BGleas

He didn’t say the rotation was shortening. He said he’d shorten it if he had too. He’d do whatever they needed to win. If guys didn’t give effort and play hard, then they wouldn’t play and he’d play the 5 guys that do. Everyone did play hard and with passion, so the message reached them.

That’s not really what I meant. Of course you have to have flexibility, I meant that the idea to cancel because word got out and they don’t want a spectacle is maybe not the best way to go.

I think an aspect to Hunter playing better the other day was that he was able to settle in and get comfortable, and part of that was that he didn’t have to split time with Anderson. I really like Anderson, but it’s tough for both he and Hunter when they each get 8-10 minutes instead of one of them getting 15-20. It stinks for one of them, but I think Archie really needs to choose one and give them the minutes for 3-4 games and see if they can thrive.

The best way to not have it made into a spectacle is to have it really planned out, both IU and the Knight family have everything approved, including the date. It becomes a spectacle if he just shows up, ultimately sending the IU admin into scramble mode. That's when mistakes and rash decisions get made. Agree on where he'll sit, what is/isn't allowed in terms of TV cameras, media, jumbotron etc. and have the video approved and ready to roll, agree on the date, and then it's super simple.

Even if it was just a token press, I was really glad to see Archie bring that back against OSU after it worked so well the last 10 minutes against NW. Sometimes just mixing things up a bit during a game can swing momentum, I just hope we keep doing it because it hasn’t happened often in the Archie era. It’s like a football team who’s offense has stalled most of the game, then they come out in a no huddle and it kickstarts everything.

I think the best outcome for IU is Archie devlivering in his statement about shortening the rotation. Bench Green and Davis, play a small, tight rotation. The hopeful outcome is that it galvanizes the guys in the rotation and hopefully we can steal a win from OSU, but the other outcome is that it hopefully whips Green into shape and he decides he wants to be a part of this team. Can IU win without Green? Yes, because he makes so many bad, selfish plays. But, IU can’t reach its full potential without ‘good Devonte’. Might be wishful thinking, but it would be great if it played out that way.

I hate to hijack this thread and I also hate to make it about rankings, and while I like some of what Archie has done (lots of Midwest kids), the reality is that this roster if filled with guards and wings ranked 100+, with a majority 130+ in their high school rankings, and leftovers from Crean we’re even worse. To win at a high level consistently, we’re going to need some guards like Yogi, as an example.

I’ll back you up a little bit here though, in terms of your OP. I don’t think a freshmen Leal would ever take Durham’s spot, but I do agree with you that Durham is not a key player on an elite team. For all the criticism Archie takes, IMO the biggest criticism should be why are we counting on Durham and Green to be core, key guys in year 3? I’m way less worried about the offense and the Pack Line, than I am about our recruiting. We’re counting on Durham to be a 25-30mpg guy and Devonte Green to be a our primary perimeter scoring threat. That’s the big issue. Those guys are 7th-10th guys on any Big Ten Title contending team, not frontline players.

Bottom line is, if Al Durham, or anyone really, is going to take 12 free throw attempts, I’ll happily take that every single game. Along with his leadership and defensive pressure the last 10 minutes, which changed the pace of the game, he had a good night. Was he great? No, really nobody was. But, he had a good, solid night.

No it’s not. They weren’t all shooting fouls. I believe we had them in the bonus in both halves, and really early in the first half.

Getting to the foul line and getting the other team in foul trouble is a hugely important aspect of a basketball game. I’ll take it any time one of guards can get to the line 11 times in a game. That was a big factor last night.

Worse dribbling, worse shooting, worst finishing at the basket, but smarter and a much better defender. Williams could fly to the basket and break someone down off the dribble to get to the basket. Smith can't do that.

Not too many 'natural 3's' that can't dribble or shoot. And no, he can't dribble. I mean yes, technically he can dribble a ball, but he has almost no ability to break a defender down with the dribble and get to the basket. Almost all of his scoring comes from the paint and the block. His best move the past 2-3 weeks has been his little jump hook from the block/paint. Just because he's 6'8", long and athletic, it doesn't make him a 3. You have to have the skill to go with it and he doesn't. Where I will agree with you is that Smith is really important to this team. That's why I've never suggested, at least not this season, removing him from the lineup. He can and would be really effective playing around the basket and slashing to the basket if there was actually space to do it, but with TJD, Brunk and Smith playing together there is no space. We also need his defense, he often gets overlooked as one of our best defenders.

I still think Brunk should play a lot. He’s playing too well to just remove his minutes. I’d shorten the rotation on the inside with TJD and Smith starting and Brunk playing almost all the rest of those minutes spelling both. Race if we need to go a little deeper with foul trouble or something. I know our guards and wings are playing terrible. I get it. But this team isn’t going anywhere if our guards and wings don’t gain confidence and start producing and playing better. The status quo won’t accomplish that. We need to go smaller which gets Smith in the right spot, let’s us feature TJD, Anderson should open lanes for Rob and Al and hopefully more open shots for our guards/wings. Play through TJD and then on kick outs have our guards and wings attack the basket relentlessly. Hope that sucks in the defense and gets them scrambling and quick reversals get our guys more open, in rythem 3. Attacking smaller will also hopefully get some easy baskets driving for guards/wings to get their confidence going. But, we can’t continue with our guards and wings having nowhere to go, no mechanism for getting easy baskets and just clanging late shotclock jumpers. People complain about Durham’s contested layups, maybe those layups are less contested with more space and a less clogged lane.

Uh, yeah he is out of position. He’s not a wing. He needs to be slashing to the basket or on the block, not standing around the 3-pt line with nobody even trying to pretend they’re guarding him.

