Uwe Robb

I watched them play Air Force the other night. They looked horrible. They do have a couple of injured player that could be returning soon.   The announcers said they may be the only .500 or sub .500 team that is actually favored to win their conference tourney if they get all their pieces back.

It would be a good excuse for Glass to keep him. Especially if we are in it until the very last weekend. That is exactly what Glass said he wanted in his rah rah speech.   I personally think we can finish 4th or 5th and Crean will be here next year.

We will just have to agree to disagree on this one. We have went back and forth for a couple days now. I will just respect your opinion.   I have always been told if you are a jack of all trades then you are also a master of none.

I completely agree that it's possible. It's even possible to do and win.   You are the one claiming that it is not possible to do things the other way. There is not just one way to win in college basketball.

Virginia is 4th lowest in the country with 9.5 TO's per game. Sometimes it helps to slow it down.

Not sure about Virginia's tempo, but their Off Efficiency is currently 12th and was 24th in 2015 and 21st in 2014.   Give me a Butler or Virginia team that plays great D and values the ball. Over a team that scores 80 but turns the ball over 18-20 times a game.

Let me talk real crazy for a min.   If Ohio St wins 2 remaining home games. (Huge if) & handles Nebraska on the road.   Do they get in the tourney with a 20-11 (12-6) record with wins over Iowa, Mich St & UK?

I guess is Zimmerman is out indefinitely. Haha, they actually said he was a possible lottery pick. I assume they are saying in 2-3 years.

Watching Air Force/UNLV. AF up 1 pt. That loss is looking worse and worse. AF looks like a really good High School team.

I think I remember hearing that during a game earlier in the year. Also looking at his bio didn't realize he coached that long @ Cincy. 1989-2005. I remember the Melvin Levitt and Kenyon Martin teams they were crazy good, but they shot a lot of 3's so they would go cold and be an early exit in tourney every year. Killed my brackets when I was younger.

Dixon surprised me to be that high as well.   I knew Huggins could coach, but couldn't believe he was that high either. I know he is getting old and has had some negative things follow him around but if you would have put him at a big time program like IU, UNC, Kansas, UCLA I think it would have been scary.   Also JTIII impressive.

Sorry I keep bombarding the boards with KenPom stats, but here are some more. The following list of coaches and the amount of season they have had their teams in the top 50 Adjusted Offense and the top 50 Adjusted Defense. The list is from 2002 - 2015   Not a lot of young talent on the list but enjoy!!   Bill Self - 14 (13 Kansas, 1 Illinois) Cal - 12 (5 UK, 7 Memphis) Coach K - 11 Izzo - 10 J Dixon - 9 Boeheim - 9 Bo Ryan - 9 Roy Williams - 9 Billy D - 8 Pitino - 8 Huggins - 8 (5 WVa, 3 Cincy) Matta - 7 Barnes - 6 J Wright - 6 S Miller - 5 (3 AZ, 2 Xavier) J Thompson III - 5 M Few - 5 G Marshall - 5

To play devils advocate.....   Crean and Marshall went head to head last year in tourney on neutral court. I would probably even give the talent edge to IU but that's just one man's opinion. Results did not favor Crean.   With that said I do not think Marshall is the answer.

  Ken Pom rankings Adjusted O - 31 Adjusted D - 49   Mathmatically given the history these rankings would qualify them to be a legit contender for a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 this year.

I am not saying that Bennett is the right choice. I would obviously prefer to have Brad Stevens, but if that is not possible then we have to open our search.   Just imagine if Wisconsin snubs Gard and signs Bennett. Even though X-Hoosiers main criticism is he will never win the NCAA tourney. I do not want that guy in my conference coaching against IU. As I stated earlier. He has 2 conference titles in a row over great coaches like Coach K, Pitino, Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim. I could only imagine what he would do in the B1G where all he had to worry about was Izzo.

Most definitely want to compete in NCAA's but also would love to win 3 straight conference titles. That is exactly what Bennett and his system has done against the great coaches that we mentioned.

Only style I care about is winning. Bennett has won two straight conference titles and 30 win seasons on his way to possibly his 3rd straight, against the likes of Coach K, Pitino, Roy Williams & Jim Boeheim Any of those coaches great coaches?

Who is your pick then? From the sounds of your criticisms you will only accept someone that has already won a NC.

