HoosierAloha

Disagree here a bit. The history and nattys remain constant, although we continue to move further from that time and other programs pass us. Being located in an area where you can take recruits from and win remains constant. Just because we've hired coaches who can't figure that out doesn't make it any less true. I do agree about the fans though. If the money and coaching are equal or close to equal the fans could be the difference to a recruit.

Shits gotten serious if boiler rick is using actual IU player's names in his post.

Being 6th in the country in FG% is great, being 4th in the Big 1.o in 3PT% is good - 74 overall in 3PT%. These stats can help to winning games but let's break this down a bit more. A big reason we are 6th in the country in FG% is because we are focused on tossing the ball into the post to the majority of our points. This seems like a good strategy when you have a player like TJD. However, when you factor in that roughly half of these stats are playing sister of the poor university where their "big" is no really small those numbers are a bit skewed. When the game plan against us is stop TJD and opponents have the personnel to do it (see: Rutger, Arizona, and crucial points of the Iowa game quickly come to mind) that FG% significantly drops. I don't know TJDs or the teams FG% during those games but it can't be in the great category. Part of trying to beat teams in the paint is getting fouled and converting at the line. If we could pair this with the inflated FG% we could compete. Let's take a look that those FT numbers. We are 220 of 363 teams at FT% (~70%). That's about the same as last season. It's not horrible but it's bad especially bad for how we play. Now, let's look at the amount of times we get to the line. we rank 282 of 363 teams in FTA. With how our offense is focused, that is absolutely horrible. If you're going to ground and pound to victory you have to get to the line more often than we have been. Why aren't we getting to the line more? It's easy to excuse it with Big 1.o officiating which I'm sure plays into it. The bigger issue is we're soft. We don't fight when we should. We don't go up strong. Let's hypothetical this for a moment. If we were better and ranked in the 140s for FTA and shot the same % we'd have about 32 more points on the season. Imagine having a few more points/game that might be the difference between winning and losing a game. Bump up that % just slightly along with getting to the line more consistently and you're looking at us NOT getting punked in a few games and looking a bit more competent in those games. Now, that 3PT%. Overall it's a solid percentage. We could work with it. However, % isn't the only factor here. Let's take a look at 3PA. IU ranks 335 of 363 teams in the quantity of three pointers we take. That.is.bad. That is not modern basketball. That's not going to win at a high level. Again a hypothetical, we take a few less 2s and a few more 3s per game. We currently take about 18 3PA/game. That's EXTREMELY low. If we kept a similar % and shot a few more per game, we're adding almost 3 points per game. Again, I think making adjustment in just how we attack in the paint and getting a few more 3s up per game would add to our ability to win basketball games. If numbers aren't your thing, look no further than when it mattered most in the Iowa game. Our offense stagnated and we looked to force it into TJD. When we couldn't get it into him we took bad shots. The defense was atrocious at times but we still could have won that game with a little tweaking to the offense or making a few more FTs.

Are you trolling us with these comments? I thought your perspective was just completely different than mine but I'm starting to think we're being trolled with these comments. You were just complaining about programs replacing coaches so frequently but you have a replacement for Woodson lined up in a few years.

It's been a hot minute but you might want to look into why they fired Howland. It probably falls more in line with your thinking than you realize. I don't think it had a lot to do with ONLY going to 3 straight Final Fours.

It's a message board. It's back and forth from both sides. If we were a program on the rise or had tangible progress of individual/team it might be a different story. The defense has regressed while the offense still struggles and is too one dimensional committing the same mistakes year to year. The victim mentality is predictable. I believe more fans saw/see it than want to admit. I'm not telling fans they can't live in the land of unicorns and rainbows but I'll continue to post what I see. Nobody forces others to participate in the back and forth.

Let's agree that UCLA hasn't been the same post-Wooden just like IU hasn't been the same post-Knight. I don't know the exact numbers but I would guess we'd be envious of UCLA's post-Wooden accomplishments when compared to IU's post-Knight "accomplishments." We could always revert back to winning morality awards though.

