BGleas

I don't think we can blame the defense on the players and their effort at this point. Can you blame a bad defensive performance in an isolated game on the players effort? Sure. But not an entire seasons worth. This team consistently plays defense straight up and down, rarely is in a defensive stance, almost always has their hands down at their sides, consistently turns their heads away from the ball, and when they're not doing that turns their heads from their own man. Ball-You-Man is a foreign concept to these guys. At some point that's not player effort, that's coaching. We put no pressure on the other team defensively whatsoever. Obviously, I don't see what goes on in practice or the film room, but watching the games it seems there is very little emphasis on defense. I can't recall seeing a player pulled and then chewed out because of poor defense. Can anyone else? The lack of improvement defensively from the start of the year to now is coaching.

Dick Vitale's charitable work is great! He deserves a ton of credit for that. Otherwise, he is a fraud! His constant defense of coaches is complete b.s. He holds himself up as a bastion of integrity in college basketball and waxes poetic about student-athletes and academics, then praises guys like Calipari, Boeheim, Calhoun, etc. You can't take anything he says about any coach seriously.

Yeah, I don't know what to make of it. It's all interesting timing.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I think it's time to move on from Crean and have been very vocal that he's not the guy for over a year?!?! My post had nothing to do with a desire to keep Crean, but it looks pretty clear that he's staying. So, if everyone comes back and we add Bryant, we have a chance to be pretty good. Am I not supposed to be excited about the team potentially being really good next year? I mean it is what it is, I don't have any control over whether Crean stays or not.

Wow, this is getting very interesting...

Totally conjecture and speculation on my part, but I would guess emotions were running just as high, if not higher for the Crean family, as they were for fans. I'm sure some of the rumors of Joani Crean wanting out following the noise after the Iowa game were accurate. But, as they days have gone by, discussions with Glass and the news of Bryant visiting, etc., maybe cooler heads are prevailing across the board. Like you said, all scenarios are probably on the table at this point, with things even seeming to be leaning to Crean coming back.

I think Bryant might be a 2 year player.

If Bryant commits and Crean stays (not saying that's what I want, but if it happens) I'll be really excited for next season, assuming Troy, Yogi and JBJ (definitely will IMO) all stay too. I think we could be really good next season. But the question that remains is, then what? After that season we'd definitely lose Yogi, most likely Troy and potentially JBJ and Bryant (don't think he's 1 and done, but it's not out of the question). Are we then in for 2-3 more years of 7th place finishes and laundry lists of excuses? The problem with Crean, at least to this point, is the highs aren't quite high enough, and the lows are too low and too frequent.

Completely agree. If we have a vacancy, the goal is to hire the best coach we can get. The coach best equipped and with the experience to lead IU forward and win bigger and more consistently than we have the last 15 years. While an "IU guy" would be great, and could maybe accomplish that, there isn't one out there with the resume that would make you think they can. The IU guys in the college game are all largely inexperienced, and the IU guys in the NBA haven't been all that successful as head coaches there and don't have a minute of experience on the recruiting trail.

Good point! I don't post on any Celtics message boards, but that's mainly because I used to work there. I would want Stevens to come to IU though. While the coach is also important in the NBA, it's critical in college. The Celtics can get a good NBA coach to replace him.

Which coach? I used to work there, not since Stevens has been there, but know a couple of the remaining assistants.

What to do? I'm a Celtics guy and an IU guy!

That's kind of my point, there are guys out there that are former Hoosiers, but everyone says this needs to be a home run hire. Non of the former Hoosiers are home runs IMO. But to my post earlier in the thread, IMO winning is all that really matter whether it's a former Hoosier, home run guy, or even an off the radar non-Hoosier. Because even if we bring in a "Knight guy", if they don't win it actually might make things worse.

Of course it's not going to happen in year 1. It takes time to win big and sustain it, whether it's a former Hoosier or not. I'm not against a former Hoosier getting the job by any means, but there's also not one out there that has the college resume some targets from "outside the family" have. There are a bunch of guys in the pros, but even most of them have struggled at that level. It would be a bit of an "off the radar" hire if it was a former Hoosier, unless I'm forgetting somebody?

There's one thing that's going to unite the fan base, and really one thing only, and it's not Bob Knight coming back or hiring one of his former players. It's winning. Winning is the only thing. Winning at a high level brings fans back and unites things.

My issue with a pro coach that's never coached in college is that IMO to be a truly great recruiter you have to really be committed to it. We're already in a recruiting funk, how long will it take a guy that's never done it to get up to full speed? Recruiting is a dirty, time consuming game.

I'm not a Shaka fan, in terms of wanting him at IU. I'm not sure his style would translate to the Big Ten, but let's not discount what he's done at VCU. He's had VCU in the top 25 fairly regularly. That alone is a pretty good accomplishemnt and shows his coaching chops, then add in the Final Four. Again, I don't think he's the guy for IU and would put him pretty far down my list of new coaches for IU, but he's done more than just the one Final Four run at VCU.

The Celtics owner has said the team will make "fireworks" this summer. The team has been playing much better after acquiring Isiah Thomas, has a boatload of 1st round picks, and I believe cap space. The problem with Boston is, even though they're an iconic franchise, they've never been a destination for free agents. So, they'll probably need to trade picks for a "star", if one is available. The caveat to all that is that the owner (Wyc) and Ainge both said they were going to make fireworks last offseason, and it didn't happen. But, they're goal is to improve the roster quickly.

Why not just hire Knight for 2 years, mend that fence and bring the family back together, and then bring in Stevens in 2 years? :)

The amazing thing is that it just makes sense for us to pressure teams. We have no post/interior defense, our half-court defense in general is abysmal, we're not good at forcing turnovers and our one distinguishing attribute is our athleticism. We're also a team that thrives and wants to play an up-tempo transition game. So, when we get stuck in a half-court game, against a team that is abusing our half-court defense, how can we change the tempo into a more transition game, make the others teams offense uncomfortable and potentially generate some turnovers for our transition game? Press!!!!!! Force the tempo!!!!! It just makes sense, especially in games like the Purdue games and the NW game. The fact that we haven't even tried it, except for end of the game situations when the game is already over, just says a lot.

I was being sarcastic...probably wasn't sarcastic enough for it to come through :). Crean's answer was ridiculous to that question, our defense is abysmal, why not try pressing?

You can't really disagree with him on the press. Imagine how bad our defense would be if we pressed?

There's always the flip side to that too though. I'm pretty sure the Kemba Walker year UConn won something like 5 games in 5 days to win the Big East Tournament, then went on to win the NCAA.

I heard a rumor he trimmed his list to Indiana and Incarnate Word. Said he really patterns his game after some kid named Priller.

I watched a lot of this game, and to be honest other than the UK tourney game last year I haven't watched a ton of WSU the last few years. Well, I came away really impressed. Marshall wants to play an uptempo style, but also puts a great emphasis on defense. I saw a guy like Ron Baker putting a ton of pressure on the ball defensively, and while Baker is somewhat athletic, is he any more athletic than guys like Troy, JBJ, RoJo, Stan, etc? I was really impressed with Marshall and WSU.