lillurk

Re “proven”: Dan Hurley was 2-4 in the ncaa tournament until he won six straight last year. There are no guarantees but you don’t have to pick someone who’s got a long track record, there are other ways to know if someone’s a good basketball coach.

Stop the Pearl talk — he’s 3 years younger than Woody. One middling year and we’re right back here, worried about succession plans. Plus he makes more than IU currently pays its coach. You hire a coach for his future, not his past.

Not picking on you but at IU in the era of free transfers no one should be the “give him time” candidate for very long. If you start with a totally blank slate in a sanction situation? Sure, but by year two we should see something. Same if you inherit a really barren cupboard, and have to play too many green underclassmen. But nothing like what Arch inherited should be an excuse.

I’ll never root against IU but it seems obvious what has to happen and if it takes losing embarrassingly at home to PSU, Northwestern, Nebraska, getting whooped by PU 2x…I can endure it.

His defensive awareness would be below average on the 8th or 9th grade teams the middle school/HS I played at. I don’t mean to be unkind and of course plenty of players have deficiencies, develop, etc., but still being this bad in transition, switches, etc. At this point makes me worry he may never catch on.

Really think even if he tops out as a good backup Cupps eventually moves off that list. But probably not this year.

Still only 49. Not my cup of tea but I’m curious what he can do after Boo Buie graduates. If they can maintain some level of quality I wonder if he’ll get a look at a bigger job if he wants it eventually.

My guess too but UM and OSU both have seemingly obvious move on situations that may not work that way. UM because Warde Manuel has not been a very proactive AD and might not last long enough to make the decision, plus maybe they give Howard one more year due to health issues and the fact that they probably need to rebuild regardless of who the coach is. OSU because Holtmann isn’t the guy there…BUT they have an AD regime change effective on like 7/1/24 and so I wonder if they’ll want to move or let the new guy have a lame duck/prove it year.

Sure perhaps but that doesn’t invalidate my point

I know this year’s a disappointment and it might be nice to believe this but it simply isn’t true given the length of the contract, where the program was over Arch, etc

No reason to assume this hasn’t happened

What’s Dolson thinking? Feel like we’ve discussed it ad nauseum but he’s surely disappointed. Common sense, Woodson’s 1st two years, AND contract all mean he’s going to get at least one more year. But there will be an offseason state of things conversation. Also the worst take I’ve ever seen on here that didn’t involve hand-waving some violent crime is probably “Archie > Woodson.” No need to tell obviously lies and invalidate everything you’ll ever say about ball!

Yes and they knew it! Tried to get Knecht, Reeves, etc. Sometimes even a C+/B- option is better than nothing. Seemed obvious at the time and played out close to a worst-case.

He was VCU’s coach previously

Didn’t see the game but 14 points on 13 possessions used max (8 shots, 2 TOs, 3 or fewer trips to the FT line) is a good offensive game in a low scoring affair

Yeah, don’t totally disagree but Wesson ghosts a screen and Smith gets caught flat-footed, trying to hedge it like the packline does. The other Wesson is lifted so there’s no defender in the lane, weak side action means the help from the opposite corner is late. Smith should’ve played it differently…but really CAM should’ve changed to switch everything for the possession, or switch 1-4.

The OSU/Holtmann late game execution failures are weird if you remember 2019, when his team was more experienced but less talented than IU, and won both games by a combined 7 points. Flip one outcome and IU probably made the tournament instead of OSU. In the game at IU he drew up a SLOB for a game-winning backdoor cut and dunk that burned Archie’s unwillingness to adapt his defense to the circumstances.

I think that’s Ermann, a Maryland 247 writer who’s a bit of a homer from what I gather. He put in the crystal ball almost a year ago, and the 247 CB system incentivizes having it right for a long time. Given all that, I wouldn’t put too much stock into it unless there’s new premium info

Eeeehhhh, CMW made substantial, marked changes mid year each of his previous two years that made the team better down the stretch. He’s shown some flexibility this month even in games that have gone poorly. If there’s criticism of his rigidity — and I think there is! — it’s that he hasn’t changed enough, or soon enough. I have been pretty negative about the job he’s done this year BUT maybe he makes some adaptations and the roster changes for next year reflect that. This kind of year happens to almost every program, much as I hate it and I think the particular manner and reasons were predictable and could’ve been mitigated. The real test is what happens next year, and in the offseason. If IU hadn’t suffered through Archie’s fallow years it would be a little easier to stomach a year like this, assuming it ends in the NIT or whatever. But there’s pressure built that isn’t really CMW’s fault, and it sure would’ve been nice if he inherited more at guard than he did.

Even if you say Phinisee’s health is a bad break, it’s just remarkable how bad CAM was at evaluating and utilizing guards. I thought he underutilized Robert Johnson the one year he had him, failed to maximize Devonte Green, confused/scared Phin even setting aside the injuries, absolutely mishandled Romeo (who should’ve been running like 15 PNRs/game), prioritized Morton, didn’t offer Braden Smith….

Without turning the game on, I’m sure the vibes are so bad you can feel it

Archie was really after him, and he wasn’t putting up big numbers in PA HS hoops. I know everyone knows that but it remains so deeply strange that I feel like I must bring it up

2nd half foul disparity is 8-1 after just over 10 min

Boarding a flight in about 90 minutes, would like to do it while the game is in hand.

Agreed, though despite a bad plus/minus today I don’t know that Gunn would’ve been better than Leal. Woody hasn’t had a good year but the coaching today wasn’t the problem.