lillurk

To be fair to the former coaches, they more-or-less did capitalize with those guys on the roster.

I wouldn’t say I’m panicked, but to bite and answer your question, I think IU 2018-19 has a huge need for perimeter scoring/a lead guard/a starting two. Romeo seems a dazzling example of those things. Without him, next season has a pretty low ceiling: probably a bubble tourney team without much chance of a deep run. With him (and Juwan back), IU seems like a B1G title contender and potentially an interesting tournament team. While the long run (2019-20 and beyond) forecast may not change much regardless of his decision, we can be excited about having a team with the potential to live up to the Indiana standards we heard Archie and Fred Glass lay out just one offseason away, instead of two.

When you’ve signed but not gone through student-athlete social media training yet

Yeah, I have lived among UM fans the majority of my adult life and I will say they’re largely a knowledgeable, reasonable fan base. Any group of a certain size is going to have some outliers.

The stated recovery timetable would have him on track to be cleared to play by September, but I would guess this means: 1. Plenty of Morgan/Smith frontlines without a true center 2. Plenty of frontcourt minutes available for Moore/Thompson/Forrester, especially at the five in larger lineups 3. Increased chance IU takes a grad transfer/reclass big 4. Maybe the most likely role for Davis is to anchor bench units for 10-15 minutes a night, much like his freshman year.

I’m sure some of you read Zach Lowe, who’s such a good hoops writer I recommend him even if you don’t follow much NBA. Well, I thought this passage from his column today was inadvertently relevant to De’ron’s situation: “[Demarcus] Cousins didn't suffer a regular injury. He suffered perhaps the most devastating injury that can befall a basketball player. As Kevin Pelton has written often, the recovery track record is discouraging -- if a little scattershot. The sample size of players as large as Cousins who have come back to full strength from an Achilles rupture is practically nonexistent. Cousins' conditioning has sometimes been an issue, and it cannot be for any player rallying from this injury.” Pelton says at the link that the average player returning from such an injury loses 8% of his value at the NBA level. Maybe st the college level the dropoff is less significant, as competition is lesser and younger players presumably recover better, but I’d been cautiously optimistic about Davis returning to form and this throws cold water on the likelihood of that. For what it’s worth, Cousins is listed by the Pelicans at 6’11” 270, and IU lists Davis at 6’10” 249. So the concerns about this injury recovery being more difficult for big players is as true for Davis as for Cousins.

I realize this is nitpicking, of course

Also, Brooks’ TOs...hmmmm.

@Class of '66 Old Fart, did you see this? Would this help with EYBL stats?

My fit concern is that Arch clearly wants everyone, bigs included, to hedge ballscreens hard, and I worry De’Ron, even when healthy, may not have the quickness to hedge and recover without creating seams in the defense. Recall how Michigan gashed Purdue, specifically Haas, with high pick-and-roll. Despite being good interior defenders, the weakness is so crucial it weakens team defense. Forrester may not be ready to contribute much as a freshman, but in many ways he seems closer to the ideal five in the long run for the scheme, assuming you have scoring elsewhere.

In the spirit of offseason Tuesday daydreaming: I love Smith, and I’m sure lineups like this will get some serious run. I’m in wait-and-see mode about whether he and Morgan can play the forward spots alongside a traditional five for long stretches, though. They’ve both flashed the occasional range, but I worry a bit about floor spacing on offense and quickness on defense with this lineup. I hope they make these concerns laughable. As I said in the Romeo thread, I think defense, shooting, and turnover avoidance are paramount for PGs playing alongside a high-usage 2 like Romeo (and Juwan, too); for front court players, add rebounding. McBob starting at the 3 maximizes those attributes and lets Smith’s deployment respond to the game situation: go small/big? Is Morgan/the 5 in foul trouble? Etc.

Good point. I would assume Romeo will spend plenty of time on the ball, so defense, limiting TOs, and shooting will be paramount qualities in your PG. Nobody in the mix has shown all three consistently at the college level, so it may take some time to establish a hierarchy.

Porter?

Hit me

Ok, @Yogi's Picnic Basket, if your fingers aren’t tired, I’m curious too

Brian Snow said on a winter episode of Mind Your Banners that the staff thinks Hunter can eventually be a 2. He disagreed pretty strongly — and I question if the quickness to guard 2s will be there — but I don’t think it’s crazy to see what he can do.

I haven’t seen enough of either to comment definitively about who’s more of a 3 or 4, but I’m sure they can coexist at the forward spots.

Brooks’ AAU program was making some comments on Twitter about playing the three in college (see below, as well as the tweet at the top of the same thread). So if TJD is a 5, that leaves the 4 for Watford, which seems reasonable.

Yeah that account was loudly claiming Billy Donovan would be IU’s coach. So....

Here’s what Slater said in response to a question about Langford on Friday afternoon:

This is how I eventually read it, too. We’ve known that, though. (I guess maybe the occasional potential transfer asks for release but ends up returning but given his options, that seems unlikely in this case.)

Thanks for sharing...am I crazy or is Baumgart’s meaning very unclear?

Glad you brought this up, as I almost mentioned it but figured my point was long enough already.

I keep thinking about this in comparison to Archie’s seat courtside for two games last weekend. It obviously doesn’t mean we know anything about the outcome of things, but I like it. I’d guess either Arch is smarter or better connected or both, or whoever assigned coach/media seating at Seymour is using their limited power to advance an agenda — maybe all of the above. Recall that Arch even got into the locker room after the regional semifinal win.

I think Langford would make IU clear B1G contenders next year with the possibility to reach greater heights. No knock on Phinisee, who will obviously be important from day 1, but I wonder if national contention might be more likely if Langford plays a somewhat ball-dominant role at the 2 with Green growing out of some foolish mistakes to be the starting point.