HoosierAloha

Even with a projected weak draft in 24 there is too much risk to return for a sophomore year. It's nice to think we'd have him for another year and the possibilities but it's too risky. What happens if he returns and doesn't have the year many expect? Tha could be a bad look for JHS and the program.

This team is imitating the one from last night! I have much more faith this team will figure it out and work their way back into the game. Rebounding!

What are the risks with coming back for another season?

bUt thE pRogRaM cAn'T Do tHaT!!! Hopefully we will become serious about how we approach winning with the current landscape of college basketball and don't make excuses why we can't get there. I hope we see action and not talk.

I'll quietly take your point of being old from your decades of experience. I'll loudly retort Woody and Slick Rick are two very different people with vastly different experiences in basketball.

As stated in initial post, it is a bit odd to me especially seeing only JHS and possibly Reneau doing it.

Why would our guards and wings be more focused on getting back to prevent fast breaks when their offense is rebounding for second chance points? Fundamentals of finding a man and blocking them out then going to get the basketball is what we lacked this season. I can see a game or two being statistically odd with bad bounces but you make your luck. We chose to go half-assed for rebounds and watched as a single player from the other team grabbed an offensive rebound amongst 3-4 Hoosiers too often this season.

I'll try to find the video/picture. I believe Reneau does it often (?) sometimes (?) too.

Completely agree with that. We took some baby steps in the first few years under Coach Woody. We need to take that giant leap soon which includes a few things we haven't seen consistently from his team yet. I'm cautiously hopeful.

Which is my point, TJD wasn't the issue in implementing a modern offense. TJD had a pretty complete game outside of shooting. There are plenty of 5s on good to great teams that can't do what TJD can but he can do what they can. We chose not to implement that offense because of other reasons not TJD. Better players would go a long way. That can be done through recruiting/portal or developing. I hope we land some portal players that can play in a modern offense.

Absolutely, after XJ was done for the season he became a lot of things that he never was consistently. Just like the "last coach's players" line it's easy and convenient.

That's my point. Woody chose to build the offense around throwing it into the post, he didn't have to. How much did TJD's draft stock improve because he got paint touches? How many NBA teams toss it on the post to a big and have them go to work? Ignoring TJD won't be a "big" at the next level. He built the offense around post touches because he didn't bring in the personnel and implement a modern offense. It's pretty much that simple. TJD and JHS are fantastic pieces to build a modern offense around. We didn't.

That's interesting and convenient. There are plenty of good to great teams with a 5 that can't/won't shoot from outside. Actually, TJD would be amazing in plenty of those offenses getting easy buckets from PnR, handoffs/lobs from dribble drive, etc. It wasn't TJD that stopped us from implementing a modern offense.

I'm definitely grateful for JHS being a Hoosier and thought he had a fantastic freshman year. Checkout where JHS puts his uniform after games. I don't know the reason for it but found it a bit odd.

Outside of optional letters I would agree with this. I believe the over helping is partly personnel issues in the inability for certain defenders to keep their man in front of them and certain defenders inability to help and recover. The rebounding is mostly technique which is concerning.

That accounts for some of it but not all of it. I'm still not sure how we would have multiple players around the ball only to give up an offensive rebound to a single opponent. Maybe it's the old cliche "if everyone is responsible nobody is?"

I fixed it for you.

I made a post early in the conference season (?) while watching the Big 1.o on one screen and the SEC (?) on another and thinking I was watching two completely different sports. Why does the Big 1.o have decent to good levels of success in the noncon schedule? Continuity of teams is better in the Big 1.o than other conferences that results in being better earlier in the season. That is more than made up for later in the season when talent begins to jell and teams begin to form. Arkansas is a perfect example of that this season. They've gotten a little healthier but their talent has started to mature and play together.

That's been the case with IU all season. It's been a tough pill to swallow when we were having this conversations throughout the season because you could see what would do us in. Add in the conversations about wing quickness and athleticism, rebounding, offense, and a ton of other things.

I believe he has more ability to get into the lane than what he's shown in his freshman year. His game really isn't about blowing past his defender though.

I would agree with this. Hopefully he leads the team throughout the spring, summer, and fall. If they take on his personality I'll be more confident going into next season.

It's a convenient excuse to blame it on the previous coach. Winning big time college basketball is uber difficult. You have programs that figure it out and do what it takes to consistently be elite. We've taken another step in the right direction but this offseason is incredibly important for the direction of the program. We can continue to move forward or we can find excuses.

We are in a completely different era of college basketball now then we were in 2007-08. We realize that right?

I wish I could find the article that was written about athletic talent moving away from the Big 1.o footprint that would cause what we're seeing now. I believe it was published sometime between 2012-2014.