8bucks

To be fair, they may not have known they were at the women's game.

Thanks. I said something similar but my post disappeared.

MSU may not win the regular season but I think they will be a contender for the BTT.

I don't think Maryland is "tough" enough to win the BT. They have a lot of paper talent and I think that is why they started off ranked high. I would not at all be surprised to have them ranked lower than us by the end of the BT season. Personally I love that we are not getting any respect. Right now the disrespect fuels better effort in practice and against all opponents. This team does better when the underdog than the favorite

Never ever said that. UPS seemed confused about why people are questioning us and not Maryland. We had a chance early and flopped they did not. Thus, no one is questioning them. Now, for us I love that no one is giving us any love. This team needs to keep an edge about them. I love how we are playing and honestly think we are set up well for a deep run. Great outside shooters. Great PG play. TW is playing under control in areas he can flourish. We are not asking too much of TB. And finally we are playing defense like we care. We have the talent. We are building confidence and hopefully we keep an edge.

Did Maryland stink it up in Maui? We are having to fight our way back into the conversation. Maryland never left.

I think one reason Troy has not been turning it over as much is that he is not being asked to drive as much. Yogi controls the drives far more since JBj went down. Troy will still drive occasionally during half court sets but not nearly as much. I think this change came from Crean. If you have been close enough to hear Crean has often been on Troy "we have to drive that ball". "Got to get more drives" ETC. Even his halftime talks with TV he has mentioned that a lot. That focus encouraged TW to drive even when the lane was not there. Since the injury, he has spent s lot more time on the baseline and when he gets it outside he has been shooting more.

We have the talent and I think Crean has shown he can coach good teams well during the season. If we can keep from fading down the stretch we should be considered a contender. Another good week and we will find ourselves in the top 20.

I think the last ten or so games matter for us because it gives us a chance to get some wins vs top 25 teams. We have some nice momentum and confidence is high. That will help as we enter the meat of the schedule. Hopefully though as teams actually start to play better D against us, we can keep moving the ball well. Right now teams are playing so far off is we can pass around the key with very little difficulty.

I agree. I defend DD often but he needs to shut it on this one. Not like DDs time at IU was all rosy and successful

I remember your story. It matches what a lot of broadcasters would say when they watched practice the day before and the joked about how hard we went at it during the walk through. Stephen Bardo was asked the year after we lost in the sweet sixteen if he thought Crean wore the team out. He repeated some of what you shared and echoed the effort our players put out in practices. Kelvin Sampson commented to one of his assistants (Dakich) that Creans teams were known to wear out at the end of the year. Hopeful this is an area where he has learned over time and has a better plan.

Anyone hear what DD said in response to this tweet? [attachment=3269:ImageUploadedByBtownBanners1453489312.464613.jpg]

I would love to see a strong finish. While not the norm for Crean teams, we did finish well Cody's freshman year which propelled us to a strong start to the following year. Unfortunately that year we also finished poorly. I agree that we seem to have improved on the defensive side and that will help carry us when the offense struggles.

Last year we started the Big Ten season 5-1 with wins over two top 20 teams and two road victories. We set an Indiana record with 18 3pt baskets made in beating Maryland by 19 points. We did not finish the season well. When we finish a year really well then some Optimus will rightfully build with me.

We used to walk over from Wilkie to the games. Plenty of balcony seats in the package but it was packed up there. It was cold back in the 80's too.

Really depends on where in balcony. First row seats up there are not bad at all.

My response was in response to Pap who seemed surprised some were still finding more fault than silver linings. I think in general many of us are but the midseason quizzes have historically not led to great endings. Yogis Bicep had a post a few pages back saying Crean had earned his approval for another year. That precipitated the responses discounting things until we finish the year. As for me, I listed my criteria in this thread and am open to another year but the standards are pretty high. For now, it is fun to watch them play.

This is the Fire Tom Crean thread after all. I have seen a couple posts suggest he has done enough to have their support for next year. That creates the fury of response in this thread. [attachment=3252:ImageUploadedByBtownBanners1453318809.646567.jpg]

Ok but if you lost Biedeldt would you feel pretty good about just having the freshman? I would not. The plan for the year was to have two, maybe three more bigs between HP, DD, and EH.

Fair point but after watching him play this year his offense is something I think we can replace to some extent. He was most lethal as a shooter and we have others who can pick up that slack. Not a complete replacement for sure and I will admit our PPG may drop without him. TC talked about how he makes teams spread out the D to account for him. NZ, RoJo and Colin have to fill that void. Some games they have others they have not. Fortunately we have depth at that position. Defensively though playing him and NZ together was impossible. I think we gain some there. Had JBj been a big I think his loss would have been bigger. A team that plays good to great D will allow you to win games when the shooting goes south. We have seen that recently.

I am fine with that too. Make noise is subjective and labels are not always reflective of potential. This team has talent and beginning of the year it was fair to assume an overachieving year meant elite 8 or better. I see no reason to change that unless we enter the NCAAs a top 8 seed overall. Then we have to exceed that.

If you are making a "keep him" decision based on midseason results then you may never be ready to make a change. TCs teams down the stretch fade. It is a fact I have looked back and he has had two teams in his career perform better (win %) down the stretch. DWade and VO. I am open to keeping him IF: 1) we overachieve in the BT, BTT and the NCAA. 2) this is not the peak year. We lose a lot of seniors and possibly TW. The last few years we have lost underclass men (non NBA) kids too. Next year has to appear very likely to build upon our overachieving year. In a single year snapshot that is an unfair burden but since we have a lot of TC history to look at it is fair.

After the Warford, Hulls and Elston group we have struggled to get kids to stay four years. Yogi is the only one of his class. Most of Troy's class is gone. I'd like to think we keep RoJo, OG and JM for four but if Emmit, DD, Stan, Max, JH, HP taught us anything it is that we have had problems recently keeping kids.

Do you think there would be an overwhelming opinion that losing Yogi, NZ, Max but adding Thon and we are a FF team?

This is pretty cool. Open spot and a need for another practice player. Not expecting him to play much but still would have been a thrill for anyone