BGleas

I would love it if we had the guard/wing depth to play Mgbako at the 4 in smaller, more skilled and athletic lineup.

Subtle thing, but I like that these are pro basketball titles. Shows we're serious about creating an atmosphere to prepare these guys. That's attractive to the top players.

The bottom line is that at the end of the day this is absolutely not a team that will go into tournament play untested.

Meh! Lot's of way to build toughness, including playing numerous top 10 teams both neutral site and on the road. We have something like 4 games against the preseason top 5. One of those on the road and two in tournament style neutral site locations.

Couldn't care less about how many true road games we have in the non-conference. Would rather have neutral site games anyways. It's a smarter way to schedule. We'll have tons of tough road games in conference. Last time I checked the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament are neutral site, not road games.

Yeah it probably won't, though probably should at least for stretches.

I think Indiana is best suited to have more guys playing together that can handle, make plays, shoot, push the pace and defend multiple positions.

I doubt we'd do it, but I'd rather see: XJ TG Forbes MM Reneau/Ware

I dont really think that's it. They were horrible at the charge/block call before the semi circle was introduced in the college game. College refs reward the defense way too much for crappy defense. The benefit of the doubt should always go to the offensive player on those bang-bang block/charge calls. But college refs love to call charges.

There is no worse officiating in sports than a college basketball ref calling a charge. They're absolutely horrendous at it. It's worse than NFL refs trying to figure out what a catch is.

I mean, they're pretty educated guesses, not just random guesses. There's a reason Trey Galloway started 25 games last season and averaged 28mpg. There's a reason CJ Gunn only played in 20 games last season and only averaged 7.5mpg. Can CJ Gunn improve? Absolutely. But, we also know he's starting with a pretty wide gap between he and Trey Galloway. We also know that Woodson tends to lean toward veterans in these cases and that Woodson definitely believes in and trusts Galloway. Things can change for sure with improvement, but we know heading into the offseason that the coaching staff thinks Galloway is clearly ahead of Gunn. If not, Gunn would have been in the rotation last season and Galloway wouldn't have played 28mpg. By your posting standards on this topic then we can't project any starters for next season. I guess we can't project or assume that XJ will start at PG? He and Gabe Cupps are starting at a level playing field? We can't assume Mgbako will start? We can't project anything?

Agree as well. He's very skilled and had good footwork, and while not always a willing passer he showed strong skills there, especially out of the high post. Agree with him being strong as a small ball 5 as well, sort of what I meant by the square peg, round hole thing since he'll most likely spend most of his time at the 4. But, with his handle and passing when he does it, he can be a great player if he also comes back and can confidently knock down shots in the pick and pop. A ton of potential and value with development.

My thought on all of this that the lineups are going to be interesting. Completely agree Woodson wants to run a more open, guard oriented offense, as he's directly said. I'd imagine a lot of the sets you've mentioned will be in play or similar. The player I'm most curious about at this point is Reneau. Great talent and I'm a fan, but I also think he's a bit of a square peg in a round hole in terms of what Woodson wants to do. He's still more of a post-up, paint big. He showed some flashes of a perimeter shot early last season, but if I'm Reneau I'm making 300-500 3pt shots everyday this offseason. I see us running a lot of ball screen action with Ware, and Ware is not a post-up, paint big, he's more of a rim-runner, which is great but you also don't want Reneau standing in the paint while that's happening, so would be great if he can knock down spot up 3's while that is happening. I think Woodson prefers 4's like Mgbako (not saying he's playing the 4), Anthony Walker, previous IU guys like Troy Williams and Watford, or like how he deployed Josh Smith and Carmelo in Atlanta and NYC. Again, if I'm Reneau I'm spending all summer becoming a reliable spot-up 3pt shooter. If I'm Kaleb Banks I'm working my butt off all summer with the mentality that I'm beating out Reneau for that 4 spot so we have an ultra-athletiic, interchangeable lineup of Ware, Banks, Mgbako, Galloway and XJ. Not saying Banks starts, just saying if I'm him then that's my mentality this summer. But again, a very wordy, long way of saying Reneau is the wildcard here in my opinion in terms of style of play.

I wouldn't categorize Ware as an "under the basket big". He's not a post player. He's a long, athletic PnR big that can pick/pop as well as rim run. This isn't a dump into the post 7-footer. He'll be out on the perimeter setting ball screens, flaring and rolling to the basket for lobs and put backs.

Yup, and I'd be selling that hard to MM right now. It doesn't even have to be 100% accurate to sell it. At IU, we've got 4 guys at the 4 and 5, you're a straight up wing here.