I could care less about possessions per game. The last 3 years Tony Bennett has the #9, #1 & #5 Defensive teams in the country. On top of that he has the #12, #24 & #21 Offensively efficient teams in the country.   He may have fewer possessions but they are more productive than the majority of the country.   IU has had those type of rankings twice since 2002. (2002, 2013)   So I would take Tony Bennett over our current situation in a heartbeat.

sorry for the double post, thought this fits here as well.   [attachment=3406:stats.png]   I've been doing some KenPom research. It looks like a very safe assumption would be that our Final Four participants will be in the top 50 adj O & adj D on KenPoms rankings. Here is a list from 2002-2015. There are very few exceptions to this list. 6 to be exact. 2015 - Wisconsin (#54 D), 2011 - VCU (#84 D), 2006 - George Mason (#58 O), 2006 - LSU (#65 O), 2003 - Texas (#80 D), 2003 - Marquette (#119 D) Of these 6 teams 4 were balanced by the Overall #1 or #2 respective offense/defense is the opposing category. 2015 - Wisconsin (#1 O), 2006 - LSU (#2 D), 2003 - Texas (#1 O), 2003 - Marquette (#2 O). If you take the amount of teams that fall into this top 50/50 category each year it averages out to be 19.4. We are right on pace this year. If the tournament started today than 1 of the following 19 teams would be your National Champ and 4 of the 19 would more than likely be in the Final Four; Villanova, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Texas A&M, Xavier, Kansas, Texas, Michigan St, Iowa, Miami, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, North Carolina, California, Gonzaga, USC, Syracuse. IU has only fallen into the category 3x in the 15 year period. 2002 - National Runner-Up 2007 - That one coaches 1st season (2nd Rd exit) 2013 - Sweet 16 loss   Log story short.....Good teams tend to advance fairly far in the tournament. Edit: Better pic of my Excel file

[attachment=3402:stats.png]   I've been doing some KenPom research. It looks like a very safe assumption would be that our Final Four participants will be in the top 50 adj O & adj D on KenPoms rankings. Here is a list from 2002-2015. There are very few exceptions to this list. 6 to be exact. 2015 - Wisconsin (#54 D), 2011 - VCU (#84 D), 2006 - George Mason (#58 O), 2006 - LSU (#65 O), 2003 - Texas (#80 D), 2003 - Marquette (#119 D) Of these 6 teams 4 were balanced by the Overall #1 or #2 respective offense/defense is the opposing category. 2015 - Wisconsin (#1 O), 2006 - LSU (#2 D), 2003 - Texas (#1 O), 2003 - Marquette (#2 O). If you take the amount of teams that fall into this top 50/50 category each year it averages out to be 19.4. We are right on pace this year. If the tournament started today than 1 of the following 19 teams would be your National Champ and 4 of the 19 would more than likely be in the Final Four; Villanova, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Texas A&M, Xavier, Kansas, Texas, Michigan St, Iowa, Miami, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, North Carolina, California, Gonzaga, USC, Syracuse.   IU has only fallen into the category 3x in the 15 year period. 2002 - National Runner-Up 2007 - That one coaches 1st season (2nd Rd exit) 2013 - Sweet 16 loss     Log story short.....Good teams tend to advance fairly far in the tournament.   Edit: Better pic of my Excel file

I guess we will all just watch as it plays out.

I have seen him play and while I agree he is a man amongst boys in the NCAA and SEC. He is not a great shooter and he is a good ball handler for his size, but I don't see him being able to run the point or even play the 2. As of right now I just don't see him being better than Anthony Davis or KAT. I may put him on the Andrew Wiggins level. Wiggins was a highlight show in college, but still hasn't proved he can hit an outside jumper consistantly (currently .244 3 pt) Wiggins was also the next Lebron James when he was signing with Kansas and every game ESPN wanted to promote.   With that being said I have no clue what kind of work ethic the kid has. When he goes pro there will be no more NCAA hours limits. So he can easily get better at those skills I pointed out.   What it boils down to is what you ultimately think about Simmons. My 2nd question would be is there a 2nd player in the 2016 draft that comes close to having the impact that Simmons does?

Agreed, but Lebron proved last year he doesn't really even need them to just beat the East and make the finals.   Lebron is aging though.....

Yes, thank you. I guess that would drive my point home even further.   Simmons is more likely to win a Championship after he signs his first free-agency deal than he is in the first 3-4 after draft.