown signs of improvement.  If anything it's shown signs of regression, which has to be alarming.  Now, not playing a bunch of high school teams anymore is part of that (wow, those confidence building games sure helped.  It's like the team didn't learn anything, hmmm) but we should still be able to do basic, fundamental basketball and we don't/can't.  This team does not have good fundamentals.   I think we all, or at least most of us, want Crean to be successful, but that doesn't mean we have to stick our head in the sand and pretend that everything is roses and rainbows when it clearly isn't.  This team has problems that plagued past teams, which suggests the problem wasn't those players but a common denominator.  Youth doesn't help, but it's not the only issue with this team.

Boo hoo, because I have expectations that are a lot higher than possibly not making the NIT.  Boo hoo, because I'm sick of a stagnant offense.  Boo hoo, because I'm sick of constant unforced turnovers.  Boo hoo, because I'm sick of the team not being able to utilize bigs.  Boo hoo, because I'm sick of the lip service politician speak from Crean after games.   You can't address the points, so you resort to saying we're whining.  Great for discussion.

"Fun to watch" doesn't win games though, but those problems can lose games.  As a matter of fact, stagnant offenses and turnovers have cost us games, see Wisconsin and Illinois.

We can't feed the post, we can't take care of the ball, our half court offense sucks because no one moves.  Why do those sound familiar?  Oh, right, because those exact same problems have plagued us every single year with Crean.  Different years, different rosters but identical problems with all of them.  Yeah, it sounds like the problem is the common denominator between the teams.     Maybe, just maybe, people are sick of it.  Maybe people are sick of the same problems plaguing the team every year.  Maybe people (I know I sure am) are sick of hearing Crean say "I need to do better" and then nothing changes, sick of him saying "the players aren't listening" when identical problems have plagued every team in his tenure.   There's a reason I don't post as much on the other board, I'm sick of the sunshine pumpers constantly lowering the bar just so they don't have to admit that this team isn't well coached.  So they don't have to admit that coaching is part of the problem this team has.  So they don't have to admit that the critics were right when they said his system doesn't move or utilize bigs.

If, if, if.  That's an awfully big word.  If my aunt had a sack she'd be my uncle.  'If' is meaningless.  Close doesn't count in basketball, we lost plain and simple.  It was how we lost, especially against UI.  23 friggin' turnovers should never be acceptable, period.  The only reason that game went into overtime, the only reason we didn't win with a comfortable margin, is because we turned it over every other time down the court.  Being close wasn't so much what the team is capable of, it was how awful we are right now.   We shouldn't be struggling this bad.  Bordering on not even making the NIT, THE NIT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, should be considered unacceptable even in a "down year".  Stop lowering the bar, stop making excuses.  This team is underachieving right now.  There is no reason to not even have a win against a Pomeroy top 100 team at this point in the season.

No one is pouting.  We're just saying that Crean isn't doing a good job this year, and really he's not.  This team isn't well coached, and it's painfully obvious during the games.  Just because certain posters on another board want to shout "Sweet 16" from the mountain tops and want people to believe that Crean is totally incapable of drawing up anything than a flawless gameplan doesn't mean it's not true.  We are undisciplined, sloppy, and at times flat out lazy those are not signs of a well coached team.  Those things cost us the game at Illinois and close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades, those things are the reason we are 0-2 in conference right now instead of 1-1, those things are the reason we don't have a single good win on the year, those things are the reason we're projected to be two wins short of NIT eligibility when BTT begins.   We're beyond the point of saying "rebuild" and a down year should never be this pathetic.  This team has problems, and youth is only part of it.  We're saying Crean needs to step it up.  That's not pouting, that's making an observation.

We didn't use Zeller as much as we should have a lot of his points came from cleaning up slop and out running everyone in transition, and we mainly used Watford as a wing moreso than a big.

We should be seeing signs of improvement by now, but we're not.  Yeah, we should expect the team to be better by the end of conference but I'm not convinced since we're not even seeing signs of improvement.  It's just the same thing as it was day one, a team that is out of control and sloppy.

Largely sums up my feelings.  I want him to succeed, I want him to hang banners, I have concerns on if he actually can without really improving his coaching ability.   I also couldn't care less about "fun to watch", I find winning fun.

Crean said "it's Indiana", one of the top programs of all time.  A certain level of expectations comes along with that.  Bob Knight was a large part of Crean being able to say that, and I will not lower my standards just because Mike Davis was an idiot and Samsung can't run a clean program.  We should have much higher standards than being a "top 30 team pretty consistently" and making the tournament should be considered an absolute minimum.

Scoring is important, but there are other important parts of the game.  Defense, rebounding, taking care of the ball, etc.  Like I said, there is A LOT more to the game than scoring.   The rebuild was over 2 years ago, it's past time we reset our expectations to a level that corresponds to a program like IU.  Most, if not all of us, want Crean to succeed but supporting him doesn't mean we can't have concerns about his ability to take us where we should expect to be.   Let's look at the coaches we've had since RMK Mike Davis-  That's a low bar.  If he's not better, he shouldn't have been hired in the first place. Cellvin Samsung (I refuse to use his real name)-  He was actually a good in game coach, he just sucked at running a clean program Dan Dakich-  Yeah.....

There's A LOT more to the game than scoring, but Jeremy isn't really doing those either.

I'm not on the fire Crean bandwagon.  That said he definitely needs to improve as a coach, and I have concerns if he can take us where we should expect to go.  We're at the point of the season where I expect to at least see signs of improvement, and it's just not happening and that's part of Crean's job as coach.

You're going to hate me later.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=HNTxr2NJHa0

Scary thing is, she still has like 10 games to play.   Someone will have to be incredible to break this record.

Congratulations Tyra, on being on unstoppable scoring machine.  66 points, holy crap.   I almost feel bad for the record.  Someone that can score like her only needed 2 points, the record never stood a chance of standing the only question was how much would she shatter it by.

Can he coach defense?