Smith. He’s 1,000% not a wing, at least not on this team. Maybe he could be on a team that has some dynamic guards that can make plays and score, as well as a true stretch 4, but that’s not this team. On this team, playing Smith on the wing means 3 guys in the lineup that can’t shoot or dribble drive. It means 3 guys in the lineup that the defense doesn’t even have to leave the paint to defend. On this team, he’s a 4. As far as the halfcourt, he does his best work near the basket, but that’s hard to do with TJD and Brunk both there. Edit: just to be clear, I love Smith’s effort this year, his mentality amd his leadership.

Sounds good. Let's keep doing the same thing, keep playing players out of position, and cross our fingers and hope the offense magically gets better.

Love will definitely get moved. But, I don’t think he’s the only player not loving Beilein in Cleveland.

Im not sure he’ll survive more than this season in Cleveland. A lot of unrest in Cleveland.

You space the floor by being able to attack the basket with quickness. You cause the defense to scramble with quick ball and people movement to create mismatches, etc. You also play at a faster pace. And maybe, with quicker offense that produces easier shots, your guards and wings gain some confidence and start hitting a few more open jumpers. Will it definitely work? I don’t know. But I do know playing Smith at the wing along with TJD and Brunk (3 guys together that don’t even attempt jumpers and none of them can dribble drive either) completely stalls out the offense. TJD, Brunk and Smith don’t have room to operate and none of our guards and wings have any room to attack the basket.

Yeah, no. Just doing what we’ve been doing isn’t the answer. Going smaller makes us a quicker, more athletic team. It will allow us to play faster. It will open driving lanes for our guards/wings to get to the basket, which not only helps the offense and opens things up for TJD and Smith in the paint, and Brunk when he comes in, but also can help our guards and wings gain confidence of they can get some easy buckets in transition and the half court. It also can help us defensively, and preventing penetration has been a huge issue. We’d be quicker and faster defensively. It’s also 100%, crystal clear that Justin Smith is not a wing. He doesn’t have the skill or shooting. He needs to be in the paint. Does all of this work? Maybe, maybe not. But we do know what we’re currently doing isn’t working.

I feel like there is a lot of hyperbole in this thread, which stinks because the OP had a great point. But the idea that everyone has a green light and all Archie's teams do is chuck 3's is completely inaccurate, especially when compared to the previous staff. We have two starters (TJD and Brunk) that I don't think have taken a single 3. Smith hardly takes an either. Even Phinisee, who has the ball a lot when he's healthy, doesn't take that many. And as has been noted, IU is near the bottom in the country in 3-pt attempts. You'd also think by some comments that IU is 2-11, not 11-2. Should we have beaten Arkansas? Absolutely. Should Nebraska be taking IU to OT at home? No way. Should we blow a double-digit 2nd half lead to ND and have to claw back for the win? No way. But, we're still 11-2 and while there are some concerning signs, this team still holds it's destiny in it's own hands. With all of that said, I agree with the OP and many others that IU has got to find a way to make the 3-pt line a bigger weapon offensively. We need the right guys taking them at the right times. We need to take more of them, but again from the right guys. If we're not going to go smaller, then our guards that do shoot adequately need to get more confident and force the defense to respect them out there. I also agree with whoever said that if Archie doesn't add some more shooting/playmaking guards that it could be his undoing. We need guys with Green's confidence to shoot but that are better shooters and decision makers than Green. Right now the other guards look almost forced into shooting.

Yeah, because it works really well in basketball in this era when 3/5 of your starting lineup can't shoot or penetrate. You have seen teams basically just standing in the paint for entire second halves and our offense completely grinding to a halt? Smith is better this year because he's older, more mature and experienced, and playing within himself, not because he's playing on the wing. Once an opposing coach figures out we can't shoot, they completely lay off of Smith, Brunk and TJD, meaning none of them have any room to operate in the paint. It completely neuters our offense. Smith and TJD are best in the paint, but neither can get there in the big lineup once a coach adjusts (which will be much quicker in Big Ten play, as evidenced by Wisconsin and Nebraska). Smith's production has dropped a lot as the competition has risen, the talent has gotten better, etc. Against Power 5 schools he's averaging just 9.6 ppg on 44% from the field and 14% from 3. Against the softer part of the schedule he averaged 14.2 ppg on 57.3% from the field and 36.3% from 3. Teams simply don't defend him, TJD, Race or Brunk on the perimeter. Against the softer schedule he could get by, but against good competition he doesn't shoot well enough and his handles aren't good enough to penetrate from the wing, especially with TJD and Brunk's defenders waiting there. We need to go smaller.

Becaise Green needs to be playing alongside a healthy Phinisee, so he can focus on what he does best, as he did at the end of last season. In that role he can excel. We also need to get at least one of, preferably both of, Hunter or Anderson going offensively. One thing Hunter has shown, albeit it limited, is a good touch from the post. I think/hope he could excel and gain confidence playing closer to the basket spelling Smith as a 4. It’s pretty clear at this point that Smith needs to go to his natural 4 and the team needs to go smaller. Basically every team just packs the paint against our big lineup and it completely halts the offense. I agree on shorter lineup. In my scenario I’d have Brunk and Franklin playing the bigger minutes off the bench, Anderson and Hunter fewer unless they begin to excel, and Thompson on an as-needed basis.

Assuming health, I’d go Phinisee, Green, Durham, Smith and TJD. Brunk comes in for TJD Hunter in for Smith Anderson in for Durham Franklin in for Green/Phinisee Thompson for a few to go big for a bit. We need to get quicker, faster and more skilled, and create more space.