bronkonagurski

That sucked.    I kind of like the Collins hire by Northwestern.  He might be the rare Coach K assistant that doesn't bomb out!    Puts us back at -1.  Two home losses versus one road win.  I was really hoping we would win out at home.  Blech.

  You sound like my roommate from my freshman year, lol.  He literally despised everyone.  Then again, he was pretty freaking weird and I suspect you are just venting. 

I knew it would happen if we won.  In my perfect world, no it does not happen.  But the reality is that it was going to happen.  It just isn't worth the teeth gnashing to me.  I might cringe but I'm not going to waste energy on it.  Still just as stoked about the win either way. 

  I don't take issue with what anyone else thinks about him.  I just hope he does turn it around because there is no downside to that scenario.

Last night was just what the doctor ordered.  Down 31-16 to Penn State on Saturday, I was honestly ready to just mail it in as a fan.  I was ready to completely and totally lose faith in the current team and crawl into a fragile shell constructed of jaded sarcasm.  Rallying to defeat PSU nudged me just far enough to not jump off the ledge but I still wasn't feeling too convinced.    However...and I don't know that I posted this here or not but I did post on one of the boards I expected us to raise a ruckus against Wisconsin.  Somehow, some way.  Didn't necessarily expect to win but I did not expect IU to get blown out either.    The way we played last night and how we won that game, it put the wind back in my sails.  I'm excited about the team again.  It was truly the first time since we beat Washington in MSG that I was able to catch such a positive. fulfilling buzz off this team.  We keep playing that kind of ball, we are going to finish with a winning conference record.  Now it is just one game and maybe it doesn't carry out the way I hope but for now, my faith in the players and coaching staff is renewed.  That is worth an amen for me.  We got to steal the Grinch's lunch for once and boy I enjoyed it. 

I really think we are going to give one hell of an effort tomorrow night.  We may not win but I don't think this team is going to get rolled. 

That Illinois loss just looks worse and worse.  I think they stink and we let one get away that we will need come March.  But lol @ the DUI fans, their tears last night were delicious.  :biggrin:

I haven't totally given up on the kid and I hope he is able to turn it around.  But if not, I think a change of scenery would be mutually beneficial to both Jeremy and the program.  I'd rather see him grow from this and become the player we want him to be. 

I can buy into the idea that JH perhaps was benched for something more than a coaching lesson but pulling DD into this rumor just makes it fall flat.  Assuming both kids did the same thing, you are going to tell me Crean played DD a couple minutes to throw people off the scent or whatever?  So who would the third one be, Johnny Marlin?  lol   If this was a buy/sell segment on Around the Horn, I'd be selling on this rumor without any further confirmation.

Nice to see the team stay tough after that bad start and fight back for the win.  Needed that one badly!  Honestly, I did not miss Hollowell one bit.  Jeff Howard being on the court late in the game gave me the willies but he actually did some good things today in his limited minutes.  Etherington with the clutch three, kind of reminded me of the one Remy hit from the corner in West Layflat a couple years back.    Onto Wisconsin.  Everyone will be expecting the worst so who knows, maybe this will actually be the time we beat those turds.  Never know, crazier things have happened.

I think it will be a fairly tight, ugly game but IU pulls it out. 

The roads in Fort Wayne were pretty bad today.  I feel like Larry, Curly and Moe were put in charge of clearing them. 

Well, we darn well beat Penn State or else that prediction might start looking true...

  This reminds me a lot of the talk amongst Pacers fans when Roy Hibbert initially got his latest contract.  He really wasn't putting up elite numbers but trust me, the impact he has made on games since then has more than justified the contract.  I think with Noah, no matter what the numbers are he still makes a significant impact on the game when he is on the floor. 