I don't think our amazing two year stretch would be considered anything but mediocre for OU football.

I don't know TJD personally and I'm sure he's a good young man. I'm happy he's at IU and what he has done. Statistically, he'll be one of the greats at IU and that takes skill. With that, he wants to be liked. He wants to be one of guys. He's not a natural leader and he's never been forced to really lead. Leading sucks in many ways, you have to hold yourself to the highest of standards and then have to get on your closest friends to do better. It's not easy and not always fun. It can go horribly wrong. Some people have it, some people don't, and others need to be forced. I wish he would have leadership around him and would have been mentored to lead.

Agree with wanting your point to be the leader. It makes sense in many ways - how they see the floor, responsible for running plays, etc. I do believe JHS can be that but I don't think he's close to where we need him to be (as a leader). That's not a knock on him or where he is but more about where we are as a program and the environment he came into (older players not really leading but being there, players who are just kind of there, etc.). I disagree about XJ. He's not a finished product either but would prefer his mentality to other older players. He needs to be more consistent but he definitely played more fire and that dawg mentality than any others. It's not a coincidence that we started playing well at Xavier and against UNC when he picked his game up and others followed. You can add in the way he started playing at the end of last season that carried us into an invite too. If I were the coach taking over the program I would have XJ (probably TJD too) by my side for most of last summer showing and explaining what is and isn't acceptable in my new program. Any less than that in practice/games would have gone directly at XJ and whoever was messing up until XJ realized he'd pay the price for the team not meeting expectations. I believe XJ has what it takes to lift those around him. Glad I make you think. I enjoy the back and forth on here. I would guess most see similar things with the team but don't want to admit or are in denial about it. From my perspective and experience, letting things just be without questioning is a good way to get people injured or worse. If you weren't calling others out or pushing others to think/act you were useless to the team and could easily be replaced. I understand this isn't the stance for everyone on here but I'll push and call others out just the same as I expect to be called out and pushed in my thinking.

I feel like we would have won that game with Race last night. A few things with that though, we've seen this team curl up in a ball with Race on the court this season. Not saying that happens last night but there is a non-zero chance of that happening. Major problem? No. At time? YES. That is unacceptable for a team who started the year with how many senior+ players? If a young player is going half speed to take a **** the older players should be calling them out before coaches even have to think about it. I don't get that vibe from this team. I did see TJD lip "Come on, bro" multiple times last night. Would love to see a senior Yogi and freshman Bryant barking at each other for mistakes on the court because they're both ultra competitive. That doesn't seem like it's in the cards for these players.

It's all opinions. Interesting, would like to know what you are basing this on. He definitely contributed last night. A conference road game against a bottom feeder most likely.

It's fair to say that it took some Big 1.o tourney wins to secure that First Four invite no?

Touche

We were without X and Race went down with an injury. Iowa was without a few rotational players too. We had them on the ropes early in that game and then melted down the stretch. They fought back and overcame early mistakes and poor play. We can find an excuse for every loss but that manifests a losing culture where excuses are acceptable. I didn't listen to the postgame presser from Woody. I hope you doesn't mention anything about Fran acting a fool and that being a reason we lost or Race going down and that being an excuse. I hope he focuses on being **** rebounding the damn ball, not guarding, missing free throws, and tossing the ball around the gym. It's much easier being too hard on players and backing off a bit than being the cool new coach and then tightening the screws on them. It took how long to address rebounding this season? It seemed we were focused in early with this but then reverted back to old ways after Race went down. It's easy to excuse it with an injury but that doesn't do **** for the players. A rebound bounced around the FT line and we had how many players just watching it? When has that been acceptable for IU basketball? Did they expect Race to limp over onto the course with his crutches to get that rebound for them? We are better than that.

