incrediboy

Were we jobbed? Maybe Did we play horribly? Certainly Were we outplayed, outhustled? Incredibly so.   I don't think we can put this one on Crean in any way. He didn't make the turnovers, he didn't refuse to guard Happ in the post, he didn't foul Hayes every time he got the ball. In fact, I think Crean coached a great game. 

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I think I'll cheer for Iowa. Getting Purdue a third loss puts distance between everyone else. If we can beat Iowa head-to-head we'll be fine. If we can't we won't win anyway. Rather see Purdue sink in the standings.

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I think Roth still has a year of eligibility remaining. We have a scholarship open. Hmmm.....wouldn't THAT be something?   Yeah I know it's not going to happen.

Suddenly the value of a win in Nebraska looks better than ever.

Northwestern will play better defense against us, but to repeat my broken record reiteration, when Troy and RoJo contribute instead of turning the ball over, we're pretty darn good. Not one of Bryant's best games, but Bielfeld made up for that. OG really does have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and Morgan might be our best defender.   We've shown we can win on the road, and if we keep playing at this level at home, we're going to be in the B1G race to the wire...especially given the "any given night" things that have happened (Purdue losing big at Illinois (Illini only W in B1G to date), Maryland needing OT at home to beat NW, Penn State winning on the road at NW, Wisky beating MSU, etc etc).

Wasn't aware Newkirk was being counted, but I guess I should have deduced it.   I'd just hate things to get so crowded Morgan or OG decide to go elsewhere. I think they both have very high ceilings.   Of course it's also possible Bryant is one-and-done as discussed in another thread.

Iowa doesn't surprise me all that much except their depth is much greater than I expected. They returned four starters so I figured they'd be in the hunt. Just didn't expect that kind of depth.   Wisconsin beating MSU and playing Maryland to the end floors me. On paper, Wisky is a really bad team. I would say Gard is in line to keep his job after beating Sparty. Not sure I'll like him any more than Bo now that I've seen how they played us.   I would never (never, never, never) have expected Purdue to lose to Illinois. That was a one-in-a-thousand thing IMO. I'm glad it happened, although I'd rather Penn State or one of the other bottom-half had done it than Illinois.   Us at 5-0 is no surprise given our schedule. Iowa at 5-0 is superbly impressive given its schedule.   Sparty at 3-3...how much of that is Valentine not yet at full strength? Still games at Michigan and at Purdue plus Maryland and us at home...where Iowa proved them beatable even with Valentine.   Maryland losing at Michigan? A surprise by not a shock. Other than Izzo, who's a better coach in the league than Beilein?   Minnesota and Rutgers both winless and probably will be until they play each other. Begs the question as to why Pitts Jr. was extended last winter.   Nebraska has really come on strong since the game with us. I'm glad we got them when we did.   Ultimately injuries decide a lot. Valentine, LeVert, JBJ, Spike Albrecht the biggest impacts so far, although I think Blackmon's absence has galvanized our guys to rally defensively.   Thoughts?

That's a shame. He should be loving his college days rather than feeling pressure. The way things are going he's going to be back at IU next year. Not a horrible fate for us to have him and JBJ both back, considering we expected this to be Troy's last year for sure and possibly Blackmon's as well.   If Troy and James DO come back, that could throw the whole recruiting program into a little disarray. We only have four scholarships (Yogi, NZ, Max, one currently unused) and so far four recruits and a transfer to take them. I would say one certain bench-warmer using a scholarship is expendable, but I don't want to start a riot.

I'm kind of surprised that he had one of his worst games after a six-day game layoff in which he could have lightened up on practice. I was hoping the long week would have gotten him healthier. The fact that it did not (apparently, anyway) increases my concern.   Does Troy have an excuse?

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considering ND won at Duke, the transitive properties totally go out the window

one of his legs or knees was wrapped up pretty good at minnesota. I suspect his lackluster play is that he can't get the quick first step so crucial to getting open shots and making plays

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Not a case of team peaking. A case of two individuals whose performances go up and down like the stock market.   When Troy is good, Troy is very good, and he was very good against Ohio State. Next time out, he's "drive to nowhere" Troy (although he did make a big offensive rebound follow and a 3-pointer)   When RoJo is good, RoJo is very good. Lately RoJo hasn't been very good very often. I'm guessing it is health-related.   We played about the same at Rutgers and at Minnesota, not that many games a part.  We will have many better games. The problem is if we get Bad Troy and/or Bad RoJo we won't always be playing Rutgers and Minnesota.

Iowa's won AT Purdue and AT Michigan State. They have to play AT Indiana and AT Maryland (no home game vs. Maryland). They also have IU and Purdue at home. They could very easily go 16-2 or better.    Their 4-0 is certainly a lot more impressive than ours.   One bright spot for us: they beat Nebraska by 11 and home, we beat 'em by 10 in Nebraska (and if we'd made free throws it would have been a blowout)

Very nice. That 6-point loss made us 0-6 in the B1G.   How many of those referenced games did we win? When we are winning these games, we can talk about being on a par. I'm not saying we haven't improved, nor am I saying we're not competitive, but we haven't taken the step to WIN against good competition, let alone ranked competition. I've seen this "rise to being competitive from the ashes of being a doormat" at IU more than once, but it never seems to go beyond that level. Wilson may get it done, or he may not. We have seen the "reasons for optimism" for decades without clearing the hurdle. I understand it's difficult to catch up from behind. With a coach with the stature of Mark Richt, I think we would have been far better positioned to take that step.   I reiterate my opinion (and that's all it is) that a championship-level coach was available and I think IU should have pursued him and chose not to do so. Until Wilson proves we can rise above mediocrity of a 6-6 bowl season, I will continue to feel that way.

  I consider "on par" as beating these teams half the time, winning at home 75-80% of the time. All three of your examples were home games that we lost. On the road we would not have played them closely.    I agree that Richt would have ultimately refused any offer from IU. I've met the man and can safely say he's far too much a Christian gentleman to laugh in anyone's face. But if we had at least made an effort it would have shown IU was serious about being a national contender. Again, I have no quarrel with keeping Wilson, but if there's a significant upgrade available -- an upgrade to a coach that year-in, year-out has a 10-game-plus-winning team in a power conference -- and he's "out there"  then we should pursue him.

While I have no problem with the extension, I don't foresee IU on a par with OSU, Michigan or MSU anytime soon (if anytime period). I wish we'd tried for someone like Mark Richt before Miami scooped him up.    Still, it could happen that we have one of those years where everything falls into place on the wheel of fate (like 1967;

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Will he take it if offered? Probably big, big bucks..But he's said he won't go back to the NBA, now he's hedging and saying it would take 10 years and 120 million to make it happen. Team president and coach is pretty sweet.   http://www.si.com/nba/2016/01/10/john-calipari-kentucky-nets-coach-president?xid=nl_siextra

If someone else posted, I missed it, but we are NOT in the CBS Sports Top 25 (and 1) rankings

Simple difference: RoJo and Troy valued the ball and came to play today. Yogi, Bryant, Hartman, OG...they're always steady and ready, but when the two aforementioned guys contribute without major turnovers, we are the team we were today. If Nick was hitting his 3's we might have won by 40. Gotta have something to carp about, I guess.

I said at the time I thought it was a bad decision by Minnesota. Also said it was a bad decision for Illinois to trade Bruce Weber for John Groce. So far both predictions are looking good. What I do not understand at all is why Minnesota extended Pitts Jr. last winter after a downturned season and no recruits above 3 stars.