BGleas

Absolutely! I think it also helps with XJ's decision making when he attacks. He had more space Thursday when attacking off the PnR and he made much better decisions on when to go score, when to drop it off to the bigs and when to kick out. As you said, it was just less crowded.

Completely agree. I remember Baylor last year, they essentially played a 41 offense with their 5 basically running around setting ball screens all possession. Mark Vital was their 4 and he would mostly spot up in the corner. Vital, built similar to Race, was an even worse 3pt shooter then Race, but it still worked to space the floor for their dynamic guards and wings. Of course our guards and wings aren't nearly as talented as Baylor's from last year, but my point is that Woodson came in talking about wanting to play a 41 offense, but he sort of abandoned it since neither TJD or Race can shoot reliably. I don’t think he needs to a abandon it though, and I thought we actually went to it against Maryland to an extent and it worked well. We didn't have Race all the way in the corner, but I saw an adjustment where Race was more in the short corner as opposed to on the block and it created more space for XJ in the PnR with TJD. I'd love to see Woodson move the offense this way with it based around a 41 set up running through XJ and TJD in the PnR game, as opposed to running the offense through TJD and Race on the block. I definitely don't think we're better without TJD. But, I do think we're better running a more spread offense and getting our guards and wings much more involved and then going to our bigs through PnR.

I don't get the handwringing over the substitutions? He phases in the subs, they're not all at once, though they are all on the court together for a short period of time. But it only happens in the first half, not the 2nd half. He's seeing who has it and who doesn't for a few minutes. Durr rarely plays in the 2nd half, and recently Bates doesn't either, with Geronimo just getting a few minutes. It's mainly Phinisee and now Galloway.

I record most games and watch them later as well, not because of apathy but because I have 3 kids between elementary and middle school so our calendar is packed. But what I can't imagine doing is recording the game and then only watching it if we win. I avoid the score and then watch it later that day. Can't imagine spending 2 hours to watch a game that I already know the outcome of.

I've always heard Woodson say that Matta is in most, if not all of their meetings.

That could be the case, but at some point you either have to get over it an ball...the clock is ticking on his career.

He misses a ton of wide open catch and shoot 3's though.

I don't have any great insight here, other then the old Parcells line, "you are what your record says you are". Phinisee is in year 4 and has proven over that time that he is not a good shooter. He's a below 36% shooter overall and a below 25% shooter from 3. That is really bad. Can he turn it around the back half of his senior year here? Sure he can. But, I wouldn't expect it. We've been playing this "he just needs confidence game with him for 3 years.

In Archie Miller's defense, I always thought IU was really good against zones the last 4 years.

That game changed when XJ came back into the game in the first half. He began pressure the heck out of their point guard and even denying him the ball. That's when IU's energy and effort, especially defensively changed.

I was in Maryland on Monday and listening to sports radio, the main gripe was Turgeon constantly playing small and sitting their bigs, when none of their guards/wings can shoot. Basically sitting some talented bigs and playing small with shooters that can't shoot. Sounds eerily familiar doesn't it?

Agree, and then you also need to hope guys like Stewart, Kopp, Phinisee, XJ, etc., get hot and knock down a good percentage of those open transition 3's.

Or was IU the first to publicly announce it?

All 5 Gonzaga fans are all up in my replies. It's actually pretty sad, given the Henry Ruggs situation today. Imagine on a day where that news happens that you take to Twitter to vigorously defend a college coaches lame DUI suspension because he coaches your favorite team.

Check this one out...She's looking for sympathy because Few might miss on a recruit because he had to miss their version of Hoosier Hysteria. Edit: I stole your self-awareness line later in the tweet, LIH

I made a similar tweet today off of the news of the Kansas player getting 1 exhibition game and 3 regular season games, and now all of these Gonzaga fan boys are in my replies arguing that there is no such thing as an exhibition and that Few got 3 games. Imagine having that take on the same day we find out an NFL player killed someone driving under the influence!?!? Click through and checkout the comments, it's crazy.

I know, just messing with you. My wife went there too. My favorite win of my college career was a road game at IUP my senior year when they were ranked in the top 25 and 1st place in our division was on the line, and we went in there (they were a tough place to play) and got the win.

Don't hate on IUP, I played against them twice a year for 4 years! We were in the same division of our conference.

Zeller was in the middle. He just refused to take the 10ft jumper and kept driving right into the teeth of the zone getting shot blocked.

Pure guess, but with his birthday today I'm going to guess it has something to do with Bob Knight. Maybe naming something after him, or some honorary title so he can "retire" a member of the program, sort when a player signs a 1-day deal before retiring. Doesn't sound like Knight's style, but just throwing a guess out there.

Clearly Mark Cuban, the players, the coaching staff and the athletic program do not feel these guys reflect poorly. A boatload of former players who have been guests on their podcast seem to not feel that way. I'm not saying I love everything the HH guys do, but clearly most people that are highly involved with the program value what they're doing.

True, I missed that one. Though he's not a guard either, so the larger point still stands.

Odd in this day and age to have the top 5 players in the conference all be bigs.

While certainly not as long as Woodson (partly because he's over 10-15 years younger), Howard spent 6 years as an assistant with the Miami Heat (one of the best run organizations top to bottom and for grooming coaches) and was considered a guy that was soon "up next" for a head coaching job.