BGleas

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.

I know. The only players I really, really like on this team are TJD, and then the hope of what Phinisee, Hunter and Smith could/would be if healthy (Phinisee and Hunter) or developed with skill (Smith). Everyone else is kind of “meh” as players on top tier teams.

I think the biggest reason IU isn't ranked is the margin of victory in these recent wins. I think the Wisconsin loss could be overlooked and even squeaking by UConn, if we had taken care of business against Nebraska (shouldn't go to OT at home against that team) and if IU had held the lead against ND. I think it's really those last two games, Nebraska and ND. I know Nebraska beat Purdue, but that was at home. At home IU should beat Nebraska going away, not have Nebraska force an OT. If IU had passed the eye test against Neb & ND, we'd be ranked.

Fine, call it ugly. It’s going to be that way this season because we don’t have an elite guard or wing. IU is going to have to gut out a lot of wins, unless Phinisee makes a leap now that he’s healthy (which is possible), Green magically becomes consistent (less likely) and/or Hunter or Anderson make an in-season offensive leap (not sure if that can happen). An ugly, gut it out win is still a win and if IU can get 20+ of those then we’re a tournament lock.

Yeah, TJD struggled tonight defensively on the perimeter. He’s had games where he did well out there, but not tonight. I noticed out of a late timeout IU came out switching all screens, which isn’t normal for us. Archie was have been trying something different defensively since we were getting torched.

I’ll take the win. I’m an Archie supported, but I’m also fair and willing to criticize when warranted. I thought Archie was bad tonight. It was plain as day that the big lineup was killing IU. With Smith on the wing and two bigs that can’t shoot, Nebraska just packed the paint all night. Not only did it mean TJD didn’t have room to operate, but also none of guards could get to rim. It took Archie 30 minutes to recognize. Once he moved Smith to the 4 and and went smaller, Smith thrived operating at the foul line and TJD finally had room operate.

Agree with your post, but wanted to specifically mention this last part. I completely agree. Did you see in the Wisconsin game when they came back from a timeout and highlighted Trice basically running Wisconsin's timeout? Name me one guy on IU's roster that is capable of that or willing to be that kind of leader? There just isn't anybody, and there certainly isn't anybody in the senior and junior classes or in the class that just graduated that can do that.

Agree completely, on both points. In terms of Archie being 'overwhelmed', he doesn't strike me as the type of guy that gets overwhelmed or lacks confidence very easily. I'm sure he knows what he's doing and what needs to be done. How it executes remains to be seen, but he's not 'overwhelmed'.

Like I said from the outset, Archie holds responsibility for some strategic things. The players hold responsibility for not coming ready to compete and play.

If it becomes a persistent problem, yes it’s on Archie. As of now this has only happened once this season.

Agree almost completely. A game like yesterday, as far as the effort and mentality at least, is on the players IMO, as an isolated game. If it becomes the norm, then it’s a program problem which absolutely falls on the coach. Im not ready to say, yet, that this is a problem for Archie. If it continues this season, then yes I agree.

What are you talking about? I never said anything about Archie not having to help the players. Archie absolutely holds blame for some strategic things that went wrong yesterday, which I previously said. But, Al Durham’s job is to come to the arena ready to play and compete. Joey Brunk’s job is to show up ready to play and compete, etc., etc. Players hold responsibility too. While your job as a leader at work is to put your employees in the right position to succeed and to develop strategies that will make your department/team successful, your employees job is to show up to wor ready to do work and do their jobs.

Agree with your general point, I’d just say that players being mentally ready to play and compete, and game plans, scouting, etc., are different things.

That’s a very simplistic point of view. As someone that played college basketball, when I had a bad game or simply wasn’t ready to play for whatever reason mentally, which happens to every single player at some point, I never thought ‘well, the coach should had me ready’. If the players hold no responsibility then we might as well just have Archie play Greg Gard 1-on-1.

At the 50,000 ft view, yes of course the coach is ultimately responsible for the program. On a game-to-game basis, the players hold responsibility too, and these guys did not come ready to play.