HoosierAloha

Even more evidence why TJD was awesome. We're the easiest scout and he had the highest usage but still had an incredible % and stats.

Completely agree XJ being our best dawg. Lest we forget Arizona back cutting the **** out of us when we had XJ. XJ would help but he wouldn't make the bigger problems disappear. XJ wasn't making Kopp quicker or more aware. XJ wasn't going to contain dribble penetration by himself. XJ wasn't going to stop the long 3s that they hit. XJ wasn't going to makeup the -17 rebounding margin. XJ wasn't going to make Gallo quicker and not get back cut. XJ wasn't going to make Gallo and especially Kopp quicker to recover to the shooter when they helped too far on the driver. We were a flawed team outside of just losing XJ for the season.

We didn't construct our team like this. As plenty of posters have mentioned throughout the season, Woody has a preference to those he can "trust." I believe it came down to ensuring the floor was high enough while understanding the ceiling would be lower instead of widening that gap with a higher ceiling but lower floor. Imagine JHS and TJD in PnR action with shooters and slashers at the other 3 positions. TJD could have that option but also iso when needed. Against plodding bigs they'd have to come out to hedge with TJD getting by them for the lob or getting a switch and taking advantage of it against the switched small. A smaller big would could hedge and get back he could have taken to the post. There is so much more we could have done without two bigs clogging the lane. Hopefully we see that next season with new personnel.

Are we talking about energy and effort or are we talking about ball pressure, quickness, getting to the bucket, etc. that lead to winning? That whole situation turned out to be similar to the backup QB syndrome. XJ raised his game at the end of the 2022 season and we were expecting him to continue to play at that level. We saw that he was again inconsistent to start this season. Could he have helped? Absolutely. Would he have solved the problems many projected he would have once he went down? No, they were deeper than one player. Remember when we were going to be soooooo deep this season? How'd that workout for us? From roughly middle of last season, I was the one stating XJ was the closest thing we had to a leader which I continued to repeat this season. He often played with energy and effort, sometimes that was misguided that led to some bad funks for the team. None of that is to take away from XJ, your misinterpretation. I love me some XJ and what he brought but to think he makes up for the rebounding issues, the weak defending on the wing, and modern offense this season is shortsighted. Those issues were bigger than one player. That is the point. However, we love revert back to what could have been. The stats up above show that he started out the year back to his consistently inconsistent play from the 2021-2022 regular season. Could that have changed? Possibly but we didn't have him, he didn't show it, there is zero reason to make it out to be something he wasn't. On a similarly related note, take XJ and put him on teams like Houston, Alabama, Arkansas, maybe a Miami. Where is ranking in terms of his ability to be a dawg? Where does he rank at IU? There is a massive difference and I've been yelling this, with a few others on here, for more than a hot minute.

I have a feeling Alaska might be the winner next year...

Congrats BottomLine and thank you for the reminder to update my signature.

Thank you for providing another example of my previous point. He could pressure the ball, sometimes that resulted in good defense or picking up back to back fouls. He could get to the basket, sometimes that results in an assist or turning it over (~1.2/1 ATO ratio against teams with a pulse). Other times he would shoot us out of a game (~38 FG% against teams with a pulse). He could give us 10-15 points, sometimes even 20+, sometimes (almost just as often) he had some forgettable games (8 against Rutgers on 11 shots, 4 against Nebraska on 8 shots) He, like many others on this flawed team, were consistently inconsistent.

Donovan coming as a grad assistant.

Keep this between us.. Looks like we're hitting free agency hard right now. Woody is using his NBA connections to talk to recruits about teaming up in Bloomington to deal some real damage to how the Big 1.o plays the game. The NIL will have to increase substantially but seems initial talks are positive. I'm hearing we're getting at least one of Jokic or Embid, Donic, Tatum, Lillard, and Klay or Curry. Glad those NBA connections are paying off in the portal.

Absolutely brutal lose at home. We had plenty of opportunities to win that game and couldn't get it done. Heck of a year for these Hoosiers! Proud of what this team was and how the program is being built. Miami is our mommy/daddy this season.

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.