lillurk

Can someone unpack this a little more? Who’s MacFarland?

The lineups where shooting improvement will l be really critical are Davis/Morgan combos

It won’t be formally released, but someone may tweet a pic of the printout they’d give staffers afterwards. Check Jeff Goodman’s Twitter feed for box scores from other secret scrimmages.

I know we’re starved for basketball — I can’t be the only one who’s still hoping for a box score, right?

Last winter on the Mind Your Banners podcast, Snow told Osterman that the staff thought Hunter could play the 2 but Snow thought that was a long shot. I can see both sides: his size and skill makes him a tantalizing prospect there, but the speed, defense, and ball-handling may be challenges.

From Derek Elston’s IG story

I have no inside scoop but I’ve been thinking as far as IU is concerned, he’s the kind of player who’s great to add in a larger class, but 2019 is likely a tight fit.

I’m not arguing they should take an international trip, but they are permitted much more coaching time for such trips per NCAA rules.

Sam Vecine made the point on Twitter that he (Sam) believed Fitzner was a nice addition for IU but also that ideally Fitzner was an insurance policy for IU’s younger players (Moore, Thompson, Forrester, etc.).

Y’all, I like this pickup, but he’s listed at like 215 pounds, or five pounds less than Moore was last year at the same height. Additionally, he has no history of rim protection. He’s not functionally a 5. Could he play alongside Juwan and Smith? Sure, but I doubt he’ll be the one asked to guard Ward or Wesson et al. in such a lineup. The guys asked to guard those bruisers before Fitzner will be, in some order dependent on health, availability, etc., Davis, Morgan, Thompson, Forrester, Moore, even Smith.

Trav is right. I’ll add: he’s in the right place at the right time on both ends. He’s thin, and he’s not a five. More of a 3/4. Now, it’ll still help insure against Davis coming along slowly; depth there makes it easier to slide another frontcourt player to five. Besides, even aside from Davis, Morgan and Smith do much of their best work near the hoop, so a spacing frontcourt player is a good thing. in this game specifically, he doesn’t start either half, but UW is playing a 2-3 zone, and he hardly comes out after entering. He plays at the foul line and makes good reads just about every time down. The recent Hoosier he most resembles is maybe 2014-2016 Collin Hartman. It’s not a perfect comparison, especially given their physical differences, but sophomore and junior Hartman was a really helpful player on a couple good teams.

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

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.

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.