BGleas

Why do you have to assume that? You could assume that they've struck deals with each player and everyone is on the same page in terms of what their allotment is. We don't have to assume the worst. It looks to me like that players and the HH guys are on good terms and have a solid working relationship. On the optics for both, but especially Woody's daughter, I'm not sure there are any optics. Outside of a few posts on some message boards, is anyone really even talking about it? Certainly nobody outside of some IU fans and maybe that writer from earlier this week, nobody really cares.

So are we thinking Jeremy Fears got home from his visit and thought, "I really like IU. Great coaches, clicked with the players, historical basketball school with great facilities, I think I might want to go there! Oh wait, there were those two guys at the football game that asked me that weird question. That was weird, cross Indiana off the list!"

I trust Mike Woodson and the athletic department to handle things the right way and handle punishments. My personal opinion is that it is an extremely safe assumption that XJ has been punished a great deal internally already. So with that assumption, I don’t see any need to suspend him for games 7-8 months after the fact for things he's already been punished or held accountable for. Suspending him for an exhibition game or two would be for fan optics.

Not sure if I'm reading your post wrong, but that's not really what I meant. I think Reneau will play more then just to give TJD or Race a breather for a few minutes. I think he'll be consistent rotation player that gets somewhere between 15-20 minutes per game and is a contributing factor. . He'll allow TJD and Race to play less minutes throughout the season, not just give them a rest for a few minutes here and there.

Sounds good to me, let's go win this thing!!

My expectation is that Malik Reneau is pretty similar to a freshmen TJD in terms of talent. He won't have the same opportunity that TJD had as a freshmen because Reneau is coming into a much more talented team, but he should have a big impact on IU this season and should contribute from the beginning. He'll allow both TJD and Race Thompson to play less minutes and be more fresh for the postseason. I expect that he'll be a pretty big upgrade over Michael Durr and a sophomore Geronimo. How he'll compare to a junior Geronimo remains to be seen. Either way, IU will have one of the best interior rotations in the country.

Excellent point! Knowing how to play off the ball and move off the ball is a absolutely a skill.

Yup, I think it's just his personality, which doesn't lend itself well to being a star pro player. Changing someone's mentality towards the game would be tough to do for any coach in just 1 season. Stevens and Udoka couldn't do it either.

I have some thoughts on that as a Celtics fan. Before I get into it, I understand college and the NBA are completely different. I understand that it's different playing on a team when you're the leading scorer (IU) vs a team where you're a role player (Celtics). I get all of that and probably could have listed more. But with that said, I watched Langford for three seasons in Boston constantly hoping he would break out. Constantly hoping he would improve his offensive game. What I saw for three seasons was Romeo Langford literally standing in the corner doing basically nothing offensively every time he went into the game. You could say that it's because it was his role in Boston, but during those same years guys like Semi Ojeleye and Javonte Green (an undrafted rookie in the same class) would come in and make things happen and get involved offensively. They'd find ways to be aggressive and get involved in the offense. All while Langford just stood in the corner and would actually run to the opposite corner if the ball came to his side. It was puzzling. I don't mean this as some big defense of Archie. Not really the intent. Just saying after watching Langford closely for 4 years (1 at IU and 3 in Boston) the standing in the corner seems to be a "him" thing as opposed to a coach thing.

Am I the only one that thinks the Phinisee injury thing gets overplayed? He certainly had more then his share of nagging injuries over his 4 years, no doubt about that. But, he also never blew out a knee, tore an Achilles or really had any major injury (except the concussion). He played in 111 games over 4 years. Phinisee had plenty of time to show he could be a lead guard at this level, and while I like Phinisee and don't mean this as a post to bash him or anything, the results were below average. His shooting numbers, both from the field and beyond the arc, were pretty awful over 111 games. I don’t really think Phinisee's injuries had much to do with Archie's lack of success, I think it was way more his inability to recruit a better starting point guard over him.

