BGleas

I can't think of a player in recent memory that deserves a great, long run into March more than TJD. Maybe Yogi his senior year, but even then he already had a league title, 2 tourney appearances and a Sweet Sixteen. I want these next 2+ months to be amazing so much for TJD. He's earned that.

Absolutely and completely agree. Just with this team it doesn't bother me quite as much. Don't want to see the low attempts every game and we need games like today. But, as we've discussed with this team it's all about that defensive identity. The offense has been fine.

I'm confused. But yeah, LFG IU!!

In years past I would have complained about this a lot. This year? I'm completely fine with how we're playing offense. TJD is dominating and IU is playing with an identity and a purpose on that end, as well as very efficiently.

Absolutely! I've had the same thoughts watching other teams offensively vs IU really dating back to Archie getting here. Kopp specifically made a comment, I think after the Wisconsin game, that his role is to defend and create space, then knock down open shots, not to hunt tough shots and get volume of shots. He said he needs and is embracing that role. Agree on integrating XJ and Race back in. That could be tricky. I've always been an XJ fan despite some of his flaws. But JHS has grown a ton and is a legit NBA guard. We need XJ as another ball handler but I think this is JHS's offense at this point and that could get tricky to handle. Also, Race is obviously very valuable, but with JG embracing his role and excelling in it, he adds an athletic element that Race doesn't quite. JG is really good when playing to his strengths. Will be interesting to see.

Don't really want to get into the weeds on it and the whole wing thing again, but IMO it's pretty clear JG wasn't focused on what his role is and what made him successful up until the last two games. He came out this season seemingly focused on proving he can make 3's as opposed to focusing on what his role is and how he can star in it. As you said, it sounds like Woodson had a come to Jesus moment with him on what he needs to do to help this team and to JG's credit he had embraced that and it's paying off for him and the team. I've always said that of JG focuses on his role and what makes him a good, valuable player then he can be a huge asset and reason why this team reaches its goals.

Thanks, I think? Not sure if you mean interesting good or bad? :) I guess what I mean more specifically is that with TJD and JHS IU has two of the best players every time they step on the court and many nights the two best. Everyone else needs to fill in and supplement that with defense, energy, effort and smart play. IU can win a lot of game with defense, energy and effort being the identity and offensively just feeding off of TJD and JHS.

A little late to the parry, but what a great win! So much of college basketball is about a team finding its identity, and if this team has found its identity and can stay true to it then all if their goals are still right there. If this is a gritty defensive team that plays with effort and energy consistently, and offensively just builds around TJD and JHS with the "others" playing their roles and supplementing, IU will win a lot games. It took JG awhile, but finally accepting his role and what his role is and starring in his role makes him an extremely valuable player. He was always a junkyard dog, "college 4", was never a wing. In this role he's phenomenal. Same for Kopp. He made mention after Wisconsin (I think) that his role offensively isn't to put up a ton of shots but it's to create space for others and knock down the shots he does get, while playing tough, smart defense. With energy, effort, a defensive mindset and smart offense, everything is still right in font of this team.

That's also what happens when you're an NBA caliber player. We haven't really had that at the guard spot since Yogi (which seems crazy that it's been that long). NBA talent can get to where they want to.

Over-coaching at its finest. Maybe it's to justify their salaries, but college coaches over coach the crap out of the game.

Great win and great coaching job by Woodson and the staff, both in terms of getting the guys ready and also in terms of adjustments during the game. Also have to give a huge shout out to Jordan Geronimo. He was great today and if he plays like that he is a big X factor for IU and for keeping this afloat while we get healthy. Geronimo finally accepted and played his role, one that he's really good at when he's locked in. I think all of wing talk over the offseason was a big distraction. When Geronimo focuses on what he's really good at and what has given him success in the past he's really good. He's an athletic, intense, junkyard dog 4 that does the dirty work, and in that role he's fantastic.

I haven't gone to look for a link, but it was pretty commonly discussed after the game that Woodson lit TJD up at halftime of that game.

That's exactly what Woodson did to TJD at halftime of the Michigan BTT game. Not like Woodson doesn't do it.

Pickett scares me. He can completely control a game and with Race out and JG being basically unplayable, we have nobody that matches up well with him.

Agree completely. The largest reason for the current struggles is crystal clear, we're missing two of our best players. It's not rocket science. With a healthy team we're 2-0 in Power 5 games. I promise if X and Race were healthy we would not have the record we have. Before people get upset and say I'm "making excuses", the injuries flat-out matter and have negatively impacted the season, but with that said we still should not be losing to NW at home and should be able to beat Iowa on the road. Regardless, none of this has anything to do with Dane Fife.

Something that I thought was interesting, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong because I didn't read everything, but from I saw the comments on TJD's post where he shared the fan letter were 99% fans telling him how much they loved and appreciated him. Did TJD share any of those? Did he reply to any of those fans thanking them?

There is a ton to complain about with college officials, but IMO the biggest gripe is how NCAA officials just hunt out charges to call. It's ridiculous.

Agree. This isn't some trend. We've been fine against zone otherwise.

One more note, I hope we destroy them in Bloomington and that in the post-game every IU players answers every media questions with "it seemed like their coach had no clue what he was doing." Literally answer every question with that.

Completely agree. We haven't had a guy that could take over and had the confidence to do it since Yogi, really. We haven't had a guy that could just sense and feel moments and take them over in a long time, certainly not on the road.

89 is plenty, but wasn't enough. Several reasons we lost, but one was absolutely that our offense stalled the last several minutes.

Agree. I think the biggest issue was the lack of movement. For some reason 4 guys were just standing around with no movement trying to force feed TJD. That seems to always happen late in close games, and that is absolutely on Woodson ultimately.

Thanks for sharing! Good to understand the reality with data and not just emotion.

Is there any data supporting the idea that we did poorly against the zone, other than Connor McCaffrey running his mouth? I dont know, I haven't the advanced metrics or anything, but do know we scored 89 points and from what I've read we scored something like 61 points after they went to the zone.

Not sure where you specifically stood on it, but I was in debates with people on this board last summer that were saying Galloway shouldn't even be in the rotation this season, yet now we're going to expect there to not be a big drop-off from XJ/JHS to him? I've never been high on JG as anything more then a energy backup 4 in 10-15 minutes, so no I don't expect him to replace Race Thompson without a dropff, though admittedly I also didn't expect the train wreck like performance he put in Thursday. I do agree with you though, that it does seem odd that so many young players that aren't super highly ranked seem to come into some other programs and contribute right away, and it seems like at IU unless you're a McDonald's AA, we don't get much from you, especially early. For whatever reason, we just have not recruited "dawgs" for years. We haven't recruited super confident guys with just massive swagger, etc. I dont know why that is. There is something there and it's spanned multiple coaches, so I do hear what you're saying about something at the program level. With all of that said, very few teams if any are going to survive the injuries we've had to the players we've had them too. You can't just dismiss that. But again, I do hear what you're saying and don't totally disagree.