Tom's buyout is mighty pricey for a few years so those wanting him gone now will need to find a happy place for a while.     The notorious, controversial individual from certain other sites predicted before the season began that he expected IU to win 16-18 games and likely be a bubble or NIT team.  I scoffed at that and I think even he revised his expectations upwards at a certain point but...this season to me was a great unknown.  I wasn't sure how to even assign any expectations to it before I saw the product on the floor.  I've seen enough now to make a few observations of my own:   1)  The offense certainly has not changed, the personnel has changed.  And therein lies the problem, we don't have the personnel to run the same offense.  Last year, we could space the floor due to our perimeter threats and that allowed Victor to dribble penetrate down the middle of the defense.  This season, we aren't able to space the floor in that manner because defenses know they can pack the middle and not honor the three point line.  Therefore, the dribble penetration really isn't there and that is where our offense looks like a hot mess.  If we can't penetrate and we aren't able to get the ball to Noah in the post, this offense is just garbage right now.    2)  I expect a young team to have some struggles with turnovers.  I also expect to see some improvement in that area and so far it simply is not happening.  Plus the fact that our returning PG Yogi Ferrell has very much been a part of our turnover issues.  Which look, overall I like Yogi and I think he has been our best and most consistent player.  I think he is forcing things too much at times due to our larger issues.   3)  The 2012 class has been a disappointment.  Some people were saying that last season and I thought it was ridiculously early to make that assessment.  Well, a year later and I cannot help but share the sentiment.  Outside of Yogi, I have struggled to be impressed.  Hollowell seems worse than last year (I thought as the season progressed last season he started showing signs).  Hanner has improved, but not enough to live up to expectations yet.  Jurkin may as well not be on the team.  Buss, well we know he never made it here.  I know, too late to whine about it but I sure wish we had gotten Gary Harris.    4)  The underachievement of the 2012 class plus + everything we lost from last season (Zeller, Oladipo, Watford, Hulls) has put a lot more pressure on these 2013 kids to produce immediately.  The only one who I feel has been consistently up to that challenge has been Vonleh.  The other kids have had spurts but nothing consistent.  Troy will be a special player imo but he will need more seasoning and growth.  Fischer bailed.  Stanford had a really solid outing today and I think he can be good too but...I wish guys like Troy & Stan would have more of a chance to grow and develop behind upperclassmen.    5)  Our most experienced guy is Will Sheehey and I like the guy but...he is so inconsistent.  He has never made the same jumps as Victor.  He has worked hard and been scrappy and had some moments but end of the day, he still makes me feel like I'm watching a role player, a 6th man who happens to start games.    Bottom line, I certainly have criticisms of Crean.  My main criticism of the current team is that it is NOT well-constructed to execute the type of game that Tom wants to play.  Can he adjust and give this team a better chance to win going forward or will he keep slamming square pegs into round holes?    If we head to the NIT this March, so be it.  I won't enjoy that but I won't lose my mind over it.  My main concern is next season and going forward.  Luke's departure plus the prospect of Noah going pro makes me very nervous about a 2014-15 team that I was ready to pencil in as Crean's next best chance at a Final Four contender.  Can he manage the roster construction in such a way to get us back on track quickly? 

One thing I will say, I've never ever seen a sports message board that had an actual Thank You thread for a loss until tonight.  That is a bizarre twist from that other place. 

  Growing pains are to be expected but I'm not ready to write off any and all struggles on that premise.  We need to build winning habits.  Wasn't it Crean early in his tenure at IU that said never accept in defeat things that you would not accept in victory?  Maybe I am butchering that one, but I recall something along those lines. 

  13 per game isn't that bad imo.  I could be wrong but I think RMK used to set the bar at 12 turnovers per game.  That figure has been stuck in my head for a number of years. 

We pretty much were in a situation to win in spite of ourselves today.  Yogi had a big game but man oh man he had two very UGLY turnovers down the stretch in regulation.  I mean just literally "what the hell were you thinking" types of passes.  Can't give it away 20+ times and expect to win too many conference games.   I would not single out Crean and blame him for the loss but I thought he was too conservative with Noah's minutes in the last 4 minutes of regulation plus the OT period.  I wish he would have called timeout on that final possession of regulation.  I did think the play he called to end the game was pretty good, it just did not turn out.   Honestly I would rather not ever see Jeff Howard on the court unless it is garbage time.    The team gave a great effort and did better than I expected.  I honestly thought we would get beat by 10-15 today.  But man, we had a golden chance to steal a road game and came up short.  It is going to be a tough season.  I liked our effort but we have to play with more intelligence and better execution. 

To say this is Crean ball, I don't remember last year's team turning the ball over like this.  With a younger team I do expect more turnovers but these guys are seemingly not improving on that aspect of the game at all.  So Crean's Marquette teams consistently turned the ball over like this?   Today's turnovers were not all tempo related either.  We were turning it over in half court situations in additional to the transition game.  Plus the turnovers just trying to inbound the basketball.    We can't keep giving it away 20+ times per game and expect to get anywhere. 

  Crean is in his 6th season at Indiana.  People over-react to transfers.  I remember when RMK was coach, every time a kid left IU people would act like he was chasing off kids left and right but our transfer rate never exceeded the NCAA average.   

  That isn't an abnormal rate at all. 

  Well on the other sites there are people hinting at one or two more transfers so...I don't know.  Honestly I kind of expected Jurkin to fall into that category.  That would not be a surprise to me. 

  Malik Story, yeah.

Just goes to prove that women are the root of all evil!    Time to duck to avoid incoming bricks.  :ninja: