BGleas

Colin Hartman is nice player and I'm glad we have him, but he's not an interior defender or rebounder. This team could use true interior depth, like real big guys.

Agree. Was not insinuating that we should have kept Holt, just meant it would be nice to have some experienced depth behind Max.

Yes, but it would be nice to have Holt as depth behind Max.

IU will be more successful if it's leaders (Yogi, Troy, JBJ) commit to making defense a priority, not an afterthought. Thomas Bryant is great, but he'll be riding the pine a lot in foul trouble if those three continue to take plays off on defense and not commit to focusing on it big time.

Put it on the bulletin board!

Injuries can absolutely impact decision making. Clearly if you have broken ribs your natural reaction is going to be to try and protect them and not get hit. Playing with that mentality may cause you to do things like throw off your back foot instead of stepping into a throw, which lessens accuracy. It may cause you to throw earlier than you typically would want to so you avoid a hit, meaning you're throwing into a space that hasn't yet developed, etc. An injury can really throw your mental game and preparation off. Not saying that is the cause in all of his mistakes, but it can definitely play a part in some of them.

While not the same as watching live, ITH tweeted last week that a rebroadcast of the exhibition game is on the schedule for the Big Ten Network later in the week.

I understand that response, but I wasn't just watching the guy defending the person scoring. I was watching guys all over the court and didn't see a lot of defensive stances and saw a lot of heads either turned away from their man or completely away from the ball.

It's a 2-minute highlight video so take this with a grain of salt, but watched the video a second time focusing on defense and saw A LOT of the same bad habits on the defensive end. A lot of guys (Yogi and JBJ in particular) straight up and down on the perimeter and turning their heads completely to their man when off the ball. Pressure on the ball was fairly weak too. Not encouraging. Just throwing Bryant out there isn't going to solve the defensive ills of this team. It's going to take focus, attention to fundamentals and making defense a priority.

This is where I'm at. While I almost want Kegler more than any of them, if he chooses his home state team we can't be too upset (will be if picks UMD or ASU though). Brown and Davis on the other hand? It's the combination of how long we've been on them coupled with the competition. In both recruitments IU is far and away the best basketball school on their lists, and it's not even really close. Losing Davis to Miss St. and Brown to someone like Xavier or Miami would be a really bad sign.

I'd be very curious to see what a Troy, Max, TB frontline could do against Purdue. Problem is we have no depth so can't really run that lineup for long due to potential foul trouble.

Not only that, but you could end up with 4 3-star pg's in one class simply because they accepted first. When you offer 43 scholarships for 5 spots, how can there not be conditions on those offers?

It actually has a lot to do with what is being discussed. "...but no I don't think they say anything like "we like you but for now think of you as a back up and only want you in case these others fall through" Do you honestly think you'd ever get a recruit doing that?" You made that quote on a previous page, and it's exactly what happened to me. The example I referenced, the school told me if they had two open scholarships I'd have one, but they only had one and needed a point guard. If their pg target didn't accept the scholarship would go to me. These "conditional" offers happen. How many times do we hear kids claiming scholarship offers when reports are the school hadn't offered? Most likely because the offer had conditions to it, and wasn't a straight-up offer that would be accepted on the spot.

There's such a thing as a conditional offer. Happens all the time. I was once told by a school that they liked me but they only had 1 scholarship left in the class and they needed a point guard (I was a 2/3). They told me that they were targeting a pg, if he accepted they were taking him, if they didn't then the scholarship was mine. If they hadn't gave me the condition I would have accepted the scholarship and they wouldn't have had a pg. The pg they were targeting ended up taking it and I went somewhere else.

I don't mind Troy at the 4, I think it creates a lot of mismatches for us. The problem is when you're going to go small at the 4, which Troy is in terms of bulk, then you need a tall/long wing as well. The problem isn't Troy, it's that JBJ and RoJo are both guards, not really wings. If we had a junior version of someone with OG's size on the wing, then a lineup of Yogi, JBJ/RoJo, junior OG, Troy, Bryant would be a great lineup. Heck, you can insert Hartman in there so you at least have a 6'7" guy on the wing, I'm just not sure Hartman is athletic enough. But, if we started a true wing at the "3" instead of a combo guard, then Troy at the 4 would be fine.

My preference is to always take the points until you have to go for 2. A lot of game left, that extra point could be important later.

Any chance we don't give up points here?

Agree! There's a lot to happen still, but I would be ecstatic over a Kegler, Davis, Brown, CuJo, Gelon class. I doubt we'll get them all, but find a way to lock that class up in the Fall, and then based on NBA entrants and transfers, let the chips fall where they may in the Spring with Alkins/Maker. What I like about the initial group of Kegler, Davis, Brown, CuJo and Gelon is that outside of Gelon they're all high 4*'s. While I'd love the stud top 10-20 recruits, I think you can build a very successful program, and probably a more stable/consistent one, with guys like Watford, Yogi, Troy, Bryant, Morgan, Kegler, Davis, Brown, etc. 4 * guys that are likely to stay 2-4 years. That's your foundation, then the McDonald's guys are gravy as opposed to required.

Reminds me of the PSU loss in basketball a couple years ago, when we were up 11 with like a minute to go. Awful!

I'm a fan in Baltimore! Didn't have a chance to watch the video yet, but as much as much flack as we give Crean, this trip was a great coaching move. First, it got the guys away from campus together and should be a great bonding move. Second, they visited Annapolis/Naval Academy, John's Hopkins Lacrosse, did some charity work, and visited with Harbaugh, those some really good things for developing leadership. I think we all need to hand it to Crean on this one. Trips like this can pay dividends later.

There's Ben Howland too. I'm not a huge fan of the guy, and things didn't end great at UCLA, but he has been to 3 Final Fours and put a bunch of guys in the NBA, Westbrook and Love in particular who are both top 10 players when healthy.

I could be remembering wrong, but I'm pretty sure when Harris made his commitment our class was already Yogi, Perea, Jurkin, Hollowell and Patterson, which already had us 1 over the limit. I know the coaches were telling him he had a slot, but that not the same as actually having one open.

Yes, better recruiting could have made 12-13 and 13-14 better. While talented, we brought in some questionable character guys over that time period that have really set things back. Realize the issues with Hollowell and Buss Patterson, and hold that slot open for Gary Harris and I think we potentially go further in 12-13 and we certainly would have been better in 13-14. I realize you're not going to hit on every recruit, but there have been several blunders as well. I'd say Crean is a good recruiter, but he's not a great one IMO.

Not a great call on that 2-pt conversion for ND.

That looked off from the beginning. Redding wasn't even looking when the ball was snapped. Overall, you have to be really happy with the effort, and if health is ok where the season is heading. With that said, I think the conservative play calling cost us the game.