HoosierAloha

Went on a 7-0 run to get back to within 10 to mighty NW!

But this is the new look NW program. It's not the Northwest program of yesteryear. Ignore that we have as much talent on our bench as they do starting. We can't expect our players to actually play.

Missed the first part of the game. Did we stay in Iowa City or...? Northwestern has looked like All-Stars the little I've seen.

That story is great and all but if you want him out of the game as a coach you take him out.

My point was I'm glad we got those wins to add to our resume. To elaborate, I don't think we beat them if we meet them again this season. I personally don't care what our opponents or their fans think. I care how we look and perform as a team this season. Would have been nice to have back-to-back undefeated teams, although having one loss and a natty across two seasons is pretty awesome too. It's a public forum and anyone can participate. It appeared by your initial post you didn't want to partake in the revisionist thinking but after a second post it seems you do?

This basically describes 90% of NCAA programs for the last 20 years.

It wasn't mandatory for you to participate but it seems you enjoyed speculating for a moment of what could have been in '75. Good and great wins against UNC and at Xavier, respectfully. I can see that. I can also see where they are and where we are currently. Happy we have those on our resume. We might end up really needing them on Selection Sunday.

I'd prefer us whipping them up and down Branch McCracken court then give them a "nice try, good game" in the handshake line. Let them run their mouths, let's take care of business and worry about building a program. You know who doesn't talk **** about your program and coach? The players and teams you beat consistently.

That was only 7 years ago? I can't imagine why we've struggled.

Think we got UNC at the right time too. They were coming back from Portland playing 3 games in 4 days with Bacot nicked up. I don't think we win that game with who UNC has available and who we're missing.

I can't remember who it was but someone attempted to set an off ball screen near the paint with the other player just standing. I felt we were in trouble at that moment. The confidence to make a play seems to be lacking for many players.

No need to apologize, different perspectives and expectations. We're sometimes the prettiest girl in the bar for those minor league players looking to bust out of a slump.

I forgot you were 52 years old and saw those 3 national championships. Thank you for reminding me. Other programs have figured out how to deal with the change in college basketball. We have not. Thank you for making that point.

Thought we were talking about finals week. I guess some coaches are worried about every game. Agree those games can be tough but we're talking about a really, really bad E. Illinois team on your home court. Maybe it was the winter storm and the fans not being able to attend?

We did seem to struggle in critical times against them packing it in on TJD. Much different feel between the first ~38 minutes and the last few.

My overall stance on players - a complete player is a combination of attitude, athleticism, and abilities (basketball skills). Galloway has enough of those to impact this team. Teams are constructed with compatibility in mind. If you have a team full of softies without leaders you'll struggle. Of course there will be a drop off but it seems we fell off a cliff. Galloway and Bates should have been pushing both XJ and JHS. I'm a bit scared what Gunn and Banks will look like next season if what we've seen from others is what should be expected. Where is the development in this program? We were incredibly "deep" to start the season and then had no answer for when JHS was out against Rutger (that loss was much more on attitude and less about defense). The development has been horrendous and in some instances players have gotten worse. Watching this Xavier vs. Villanova game, Sean Miller stopped Jerome Hunter from wasting possessions pretty quickly. He's now contributing much more to their ability to win. When was the last time we saw this? Amen to the text in bold. We have some really likeable young men in this program. That's great but that's not going to get us where we want to be. Although it's probably where the administration is happy with it.

Possibly the SEMO game?

Really glad we got Xavier when we did. Sean Miller has that team playing much better.

I could be off but believe their fall finals week game was against SEMO and the loss to E. Illinois was the week after finals. Unless Iowa has their finals later than almost all other schools. I guess we could say they started Christmas break early as an excuse though.

We were once a blue blood, elite program that expected excellent. We are a washed up, has been program who has refused to adjust to what must be done and how it must be done to compete in this millennium. Has UCLA, puke, UNC, and Kansas settled like Indiana has settled? Would any of those programs continue to do the same thing with IU's results the last two decades? We are an average-at-best Big 1.o program with the remnants of a blue blood program (banners, fans, funding). I believe you meant 2013 when referencing Syracuse.

We might have different definitions of a brain fart. Losing your man on a single play seems more like a brain fart to me. Getting beat on your home floor to a team THAT bad? It wasn't like they played bad and got beat on a last second shot. They were handled in the second half by a team that sits at 350 on Kenpom AFTER winning at Iowa. That's horrible. They followed that up by getting run by Nebrasketball before looking bad at Penn State for ~35 minutes. The Iowa loss itself isn't bad. Couple how it played out with what we've seen earlier in the season and it's bad. Add to that what Iowa looked like prior to that game and what we did in the first part of the first half. Ouch.

Add to this that Illinois is actually ahead of Wiscy in KenPom rankings.

Should we have that much of a drop off with Bates and Gallo filling in? That's on coaching and preparation. JG is in his junior year. Should he still be making freshman mistakes? We're missing something in our program.

Similar but with a few differences Illinois' fewer losses and those were against P6 teams. Illinois coming in on a 1 game losing streak. Iowa was on a 3 game losing streak (lost 4 of 5 with the only win against a bad team). Wiscy hasn't had any bad losses coming into this one. They competed with Kansas and maybe should have won that game. They don't have the mushroom stamp on their foreheads from Rutger and Kansas.