No, understand where the program is in the grand scheme of things and it makes a bit more sense. Trust what you see and feel about the trends and direction of the program and not what is hyped by media and other fans. Start here - name the unquestioned leader of this team or even a leader for that matter. Follow that with - who you walking into a fight with that you have zero doubt would have your back and you'd walk out of that fight much better off than the other dudes (hypothetically, I don't want our players fighting anyone but I do want attitudes they're not going to lose) These questions have been unanswered for many years. This program lacks an identity and culture. This program doesn't recruit or develop leadership. Basketball skills are great but you can't have that without have the other things.

I'm not saying that at all. Obviously injuries will limit potential and we'll never know what the ceiling could be. Injuries are part of the game and not exclusive to IU. (you know these things) I'm saying it's an excuse to say "we would have won the Big 1.o if <insert player name> wasn't hurt." It's become our tradition to make excuses for our program, coach, and players instead of seeing it for what it is. We played some bad basketball against some really bad teams making fundamental mistakes that get exposed that much more against Big 1.o teams and talent. Those who saw it and posted about it were told they didn't know what they were talking about. Most of us here understand basketball, we understand when we see good basketball. When we put those crimson colored glasses on they shade us from that bad basketball. It's been there this entire season. The program deserves better than excuse making. That is my point.

Don't forget about us running our mouths about what we're going to do or the players talking about hanging banners in the Hall. Extremely easy to talk, anyone can do it, but it's another thing to actually put in the work to get there. Now we have injuries that will excuse any poor play even though we were playing that way before the injuries. I guess playing those cupcakes did serve a purpose.

Took the statement in bold and THAT is key to mean Race was holding Murray in check. Completely agree Race looked focused and like he came to play to start last night.

I just looked at our FG% for the game. I guess it takes skill to lose that game with those percentages. Wow!

I believe this is accurate, unsure about the exact play but I thought they mentioned it during the technical.

I'm not blaming anyone either. I'm trying to figure out why we can't get more talented freshmen to contribute on a worse team than "less" talented freshmen on other Big 1.o teams. I don't think CJ Gunn would have a problem getting shots up while in the game and that might be why he's not seeing more minutes?

Let's pump the brakes on this narrative real quick and look at the numbers. Race played 10 minutes while Murray played 40 minutes. According to another poster (I didn't look at the actual scoring so it could be off) Murray had 7 points while Race was playing and 23 points while Race was out. The quick math on that. Murray scored 7 of 30 while Race was in the game for ~23% of his total points in 10 of 40 minutes or 25% of the game. He scored the other 23 of 30 points or ~76% of his total points in the 30 of 40 minutes or 75% of the game. If those numbers (7 points while Race was in the game) are accurate Race being in or out didn't effect Murray's ability to get buckets that much.

He had one 3PA, one. One shot behind the line in 31 minutes of game time. How does that happen? He was about 10-10 on pump fakes but ONE 3PA. Why? I think he lacks quickness and confidence to get his shot off in these types of situations. Others were able to get their shot off but Iowa, like others, game planned to stay on Kopp. Our offense is 1) get it into TJD 2) throw it into the post 3) make sure we're in the paint. Where is the movement to help TJD get easy buckets and others good looks? JG was bad last night but Kopp gave up some easy drives and over helped (glad we're able to voice this now). Unfortunately, this will continue in Big 1.o play. The positive (!!) Kopp pulled down 9 rebounds last night. Glad to see he is in fact capable of rebounding. However, we were out rebounded by Iowa (!!!). Wow

It's rather amazing those young freshmen (what were their recruiting rankings out of high school???) are able to get minutes on Big 1.o teams and not look completely lost. How is it that we have freshmen and juniors that look completely lost out there? Malik Reneau is much more talented than what he has shown recently. At some point we have to stop blaming the players and start blaming the situation, system, leadership, etc. they're put into. Would they look oblivious if they were in a program with strong culture and a system for them to succeed?