BGleas

This lineup is going to allow Louisville to blow this open.

Williams is killing us, but the problem is we need his length and athleticism out there.

Can we get a foul?

Just watched that foul on Hanner, he did absolutely nothing to Harrell on that play.

Two out of Yogi, JBJ and RoJo HAVE to be on the court at all times.

I think an early indicator in this game will be how tightly the refs are call things, especially hand-checking on the perimeter. If they call it tight, I like it for IU. If they let Louisville play and let their guards/wings be really physical with Yogi, JBJ and RoJo then I'll be a little worried.

Agree. I hope he doesn't spend his career at IU as a 5. Not the same exact player, but I can see him impacting the game as a Draymond Green as he develops, but he won't do that as a 5. He showed in his high school clips that he can hit the mid range shot and that should only develop more at IU. Really like the way Emmitt plays the game!

Coach IU for 10 or so years and then pass it off to Fife!

I used to share the same recruiting worries about Stevens, but a couple points on that. 1) He's gotten glowing reviews by people in the NBA and now has stronger NBA connections, 2) He's got a lot of street cred among players right now, he's just a hot name in basketball right now and 3) Indiana recruits itself to an extent, each of our last 4 head coaches has recruited McDonalds All-Americans to Indiana, that wouldn't change under Stevens. Bonus point, the guy can flat out coach basketball.

I don't know who we compare too, but I know not having lived in Indiana in over 22 years that when I talk to people in other parts of the country (not IU fans) they always say things like "what's going on at IU? You guys should be right up there with Duke, UK, Kansas, etc.". The perception is that IU is a sleeping giant and they question why we're not getting it done.

I've run a lot of suicides and 17's in my time because either my or our team deflections weren't high enough.

There are tons of guys that cheat on defense trying to pad their steal stats and end up putting themselves in poor position defensively. They end the game with 2 steals, but gave up a ton more points by constantly trying to cheat the play. When your deflections are high it usually means your in good position, being active with your hands and generally distrusting the offense. It is not an end all/be all stat, and no doesn't always result in a turnover, but it's a good indicator. I played college basketball and deflections were one of the most important stats our staff tracked. Quite often at halftime and post game the first stat our coach would rattle off to us were our deflections. Of course a coach can overuse or overvalue the stat, but it is a good one.

Absolutely true, but that more fits guys like Troy Williams who are athletic freaks but need skill refinement. JBJ is a tweener guard that can't play defense or handle the ball well, he's not really a "potential" draft pick. When you pick on potential you're picking the 6'7" guy that jumps out of the gym but needs to develop a jumper, or the 6'11" long athletic big that needs to work on some post moves, a 15ft jumper and get bigger.

He's got too many holes in his game IMO. His shooting is absolutely at an NBA level, but his ball handling and defense are miles away. He also needs to develop a mid-range game. He's nowhere near ready to be a pg in the NBA and he definitely can't defend the 2. Not saying he won't leave after this year, and I'm one that usually says to leave if you can, but I don't think he's ready.

Search Committee Firm is that absolute last phrase I want to hear, should we make a change.

I might have posted this earlier, but the other thing about Donovan is that, he's not there yet, but he's getting close to the age where he has to decide if he's a Florida lifer or not. We know he's flirted with UK in the past and he even took the Orlando Magic job for a brief period, so the idea of leaving Florida isn't off the table for him.   

Can you imagine having a McDonald's AA point guard and missing the Tournament 2 out of his first 3 years?

And it all happened because Yogi's hands weren't active. He gave him a clean look in a tough situation.

Agree. I'm actually more concerned about our hand/arm activity on defense. Last night we primarily played defense with our arms at our sides. That's a horrible habit. A perfect example is that the three Nic Moore hit late in the second half Thursday. Remember the play? The shot clock was running down and Yogi was actually in good position, but he had his hands down at his sides and allowed Moore to basically shoot uncontested right over him. If Yogi has his hands up and in Moore's face, that shot is almost impossible. That's just one example, there's tons of shots throughout a game where hand activity could be the difference. Last night too, I was really focusing in on it, and our guys basically always had their hands at their sides.

You nailed it. The zone could be a really good defense for us this year, but we're not nearly active enough in it. My sophomore year of college we played exclusively zone, and the keys to a good zone are quick/precise rotations and almost manically being active with your arms/hands. If you're not active with your hands then it allows the offense to both see and pass right through it, hence all the interior passing we've been allowing in the middle of the zone.

I thought Crean made a great move to go small at the 4-minute mark. Not necessarily the act of going small, but that he basically decided that he was putting in the 5 guys that played hardest regardless of position. Hopefully it sent a message to our "bigs".

I'll have to focus on watching him more closely when the ball goes up, but I don't feel like I see Hanner boxing out that hard.

Another good offensive performance. JBJ is so good offensively. Yogi, RoJo and Stan were good as well. Another good performance in terms of turnovers. The defense was awful! Hanner and Troy were terrible on defense. As a team we play defense with our hands down, and that is a horrible habit. That's a leadership IMO. That needs to start with guys like Yogi, Z and Hanner. Hanner has got to get it together! Agree with someone else that said Troy looks exactly the same as he did last year.

When I played, the first stat our coach would bring up at halftime and post game was deflections. We constantly were hearing about whether our deflections were up to par or not.

We're too busy wasting our time in the Crossroads Classic. While the big boys play each other on ESPN with the entire country watching, we get to play Butler or Notre a Dame and nobody cares unless we lose. Sorry for the rant, but I think the Crossroads Classic is a waste of IU's time and is actually a negative.