Do we know that is good though? I don't know. What are the end of bench scholarship guys getting at UK, MSU, Duke, Michigan, OSU, etc? It's only good if it's comparable or higher than the schools we're competing against for kids. I'm not saying this to complain or anything, I just don't have a frame of reference for how good $38K for NIL at this level.

Appreciate the info! Yeah, definitely something to promote assuming our guys are making more than what players are making at other schools.

Is $38K good though? I don't know, I'm genuinely asking the question. I'd say IU should let recruits know, but maybe not if players at UK, MSU, OSU, Michigan, Duke, KU, etc., have made $200K at this point. We know the kid Pack at Miami has made $400K (i think $800K over 2 years was his deal).

Completely agree! I'm a big Zeller fan too, but not sure he's hit more than a handful of shots outside the paint in 9 years in the NBA.

I actually don't get all the talk about Crean not using Zeller right? How was he supposed to use him that he didn't? Zeller is an extremely athletic big man that can't shoot and doesn't really have above average post moves. Crean built a fast-paced offense that utilized Zeller's end-to-end speed, athleticism and bball IQ. We often gave Zeller the ball at the top of the key to break down bigger, more plodding bigs and used his IQ with surrounding with shooters, etc. The guy averaged 15.6ppg as a freshmen and over 16ppg as a sophomore on a team that had another All-American on it.

He's also probably the one guy, at least postbthe NC State game in the BIG/ACC Challenge his freshmen year that if he was playing i thought we had a chance against anyone in the country.

Completely agree. Zeller was dominant from the second he stepped foot on campus. Not sure why people tend to minimize it or forget it? I think maybe part of it is just that he only stayed 2 years, where a guy like Yogi and even TJD now stayed 4 years. I also think what plays into that is we wanted Zeller to be our sort of Tyler Hansbrough or someone similar. Someone that stayed even when he could have left. I really think that is part of it. But regardless, I still think Zeller is the most important, best, whatever you want to call it, player/recruit since the Crean era started.

Yeah, I think those things go hand in hand. Without as much room for true centers in the NBA, more are staying in college. Its a weird dynamic because it just makes the difference between NBA and college that much wider.

Before Game 1 of the Finals the other night, Adam Silver discussed changing to the All-NBA Team to better reflect positionless basketball. So, they could be getting rid of the positional requirements soon.

There's just stuff that is better kept in-house. He's kind of painted himself and Woodson into a corner a bit. Again, I don’t disagree with him, I just think it mistake to air that stuff publicly. He can make all those points crystal clear in the locker room. His wording publicly was not great IMO.

Then they've both kind of put themselves in a zero tolerance policy situation. We've seen that movie play out before. Again, not disagreeing with him, just no need to make this stuff public. Potentially does more harm than good.

Agree. Love that he's back and love that he's taking ownership of the program and team, etc. Love that! With that said, some things are meant to stay in-house, and I think yesterday was actually a misstep by TJD. If I'm a teammate or even Woodson, I'm kind of looking at him sideways today. He kind of put Woodson in a bit of a bind as well with his comments on what suspensions should be.

I would argue that TJD is partially, if not mostly, responsible for creating the drama. I agree with his stance on the things he said about NW and some of the drug stuff, but there was absolutely no reason to make that public. Again to be crystal clear, I agree with most of what he said, but I think it was a misstep in leadership to make all of that public. I agree with you that fans and the program have moved on from the NW debacle, but in fairness TJD is the one who brought it back up, not Phinisee, Lander, Stewart or Durr.

I'm going to leave it at this and then do my best to stay out of any JG debates the rest of the offseason. I hope he makes a leap this offseason. He has a lot to work on, but also a lot of potential. I think Race wore down at the end of last season, so JG improving so that Woodson can better balance their minutes ( say something like 60/40) so Race stays fresh and JG can grow would be great for the team, program and both Race and JG.

I'm out, not gonna debate it like this. Enjoy!